Sunday April 5, 2009, Artful Adventure at Visual Arts Center!
On Sunday from 10am-5pm, The Summit Visual Arts Center http://www.artcenternj.org/ was holding The East Coast Art Expo, hosted by Jerry's Artist Supply, with many of the industries top art suppliers such as Pebeo, Colorfin, Daler-Rowney, Art Molds, and More.
I arrived with my mom Joan, around 11:30am to meet up with friends Suze, Bonnie, Linda and Lennis, together we explored the Expo, buying things from many of the booths as we came upon them. What was even better was many of my fave art suppliers were on hand selling their fabulous products at expo prices.!Here is Suze and I shopping and smiling.

To start I found the girls at the Colorfin Booth, which is beyond amazing, more of their produts in a minute.
Then we came upon Art Molds Booth, and lets just say I was there for a bit, they have every kind of molding product and solution I could think of from latex, plaster to resin supplies. Whats even better is they are located on Bank Street in Summit, NJ, Ed McCormick was on hand to show me some techniques using their products, I can't wait to drop by their location for a visit(I might not leave). You can visit Art Molds/Environ Molds at http://www.artmolds.com/ plus they also teach workshops, classes and have a wonderful lesson book out called: Lesson Plans That WOW, Vol.1, I love it! I mean after all, my studio looks like a secret doll factory with my own doll molds everywhere.

Afterwards I found Pebeo and it was like entering the Emerald City, or land of Art Candy, their products make my heart sing, literally, look at these new paints from the High Viscosity Acrylic line: Now look at these paints upclose on canvas: I have been experimenting with Pebeo's products for years and love the results from their glass/ceramic Paints to acrylics, now with these new High Viscosity Acrylics, I can't wait to start mixing them into my mixed media projects and canvas illustrations, plus I want to pick up some of their textured paints which have sand in them, they could really add some nice dimension. Couldn't you see a mermaid fin with sand texture? You can visit Pebeo Products at www.pebeo.com

Above is a picture of Me, Heather (SVAC) and Johanne(Pebeo), we had so much fun. Johanne was beyond nice, and I'm so glad we met

Now I found my way upstairs and said I need to sit, because I entered the room of another fave supplier: Daler and Rowney, they are one of England's Premier Art Suppliers who have been in business since 1783, I have been using their products since I started experimenting with fine art in High School, and loved them ever since. I use their FW Artists Inks in many of my illustrations, they consistancy and richness in my opinion can not be beat, their drawing supplies are wonderful and now I can't wait to try their watercolour paper, its so sturdy, perfect for extreme painting, please visit their site at http://www.daler-rowney.com/ I promise to share my new illustrations soon using their products.
Here is Mom and Suze at the Center before we headed to lunch.
Here is Mom and Me at the Diner.
Now we all broke for lunch, art shopping can be exhausting, the 6 of us headed for the vintage and authentic Summit Diner, which serves breakfast only on Sunday's til 1:00pm, I opted for the French Toast, it was delicious. If you are in town, its a must do.

Now we all headed back to the Arts Center to pick up our purchases and see some more things. This was when I actually had the time to explore the Colorfin Booth and I am so glad I did, to start let me say one thing when I met Berni, it was instant wonderful, she has to be one of the nicest people I have met and so passionate about the products, both Ladd and Berni were showing me how their products work and techniques, I can see why Bonnie, Suze, Linda and Lennis were there forever, I was too. Their Pan Pastels are Artists Pastels that are in a class of their own, I have never seen such rich velvety colors and vibrate chalks before, they hold to the paper wonderfully. I highly recommend these chalks to everyone, they are so versatile, easy to control and can work with other art materials as well, plus they are fully erasable as well. Can you see the possibilities, try using them to fill in a stamped image or blended with other paints on watercolor paper, use with pastel sticks or with paint. Their soft tools are equally as wonderful to learn more about their products visit http://www.colorfin.com/ to learn about sofft tools visit www.sofftart.com

Visit Suze Blog for more photos and story from the day at:
http://suzeweinberg.typepad.com/suzeblogz/
Bonnie's Blog at:
http://bonnieegenton.blogspot.com/
My Mom's blog is almost done, I'm sure she'll have some posts about the day as well.
http://auroratique.blogspot.com/
Visit Jerry's Artists Outlet for AMAZING prices and supplies:
http://www.jerrysartistoutlet.com/
There's nothing like spending a day with good friends, sharing stories, laughter and well ART! If you can dream it, you can create it and when you have great supplies the possibilities are endless.
Xo! Lisa!
P.S. Visit me at one of my workshops at the Summit Visual Arts Center as well at:
http://www.artcenternj.org/ I'll also have some of these supplies on hand for my next workshop The Illustrative Assemblage, which you can experiment and play with on your projects!

