Good evening!

I know tonight is Chunky Dunker’s night, so we can still chat in the comments section after I post – is that alright for everyone?? It so too difficult trying to come up with a health related topic when right now my life is revolving around art and being creative!! 😉 So from now on, Wednesday evenings will be the same kind of posts that I normally post, my life’s journey to creating my dream life, and Chunky Dunker’s will “meet” in the comments section!

On to my day!!!

I spent the day over at The Art Department, in downtown Salem. I was taking an art class being given by Sharon Geraci, who, BY THE WAY, is PHENOMENAL!! She is talented with a capital T!!

Here is part of the class description:

Rev up your collage experience with an expanded repertoire of materials and techniques. Work on wood or canvas as a support, with an assortment of gels, household materials, and alternative methods of attaching objects and materials.

DOESN’T THAT SOUND AWESOME???

There were six of us in class, not including, Sharon. There was Sandra, Marcia, Cheryl, Brigitta, Linda and myself. Everyone besides Sandra and myself had already taken classes from Sharon, so they already knew what to expect!! Here is my workspace:

Each student had an ENTIRE 8 FOOT TABLE TO THEMSELVES, which is a REALLY good thing because collage is a VERY W-I-D-E art form!!!

This class, was a collage techniques class, which was formatted much differently than the kind of collage class I took last Saturday. Not to say that one was better than the other, but to say that they were different. This class was much more educational in feel, with A LOT of demonstration time. After leaving the class you didn’t really walk away with a finished product per se, however you did walk away with a TON of samples, and a very clear and practical understanding on how A LOT of cool techniques worked!

That was VERY EXCITING!! The fact that I now know to do SO MUCH MORE in creating interesting and creative AND ARTISTIC collages!!! 😉

Here are some of the techniques we learned, and some pics from the samples that I had made:

We learned how to make acrylic skins, which is something that can be used to lay over the top of and enhance your collage design:

This one was inspired by the next collage that I am wanting to work on.

I wanted this skin to be a little more earth tone and nature-inspired. This one I actually used mica flakes (the little shimmery things)

This one is clear and is meant for the sole purpose of adding something sparkly to one of my next projects! This one utilizes the mica flakes again, and then who couldn’t use some glitter???

The next technique we learned was the foil technique!

This project was really cool because we got to try out a lot of different kinds of professional grade acrylics, and then we got to try out a heat sealing iron, and iron on foils, that was a lot of fun! I can see how THAT could be VERY ADDICTIVE!!! 😉

The next technique was called, for lack of a better term, TSqeegee Method of decorating paper!!

I just loved the blues and greens that I was able to create in this one, and I think the whites in this just really makes everything else pop!

Here is another blue-centric design (I had Jason on my mind a lot today, and blue is his FAVORITE color!! On this one, Marcia had just shared a technique that she found cool, which was using a painters comb to swirl loops – so I “borrowed” a variation on her technique to come up with this on water color paper! This one is my favorite, and there is NO WAY that I am going to cut or tear this one – I think this one is ready for it’s frame!

Here is another blue sample, using different sized combs – this is the one that I actually use in some of my later samples.

Then we learned a couple of more techniques for making backgrounds, and we got to play with making some of our own:

This one is a yet to be finished board, it is missing something that will tie it all together!! (Do you see any of my papers?)

This piece is a finished piece! I think the embossing really finished this one up for me! I LOVE It!! (Do you see any of my papers in this one??)

W learned SOOOO MUCH in this one day of lessons! WAAAY MORE than I have even itemized out here!! This is an art that I can see has ENDLESS possibilities! and I am JUST SO HAPPY to be able to be a part of it!!!

Thank you, Sharon, and all of my class mates for such a FUN day!!! I look forward to next time!!

Have a FABULOUS evening!!! 😉