Art Unraveled 2014 (part 1)

I was fortunate to be able to attend Art Unraveled again for the second year. It was a whirlwind 5 days filled with creativity and someone else making my bed and cooking my breakfast. If you are unfamiliar with what this whole Art Unraveled thingy is then by all means check out their website and make plans to go next year! I documented my projects with my iPhone in my hotel room each night. So I guess this post could also be titled: Art Unraveled ala iPhone. :) This is the first of two posts I will have about the classes I took at this fabulous event.

With my husband away for work I was blessed to have my angel Mother-in-law come and stay with us to watch my ornery darling four daughters while I was away. (I must admit I might have laughed maniacally as I drove off. FREEDOM!) Ladies and Gentlemen, this woman is a SAINT. We love our Jamma with all of our hearts. 

I made my way to Phoenix, checked into the hotel and rushed to my first class. It was called A Face in the Crowd and taught by the fabulous Dina Wakley. I like taking her classes because her expressive and impulsive approach to artmaking is refreshing to me. I tend to get all tight and controlling and it is always nice to be reminded to let go and see what happens. After practicing several different techniques in our art journals we each received a large piece of paper and the assignment to do our favorite technique on it. I must say, it ended up being my favorite one of the day!

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Next up was the Watercolor Artist's Notebook by Gina Rossi Armfield. This was an evening and day class covering all you might want to know about watercolor. I have always admired the work of watercolor artists and the gorgeous colors and textures they create. My goal with this class was to learn as many of the rules as I could so that I can break them later on. :) I truly enjoyed myself and it was thrilling to see the results of Gina's awesome teaching. If I practice enough and push myself maybe I can earn the right to have a fabulous watercolor pallete just like Gina's. Check it out! So many delicious colors!

I nearly swooned when I saw all those colors all neatly arranged. Ack! 

My favorite piece of the class was this leaf. It turned out so good and I admit to floating on a cloud as I left class. Check out the shadows on that! Thanks Gina for inspiring me!

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I love me some bookbinding and have even taught classes in the past. Something about it just makes me happy. I was delighted to attend Steve Salik's class and make a book with polymer clay covers and a variation of a longstitch for the binding. Polymer clay and I have never met and once again I had a fabulous teacher who covered the basics and let us run with it. Instead of using a mold for the faces I opted to make my own. (Yes, I tend to be an over-achiever) I was thrilled with the results and gave myself a fist bump.

Blurry iPhone photo I took of the first face I made. People, I was THAT proud of it.

All three faces (I would have made more if time allowed) placed on cover prior to baking the clay.

And the finished product after painting the covers, stitching the signatures to the spine and then attaching the covers.

Oh Waxed Linen Thread, how I love thee!

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Check back soon for the concluding post about my ArtUnraveled experience!