Turn Illustrations Into Mixed Media Projects!
Mixed Media Painting is the trendiest form of art right now, everyone, everywhere wants to learn how to illustrate and create mixed media masterpieces, honestly its really very easy to do, and a way for self expression, but mixed media painting/illustration isn't limited to just paper, paint, and canvas, try clay painting or turning your illustrations into 3-D projects such as an embellishment on an atc, create a mixed media crown, doll or book.

In this following image I drew a crown shape on a large piece of water color paper, added scrapbook paper, and started to paint onto it using acrylics and crackle mediums, then on separate pieces of watercolor paper I painted candy and a sweet fairytale face and bunny ears, cut out and glued to my crown, followed by cut-outs, paper punched flowers, crepe paper, lettering and glitter. This crown was my swap crown with Susie Scott!In the picture above, is a set of atc's I made for the mermaid atc swap I was hosting on the faerie zine, I photocopied my illustration and placed on a piece of chipboard atc size, and embellished.In this picture I turned an un-finished shadow box from AC Moore into an Illustrative Assemblage filled with mostly hand-drawn and painted pieces cut out and attached. The fiji mermaid face is from one of my watercolor pieces which I photocopied and cut out to use as the new face on this mermaid for the assemblage. In May I'm teaching The Illustrative Assemblage at the Summit Visual Arts Center! Hope to see you there.
Here is a primitive and sweet piece I made called: The Primitive Sugar Pop Crown, with a posterboard base, cover entirely with my love: Model Magic, which I used plenty of times in my art book: Altered Art Circus, Just love Crayola, don't you? The tinsel is from Tinsel Trading, The crepe paper is vintage and the rest is paint, glitter and more.Here is yet another crown I made from recycled bits, pieces, flocked velvet paper, and hand sculpted bird doll, and hand painted/glittered candy lollipops, along with satin ribbon and the new faux rhinestone embellishments in my etsy store.Here is the handcolored atc I made a few years back called wicked: Using an old faded pictured, prismacolor pencils and paint thinner, along with glitter and distressed inks from Ranger Ink. Today I'd recommend Ranger blending solution, for less smell, a tip from Patti and Debbi at Ranger.These Royal Queens are from an art card pocket I made awhile back and were published in Artitude Zine. They were painted in using acrylic paints and gel pens.Here is the cover of that pocket which I called: The Queen of Hearts Chronicles, here I made a peapod using acrylic paints, liquid starch and glue, to sculpt the watercolor paper. I love stretching and sculpting water color paper, so many possibilities, you will learn that in The Illustrative Assemblage too!

Here are just a few illustrative examples, I hope you start branching from mixed media paintings into mixed media painted projects soon and I hope these inspired you today!

Have a magical filled day!
Lisa!

The Art Doll Chronicles Theater Book

Here is a sample of the book I made for the workshop I teach called: The Art Doll Chronicles Theater Book.

I just taught this workshop on Sunday at the Summit Visual Arts Center.

In this class you transform an old book into 5 mini theaters, learning the carving and special gluing of the pages, the paper layering, piercing, page building, assemblage, doll making, molding and construction. You learn vintage art techniques and color mixing.


The book covers are layered with either wallpaper, decorative paper or fabric, then embellished with gilded gold embossing inks and powders, loads of ribbons, glitter and bling!

Learn some illustrative techniques and mixed media painting!

Work with clay, beeswax, embossing inks/powders, hot glue, liquid caulk, vintage and designer papers, trims, glitters, crepe paper, rhinestones and other magical supplies!


I hope to see you at one of my workshops soon, check my blog or website often for new classes and workshops.

