One Last ADORN ME Post

Meet the artist night kicked off ADORN ME the first night. Diana Frey & Melissa Manley set up next to each other at this event & became fast friends. As you know Diana is my friend & mentor from California & I couldn't wait to hug her neck. And I was BLESSED to have Melissa as my roommate. When I signed up for this event I knew I would be driving down by myself & I did not have anyone to share a room with. I put up a message on the Yahoo Message Board that I was looking for a roomy. For over a month no one contacted me (most girls went with friends & had roommates already). Then one day I got an inquiry about sharing a room. I didn't know this person... she lived in North Carolina & she was an instructor. Enter Melissa Manley & a friendship that was almost like a sisterhood ensued. And I am sure it won't end here (also, I have a forever roomy for future events). We are both Gemini's & have so much in common. LOVE YA GIRLFRIEND! Here is Riki & Diane at Diane's table. Sorry for the grainy photos!!!!! The lighting STUNK in this hotel.

And sweet Rice I told you about(wish my computer would put those TWO dots over your name like it's supposed to grrrrrr). She & Earl were everywhere taking pictures & getting info for the new book. Notice her shirt... she dyes her own fabrics & does all the bead work (and there are thousands of beads hand sewn on this tunic) on all her clothes.

Tuesday after classes we all met in the lobby bar for a free Happy Hour provided by the hotel. That was an evening event so everyone could socialize & meet other artists.

Tuesday night I took a Resin Paper class from Deryn Mentock. It was a fascinating class & again, I feel very blessed because Deryn & I just sort of bonded & we have promised to keep up with each other & try to do a few things together since we live fairly close to each other. Deryn lives in the Houston area & teaches at many events all over the country. She is teaching in Salado, TX at an event called Shady Ladies in April. Click HERE to visit her website & get more details. Come on Texas girls let's support these art events here so we get MORE closer to home. Anyway, here is Deryn & some of the girls mixing resin.

After we had our resin mixed we sponged it onto our papers. Sorry about the glaring YELLOW plastic sheets laid everywhere but, RESIN IS MESSY & we had to protect our work areas & have a place for all of this to dry overnight. Below you can see Rice watching as some of the girls are working.

Here are my pieces drying. A big piece of sheet music, a blue & white piece of tissue paper (that when dry is transparent) as well as a napkin with a bird nest, egg & feather.

Here is a necklace that Deryn had as an example. The oak leaf is made of resin paper. And the acorns are actual acorn caps while the nut part is a bead that she used when making this wonderful piece. I loved the natural elements used!

The next few photos show the class example. The necklace used the resin paper in the flower as well as the leaves on the sides.

The flower part has a cone of resin paper wrapped inside the cone that sari silk is spun around. Deryn buys these & then puts the colorful kits together with sari silk & packages them up to become these beautiful floral centerpieces. I bought an extra so I would have another one to use in a different necklace.

I also wanted to share Deryn's AMAZING ART JOURNAL with you. She made this beauty for herself & it is a working artists journal. It is bound in a vintage book.

With an interesting technique for the spine. I love all the area this gives her to add wonderful trinkets & finds.

An inside page showing some resin papers that she had colored(with descriptions so she would remember what she had used to achieve those colors) & some design sketches Deryn had done! BEAUTIFUL JOB MY FRIEND!

Now, let's move to Vendor Night. Oh my goodness there were so many wonderful things to see & buy. The public showed up in droves! I will warn you the photos are not the greatest because the lighting in the ballroom was terrible. But, let's step in & see a few of the tables.

Here's my precious roommate Melissa. I told you she was into big time metal work. She is a teacher at a college in Wilmington, North Carolina. For vendor night she had made a tray (the long black piece in the center) of rings. Each one was so different & unusual. People loved them.

And below is her Ocean Talisman Necklace (she taught this class at ADORN ME). Inside the mesh was a couple of beautiful shells & attached to many of the ribbons there were shells also.

Next is Deryn Mentock standing next to her beautiful Santos. I loved the Santos & she really made a statement on Deryn's table. Sadly she only gets to accompany Deryn to events held in Texas because she is so difficult to transport.

Another shot of Deryn's table shows her fabulous VINTAGE velvet jewelry box full of some of her treasures she stocked for Vendor Night.

And her is sweet Diane at her table full of goodies. Love the old travel case Diane! This gal has a knack for displaying!

