What a glorious morning. It’s raining a bit and the sky is grey but it is warm and color filled inside my snug little house. Stella is stretched out on the bed and I am working at my portable desk which is a bed tray from Pier One which I use as a laptop table. The reason for my enthusiasm this morning is that this weekend I taught my first three day workshop in my home and everyone loved it, including me. Three gals came from different parts of California and stayed in B & B’s in the area and spent their days in my studio totally immersed in whatever they wanted to do. Ooohh, now I wish I had taken some pictures at lunch time. We had GREAT food for lunch and snacks, most of it made especially for us by Nora who owns my favorite restaurant which is a few miles down the road. Anyway, back to the workshop. Everyone had slightly different goals they wanted to focus on but one thing was in common and that was they all wanted to make lots of paste paper. So we started mixing the paste and the colors. The challenge I presented was that they tweak each color and not use it straight out of the tube. This led to some fabulous colors. Unfortunately we made so many choices and didn’t keep track of what we mixed with what so some colors were impossible to duplicate. No one but me seemed to be bothered by this. There was a fabulous grey, brown, with a purple tone that I made that everyone loved. When I tried to replicate it we wound up with about 5 different grey black mixes that were nowhere near as interesting. I will be making a lot of paste paper with shades of black in the next few days.
All three women are people I have worked with before and they wanted to do more surface design techniques and book binding. So we chose two books to start with; the one I call Sculpture or Book and the Episodic Journal.
What I enjoyed about working with only three people is that we could spend time concentrating on whatever particular thing they wanted to learn. The feeling of satisfaction is huge for me as an instructor when I see the progression in someone’s work. When they feel their time and resources were well spent and when they love their creations, well, it’s the best.
For years I have wanted to work with small groups and provide the kind of experience I have in my studio where there are lots of choices, plenty of time, and just about every art supply and color of paint you could possibly want at your fingertips.My plan is to have several of these workshops throughout the coming year. In warm weather there will be handmade paper workshops out on the deck!
So let me know if you’re interested in coming to Jacksonville and playing in the color with me. It just takes three people to make a workshop. albiepapersmith@gmail.com
I will be posting my 2011 teaching schedule for the events I travel to soon. There will be some new venues along with some tried and true.