Coming up: ZNE Convention, Pleasanton, CA, I'll be flying to the West Coast from April 26-May 3 to teach 2 classes, vend at the vendor faire and sign books, My first West Coast Adventure this year, til next year in Jan. 2010

More classes in NJ, NYC, PA, CT, MD, MA, DE, dates to follow!

Art Doll Chronicles, Altered Book Workshop, March 15, 2009
Okay what is better then working on a project in your studio???? Working with good friends and new ones in a large studio right smack in the middle of NJ, that's what.. At least I think so...Nothing can beat a day dedicated to artful magic, when a group of talents together for a workshop and share their vision with each other, its pure MAGIC.

On Sunday March 15, I hosted a artful workshop at the Summit Visual Arts Center called: Art Doll Chronicles, Altered Book Workshop from 10am-4pm, in Summit, NJ. For those ever wanting to take a class there from NYC, the arts center is near the train.

In this class you will learn the many properties of recycling and seeing a variety of objects in a new light. The base this project is an old thick hard cover book, where the dust jacket is removed to reveal the fabric and embossed title. For this project it doesn't matter the topic or format, as long as it has a thick spine/binding of at least 4 inches wide, then the book is divided into 5 sections, each section is then held into place with paper clamps.

Next you seal these sections closed, let dry. Once the sections have been sealed, you are left with 5 thick pages inside the book, now with a ruler measure out a rectangular box, in each of the 5 sections, with an exacto knife cut into the measured box, until you have what appears to be a shadow box depth, 1/2 thick, repeat in all the sections. I pre-made all the books for each student to allow extra time for altering the books.

I did a demo of this stage of the books, then informed the class of the various paper layering techniques to build their books with, followed by quick tutorials on paper folding, piercing, collage, layering and the many uses for all kinds of crepe paper from discarded book pages to packaging paper, crepe paper, etc.

Its all in the perception, how do you see a piece, to me a scrubby dollar store steel dish brush can imitate German Bouillion, Paper bags can become paper doll clothing and well old books can become theaters in many shapes and sizes, they can become doll houses, or specimen boxes, the possibilities are endless. Each Student created their version of a storybook/doll opera, with each page being a different scene in their own doll opera.Here is a photograph of the amazing and beyond talented Kecia Deveney of Lemoncholy's Studio http://lemoncholys.blogspot.com/ whose work is over the top amazing, she creates so much artful magic, it was an honor to have her in the class, Kecia is wonderful, please check out her amazing works,and visit her blog to see another post of this fabulous workshop! In this next photo is the gorgeous ATC she made, It came wrapped so pretty, I didn't want to open it, glad I did, because this is what I feasted my eyes upon, this wonderful ATC, its currently sitting in my studio sending loads of magic my way.

In the next photo is my beautiful mother who is probably my biggest fan, always coming out to support me and show her dedication, I give her an A+++++++ and more. In this photo she is beginning to layer her paper to build her pages. The next is a photo of the 2 of us in the gallery, outside the workshop room.

My Mom is also an artist whose works can be seen in some magazines, my zines and on flickr, her work can be purchased on etsy http://auroratique.etsy.com/
Here is a picture of Kecia paper layering her book!
In the next picture, Michal, Lynne and Julie can be seen working on their books at the hot glue station. In this specific workshop I had set up several stations around the room:
1. Hot Glue Station
2. Paint Station
3. Doll Station
4. Glitter and Glue Station
5. Beeswax Station
6. Heat Tools, Rubber Stamping and Embossing Station
7. Paper Station
8. Ribbons and Trims
I found this makes a workshop go smoother by pre-doing somethings, demo the main, and set up various workstations, since everyone will be at different stages during the course of the class.

Here I am in the gallery by myself and then again with my buddy, the ever so talented: Linda Hahola, I love this woman, we met awhile back at Ranger U and became instant friends, I'll be heading over to her house with my other Ranger pals this saturday, I can't wait.

