Ginny's Small Studio

Tag You're It!

I am talking about the participants in our art morning at Small Studio. You are all awesome. Not only did you make great tag art, including little tag booklets, but unbeknownst to me, you all pitched in to help pay for supplies. This was totally kind, unnecessary and appreciated. Thank you, thank you! Now readers, feast your eyes on these great bits of art.

Time Flies

Peonies are blooming everywhere including pink and white ones in my yard. One of my customers was telling me that she gets marigolds and she gets petunias and she gets impatiens to plant in her garden. She asked me what I get for my yard. I replied that I get Greg. Greg is our honorary son and landscape guy. He showed up this morning with a truck full of flats and when I arrived home this evening, the yard was ablaze with drifts of pink annuals both front and back. Greg "gets" me, too. I love pink flower beds.

Tomorrow is our free tag play day. I am looking forward to it.

We have an awesome roster of local and visiting instructors here at the store ready to inspire and instruct you. It feels so good to make art. It feels so good to be in a group of like minded people all creating stuff. Next weekend we host Michael deMeng and Andrea Matus deMeng right here in Westlake OH at Small Studio. Also in June we have Barbe Saint John and Candace Rich. Come join us, won't you?

Street Art

I love looking at street art. It always surprises and delights.

Saturday is Barbe Saint John's Ice Resin 101. This is a wonderful introduction class to using resin in bezels of all types. There is still room.

DeMeng Times Two

Only two weeks until Michael DeMeng and Andrea Matus DeMeng arrive here in Westlake OH to teach in our Small Studio Workshop Series. We are so lucky to have them here. Michael's workshops at our last event were so much fun and he is an exceptionally good instructor.

His projects are delightfully quirky, but his teaching methods are professional and spot on.

You will be sorry to miss these workshops if you fail to sign up.

We are also very lucky to have Michael's new wife Andrea join us. Her artwork is incredible and needs to be seen in person to really appreciate.One does not need to draw to accomplish these pieces of art.

Andrea has sent over wonderful samples of the workshops and they are on display as are Michael's class samples. Stop by if you are local and see them for yourself. If you live too far, take my word for it. They are wonderful.

There are a few spaces left in all the classes June 1, 2 and 3. We would love to have you join us for the weekend or for one class.

Yarn Bombing

Have you heard about "Yarn Bombing"? Rumor has it that it began in Texas when a knitting club decided to take their unfinished pieces and add them to city hardscapes.

It has become a new type of graffiti art in many urban areas. Knit tagging groups go out under the cover of darkness and add their mark.

I haven't seen this in our area, but I am wondering if you have seen it in yours.

Hey, happy Mom's day to all of you out there!

Leighanna Light Day Three

Sadly, today was the last day of workshops taught by Leighanna Light.

We had a wonderful group of students all weekend and they produced excellent projects using all the interesting techniques Leighanna shared.

Below are both student work and Leighanna's samples.

Leighanna is an excellent instructor and great houseguest. We look forward to her retuning to Small Studio to teach again. The students all walked away very happy with what they learned.

Next up: Michael deMeng and Andrea Matus. Stop by the store and see the fabulous samples for their workshops at Small Studio. You won't want to miss their classes.

Leighanna Light Day Two

You missed the best class if you were not here with us. Leighanna did it again. She pulled amazing creativity out of the students in her "Beyond the Metal Deck" workshop.

All of the work below was created on metal using a myriad of techniques.

It was a wonderful class and a wonderful day.

Leighanna Light Day One

Today was the first day of the Small Studio Workshop Series with Leighanna Light and her "Hello Dolly" class. She is a generous, calm, informative and fun instructor. The students worked diligently on their projects (when they weren't laughing) and pretty much finished them.

It was a great class and a great day. Thank you Leighanna and thank you students.

Awesome Thursday

What a day it was today. You should have been here...well, some of you were. First my friend Pam Rowe came by with an armful of her handmade dolls. They are made from scratch, no pre-made anything.

They are beautiful and the workmanship is wonderful.

It was fun to catch up with Pam and see what she has been creating.

Then a big shipment came in from Michael and Andrea. Samples! Samples for the workshops next month and I am telling you that you must come in and see them in person. They are extraordinary. You will not want to miss these workshops on June 1-2-3.

Last and certainly not least, Leighanna Light arrived for her workshops which begin tomorrow. Her samples are wonderful, too. John has decided to take all three workshops this weekend and is down in his art room gathering supplies. Leighanna is not only a great artist and teacher, she is fun, too.

Life is good! Come hang out over here. We have fun.

