at long last. . .my class with Pam

i am so excited to be finally posting about my class with pam garrison at the art nest. it has been too long and it is wonderful to be able to have a quiet evening to be able to write about her class and post some photos. one of my favorite things at the art nest was i got to sit down and look through pam's journals. her books feel so alive in your hands and her pages are an amazing feast of color and design.

our class packet from pam was gorgeous, a cellophane flower envelope filled with a little book she illlustrated with all the steps to creating our own visual journals. i sewed a bit of an embroidered wool baby blanket on one of my pages for a wee pocket to hold pam's booklet. also in our envelope was a scrumptious selection of pam's vintage wallpapers tied up with ribbons and flowers and several of her wonderful postcards made from the pages of her journals.





here is the pam working in her book, melting wax crayons to coat the page. her table all set up for class, just look at all the fabulous art materials just waiting to be used. . .



i love old ledgers and seriously thought about using one until i found this book. it is called 'dash and dart, two fawns' and in light of the fun woodland theme at artfest this year i decided to use this old discarded book instead for my journal.
here you can see the binding and the cover with the cool waxed linen thread that we used to sew the page signatures in the book.


all the books everyone created in pam's class all lined up by the fireplace. so many cool books and all so different!


my book has taken on a life of its own. i have been writing and sketching ideas, collaging pages, and gluing in all sorts of inspiriation. here are a couple of pages so far, i am having so much fun!

the Art Nest. . .part 2

our second day at the art nest was in amy hanna's class 'rejuvenated jewels'.
the table she set up was stunning! so many beautiful pieces of jewelry. can you imagine how it was to look through her whole jewelry collection? i was in awe over each elegant piece! she displayed many pieces to sell and her favorite pieces she wears herself to give us ideas for our own creations. this picture of amy teaching was taken by melinda downing at the art nest.


the table was draped with a length of burlap and covered with a runner of hand dyed crepe paper decorated with sweet millinery flowers. each vintage velvet jewelry box held treasures and jewels put together with gorgeous chains, gems, and lovely vintage pieces. it was breathtaking! we had a hard time finishing breakfast and beginning the class as everyone was trying to decide which piece to buy!


then amy pulled out a box filled with baggies of vintage parts we could buy, a freebie box of bits and pieces, and a whole selection of chain and pretty bits from her friend Li' K Designs.
this is my favorite part of the necklace i bought from amy, look at the lovely little vintage flower nestled in the old watch face.
she had some beautiful marie antoinette looking ladies cast from silver and stamped with her name to add to each of her pieces. a perfect finishing touch!



and here is the burlap bag amy made to wrap our jewelry in. fabulous isn't it!


Once the buying flurry settled down we all began designing our pieces. amy has an unbeliveable knack for looking at a design someone is working on and making suggestions how to unify the pieces and add interest with chain, vinitage clasps, and stones. i loved her idea how to attach a vintage rhinestone clasp to my necklace that had one chain on one side and two chains on the other. the little bead bridge works perfectly!


i made these earings first with vintage pieces and beads i had collected. i was so excited to use the little rhinestone rondelles. i soldered a little ball at one end of the ear wire and shaped and hammered them before attaching the chain and dangle with a jump ring.
the great tragedy was i wore these earings out snowmobiling the next day and one came off and was smashed by my snow boot! i don't have another little pink disc, so for now they are awaiting repairs. :(


this is the necklace i made using the rhinestone piece from candice and a few bits from amy's junk box! to attach the separate pieces i drilled out the rhinestone and right though the soldered base to make a hole for attaching the dangle and both chains.


i also made these earings and this black necklace with a bezel from a class i took from stephanie lee . no idea what i will put in the bezel yet, but i love the tiny little man dangling from the clasp. . .



i still have more to post about the art nest, pam's class, the artist sale, and sledding! i'll get busy.
xo julie

returning from the art nest

i am home from such a fabulous weekend at the art nest!! i had an amazing time. i loved the classes, all the snow, everyone i met, and the food was over the top delish. . . here are the darling stockings for each of us filled with vintage goodies and chocolate and all the cool artists that attended (except jayne, so sorry sweetey you were sick that night)



my first class was with anahata katkin, symbolic icons. i had no idea what to bring for this class but just threw in some paper ephemera and copied faces. it was down right incredible to watch anahata work! she works quickly and intuitively with lots of color, pattern, and movement. to give you an idea of the artistic abandon going on she rolled right through her sample piece with ink on a pizza cutter!!
i had such a great time watching her doodle all over her pieces with white and black pens. i was blown away by how cool it all looked together.
here is my first piece in progress. i am actually so glad i took this photo, look at the difference. check out how bad the vintage ledger paper bubbled when i used gel medium. regular old glue stick actually worked better to stick the paper down, then i used gel mediuim over the top.



this is 'the snail cart' completed.

my second piece started out like such a dud. i tried to sew on the page and then add dribbled ink. total disaster, so i turned the paper over quick before anahata could see it and began again.
here is 'miss western hemisphere'. i really like all the black and white doodling! i brought pitt pens and five new micron pens and they didn't really work. the magic is the uni-ball pen. it wrote all over everything!! plus my all time favorite white gel pen uni-ball signo.


