description

Spend a day learning several different “framing” techniques to create shallow shadowboxes on vintage book covers from such everyday items as dowel rods, box tops, matchboxes, and mica. Create one, two, or more art pieces that can be tucked within a ribboned “portfolio” that will hold your treasured artwork as a unified piece, lovely to place on a coffee table or shelf, or easily untied and disassembled so that your shadowboxes can be hung as individual designs on the wall. This will be a time of discussing various methods to work with dimensional items from nature, or relatively flat treasures gathered throughout the years, using wire, nails, brads, glue, and fabric to take your work “off the page”, to the next dimension.

Gatherings

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bio

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kit fee: $5       supply list

• A $5.00 kit fee, collected in class, will include a package of copper brads for the cover, an assortment of nails, and escutcheon pins.
  
  
• Materials to bring from home:
  
  
• Small pair of needle-nosed pliers and wire snips
• Japanese screw punch* with #3 tip to accommodate 1/8” eyelets
• awl
• Package each of 1/8” long and 1/8” short eyelets, your choice of metal*
• Eyelet setter*
• Small lightweight hammer
• Cutting pad and utility knife (exacto), metal ruler, scissors
• PVA glue*
• Masking tape
• Scrap papers for embellishment
• Paints, stamps and pads, optional
• Colored pencils for embellishment, optional
• Paintbrush, cup for water, paper towels
• Wire, 20 gauge is good size* - small roll
• Fabric scraps, small amount
• Ribbon, 5 yards for cover (leaves a bit extra for scrap) + extra for other frames if wanted
• Vintage book covers – your choice of size; one set for portfolio and a two or three others, any size that will fit within the portfolio from smaller to equal size
• Mica, two packages of larger pieces*
• Copper mesh, one package* - optional
• Copper tape, optional*
• One 3/8” x 3/8” x 36” long poplar square dowel rod, pre-cut into lengths for square or rectangle shadowboxes to fit on portfolio cover and other book covers(will be covered in class with either copper mesh or paper or paint); my shadowbox for the portfolio is 4” x 4” on a 6 ½” x 10” cover – available from Home Depot or Lowe’s
• Sturdy small pasteboard box tops, one or two
• Matchbox, small (empty)
• Pencil, pen, whatever your favorite writing instrument choice happens to be
• Treasures for shadowboxes (keep in mind that they must be thin, i.e. shallow)
• Cotton batting, optional, for boxes
  
  
• Keep in mind that we will only be able to create the cover, and perhaps one or two other shadowboxes (of your choice – I’ll demonstrate all of the techniques) in the course of the day, depending on how simple you make your artwork. You most definitely should make a trip to the beach before class – be on the lookout for tiny pieces of lovely, smooth driftwood, pretty pebbles, interesting leaves….any mementos of the trip that you might incorporate into a frame. Looking forward to seeing you there!
  
  
• *these items can be easily ordered from volcanoarts.biz; make sure to order well in advance of class so that she doesn’t run out of supplies and you come to class unequipped…

printable version

is a self-taught jewelry and mixed media designer living in the beautiful western mountains of north carolina... single mother of two nearly grown wonderful young men (robin, a junior in college and roy, a freshman), and companion to aspen, the wonder-springer spaniel (13 years).