Mid-Week Miscellany

Remember this mannequin I was given to alter for the Quilt Expo?

This is the beginning of her transformation:

She has been collaged, painted and had a Nicho shrine embedded in her torso. Stay tuned...

Remember the door situation at the store? We needed one more, but we decided that since we were ending our contract at Brothers Antique mall at the end of this month, we would start removing some things from there. So we took the white hutch top from the mall and John added a shelf on the back and we placed it in the front eliminating the need for another door. Cost: $0.

New stuff at the store this week: Santos heads and hands.

Leighanna Light arrives tomorrow to begin the first weekend of our workshop series.

ATC Morning at Small Studio

We had a full house for our ATC morning. The ladies (no men this time) worked diligently to make 20 Artist Trading Cards each to swap at the end of the three hours. It was a wonderful group of women and they did great work. The photos do not do justice to the wonderful cards they made. The lighting is difficult for this amateur photographer.

To all of you who came into the store today, thank you for stopping by and shopping. You made it a great day for us! I hope you had as much fun as we did.

Leighanna Light

Next week begins this year's Workshop Series. Leighanna Light arrives on Thursday to launch the first set of classes. Come play with us and make one of these technique filled projects. Each is a one day class.

Don't miss out!

I loved all your comments to John about the door. I think he did too. Oh, and look what he brought home for us to use in our art projects.

I am looking forward to tomorrow's ATC Challenge at the store. Photos tomorrow.

SteamPunk Class(es)

Tonight was another great class with Barbe Saint John. She knows her products, is fun and full of tips to go along with her techniques. She definitely is an asset to the Ice Resin product line.

Students made little steampunk charms and bobby pins. Here are a few to show you.

I am so happy that Barbe has chosen to teach here. Coming up another Ice Resin 101 and a fabulous Steampunk Necklace June 16th, during the daytime while that night is our Steampunk Social.

There are still spaces for a few lucky students for the Leighanna Light workshops May4-5-6th. And the month after that we have the incredible Michael deMeng and the wonderful Andrea Matus. You need to go check out our workshops on our website.

New product is always arriving at the Small Studio. Today we received some great new papers and tapes.

I will see some of you on Saturday when we have our ATC morning meet-up.

Full Steam Ahead

The SteamPunk Social is alive and growing. Today Jim Griffin of The Griffin Works stopped by to show us some of his handworked steam punk accessories.

Jim will have a table in our classroom to sell and display his quality goods during the June 16th event.

Barbe Saint John will be there to sign the book she co-authored: 1000 SteamPunk Creations.

Michele Monet, professional photographer will be set up for those who want to purchase a photo.

Carla and Becki of Sweethearts of Steam have been instrumental in making this event happen. They are the divas of steampunk costumes and gear and two of the most enthusiastic ladies I have met in a long time. We have a free event every month and the SteamPunk Social will be the event for June. Make yourself a hat or an entire costume and join us for refreshments and fun. Give us a call and let us know you are coming. 440-808-8599

Theresa Smith stopped in the other day to shop and share some very cool ATCs she makes.

She hand cuts the designs and they are beautiful. I love show and tell, but then you all know that.

There are spaces still available in Leighanna Light's workshops the first week of May. Sign up for these wonderful classes before it is too late. We are so lucky to have these awesome instructors travel here to teach in Ohio.

Save the Date

We had a wonderful day at Small Studio today with Barbe Saint John teaching Ice Resin 101. Half the students were old friends and half were new friends. They made incredible resin filled charms. I forgot my camera, but Michele Monet shared some of hers with us. Thank you Barbe and thank you students and thank you Michele.

Barbe sharing her samples.

Aimee and John working on their bezels.

Okay, now for the big news.

Save the Date June 16th, 7-10PM

STEAMPUNK SOCIAL!

Get your inner steampunk on and have some fun with us. More details later, but save the date.

Oh, and Barbe will be teaching many more classes for us. The next is Stampunk Bobbie Pins on April 24th. Check out the web for details and come in and see the samples.

Here is a wonderful Steampunk piece Barbe made for the Ice Resin Co.

Black and White

Silhouettes have always been around but it seems they are making a big comeback. I see different versions of silhouettes in gift catalogs all the time lately. When my kids were little and we lived in CA, the place to get silhouettes done was Disneyland. There was a "street" artist who would cut a quick profile and slap it on a card while you waited. Today, Debby Glick stopped in while traveling from Ann Arbor to her home in Pittsburgh. She shared a project she made using a silhouette made of her as a child.

Recently Debby and her husband were in Paris (lucky them!) and she had a silhouette made of herself. This small book is the result.

