Ginny's Small Studio

Some New(s)

A group of ladies came to the store on Saturday. It was hot and they needed to keep cool. They lined up their drinks on the front counter and hit the store running. It was great fun having these ladies led by Teri Whidden back again.

We had another group of ladies show up on Friday. These ladies are pretty laid back and require no hydration. They are hoping to go home with you and just sit around at your house.

John and I finished the last of the birds and they are ready to go to The Summer Market next week at Veteran's Park in Avon Lake. It begins Friday night at 5pm and continues Saturday until 4pm.

WORKSHOP NEWS

Altered Books with Carol Owen is this coming Saturday and Sunday. Don't miss this if books and fun are your thing.

In August we host Teesha and Tracy Moore. We are moving Tracy's workshop to a larger venue to accommodate the wait list people (I will contact you on Tuesday) and a few more lucky souls who may want to sign up. Everyone in these classes will be contacted about directions. There are also a few spaces left in Teesha's Saturday DayPlanner and Sunday's Hand Stitched classes.

In September we have Ingrid Dijkers with 2 one day workshops and Pam Sussman with two one-day workshops. Books, collage, boxes, journals and wonderful fun with both of these ladies. All classes have space in them.

In October, the unique and wonderful Keith Lobue joins us again for three days. Go read all about these workshops on our site and his.

This Week at Small Studio

I know, I know. I have been neglecting my blog. We have been busy. We have so much coming up personally and at the Studio.

We have single Copic Sketch markers now in stock. You asked for them and well, I agreed. Not only that, but my daughter Amy (not to be confused with the Aimee who helps out sometimes at the store) has just been certified as a Copic instructor. She and her family will be with us mid July to mid August and she has promised to do a demo for the store. She is really excited about Copics, watch for that announcement.

Our July/August schedule of classes is newly online, so be sure to check that out. Aimee Kluiber and Barbe Saint John will be teaching classes in BookBinding, Collage, Layering, and Resin.

Avon Lake's Summer Market held the last weekend of July has invited Small Studio to participate. We will have a booth there at Veteran's Park right on the shore of Lake Erie. John and Amy will man the booth while I host Carol Owen that weekend for our Workshop Series. There is still room in her Altered Book two day workshop.

July 14th is Bastille Day. We love everything French and will have a little celebration at the store with a few treats, a fun French word game, a simple craft for you to make and light refreshments. Make a purchase and get a free "Kiss Me I'm French" pin.

Ingrid Dijkers will be joining our Workshop Series in September teaching her wonderful journals. So, in September we offer you both Ingrid and Pam Sussman and her bookbinding workshops. Lucky students!

I am looking forward to seeing you for all these fun events.

Monday, Monday

What a glorious morning it is here in Northern Ohio. The view from the deck:

And my Hydrangeas are in bloom:

Doesn't all this renewal make you want to learn and create?

Well, my friends, get your act together and sign up for the following instructors in our workshop series at Small Studio here in the Cleveland area.

July 28-29 Carol Owen teaching Altered Books

Aug 24, 25, 26 Teesha Moore teaching Collage and Journals

Aug 24, 25, 26 Tracy Moore teaching Bookbinding, Jewelry and Journals

Sept 21, 22, 23 Pam Sussman teaching Bookbinding

Oct 5, 6, 7 Keith Lobue teaching Metalworking and Jewelry

What are you waiting for? An invitation? Here it is. We have so much fun at these workshops with a whole weekend and just one or two instructors. Most are multiple one day workshops with a couple of exceptions. All photos, descriptions and other details are online at our website. We would love for you to join us.

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.

Reprinted Without Permission

Long ago, in a land far to the north, there lived a gentle and generous Queen. The Queen loved her people and showered them with many kindnesses, including the annual gathering and renewal of the artists. It so empowered the people that the Queen declared it would be called the Art Continuum, a powerful force that would always be there to sustain and inspire her subjects.

For many years, the artists celebrated their annual convergence for one week each year, and creativity fluorished and it was good. Art was made and altered, bought and sold, auctioned and traded; friendships were cemented, 'zines went forth, book deals were done, and everyone was happy.