here is anahata at the end of the day at our show and tell with her piece. each of us showed the pieces we created in her class and talked about what we did. it was amazing the work that everyone created that day with anahata's suggestions. if you ever have the opportunity to take a class from her, totally go for it!!
the sun is just streaming through the cabin windows around anahata like a halo. what a lovely day. . .

anahata's very cool kit filled with her collage bits and pieces




anahata and jen working on jen's very cool and colorful symbolic icon.

after the class i wanted to try working on a smaller piece and made this collage 'flower face' i just feel more comfortable working small. i made myself do the big collage on canvas with the class and was surprised how much i really liked it!

tickled pink!

this is the big smile that was on my face when i opened my mailbox and found a big padded envelope from stampington & co with this inside!


such a fun surprise before christmas when staci dumoski emailed me about featuring my blog in the next issue of artful blogging! ( it was a heart attack enough just seeing her name in my email inbox! )
i had a hard time waiting for my copy to arrive. i started seeing little peeks around blogland. i was ready to go buy a copy because i am so impatient, but my barnes and noble sold out in one day! lucky for me it arrived this week. ( i had plans to drive to the next barnes and noble 60 miles away :)
for the past two days i have been enthralled with the photos and text from all the inspiring blogs featured. right on the cover is a beautiful silver glitter star surrounded by roses by my art friend marilyn! her blog outside the lines is featured as well and shows such a lovely collection of her amazing photographs.



there is pink everywhere i look today! here is a stack of flocked hankies just waiting to be remade into some new project. the little heart is made from some vintage fabric i found at quilt market last spring and the tiny pearl beads are from a broken vintage necklace.



even more pink, here is the little card i made to go inside my art nest trades. i am having such a hard time printing off copies.
how do you do it??
i have tried scanning and printing, copying at the copy store, having the copy store scan and adjust the image and every time it comes out blurry because of the depth of the items i glued on. i dropped it off at the photo shop to have a digital image taken in a photo box but isn't there an easier way to get a nice image reproduced?
please share your tips. . .



then with all the pink happiness i've had this week the valentine fairy (my daughter hannah) stopped by and left this for me. she is sweet- the fairy and my hannah.
xo julie

looking forward to summer art nest!

tomorrow is the big day, registration for the june art nest opens and i am so excited!


stephanie lee has a new book coming out, semi-precious salvage and the cover alone has me counting down the days to its release. i took a class from stephanie last fall making chain and soldered bezels. it was really amazing. she will be teaching a new class 'junk drawer metalsmithing' where she will be showing how to cast 3d objects and fabricate metal boxes and shrines that can be filled with plaster or resin.



i have always adored carla sonheims work. i am so drawn to the innocent and whimsical figures. in carla's workshop we will be completing dozens of drawings using a variety of media including pencil, charcoal, ink, and crayon focusing on creating pieces that are fanciful, silly, odd, and fun!



alma stoller is a mixed media artist that makes the coolest, funky fabric baubles and a collection of fabric oddities. she will be teaching altered fabric techniques and dimensional appliques that are combined with embroiderey in her class 'tapestry art quilt'.



the summer art nest it is going to be a wonderful weekend spent in Park City, Utah creating art and enjoying the beautiful mountain wildflowers. washington school inn. it is the most lovely old school house turned bed and breakfast. we will have the whole inn to ourselves for four days. here is candice outside the inn, can you even believe how much snow we have right now?


the art classes will be a few steps down the street in the studio space at the cool kimball art center. they just finished hosting a huge exhibit for the sundance film festival and we got to see some of the art as they were changing the show.



one of our favorite places to go in park city is bistro 412. we are reserving the whole restaurant for our catered french dinner. the waiter posed a little too happily for this photo and spouted french to us as we sampled a few of the items on the menu. we tasted the baked brie, sauteed shitake musrooms, creamy scalloped potatoes baked with bread crumbs, and cinnamon raisin bread pudding with rum sauce. yum! hope you can join us. xo julie

love letters . . .

the love letter valentine kit is a treasure tin 5" X 3" filled with vintage treats for you to make your own valentines.
please click on image for a larger view.

contents: cupid the postman ( with a conveniently placed box of chocolates ) is a german scrap image from the 1920's, two sizes of german paper lace originally used to line candy boxes, vintage ledger paper that folds into a tiny envelope, dennison red bordered labels size 201 and 205 ( i do not recommend licking them after all these years ), a bundle of vintage string resting on a length of pink polka dot bias trim, wound around a vintage playing card is some red and pink lace that may have been on your mothers housecoat in 1950, a spray of red lily of the valley, tiny pink flocked daisies, several red velvette hearts and a cream applique, hand sewn crepe paper ruffle 1/2" wide, and finally several seals punched from vintage wallpaper, ledger paper and crepe paper.



from my studio these valentines made with elements from the love letters kit



velvette daisies, ledger paper and vintage rhinestones. stickles glitter glue in platinum by ranger.





wool felt heart stitched to water color paper with a silk blossom from a vintage hat.





dennison red bordered label with ruffled crepe paper. sewn with metalic silver thread on vintage wallpaper.



vintage velvet pillow used to make the stuffed heart sewn on paper with red lily of the valley flower buds with pearl centers.
small vintage pearl earing surrounded by a piece of tatting from an old collar. titled- love life



for your purchase there are 10 love letter valentine kits available for $24.95, shipping and handling to the US will be $4.95.
please email me at juliecollings2003@hotmail.com to order your own valentine.

xo julie