Wow, it's only been a week but I feel like I have been away a lot longer. I want to tell you all about the CREATE retreat in NJ and my trip to New York City.
First - the retreat - fabulous - met some great people and took some fantastic courses:
My two favorite courses shown here:
1- First up Jodi Ohl's Faux Encaustic Class
Jodi taught us how to use Golden's tar gel to create an encaustic type finish on our work. But first she showed us how to create layers and layers for our backgrounds
If you are not familiar with encaustic - this is normally a finish that is done on a painting using beeswax and damar resin. This requires heating up the wax and then pouring it over the painting. Instead Jodi showed us how to use Golden's targ gel medium to create a similar look.
This was so fun that it actually made me want to try real encaustic. For this I am going to rely on my new found friend Lavinia who is an expert at real encaustic (Right Lavinia - you'll show me won't you!!!???)
The I also took a wild class with Jean Van Brederode on jewelry making. This was great because we got to use blow torches and sulfurs to patina the pieces - it was great using all the heavy duty tools.
Jean also had great pieces for us to work with:
Look at all of these great embossed copper sheets - we used these and cut them up to make our jewelry
I haven't yet taken a picture of the piece I made but I will and I will show you it then.
Also took other classes on book binding and making books - uh oh - I feel a new project coming on ; )
Then there was also an artists fair - well I had a ball there and made some great purchases - (will show you all my purchases in another post)
Tons of wonderful things for purchase
This was Jodi Ohl's booth - I bought one of her paintings for inspiration
Next post I'll show you my purchases!!
Have a great, creative day all
Cathy