Alas, the day arrived when the good Queen had to depart for new lands, to claim her King and apply her deft hand to remodeling yet another castle. The Art Continuumvanished overnight, and though the people cried and wrung their hands, and the artists withered, the Queen could not be persuaded to return to the north lands. Like the four winds, the artists dissipated and scattered over the world, some never to return, some lying in wait, hoping for the return of a better day.

Like so many twists of fate, while the Queen labored mightily in the west, the art gods were busy making other plans for her. The King retired from his subjects and heard a strange calling from the east: words like snow and golf and fishing filled his dreams, and he longed to live in a land where the sun did not shine every day. Together, they explored many great cities and the countryside, seeking the most perfect spot in the entire world to live. The exhaustive search continued until one day, when they realized they already knew where they should go, and returned speedily to the north land of the Queen.

The people in the land rejoiced, for surely this signaled the return of their beloved Art Continuum as well. They called and wrote and tweeted the Queen, but alas, time had taken its toll on her reclaimed kingdom. No suitable location could now be found to host the event, yet the Queen believed in her heart that it must be found so that the people could be restored and renewed once again.

And the day finally came when a location was found, although it was much less grand than the Queen would have liked, and certainly not able to accommodate all the artists at one time. But the Queen did not despair, instead, she had a flash of royal brilliance: why not spread the spirit of the Art Continuum throughout the year, and celebrate the arts each month instead of only during one week?

So this is how it came to pass that Ginny Carter Smallenburg will begin hosting her Small Studio Workshop series this year. You a know you want to be there!

Written by my friend and cohort Pam Sussman who will be teaching in September at Small Studio.

Small Studio

You guys are pretty funny.  Tracey:  John is not laying new flooring although looking back at the photo from yesterday, one could think that.  No, John is measuring and measuring and measuring.  

Because....

We signed a lease today on a new store!  Small Studio will be a brick and mortar store. I am over the top excited and so is John. We have not stopped talking about what we will do with the new space.

We will have a classroom in about half of the space.  We already have Keith Lobue, Michael DeMeng, Andrea Matus, Pam Sussman, Teesha and Tracy Moore lined up for the summer. John has strong opinions on how the classroom should be designed since he taught high school art for many, many years.

We will sell paper goods and artsy goods and vintage goods and gifty goods. You know, all the stuff we like and want.  

Stay tuned for updates.  It will take us awhile to change what appears to be some sort of carpeted race track into a viable fun and creative store space.

We can't wait for you to come visit.

And A Little Shopping...

During the "Book Week", Pam hired a van and a driver to take us into Chicago to do a little shopping.  We stopped at a fabric store, Dick Blick and Paper Source because not all of us are lucky enough to have those stores nearby.

We also stopped at this little jewel box of a store call Soutache in the lovely Bucktown area of Chicago.

There were unususal feathers:

There were lovely ribbon roses galore:

There was a wall of ribbon bolts and a wall or two of buttons:

On the way home we stopped at Hollander's in Ann Arbor. Hollander's is owned by the very lovely Cindy and Tom Hollander.  I think they may have the largest selection of decorative papers I have ever seen.  It is a candy shop for paper crafters.  They have excellent classes, bookmaking supplies and they just added a wonderful kitchen store upstairs. Many of their papers are online, too. Go have a browse. I forgot to take photos because I was too distracted by the hundreds of decorative papers.

Next door and upstairs is "Found".  Found is a fun little store with vintage based art pieces and other goodies.

This past week will stay with me for a long time. I loved every minute of it, even the minutes when I got all stuck with paper on the box interior and had to tear it out and start over.

 

Book Me

I am back from a great week of bookmaking with a great bunch of women.  Pam Sussman put together a wonderful group of projects for us and fun activities to round it all out.

We started with some easy and clever projects that could easily be made assembly line for gifts or favors. Above is a two-ring mini binder made from scratch and a clever elastic binding for a notebook that can be refilled.  Below is a note pad that goes together in a flash.  We all made several of these.

One morning was spent silk screening with the Yudu machine. It was so easy and so addictive.  The tall narrow book below was covered with a sheet of printed scrapbook paper that I screen printed over. I love the binding stitch on this booklet. So loopy!

