This is an in person class in Bakersville, NC (You will be notified of the exact location when you sign up).

The date of this class will be:

Saturday, September 28. 11-5.

This class is going to combine black walnut ink making, handmade paper making, and earth pigment watercolor paint making all together in one day. We will make all of these things together, using some swap outs for the things that take multiple days (black walnut ink and handmade paper making), and then we will have plenty of time to play with all of these beautiful creative crafts in combination with each other.

This is a rough outline of our itinerary.

11: Introductions.

11:30 Start making black walnut ink. We will have the black walnuts, but will go over and say hi to the tree as well and gather some.

12: The water is heated up and the walnuts are in and they are simmering.

1: I’ll have a pot that needs to be boiled down and we’ll get that on as well.

1:30 We will start with the paper making process and talk about that.

1:45 We will make our own mould and deckles and we’ll start making some paper and have it all piled up and squished.  Set it aside.

2: We will talk about and experiment with unsized paper and sized paper and we’ll talk about sizing and maybe do it a little bit.

Lunch

3: We’ll talk about and experiment with making earth pigment watercolor paint. I will demonstrate the levigation process and share my process of using a muller. We will also talk about the process of creating a friction surface on the glass plate. I will demonstrate this. It is like “sanding” the surface of the glass.

We’ll make some paint and put it in our little cubes.

We will then paint with it and we will play with the black walnut ink as well and we’ll just have some time to play.

4 I’ll talk about how I use sizing on fabric for my paintings and I will have some fabric to play on. We’ll play around with this as well and I will have some fabric that is stretched over some wood sheets.

We will finish with some show and tell.

Creativity is something we all need in our lives. We need to feel inspired and we need to find our voice as a creative being. This is part of connecting with our spirituality. I have heard people tell me that they feel a sense of grief because they haven’t been creative in a long time or they feel a block around their creativity. I know this feeling well and I felt this way for a long time. The reason for this is because we need creativity in our lives for our overall well being. I think often about how every culture in all of history had creative craft making as a central part of their culture. It is in our biology as human beings to make things with our hands and be creative. I hope this class inspires that, removes blocks, gets people being creative again and gives people the permission they need to reclaim that part of their lives. It’s important.

Material list:

Mortar and pestle

Watercolor brushes, any kind will do.

Empty pans for watercolor 4-7

Window screening

Two matching frames

Weather strip tape

Hardware cloth

Duct tape

Watercolor paper or a watercolor sketchbook

Empty mason jar

Notebook and pen/pencil.

lunch

*please ask about scolarships if this class is cost prohibitive for you*