In the next few photos you will see some of the amazing books that were being created during the class, the first one is Linda's with a wizard of oz and distressed theme on the cover, complete with paper layering, beeswax and gold gilding with this new faux gold leaf ink pad and emboss powder I picked up for the class.Next is the first page of Kecia's book its pure amazement, looks like its illuminating off the page.The next book was created by the talented Lynne, who is just incredibly sweet and talented. I met Lynne over a year ago at one of my workshops at the Newark Museum and we just clicked, been friends ever since. Lynne creates beautiful pieces and moves fast too. Her book was almost fully done when she left. This is a photo of it. In the next picture is the amazing Julie's book, look at these pages, aren't they filled with magic. I'm all about the pink, which is why I just adore her book, pink colors, fairies, its fairy chic'.The next picture is Julie at the beeswax station, applying some beeswax from the melting pot to her book.Here is Linda working on her book at the table, notice the bevy of colorful and fun supplies. When ever I teach a workshop/class I must arrive on site with a quarter of my studio, LOL, I shop for extra supplies for the class, preparing for weeks, making sure I have a variety of supplies which can appeal to all art palettes. I normally make kits for my classes, but for this one, I made half kits and set up 8 work stations with the tools and supplies they would each need to complete their books, then they can leave with extras to finish their pieces, along with some of my molded doll heads, which I made with Model Magic, which was the perfect clay for the dolls in this book project. Model Magic dries fast, and light weight, like puffed foam.
Here is Lynne working on her book!
Followed by Michal working on her book. This was a fun day for all of us, the time went so fast, by 4pm, I was still thinking it was noon, thats what happens when a great group of people come together, like the saying goes: "Time flies when you are having fun"., that is absolutely true!

Thank You Everyone for sharing in on our day!
Magic and Joy!
Lisa!

The Altered Book: Art Doll Chronicles


Hello All,
On March 15, 2009, I will be teaching an altered art book class called:
The Art Doll Chronicles at the Summit Visual Arts Center from 10am-4pm, if you are interested sign up at the summit visual arts center, limit space of 15 students!
Sum Visual Arts Center, Workshop Sign Up

We are going to create vintage books with faux gilded covers, reminiscent of the most elaborate of royal opera books, each page is going to tell a story of your adventure in a secret Doll Land or Story Book Land, the pages of your book will be 3-D with handmade dolls sewn/glued to each page, or layered with dimensional silhouettes, backed by sweet distressed writing papers or piano papers. There will be an exploration into your creative mind during the whole class, with a question: What inspires you and how can that inspiration bring you into your own artful World.

I will have books from vintage opera to eye candy filled chic, romantic, doll house and my own for the class to gain inspiration from, while working. We will also embark on a mixed media/1920's doll illustration, 1920's Dennison doll making, book binding, altered art techniques, distress techniques. You will receive a template of vintage doll and storybook illustration that you can leave with and study for future projects. This turn of the century illustration had simple lines, and such cutesy attributes, so easy to duplicate and turn into your own style.

I'll be supplying most of the supplies such as papers, fabrics, images, ribbons, trims, glitter and more, along with goodie bags and some other surprises, revealed in the class. However students are encouraged to bring their own images, fave paper or fabric, stickles, glitter, etc that they could use in addition to the supplies I will be bringing.

Main techniques that will be taught:-Bookbinding
-Paper Piercing
-Rosettes: the art of folding
-Paper millinery flowers, learn to make your own
-Doll and Paper Doll making
-Altered Art and Collage Techniques
-Making your own silhouettes
-Basic Storybook illustration and Mixed Media illustration
-Vintage Art Techniques

I'm working on some various examples: Silhouettes with glitter and creamy colors against lettered writing pages and German Crepe paper doll book example, the painted version book, and the Living Opera Theater Book, etc.

Hope to see you there for some artful fun and magic!
Lisa!
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the Summit Visual Arts Center site reads:
The Altered Book: Art Doll Chronicles
Sunday 10:00 am - 4:00 pm

Bring your childhood dolls and storybook classics to life. Create a book with vintage tones and classic elegance with the use of basic book binding, altered art, sewing, doll making and other artful techniques. Each page will resemble a vintage story book, a doll house, and a fairytale theatre with 3D elements and miniatures. Work with designer papers, rich fabrics, vintage trims, crepe paper, tinsel, rhinestones, doll parts, images and other fun supplies.