Classes, classes and more classes!

Greetings Everyone!

Saturday and Sunday (20th and 21st) saw two classes filled with incredibly talented students. Saturdays Designs in Gesso class at Art Max was small but powerful as we collaged and then stamped, dripped and drew free hand into Gesso. Here are a couple of collages created by the students.

Sundays Altered Books #1 class at Scrapbook U was a blast. At the end of class all the students had picked a book, subject, prepared some pages and were well underway to the completion of their first spread. I can't wait to see how their books turn out! I would like to thank all the students that came to my classes this weekend some of them in the pouring rain. I also want to thank the owners and staff of Art Max in Seaside and Scrapbook U in Fremont for allowing me once again to invade their space with all of my stuff.

Also in this post I want to take the opportunity to remind everyone about my classes this weekend. Saturday's class will be Altered Books #1 again but this time in Half Moon Bay. For Sunday's class I will be teaching class #2 in my Shrink Art series. This time we will learn how to make white Shrink Plastic look like stone Petroglyphs. Please see the top of the page for samples from both classes. Here are the details:

Saturday Feb 27th Sorry I’ve had to close this class***this class is totally booked up Where: LaDiDa café in Half Moon Bay Class: Altered Books #1-How to begin Description: Have you ever heard the quotation “so many books so little time”? It’s never more true than when talking altered books! So what is an altered book? An altered book is creative reuse at its best. Think of all those unwanted books ready to be thrown away. Why waste them when you can turn them into works of art! In this first class in the altered book series we will focus on what book to choose and where to find it, content, how to prepare and strengthen pages, what materials can be used and finally a full collage spread. In this series of classes students will gradually build up an altered books “kit” of favorite supplies that will be handy for use at any time. This “kit” should be brought to every class. First kit items to bring: Paint brushes, scissors, and gel medium. Time: 6:00 to 9:00pm Fee: $35.00 To sign up for the waiting list please email me at connie@isbjorn.com. Sunday Feb 28th Where: Scrapbook Depot in San Carlos Class: Shrink Art- Stone Petroglyphs Description: Can Shrink Plastic really look like stone? Of course it can. In this class you will learn the art of coloring white shrink Plastic in such a way that makes it look exactly like rock. You will also be introduced to intaglio. Intaglio is the art of embossing directly into the material to make raised designs. You will walk out of the class with a bracelet that looks exactly like ancient stone Petroglyphs. Please bring a pair of scissors. All other materials will be provided. Time: 12:30 to 3:30 Fee:$30.00 If you wish to sign up for this class please call Scrapbook Depot at 650 592-2767 As you can see I've had a very large response to Altered Books and I have a couple of names already on a waiting list. If you are interested in this class please email me. If I have enough people waiting for this class I will look into teaching this class a second time.

It's going to be a great weekend-I hope to see you soon!

Designs in Gesso and Altered books

Greetings everyone,

I wanted to highlight the two classes I'm teaching this weekend. The first on Saturday is called Designs in Gesso. In this class I will teach the technique that was just published in Somerset Studio in December 2009. You know Gesso is an incredibly versatile medium. It can be used to prime a canvas or glue the pages of an altered book together. It can be used as paint and in the case of Designs in Gesso it can also be used to make texture. And because it dries matte its not sticky which makes it the perfect medium to add texture in an altered book. Here are a few of my samples:

Here are the particulars of this class: Saturday Feb. 20th Where: Art max in Seaside Class: Designs in Gesso Class description: Further exploring the use of Gesso as texture we will create a small canvas with Gesso and collage. We will stamp into, stencil with and draw freehand in gesso. Will you choose to color your Gesso or leave it white? Come and Explore! Please bring scissors and paintbrushes and gel medium. Time: 11:00 to 2:00 Fee: $40.00 If you wish to sign up for this class please email me at connie@isbjorn.com.

And while I'm on the subject of altered books; my second class on Sunday is Altered Books #1-How to begin. This will be the first in a series of 5-6 altered books class. Each class will highlight a new technique to help bring variety and interest to your altered book art. At the top of this page you can see some scans from my new altered book: Are You Afraid of the Dark?

Sunday Feb 21st Where: Scrapbook U in Fremont Class: Altered Books #1-How to begin Class Description: Have you ever heard the quotation “so many books so little time”? It’s never more true than when talking altered books! So what is an altered book? An altered book is creative reuse at its best. Think of all those unwanted books ready to be thrown away. Why waste them when you can turn them into works of art! In this first class in the altered book series we will focus on what book to choose and where to find it, content, how to prepare and strengthen pages, what materials can be used and finally a full collage spread. In this series of classes students will gradually build up an altered books “kit” of favorite supplies that will be handy for use at any time. This “kit” should be brought to every class. First kit items to bring: Paint brushes, scissors, gel medium and a book if you have one in mind otherwise I will bring a box of books with me. Time: 1:00 to 4:00pm Fee: $35.00 To sign up for this class please call Scrapbook U at 510 490-5065

Yes as you can see its going to be a fun creative weekend. How about treating yourself to a class? See you soon!

Scumbling, altered books and ghosts

Greetings Everyone,

I have a little break from teaching classes this weekend which gave me some much needed time to hang out with my dogs, work on my altered books class and just generally try to keep warm and out of the rain. Yesterday morning I woke up bright and early with three stanzas of a poem fully formed in my head! I quickly grabbed my notebook and finished most of the poem then went back to sleep. Wierd. But here are a few lines of the poem which has now given me the direction for my new altered book:

Greetings fellow traveler, but why do you start?

Is it because you're alone and afraid of the dark?

The fog is thick and it's difficult to see,

Never fear I will guide you just follow me.

To this lonely lighthouse crumbling and forlorn,

Do you know what walks here in the midst of the storm?

Yes you've guessed it. Its about Ghosts. By the way Ghost Humters International was on San Lucas Island in Costa Rica last night. It was a prison island like Alcatraz and one spooky place. Its a place filled with bad memories and restless spirits.

Stay tuned for more on this altered book.

I also wanted to fill you in on a new technique that I've been skirting around the edges of for a very long time. Its called scumbling. Scumbling is a technique used to even out or soften the edges of a painted or photographed image by applying white gouache thinly with a dry brush. In this case I am altering vintage travel postcards by scumbling, collaging and then repainting the background to make the collaged images seem like part of the original postcard. I then add rubber stamping and ephemera like postage stamps and victorian scrap to complete the piece. This technique also has the effect of aging the entire piece. You can see some of my efforts above. What do you think?

If I can get enough vintage postcards I think this would make an awesome class. Like I said Ive been playing with this technique for a long time but using gesso in my Mystic Gesso class. I like using the gouche better because it stays open longer and you can work with the colors more. I have long wanted to alter vintage postcards and have been buying a few here and there specially for this purpose. I got the idea of combining the two from Maryjo and Sunny Koch's book called Vintage Collage-Works-artful ideas with Antique Ephemera. This is a wonderful book filled with great ideas particularly if your a hoarder of vintage ephemera.