Thanks, Debby! I love show and tell in the store.

I also had a fun visit from Kelly and Kathy, owners of Spirit of Clay, a paint your own pottery shop in Mayfield Village OH, where they make cool stuff like this:

You two are a hoot!

We need a bit of white to round off this post. Here are two photos that I just love of white decorating. I need a tray that says "room service". Don't you?

And the cubbies below with a chair where one can just sit and gaze at those cubbies. Perfection.

Wednesday

I have been invited to participate in an artistic exhibit. If my entry is chosen it will travel around the country with others to sewing expos. More on that when I have the info in front of me. Right now I am dreaming of all the possibilities and not thinking of the pressure to make it wonderful and on time.

My directive is to alter this torso using a minmum of 80% recycled, reused, repurposed material. I can spend no more than $20 on additional supplies. I am excited to get started on it.

Today brought more new product to the store. You asked for Distress markers and Dylusion spray paints and here they are:

Look at all those luscious colors!

New stencils include these absolutely different and wonderful new 6"x6" designs from Mary Beth Shaw.

And new paper tape from 7Gypsies:

And these wonderful metal birds perched on bright wooden stands arrived just before we closed today.

I think you all need to come in and see what we have and while you are here you can sign up for all the wonderful classes at our store during the next few weeks and months: Barbe Saint John, Ingrid Dijkers and Leighanna Light are first up.  Don't miss any of them.

Shrine On

It was like Christmas at the store this week. So many deliveries and no time to play with the new products. I showed you some of the new arrivals earlier this week and here are some more:

Fun tape for your journals, mail art and other projects. Also some fun stickers:

My favorite arrival came all the way from Mexico. We received an order of tin nicho shrines in many sizes. 

And in many, many styles:

We had our first real class at the store on Saturday taught by Candace Rich.  It was a great class making cloth-paper by layering and layering different papers and materials. It was a success and the classroom has been officially christened by students using glues and paints and sprays and other messy, fun art supplies.

We are so lucky to have so many wonderful instructors coming to Small Studio to teach.

April brings Barbe Saint John to steampunk us up with some wonderful jewelry classes featuring Susan Lenart Kazmer's Ice Resin. Have you seen Barbe's book 1000 Steampunk Creations?

Then we have Ingrid Dijkers who has taught at Art Fest and other national retreats coming here to teach her whimsical techniques of making journals. Ingrid is such a talented artist and a real sweetheart.

Following Ingrid we have our first workshop instructor, Leighanna Light.  Hurry and sign up for her classes which are just one month away. Leighanna has also taught at many national retreats and we are excited to have her here in the greater Cleveland area.

All information, photos and supply lists can be seen on our website. Go here to read all about these wonderful opportunities.

Thursday

I am having the best time at the store. I had been missing the show and tell aspect of owning a "craft" store and I had been missing the inspiration and ideas that discussion with like minded people engenders. Now I have a whole new group of people and therefore an whole new group of ideas. Today was the store was peopled with such interesting folk. I am so happy to be back amongst you.

Recently we received new paper packs from Graphic 45. I love the new "Curiosity Shoppe" collection.  This tag above was made by the designers at G45 using the paper pack. Love the busy-ness of it. All of Graphic 45 papers are excellent for cutting up.

New in the store are more wonderful greeting cards and post cards from Ingrid Pomeroy. Come on in and see them!

Have you signed up for thiose classes and workshops you have been thinking about?

Good Mail Day!

I love getting mail, especially decorated mail. Ingrid Dijkers sent me this wonderful package today.  Actually she sent it to all of you.

Ingrid is so much fun.  We hit it off immediately the first time we met. We both have Dutch backgrounds, although hers is much more recent than mine. I think Ingrid's dad was born in Holland. My Dutch ancestors came here in the 1830s. BUT my daughter married a nice Dutch young man whom she met in Holland when we lived there years ago.

Oh, what was in the package you ask? 

Samples for her class at Small Studio on April 21: Vintage File Folder Journal. See I told you it was for you.

We have so many wonderful classes and workshops coming up.  Won't you join us?

This Artist Has it Nailed

Actually, this artist has used a zillion screws to make portraits.

(Re: Last post...I did not buy the clothing the tags were on. I rn across a marketing article about Ralph Lauren using cool tags.)

 

Don't forget (how could you) to sign up for the wonderful workshops and classes we offer at Small Studio.

Ralph Lauren

Have you seen these hang tags from Ralph Lauren clothing?  So great.

