This weekend marked the 10th anniversary of being a parent here in our house. TEN years…now we’re in the double digits! Our 2000 baby turned 10!! How does one chose to celebrate their birthday when turning 10 (hmm…I really don’t remember many specifics about mine)??
To kick off the weekend our big guy insisted on attending a camp out with area Cub Scout packs at a great big Camporall. For a boy, what could beat BB target shooting, archery, and whittling your own walking stick? Let’s not forget building a campfire and those traditional S’mores. By the time the S’mores were happening, I had returned to the comfort of home with the non-birthday boys.
After lunch at our favorite Japanese restaurant, yesterday we took a trip in to DC. When we asked our birthday boy what he wanted to do for his big day, he knew exactly where he wanted to go…. to the National Garden. Now not every 10 year old would chose to look at plants on their birthday, but our guy, he insisted on looking through each section twice to be sure to see EVERY plant there. It is truly one of his passions. Where he got the green thumb, I just don’t know. I ask him now for advice when it comes to anything green that comes in to our house!
This outing gave me the opportunity to pursue one of my passions, and that’s taking plenty of pictures. I’m putting a bunch right here.
Thank you for stopping by. Today I’m going to tell you a little about the class that I took at The Inaugural Event. I was as happy as can be to finally have the chance to sit in Deryn Mentock’sclassroom! I had hoped for this for years actually, as I’ve been a faithful Something Sublime blog follower since my early days of creating jewelry. Truth be told, wanting to take a class with Deryn was a huge part of my wanting to be a part of bringing nationally-recognized artists to the DC area. Finally having this opportunity was one of those little jewelry-dreams come true. 🙂
Classmates Maureen Baranov and Anne Savage
In Crowned Gems, Deryn demonstrated a wide range of techniques. She taught everything from cold connections to working with annealed steel wire. We worked with brass filigree, drilled, heat patinated and created metal staples (not as easy as they look!). At the core of the class though were the precious tintype pictures. As an avid antique and all-things-vintage collector, this really intrigued me.
Deryn provided everyone with a small, postage-sized gem tintype. We all eagerly opened our kits to see if we received a man or a woman. By the way, tintypes were made on a sheet of iron, not tin as one might think. For my project, I used a larger tintype that I brought with me, as the stately woman in the picture really moved me. I’ll admit I’ve been somewhat hesitant to alter old photographs for jewelry design…. I’ve had mixed feelings about adding whimsical elements to them. I have this feeling of wanting to be sure respect the person in the photograph, long gone and now unknown, remembering that this was someone’s child, mother, or loved one. At the same time, I love that these pictures are no longer forgotten in a cigar box and are unearthed and treasured. In Crowned Gems, I’m happy to report that all of the unearthed tintypes will now be loved anew.
Exploring design ideas with Pam Keravuori. Photo by Kerry Bogert
Working on the layout. Photo by Kerry Bogert
Look at that smile! Amy Powers tries on her finished Crowned Gem. Photo by Kerry Bogert
A round-up of student pieces. Photo by Kerry Bogert
This concludes my week of recalling the ArtBLISS Inaugural Event. Thank you for joining me !
Come join me for a peek inside the classes held at the Inaugural Event! We were over the moon to have instructors Kerry Bogert, Melissa Manley, Deryn Mentock, and Lesley Venable join us for a few days of creative bliss.
I shot some video with Kerry’s camera, then she took over and created this fantastic video. She’s a media mix-master….and I’ve asked her jokingly if she’d like to teach K.reating A.rt V.ideos next year!
Let’s continue our walk through the classrooms…..here are just a few of the MANY shots from the classrooms.
Frankie on her way to making beads!
Kerry Bogert and her lampworking class
Christine dapping metal in the popular Hard Candy Class
Melissa helping Nicole with enameling
Melissa Manley's beautiful enameled earrings
Pam working on her vintage album page
Lesley Venable teaching - Inside the Vintage Album
A finished vintage album page that highlights a treasured family photo
Lesley Venable and students
Deryn Mentock's new class: Link Love!
These hands sure know how to make beauty with wire
Deryn with many of her students
Thank you for hanging in there with my overabundance of photos! Can you tell I had a great time capturing it all on “film”? In fact, I have a whole album uploaded on flickr if you’d like to see more! 🙂 Next time I’ll share more from the class that I took!
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