And here is a shot of Diana's table before the masses came in & scooped up her wares. And I do mean masses. When the doors opened her students RUSHED to buy the pieces they had coveted during class. Diana left with very little to pack (but I did notice she just listed a few of the remaining piece on her Etsy Shop so rush over HERE to scoop one up or just see some better closeups).

A shot of Riki's lovely table & all her goodies. That beautiful silver candelabra was a prop Diane brought from her favorite Antique Store in Katy, TX. It was a perfect piece for Riki's necklaces to hang off of.

Here we are LATE in the evening. The hot lights had curled Deryn & my bangs, the lights were glaring off Diana & my glasses but, it had been a busy night with lots of sales & these girls were happy!

OK, I warned you the lights were horrible & Photoshop can only fix so much girls. SORRY! This is the end of the ADORN ME photos. I wanted you to feel like you got to see my classes & teachers as well as meet some new friends. Please click on each person's name & go visit their blogs. You will see some interesting things & meet some amazing artists. Please tell them Charlene sent you to see them. Now I am back to trying to catch up after being gone for a week. WOW those invoices sure can pile up on a girls desk while she is away having fun. Have a wonderful week. HUGS!

Twisted Sistah Class with Diana Frey

Day two at ADORN ME was a class called TWISTED SISTAH by my friend & mentor Diana Frey. I was so excited to be back in Diana's class & had the honor of helping her. Diana had emailed me weeks before the event & asked it I would help her set up her class & also help her at Vendor Night. I was so pleased that she asked. I will share the beautiful gift she brought me later in another post but, let's move on to class. I think you can tell why she named this beauty such a name. This was out class example.

And here is the sweet & talented Diana teaching us her wonder. She laughs when I tell everyone that a class with her is like be exposed to CRACK! One class is never enough! At the end of class EVERYONE agreed with me. Diana just blushed but, it's true.

Below, is one of the pieces (examples)that Diana shared with the class. I ALMOST bought this wonderful treasure. I just loved the unusual chain she used & all the unique elements in this necklace. Another one of my lucky classmates bought this at Vendor Night. But, I had already decided I would make one myself. After all... I took the class. That's good reasoning. RIGHT? Then why do I regret not buying this necklace EVERY time I see it?

See the vintage coins & the little silver French religious figure. And a wonderful vintage button along with a soldered charm & a silver charm orf the Eiffel Tower to add to the French flair. As well as the beautiful & highly decorative items there were few surf polished stones Diana had picked up on the beach somewhere.

Another example was this eye catching example done in all sorts of green. The charm on here was a bubble charm done by Sally Jean Alexander. Diana has been to Sally Jeans studio to study in the past & she really loved this charm & necklace. It had a cute saying about ART on it but, I am sorry to say I can't remember what it said. Diana could not decide if she could part with it or not but, in the end another classmate Karen Art (from Canada) talked her into selling saying "It has my name on it" Good for you Karen.

This next piece had less twisted & more stones. Done in a soft lemon sherbet mix of colors.

Well, those are Diana's & below is a shot of the "BEAD SOUP" for my necklace. I have seen a pattern of neutral colors in my work lately. You know those "safe/goes with everything" sort of colors. Before going to this event I chose to take a lot of colors to work with. I wanted to challenge myself to get out of my "Comfort Zone" of neutral & use COLOR! I chose green because I loved the touch of green & brown I saw in Diana's bird in the bezel she did. To start the project you choose the image for your bezel & then you start piling beads & trinkets together. I really didn't have any trinkets so most of my elements were beads & pearls. Sorry for the glare on this photo. I thought I had touched up all the photos but, I can see by the glare of the flash (it was hard to get good lighting in those class rooms) & WAY too much bead mat I missed this one.

One thing I had brought (not knowing I would use it for this) was a brass flower. Most of the other girls used a patina & made their wire dark. I used a little but, I really liked the beautiful colors of the wire after I had torched it. So, when I saw the brass flower I thought "that works with this" & I added a beautiful peach colored prism inside the flower. Much to my surprise it has a beautiful bell like sound when there is any movement to the piece. Below, is a close up of my little bird (that started out black & white) that I colored with water color pencils before filling it with resin.

As you can see I am not quiet half way through with my necklace. I still have a long way to go. Do you like the long shell on the right(see bleow)? I think it looks like a bird feather don't you? Of course after I get all of the beading done I will need to find just the right chain or ribbon or?????? to finish this up. I CAN'T WAIT TO WEAR THIS!

