In the Art Room: Tennessee Arts Academy

Can you believe this gorgeous ceramic pieces? It was created during a class taught by Denise Ertler who is the professional development coordinator for Mayco, my fave glaze company. You can find tons of amazing ceramic lessons here.

 Every summer I'm super lucky in that I get to help out at Tennessee Arts Academy (they call me a "facilitator" because pain-in-the-a## was taken). If you've been hanging with me on this here blog since last summer (for which I thank you and I gotta ask, WHAT'S WRONG WITH YOU?!), you might recall this post in which I gushed over the Academy. Well, this post will involve a whole lot more rambling and a peek inside the creation of these marvelous pieces. None of which were created by me except for that just-started piece at the bottom of this post. I have this weird thing where I can't seem to get anything done when I attend the Academy. And by "weird thing" I mean an inability to shut up when I'm around other art teachers. I just love chatting with like-minded weirdos! Part of the reason I spend so much time talking to myself. But whateves, let's talk about the amazing Denise Ertler and her ceramic lessons.

So Mayco makes these things called ceramic canvases which is a bisque fired canvas-esque surface for you to go crazy on. During Denise's lesson, she taught the participants how to glaze a scene onto the surface with Stroke and Coat (not the best name but, seriously, The Best Glaze Ever). Once the painting was complete, the participants sculpted lil whatevers out of low-fire clay. These were then placed onto the ceramic surface and left to dry. Once fired (a low fire of cone 06), the hand built pieces adhere to the canvas and look like the image at the top of the post. Nutz, right? I love it. Even if you couldn't afford the canvas, I'm thinking this same concept could be done on a slab of clay, don't you think?

Mayco also makes these bisque dinner plates. Which makes me totally wanna make my own dinner plates partly because that'd be awesome and the other partly because my paper plates do not wash easily. They make the biggest mess in the dishwasher eve-rrr.

 I really love this project. The above piece is unfired but I thought I'd share it with you so I could better explain the process. The surface was glazed with two coats of brown underglaze. A stencil was then created with fuzzy string, twine, whatever you got on hand. Once the underglaze dried, Stroke and Coat was added in any variety of colors, painting right over the string. Once dry, the string was removed, the piece was covered in clear glaze and fired. I love the layers of color you can see in the finished glazed piece.

Here's another one of those clay canvas thingies. I like the square format of this one, don't you? This was created with a pen called Designer Liner and all I gotta say about this pen is WHERE WERE YOU WHEN I WAS ATTEMPTING THIS, huh?! ANYway, this was done directly on the canvas, color was added and then a coupla coats of clear glaze finished it off.

Do all ya'll art teachers know Peggy Flores? I know I just heard a resounding "YES!" because if you said, "no...?" then you have either been living under a rock (which sounds mighty cramped but I hear the temperatures are nice) or you just didn't know you know Peggy Flores. What in the world am I talking about? (geez, how many times in a day do I get asked that question!) Well, she's the lady behind the art instruction videos created by Crystal Productions. I have this metal tooling video in my collection and love it!

Another one of her lessons is the folded paper project. I wasn't in Peggy's class so I don't know the details of the project but I love the three-dimensional aspect of the piece. It adds a whole new layer to a collage project.

I know Peggy offers a paper mola video. Again, I didn't take this class, so I don't know the details but you better bet my kids will be making one of these when we "travel" to South America.

David Christiana was our awesome instructor for a two-day illustration type class. If you aren't familiar with David's work, go here and be prepared to be amazed. His work is stunning and he was just the nicest guy to have as an instructor. Now the above may look like your typical grid project but what made it different was the fact that it was a lesson on value and mark making. Each pieces was made on clayboard (have you ever worked on this stuff? It's got a smooth as silk surface on masonite) and created with a combination of pen and ink, pencil and charcoal.

The other project created in his class (which my camera ran outta juice before I could snap photos of) was one he titled Castle-ness. I loved this project (even though I failed to produce anything because of my aforementioned blabber-mouth-itus). He had us all brainstorm words that we felt described castles. So we said things like your typical stuff like stone, massive, drawbridge, etc. Then we dug deeper and came up with fortress, safety, power, greed, your mama (not really, just seeing if you were paying attention). After that brainstormin session, we were to come up with a brief description of either ourselves or someone close to us. With those two groups of words in mind, we came up with a drawing called Castle-ness: A castle idea but much more. I think I can use the brainstorming ideas with my wee ones.

I learned so much from Nicole Briscoe about inspiring creativity in young artists. Nicole teaches high school artists but many of the ideas that she shared I could easily see bringing to my elementary art room. The above is a display of projects from both Peggy's class and Nicole's. Oh! And you can also see some of the pen and ink Castle-ness drawings from David's class.

 Here's what I loved about Nicole's class: the drawing prompts. She have us giant sheets of lovely thick paper (I dunno, thick ole drawing paper, maybe? You know, the stuff that's not in my wee elementary budget) and, seriously, 25 prompts. Things like: a contour drawing; write a letter to yourself in 50 years; write your 5 core beliefs; draw a self-portrait; draw a tool (I drew my lipstick because I am a tool); do a value study; draw patterns; movement, etc. You can find a ton of her prompts and other great ideas for inspiring creativity in your art room here.

