Advance Copy

I finally got my advance copy of Adventures in Mixed Media, and I am happy to report that it looks terrific. Nice color reproduction; the book design is awesome; I'm always impressed with the work of my photographers, John Polak and George Bouret. The official release date is April 26, but you can pre-order the book from Amazon if you like. I will bring copies to Art Unraveled in August, and Art and Soul in September to make them available as well. Here are a few sneak previews.

Making a simple pamphlet-stitch book:
Remember these paper bags?
I did a chapter that includes making these shrines from foam core. The gorgeous one on the right is Carol Owen's; she is the inspiration for this project.
This chapter on Fusion, Fabric, and Fiber opens with a photo of Sue Bleiweiss's fabulous tea pot:
A couple of my own fusion fabric pieces:
There is a chapter on Mixed Media Dolls. The doll in the upper right of the left page is by Ingrid Dijkers.
And here is some eye candy from the chapter on books and boxes: paper mosaic with paper gems and glue gems. All the sparkle and glitz you could stand.
Thanks for visiting! Don't forget to check out the Sketchbook Challenge blog.

Workshops

Hi! I don't have any pictures to post today. I taught three workshops over the weekend, and my camera's batteries were dead. !!! Friday evening was "Paper and Mixed Media Dolls" at Ink About It in Westford, MA. As usual, we had a blast. Everyone made a unique and highly expressive doll - and you'll have to take my word for it unless anybody can send me a photo of their doll. You just can't go wrong with paper dolls. Saturday's workshop was "Unbinding the Visual Journal", again, a wonderful group; Sunday's workshop was at The Scrapbook Cupboard in E. Bridgewater, MA. Mostly new faces there, except for the Jane Junkies, Marissa and Elyce, who came to all three workshops! We made boxes and then filled them with collage note cards. Bev, the owner, served us lunch and was altogether helpful and accommodating. I'll be teaching there again in September, as well as at Colorful Creations in Hyannis on the Cape. I promise to post again soon with pictures. Thanks to everybody who made the workshops so much fun!

Paper Dolls

I'm almost on the home stretch of writing my collage and mixed media book - I had a photo shoot yesterday with George Bouret, who is doing the hands-on how-to sequence photographs, and I have what I hope is the final shoot on Monday with John Polak, who is photographing the finished pieces. Then I have about three weeks to finish the manuscript. YIKES!!!! Today I received two beautiful handmade books made by Elissa Campbell, whose work I just found on the web a few days ago. I am so excited to be able to have these two pieces in my book. So why am I posting pictures of paper dolls? Just for fun. I made these a few weeks ago; I don't know if these exact pieces will be in my book, but I do have a section on paper and mixed media dolls. With some fabulous contributions from real doll artists. After the book is done (end of March), I want to spend some time exploring paper dolls, collage figures, and a whole bunch of stuff I've not had time to do while working on this project. Those collage dresses a few posts back? Love to explore that format in more depth. Thanks to all of you who are stopping by my blog and commenting! It really helps me feel connected.

collage dresses

The week before last in my Monday night collage class I had the students make a series of collages depicting one object. The students seemed absorbed in their work, and pretty self sufficient, so I started my own series. Since I've been working with figures lately, I thought I'd try some collage dresses. Just this afternoon I took them out and did a little machine stitching. Here they are!

Collage Dolls

Here are a few of the dolls I made last week. I had loads of fun playing with all kinds of materials, ones that I've been using in other projects for my book. Tyvek, Angelina, fabrics, papers, paper clay, and so forth. Thank you Pamela Hastings for your encouragement!

Ink About It workshop

I had so much FUN last weekend teaching a collage workshop at Ink About It in Westford, MA. It was a great group of people, several of whom had taken my workshop there last summer, all full of creative energy and talent. THANK YOU to everybody who attended and to Linda and Lori, the owners, for hosting me. Besides the Saturday workshop on "Painting with Paper", I taught a Friday evening seminar on writing a book proposal. That was my first time teaching this topic, but I've talked about it a LOT to anyone who asks.

All week I've been working on making paper and mixed media dolls. What a RIOT! Inspired by Autumn Hathaway's Spirit Dolls, and Pamela Hastings' paper and mixed media dolls, it did not take long to get on a roll. Will post some pictures next week.