I would like to share a few of the other girls work. Remember I told you that it is not uncommon to finish a class like this & have to complete your piece at home? I think there were 19 or 20 gals in this class & only one completely finished her piece.

Sweet Carol ALMOST had hers done. But, she wanted to add a few more things she knew she had at home but, you can see in the photo below that she is close to having it ready.

And Karen Art from Canada decided to not use her bezel for this piece (she used it for a piece she did in Diana's Thursday class) so she used a wonderful vintage piece of BLING as her focal point. GOOD JOB GIRLS! A DIVINE class Ms Diana. THANK YOU for sharing your wonder !!!!!

That's it for today. I have one more finished TWISTED SISTA that is to die for but, I'm saving it to show you for PINK Saturday. Bet ya can't guess what color it is. Hee Hee. I'll be back in a few days to share the other class & what I learned from the marvelous Deyn Mentock. Thank you Linda for putting together such a great event. Are you guys already starting to plan for next year so you can join us? Linda was already starting to plan the next event. Have a wonderful rest of the week.

Crystal Princess Class by Diane Cook ADORN ME March 2, 2010

Take My Hand... that is what her card says. And take your hand is literally what teacher Diane Cook does. I am so honored to call this sweet gal my friend as well as my teacher. Diane is taught my first class at the ADORN ME ART EVENT in Houston, Texas & what a great start for my line up of classes. Below is my finished piece which actually is a take off of Crystal Dreams which was the class Diane taught Sunday (I had gone home on Saturday). My piece(you can see a full view of it later in this post) is laid next to the card that came in our hand out kit from Diane. Being the Queen of Bling that I am, this class appealed to me on first site. When you walked into the classroom the first thing you saw was this beautiful vintage mannequin covered in beautiful Crystal necklaces of all shapes & sizes(you can click on any of my photos to enlarge them).

And another view of some of Diane's work displayed on the counter. Notice the necklace she has laid on the vintage cigar box is similar to her piece that was featured in Belle Amoire Magazine.

And this photo shows some of the "LOOT" that Diane brought in for us to purchase for our necklace if we so chose to "shop" her treasure trove! Did I????? OH YEAH!!!!!! We won't be tellin "Honey" about that check. The vintage rhinestone piece in my necklace above came from here. THANK YOU Diane for bringing all of this to share!

This is a shot of her "Mani" dressed in both the Crystal Princess & Crystal Dreams necklace.

The Crystal princess is the shorter necklace & Crystal Dreams is the long but, more simple (simple meaning not as many piece's in the necklace not meaning not drop dead gorgeous) piece. Can you see the two different ones? Or do they look like one necklace to you?

A close up of Crystal Princess.

And two examples of different Crystal Dreams.

Close ups of above.

And here is sweet Diane just telling us all about it.

And the class in close attention to her using the bench block with her rubber hammer.

A little different look of my finished Crystal Dreams.

And below is the beginnings of my Crystal Princess necklace. I decided I needed longer head pins to connect these jewels to my chain. I learned to make my own head pins in another class so that is a perfect reason for me to stop right here & have this to work on here at home. I am a very goal orientated person & I hate it when I don't finish a piece in a class that I take. To NOT finish a piece in a class like this is the NORMAL thing. Usually students go to learn technique & then finish the project (yes, you are supposed to finish) at home. So the fact that I had a piece finished & I got to wear it at the Event & show it to you finished made me a HAPPY CAMPER!

Now, a little bit about the Event... This was an all jewelry event put on by Linda & Chuck who also do Art Unraveled. This was the first time for this event & they brought in big name teachers & top artists. This is the first large event like this that I had ever attended so I did not know what to expect. WOW is all I can say. Start saving you $$$$$$$$$$$ & vacation time for next year if you are a jewelry kind of girl. Go to the button on my side bar & see the big names that were in attendance here. I did learn that although I find the work of people like Thomas Mann, Keith Lo Bue, Richard Sally, Melissa Manley (the most amazing ROOMIE around) & others that do METAL WORK amazing... it is not for me. I have very double jointed fingers. Twisting & working that heavier metal is NOT something I CAN do. So, I can enjoy it from a far & do my more feminine girlie designs that I tend to LOVE best anyway. Stay tuned because I will be sharing other classes & things from the event in the post's to come. Thanks for joining me for your personal trip to ADORN ME. HUGS!