Another day we made a book that had a zillion pieces to cut and was rather complicated, but when it was all finished, it looked simple, but quite nice.

My favorite project wasn't even a book. We each made a box. We built the basic form and covered it all with papers.

Our last project was a wooden triangular shaped book sculpture that fans out when laid on a flat surface.

We also spent a day shopping in Chicago for papers, ribbons and art supplies because you all know that if the instructor has cool tools, the students must have them too.

Thanks Pam for a great time.

 

Odds and Ends

Last week we filled our room at the antique mall with 1920s linen bus numbers.  They sold the next day. Back we went and put up the remainder and that same day all the single numbers sold...all 17 of them! So again we spent our week cutting and framing bits of those rolling signs that tell one where the transport is going. Our wall at Brothers Antique Mall (Medina OH) is now loaded with 1940s London bus signs.  I forgot to take my camera so you will just have to be satisfied with seeing the one that came home because it wouldn't fit on the wall.

I am so enamoured with these signs and we have quite a few to sell at our antique mall shop. Too big to ship. Sorry.

John and I really enjoyed the Small Studio Workshop Series that we did in 2010.  We had to cancel it for this year due to some pesky medical stuff, but we are planning our Series again for 2012 and we have lined up Keith Lobue and Michael deMeng already! All info will be available on this blog when dates have been confirmed.  I am awaiting word from other instructors.

Last, but certainly not least, I am abandoning John for a whole week while I go make books at Pam Sussman's.  She hosts and teaches 6 students in her home studio for a one week intensive workshop.

Here is what I made last time:

I can't wait.  Working with Pam is always fun, well organised and so instructive.  I haven't made anything artsy in quite awhile so I am excited to begin.

While I am gone my etsy shops will be closed and will reopen Aug 27th or 28th. 

Small Studio Workshop Series

SMALL STUDIO WORKSHOP SERIES: I have a friend who celebrates her birthday all month.  I love that idea and being one who likes to go one step further I decided to celebrate my birthday all year this year. It happens to be not only one of those landmark birthdays for me but also marks our 5 year wedding anniversary. What do I want for my birthday, you ask? What do we want to do to celebrate our anniversary?  We talked it over and decided that we want to learn stuff.  We started with learning how to solder (Kathy Herda, thank you again) this month. Then we decided we want to take classes from as many of my favorite instructors as possible: Pam Sussman, Michael deMeng, Teesha and Tracy Moore, Ingrid Dijkers, Linda and Opie O'Brien, Keith Lobue and Lynne Perrella.  So I invited them over to play. Good News!  They all said yes! Better News! You get to come too!  Each month from May to November we will be hosting one of the instructors, or two as in the case of Teesha and Tracy.  For three days each month we can learn and play from one of these greats.  Come join us.  Read through the workshop descriptions. Pick the ones you want. Fill out the registration form and mail it.  Then sit back and gather your supplies and anticipate the fun. We are really looking forward to not only taking the workshops but also sitting next to you in class.

Here is the link to get to the workshops.

Links to instructors websites are on the left column of this blog.

Logo designed by David Simon. David is a Cleveland Graphic artist who has illustrated a number of books, book jackets and numerous ad campaigns for large companies.  He taught at Creative Block and Art Continuum. David designed over 150 Stampers Anonymous stamps when I owned that company. He is an all around talented and great guy and I am proud to call him a friend.

Workshop Update Update!

This just in!  Teesha Moore and Tracy Moore will be teaching in July!  We have two rooms, so Tracy will be teaching in one and Teesha in the other.  What fun.  They do not teach as often as most instructors so this is a rare opportunity.

Linda and Opie O'Brien have added their names to our 2010 workshop series.  They will be teaching in September. John and I are looking forward to playing with tin with them.  We hope you join us.

Here are the dates of our complete roster of incredible instructors.  I am so excited!  I hope you are too.

May 14-16     Pam Sussman

June 11-13    Michael deMeng

July 16-18    Teesha Moore

July 16-18     Tracy Moore

Aug 27-29     Ingrid Dijkers

Sept 10-12    Linda & Opie O'Brien

Oct 18-18     Keith Lobue

Nov 5-7        Lynne Perrella

Full details and sign up info in January here and on our Small Studio website.