Dusty DeHaven, the Smittendust maven, has done it again -- she's brought in a four-star mixed media teacher to share her knowledge with mid-Michigan students.
Kristen Robinson is known for her work that is often featured in Somerset Studio. She taught a series of classes this week. I attended the one called "House of Grace."
This is a photo of Kristen's class example.
What a blast. Our kit included three small wooden houses. After we primed them, we got into making molds.
This is seriously easy, fun and therapeutic! (We used Susan Lennart Kazmer's molding materials.) We all had brought jewelry and other bits to mold with and boy, was it fun!
Then we turned those molds into embellishments with paper clay. Lots of embellishments!
Kristen was such a fun teacher -- she didn't just know her stuff. .She conveyed it well -- and along the way was just so darned delightful, by the time I left five hours later, I felt like I'd known her all my life!
After we painted our houses, we worked on painting our embellishment. The heart was part of our kit (we couldn't paint what we did till they dry.) And then we antiqued them and our houses, and added beeswax and resin.
Finally, they all went together. This is my almost-done house.It still needs a little love near the top and journaling on the sides.
And here are the works in progress.
Of course, classes like this are more than the learning. We get to see old friends. I've known Joanne (below) from close to my beginning blogging days.And I got to meet Jill, with whom I've been doing the drawing challenge (along with Joanne). Finally, a face with the name! 
Who would imagine something so cute could come from pieces of clay and wood? 
I also learned about a couple of products I've never worked with before -- these watercolor crayons (softer than watercolor pencils) and something called gel stain, which we used in the antiquing. 
Thanks to Dusty, whose mission of bringing excellent teachers to mid-Michigan is her passion. 
She also makes one heck of a great name tag!
18 comments:
What fun! And I love the little house you made!
That looks like so much fun. I think it would be quite therapeutic to get lost in a day of doing exactly what you did during this class. And, you are right about the name tag. I've never seen one quite that nice!
Creative fun at it's best !
What a fun class. It looks like one I would have thoroughly enjoyed. So glad you did it and shared.
Oh Jeanie,
It looks like you all had a blast!
So, you are going to take a needle felting class in September? How wonderful... Please keep me posted and let me know how you like it.
Thank you so much for your kind comments about Rosebud and Tinker.
You are always so kind to come over and leave me a note.
Enjoy your week
Penny
Oh, WOW... Such a lovely class! I would have loved this one too...LOL! I really like the using the old jewelry & other bits to make embellishments with the paper clay. Really pretty technique! Can you tell us more about that gel stain/product maker? I've not worked with that before either... And I love Kristen's apron too! Well, just LOVE all around here! ;o) Happy Day, Jeanie ((HUGS))
Oh my gosh, those name 'tags' are super fun! What a fun, creative, and knowledgeable teacher! I am glad you had such a fun time and the 'almost' finished product looks great. And hooray for meeting up with some other bloggers!
It was such a fun day! Art, friends, learning new things - it doesn't get much better than that. It was great to see you and I'm looking forward to more visits come October.
Looks like a lot of fun! Love the houses you created!
Looks like you had an awesome and Creative fun time, Jeanie!!! I miss taking fun classes like this! Love what you created too!!!
Hugs,
Beth
Grace is one of my favorite words and your class sure does sound wonderful in so many ways!
Lucky you to have such a talented and nice teacher come to teach.
Making molds is good fun...
the secret I believe is in the finishing and it looks like you had FUN!!!
oxo
This is such a cute idea!! I love the little houses and now you've got me thinking about what I could use to make some molds.
So neat. Always something different and fun going on with you.
I Love those - absolutely LOVE them! Just my style Jeannie - jealous:)
xo
how fun - I'm gonna try that molding stuff!
The class looks fun! and what a nice face she has. I hadn't heard of those watercolour crayons. I don't do so much art these days but they're just the kind of thing I would like to enhance a pencil sketch.
I've never, ever taken a class like this, but for the first time since starting to follow you, I read this and suddenly was taken back to our "town camps" in grade school. We would go to the school in the morning and spend our time doing all those crafts kids do - colored macaroni pictures, weaving, making little pencil holders with popsicle sticks, etc. The best always was the beading. The Maytag company would send over boxes of "beads" which really were the red, green yellow, blue and black ends of wiring! Without the wire inside, they made wonderful bracelets, collages, etc.
Your day looks wonderful - and thanks for the memories!
That class certainly sounds like it would take one’s stresses away – just pure fun away from all the bad news on TV. I am pleased you have places like this to enjoy creative endeavours.
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