Painting on Yupo or "Going with the flow"

I love watercolor. Coming from a stained glass background and working with hard pieces of glass, I find so much satisfaction painting with watercolors and watching the colors flow. Like glass, I love the intensity of the colors when painting on Yupo paper. Yupo paper is a synthetic water-resistant paper that is made from recycled polypropylene pellets. That means that when used with watercolor, your paint will dry only by evaporation and there will be no absorption by your paper (as would be with regular watercolor paper). Painting on Yupo you can get some of the most intense colors and there is sometimes a feeling that the paint is really in control. In the recent watercolor class at the studio, the students painted on Yupo. Check out the pictures of the students and their paintings in progress. Lots of fun!

Creativity with Glass

Tiffany stained glass is a type of stained glass assembly that uses an adhesive copper foil and tin and lead solder. This July the Tiffany stained glass class met twice a week for three weeks. The first class the students made a small hummingbird suncatcher and the second class began their larger project of their choice. When the projects are complete, I will post photos of their beautiful work. Here a peek at the class and their projects in progress.

Bead Class

Recently I taught a class on basic beading at the studio. I have always loved beads and their beautiful bright colors remind me of stained glass. One great advantage of working with beads is that you have something portable to take with you where ever you go. In the first class of basic beading the students learned some basic wirework and beading techniques and made some beautiful beaded necklaces and earrings. Pictured are some of the students modeling their creations. In the second class students learned to make a bracelet using a basic wirework technique and a bracelet using stretchy cord. The secret in using stretchy cord is to tie a good knot and use a dot of glue on the knotted cord. The last class in the series involves making a pendant using collage and stained glass techniques. First the students created a small collage using paint and images, then sandwiched their creation between two pieces of glass using lead free solder. The pendants are reversable with an image on both sides. Lots of fun to make and wear.....Robin

Industrial Street Bash

A Creative Art STUDIO had a booth at the Industrial Street Bash in Denton in early June. The weather was hot, Hot, HOT but the day was still enjoyable. I took a sampling of art to the Bash so that people could become familiar with some of the items at the studio. The music was great. Boxcar Bandits kicked off the celebration, but I was glad to get some air conditioning at the end of the day. My secret to survival on this hot day: a scarf filled with ice around my neck and lots of water!

Sculpting a Face Class

May 24, 2011: Linka Behn recently taught a class on sculpting a face with air-dry clay at the studio. If you are familiar with Linka's work you know that she often paints faces and is able to capture so much emotion and feeling in her work. In this class she taught the students to create faces with personality using air dry clay and simple clay tools. When completed the faces could be mounted on a pedestal or added to a work of art. Nice job guys. Those faces definitely had attitude!....Robin

Beautiful Stained Glass

Recently I did a commission job for a couple that lives in a log cabin near the Oklahoma Border. This stained glass was to be installed in a home bar that would be backlit and the design was to have a Native American flair. The stained glass took about three weeks to complete and is now in it's new home. I loved working on this window and found such joy each day looking at the beautiful colors.

Encaustic Monotype Workshop with Deanna Wood

In May, Deanna wood gave a workshop on Encaustic Monotypes. In this process you use the encaustic technique to create beautiful one of a kind prints. Encaustic has been around a long time. In fact, encaustic painting were used to depict Mummies in ancient Egypt. The process uses wax and pigment which can be used to paint images on surfaces or to embed images into layers of the colored wax. Lots of possibilities with this medium. Check out the pictures of the workshop!