Summer Teaching

So many opportunities popped up for me to teach outside of Wishi Washi Studio this Summer that all the dates got used up!

 So, there will be no Summer 2015 schedule in the studio but you can find me teaching out and about at the following venues:

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The Stitcherly Book at Cabrillo SummerArts

The Stitcherly Book

June 5, 6 and 7th

10:00 - 4:00 each day

Cabrillo College Extension SummerArts Program, Aptos, CA

Crossed Structure Binding at Platetone

Crossed Structure Binding

June 20th
10:00 - 3:00

Platetone: Printmaking, Paper and Book Arts, Nashville, TN

e-mail Lesley Patterson-Marx ( lesleypatterson@bellsouth.net ) to sign up and for more information

(also, there will most likely be a free talk the night before the workshop so following them on Facebook here is a good thing if you're interested)

Boro Sampler Book

Boro Sampler Book

July 11th
10:00 - 4:00

Cameron Marks, Santa Cruz, CA

Boro Sampler Book

July 18th
10:00 - 4:00

Handcraft Studio School, Emeryville, CA

and, if you have kids check out this art camp at the Tannery Arts Center - I'll be teaching a project during both sessions:

Camp Tannery Arts

July 13th - 17th

August 3rd - 7th

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I will be working on a Fall 2015 schedule soon and will probably post that mid-July.

Also, I am available for private lessons or special workshops for small groups in my studio if you are flexible with dates - so let me know if you or your friends are dying to learn something - we'll work it out!

As always like me on Facebook and follow me on Instagram for current and constant updates and happenings!

Hope to see you out there!

summer bookmaking with kids: camp tannery arts

Wishi Washi Studio welcomed about 25 kids into the studio today for a little studio visit and some bookmaking.

Every summer Linda Cover, who runs an art making studio for kids at the Tannery, runs summer art camps called Camp Tannery Arts.

Linda arranges studio visits with Tannery artists and also has some of us conduct little workshops with the kids in the visual arts, poetry, dance and music.

turkish map fold books with letterpress printed cover

 

Once again, this year I collaborated with letterpress printer Sam Amico (see last year's project here). The camp kids visited him first where they saw his press, talked about the art of letterpress printing and each printed a sheet of paper.

Then the kids came to my studio where I showed them examples of books from different times and places in the world.

covers letterpress printed by sam amico

 

Sam passed the letterpress printed covers over to me and I led the kids in a Turkish map fold making class.

These wonderful little books will be filled with maps and poetry by the end of the week.

turkish map fold books

This reminded me of how much kids really like to make books. It is a great summer project and the result is a little book for them to write and draw in.

little hands making books

There are some online classes in bookmaking with kids over at Creativebug (Turkish map fold, the house book, orizomegami and 

 Japanese side sewn are all great projects for kids) and I also have a free tutorial on making the Bamboo Rubberband book with kids over on Tinkerlab blog.

No excuses. Go make a book!

Camp Tannery

 Had a great time with the Camp Tannery Arts kids today.  Camp Tannery Arts is a week-long summer art program run by Linda Cover.  The kids get to visit artists' studios at the Tannery Arts Center, see their artwork and then make art along side them.  Amazing.  These are lucky kids!

Today they started out with a studio visit to talented letterpress printer Sam Amico and printed the Tannery Arts Center logo onto bookcover paper.

 

Sam carved the logo out of two pieces of wood, pre-printed one color and then printed the second block with the kids.

Next stop was my studio for a talk and show-and-tell from my collection about different kinds of book from around the world that took many forms and were made out of a variety of materials including parchment, papyrus, palm leaves, amate, and alum tawed leather.

Then it was time to make those gorgeous covers printed with Sam into books.

 

They paid close attention.

Hands folding, cutting and gluing.

And, before we knew it - they made books!

 

These are ready for the next day when the kids are coming back and meeting with Kevin Devaney, our resident poet, to give these books some life.  Can't wait to see how they end up.

But first...some sidewalk chalk...

Thanks to Linda and her assistants, Sam and the kids for a fun summer day at camp!

Tanniversary

It's a Tanniversary!

We are celebrating four years of the live/work residential lofts being inhabited, one year of the working studios buzzing with activity and the recent addition of the Arts Council of Santa Cruz County being on campus at the Tannery Arts Center.

Festivities begin at 3:00 and continue until midnight on Saturday, June 15th, 2013.

My studio is No. 105 and will be open until 10:00ish.

Please join us!

art + music

Wishi Washi Studio is in between its spring and summer workshop season so I have no student-work-goodness to share for the first time in a while.  Instead, I thought I would dig back to earlier this year and share a music video that was filmed, in part, in front of one of my installations:

The band is Marty O'Reilly and they filmed this video at the Santa Cruz Institute of Contemporary Art that is located in the Tannery Arts Center, where my studio is also located.  It is a busy place - rich with creative activity.

My installation is a mini-version of my Preparing for Evanescence show from last year.  It is the furniture and wall piece arrangement in back of Jeff Kissell on the double bass.  T'was nice to get the pieces out in a new arrangement and give them a different life and light.  And, now they can add music video to their resume. Enjoy.

Cow

And, as suspected the tall girl is down

and the Cow is up!!!!

 

27-Foot tall girl

The 27-foot tall girl has been making the rounds here in Santa Cruz and she appeared at the Tannery this summer.

She's kinda nosey...

always peeking into windows...

today I noticed that she was lying down...resting...and getting ready to move on.

I also spied some black and white paint being flung around and it looks like there is another big something in the works...

Job Site Beautification at the Tannery

I arrived at my studio today to find that someone had engaged in some job site beautification over the weekend:

The final project in Phase II at the Tannery Arts Center is the renovation of the Kron House where the original owners of the tannery lived in the late 19th century

The construction is going on outside of my studio's back door and it doesn't look or sound pretty.  But, we don't mind because we know that the finished product will be the renovation of a wonderful old structure that will be office space for the Cultural Council of Santa Cruz County

But...it is not pretty...

except for these wonderful little paintings and drawings...

that have appeared on the rent-a-fence

 I love how they are wrapped up like pretty little presents...

little gifts to all of us who walk by...

I don't know who the artists are...

but, thank you for making me smile...

Tannery Kids at Wishi Washi Studio

Kids + Books = Colorful Fun!

 I got to play with the Tannery Art Camp Kids...

Orizomegami paper decorating...

bound into side sewn books...

with just a dash of typing thrown in for fun!

Tannery Art Studios - Grand Opening

If you are in the area please come to the Tannery Art Studios Grand Opening!

Friday, June 1st at 4:30 will be the ribbon cutting followed by music, performances and 26 of the working studio opening their doors from 5:00 - 9:00.

Many studios will close at 9:00 but the party continues until midnight in the common areas!

Saturday, June 2nd the studio open their doors again from 12 noon until 5:00

My studio is shiny and clean - so please come and visit and meet my wonderful and talented neighbors!!!

Studio Patina

My studio is in the Tannery Arts Center.  It was an actual tannery for many years and when it shut down my wonderful town had the vision to make it into an art center with live/work spaces, studio spaces and a performing arts center.  The clever architects and builders did a wonderful job at preserving much of the original structure.

The building looks nice and new but if you look closely you will see some of the original structure peaking through.

Here is some of the "tannery patina" that has been preserved just outside my door:

my new studio

i finally moved into my studio at the tannery arts center on february 2nd. since then i have been loving my new space, spending as much time there as possible, making new pieces, arranging and re-arranging things and teaching workshops. these are a few snaps from around the studio...