Artfest-day three of classes + Show & Tell

Day three dawned with a deer nibbling at a tree outside our window... relaxed but focused. Kinda like the pace of this day's class.

Things went a lot easier for me on day three, in LK Ludwig's "Open the Doors" journal-making class. And yes, it was partly because I remembered to take notes! Plus this is what, the third class I've taken with her? I think her techniques are so marvelously inventive.

First time with the stencils -- and boy, were there some cool ones.

LK and a few others in class had some of MaryBeth Shaw's stencils: a river rock pattern in the blue pages, a webby pattern in the photo above, bare trees... very cool stuff, as well as the more ordinary ones found at any craft store.

We scraped and smooshed paint (that's my buddy Maya McCauley here)...

 ... sprayed pages, and eventually bound them with waxed linen thread and twill tape.

Barely got mine done, but it did get done so I could run and meet Tally for dinner in Port Townsend. We had a few moments to take a couple pics with Catherine, Grace in her kitten-ear hat, and Ricë in her cat-head recycled-plastic hat.

Then we headed off to a quick dinner at Sirens, and rushed back to put some of our artwork out for Show & Tell. The rushing part: bad idea. I got pulled over for speeding. The officer gently reminded me that there are "a grand total of two streets in Port Townsend that have a speed limit over 25 miles per hour." He also pointed out that most of them have no street lights, which could lead to me hitting...

No, I didn't hit a deer. Because I drove at fifteen miles per hour after that traffic stop.

We made it back just fine, and I put down my card next to my (mostly) finished journal.

 So many fabulous pieces, but I'm running out of time and your attention span, so I'll leave you with Tally's girly peacock fish (a Traci Bautista class)...

 ... and some others I really like. (Michael de Meng's classes -- what can I say? I'm a fan girl.)

Sigh... not enough hours in the day, or days in Artfest, to take all the classes.

Artfest-day two of classes + Vendor Night

Apparently the art region of my brain requires a sacrifice each time I go to an art retreat. Day two of Artfest threw itself onto the altar screaming.

Things started off well in "Palette-ability"... Stephanie Lee was relaxed and funny as she worked the paint scraper, gift cards and palette knives. And she thoroughly approved of my rock-star-remedy for early morning sunshine in the eyes.

But I didn't take notes... and the frustration mounted as I began to forget earlier steps in the demo... plus other stuff my head that wouldn't go away even after lunch break... Well, the point is, I didn't make anything in this class. I explained what was going on to Stephanie, and she graciously busied herself elsewhere as I packed up and left.

Others managed quite well, though...check these out. I think these ones were done by Melody Ross.

After a nap and dinner, things brightened up a bit: Vendor Night!

I'd hoped to find a necklace that combined ribbon and metal: some of our fellow Artfesters make amazing works of art in this vein. And Liesel Lund had just such a necklace!

Besides ribbon, she also incorporated green sea glass, a vintage button, and a little sun charm. (You can see it up close on Liesel's homepage.) I scooped it up the moment I saw it, much to the displeasure of Norma Hoeppner (she's the blonde on the left).

Hey, Norma was already trying on a pink and blue necklace which looked great on her! Nevertheless, she and Nancy Orlikow gave me crap about how Norma would never recover from the loss. Eh... both of them are therapists. They can help each other work through it, right? Right. Glad you agree with me.

Artfest-art throwdown, evening one

As much fun as it is to hang out after class at Artfest, you do find yourself looking for something to do after dinner. This year there were two choices: the bonfire party and the "Iron Artist" competition.

The name is a take-off on "Iron Chef," and the artists have a short amount of time to create something out of mystery items. Kind of like the short-lived "Craft Corner Deathmatch"...

CRAFT CORNER DEATHMATCH (Style) from Idiot Box on Vimeo.
... but this time featuring the Artfest instructors working like mad.

Here's Michael deMeng twisting strips of masking tape around some sort of cord...

... next to him Stephanie Lee, sweating as she furiously wraps her own cord with plaster-cast strips...

Theo Ellsworth, shielding his eyes from the ideas shooting out of his pen...

... my old roomie (!) Liesel Lund slapping Yes! adhesive onto paper scraps on an old record.

Can I just tell you how hard it was to catch the brush in the Yes! pot? She was moving that fast. And Ricë and Earl wandering throughout it all, documenting the throwdown for their project.

Sorry I never found out if there was an official winner (um, there was wine and cheese distracting me), but I did remember to get a shot of a couple finished projects. Guess whose they were.

Right! Michael deMeng with the serpent, Stephanie Lee's bunny head (I have no idea if the skeletal heads really were rabbit skulls) and Liesel's embellished record. I think. Again: wine... cheese...

We managed to make it down to the beach for the bonfire, but we stayed in the warm embrace of the journaling cottage, where we saw Alexandra Castro Ferreira (who flew here from Lisbon, Portugal)...

and amazing Grace Witherell deep in thought. Not being capable of the focused thought it takes to journal, I spent my time mocking Tally (she's talking to the video guy from the band that played opening night)...

 ... with lewd gestures from the comfort of my chair on the other side of the room. Ricë, Janine and our new friend Adeola filled in whenever I ran out of jokes.

Earl caught me mid-gesture once, but he went back to work to clear his head. Poor thing. Takes a strong man with a good sense of humor to put up with that much concentrated estrogen.