Saturday

This is the kind of day it was today...warm and sunny

The classic Lincoln Continental convertible ('62?) was parked in front of the ice cream parlor across the parking lot from our store. I will bet the owner of the car made his passengers finish their ice cream before returning to the car!

Thank you for the interesting comments on locals and classes. It was a busy day at the store today and several people were discussing my last blog entry. The workshops will fill up and whoever comes will have a great time with these excellent instructors. I was just making an observation, not a complaint. I really do love to read any and all comments.

Have you seen these "eerie, faceted 3-D paper heads that float on a wall like grotesque hunting trophies? They’re photo-realistic replicas of Rotterdam papercraft artist Burt Simons and his friends, created when Simons had a ‘mid-life crisis’ in 2006 and realized there wasn’t much of him that would be left behind. So, Simons decided to ‘clone himself’, sculpting his head in 3D and using photographs to texture it. He uses a computer program to flatten out the head into printable pieces of paper and then assembles them with glue." Fascinating.

Store classes for March, April and some of May are up and online on the Small Studio website now.

The "Playday" offering next month, April 28th, is all about ATCs.  We will take no more than 18 participants.  Each person will make 18 ATCs and then we will trade them so everyone goes home with 18 different ATCs. (Thanks, Tamara for this idea.) The morning is free, but requires a reservation.  All supplies are included, but you may bring your own if you like. Above are some ATCs (artist trading cards) I made for a publication a few years ago.

John is busy on a new project for the store: 

Let's Talk Workshops

Registrations are coming into the shop on a regular basis for the Small Studio Workshop Series. They are arriving from Michigan, Pennsylvania, Maryland, Arizona, New York, Texas and other far away places. They are not coming in the same numbers from Cleveland, lakewood, Rocky River or Westlake.  This was a common occurance when I hosted Art Continuum too.  I don't understand why. I am happy that people want to travel here to take classes from all these wonderful instructors, but local people who do not have to go to the expense of travel and lodging seem to take the opportunity lightly.  Any comments?

Here is the line-up. Registration is open and simple. Links to their blogs/websites are on the left of this post.

May 4-6th, Leighanna Light

June 1-3rd, Michael DeMeng and Andrea Matus

July 28-29th, Carol Owen

Aug 24-26th, Teesha and Tracy Moore

Sept 21-23rd, Pam Sussman

Oct 5-7th, Keith Lobue

All workshops have openings although some are getting close to being full.

I have been working on store classes too and I am excited to offer you in the coming months classes beginning in April by Barbe Saint John who will be a regular Small Studio instructor.

And Ingrid Dijkers is coming in April, who I also hope to entice to be a regular visiting instructor at Small Studio.  Info for both instructors will be online in the next day or two.

My local customers are so lucky to have all this talent available so close by.

Oh My!

If you have been reading my blog for awhile and if you were a shopper on my etsy shop, then you know how much I love the old red London double decker destination signs.  We now sell them in the store and they have been selling pretty well, as well as anything in the short four weeks we have been open. 

See where it says "Bricklayers Arms" and "Noah's Ark"? I just read that those are the names of pubs.  Since pubs in England seem to stay in business for 100 years and are located often on corners, the busses use the names of pubs for many of the stops. I love knowing that.

And....Look what my clever husband John did today:

He did a wonderful job of adding a few of the destinations to a dresser. It is for sale in our shop.

Maybe it won't sell.  I know a perfect place in our house for it to live.

Here it is March already. So what are we doing in March at the store?  Well on Saturday March 10th from 10:30-12:30 we are having a Mail Art Morning.  Come play, decorate envelopes, amuse our postal workers and maybe help out the PO a bit. This will be free, yes, free.  I will have all the supplies needed such as stencils, stamps, ink, markers, envelopes, paper scraps, glue sticks, scissors. You just bring yourself and a friend if you like. We have plenty of room. RSVP at 440-808-8599 just so I know how many to prepare for.

Then on March 31st, Candace Rich will be teaching "Mixing it Up: Making Cloth Paper".  This is a great technique class from 1-4 ($35 per student).  You will learn how to combine and layer to create a beautiful and strong material that can be used to cover books, add to collage and can be sewn.  Full details are on our website. Just click on "Store Classes". While you are there check out the Workshop Series too.  We have awesome teachers coming just for you. We will host all your favorite retreat instructors without all the pressure of a retreat. We have Leighanna Light, Michael DeMeng, Andrea Matus, Carol Owen, Teesha and Tracy Moore, Pam Sussman and Keith Lobue. Sign up now for one or all.  Registration is ongoing throughout the year until classes are sold out.