 So, now dontcha wish youda gone to Tennessee Arts Academy? Anyone can go, not just Tennesseans. All you gotta do is apply (like, in October, it fills up fast). Get your school to chip in on some of the cost and rack up the professional development hours -- 36 hours to be exact. AND, if you go, I'll show you my totally rad food processing blade scar. I KNOW, RIGHT?! Now you GOTTA go. Okay, I'll stop shouting. 

Hope your week's a great one! I hope to be back soon with a freshly finished DIY. Later!

What the Art Teacher Wore #70

blouse and bangles: vintage, thrifted; skirt and belt: Pin Up Girl Clothing; shoes: Sofft

Like, wow. It's been seriously forever since I last blogged but you gotta know, it's not my fault. I place the blame on my maw and bro for their week-long visit which was immediately followed by a week-long professional development (the Tennessee Arts Academy, aka, The Best Professional Development for the Arts ever. More on that soonish). I know, I've got lots of excuses (always, it's just who I am. When I'm not whining about something, I'm usually excuse-a-micating. I'd stop but I just can't shake my excuse-itus) but Ima gonna try my hardest to get my bloggin' schedule back on track (oh, who am I kidding, this bloggin' train done derailed ages ago).

So I thought I'd share with you what my mom, brother and I did on their visit to Nashville. It's a rare occasion I get to see my baby bro (he's 10 years my junior) because he lives and teaches on a Navajo reservation in Many Farms, Arizona. After a visit home (to Indiana, we're Hoosier/Pickle-Lovers, remember?!), he and mom drove down here to ole Tennessee for a spell. We had an awesome time playing tacky tourist with entirely too many selfies and sweet tea. 

On our first morning, we walked at Radnor Lake before the heat set in. If you're not familiar with Radnor, it's a super popular place to day hike because the trails are short and deer watching is amazing. In fact, the deer are so used to the people that as mom and I were chatting and walking down a trail, I turned my head away from her and found myself face-to-face with a grass-chomping deer. She just snorted and walked off. The deer, not my mother. Although that does sound like something she would do.

Don't you love those sweet little spots?

My brother wanted to check out the Parthenon which is in Nashville's Centennial Park. The Nashville version of the Parthenon was built in 1897 as apart of the Tennessee Centennial Exposition which was this big ole party celebrating the 100th year of Tennessee joining the Union. Our version of the Parthenon is an exact replica AND, as we like to tell fancy Europeans, it's way better because it's newer and not as crumbly.

Aw, a sibling moment that was quickly followed by, "okay, picture's over, stop touching me!"

Sigh. So, okay, in the 1990's it was decided that Alan LeQuire, a famous Nashville figurative sculpture artist, would create an exact replica of the Athena that was in the original, now crumbly, Parthenon. And she was lovely. Imagine this exact state but all white. It was absolutely breathtaking when you would enter the Parthenon. Because the funding ran out, the statue was left in an all-white state for many years. Apparently the original statue was painted like...this. So when the Parthenon was granted the funding a couple years ago, Athena was gilded in gold and painted up like a lady of the night. I'm sorry. I just don't like it. It looks like a Jean Paul Gaultier meets Liberace.

Mom and I attempting to get pretty on the Shelby Street Walking Bridge.

The walking bridge is several years old and I've never taken the time to walk across it. You can see the best views of downtown Nashville and Broadway from there.

This boy is a constant photo bomber!

dress: vintage, thrifted, and dyed by me here; shoes and shades: Target, old; hair flower: made by me, just a little fake floral glued to a clip

dress: Anthro, couple years ago; shoes: Poetic License; belt: Pin Up Girl Clothing

Our local art museum, The Frist Center for Visual Arts, is currently exhibiting one of the most incredible exhibits of cars. Look, I'm not even a car person and this was easily one of my favorite exhibits ever. These cars were all from the 1920's - 30's and each a magnificent work of art. Several were one of a kind and one was even for sale for a cool 2 million. I was amazed to hear that each car was in working order and were driven into the museum.

Mom and me in a gas cap.

Isn't it amazing how something sitting so still can look like it's zooming so fast?

On the last day of their visit, we went to Rippavilla Plantation in Spring Hill, Tennessee. The story goes that the home was built by Nathaniel Frances Cheairs IV. But the story begins way before that when Nathaniel began courting Miss Susan Peters McKissack. Apparently, when Nate decided he wanted to marry Susan, his father tried to convince him otherwise. Not because he didn't like Susan, he just didn't like her name. That's right, apparently, all the Nathaniels in the family had always married Sarahs and ole pops wanted Nate to keep up the tradition. He even tried bribing him to seek out another bride. Can you imagine that in the Singles Column: "SWM seeking SWF, must have most of your teeth, a big hoop skirt, plenty of bonnets AND be named Sarah. With an "h"." Nate decided his pops was crazy, married Susan, had four kids and built a big ole plantation. Take that, Nate, Sr.

The real reason we wanted to go was because the plantation was hosting a big ole vintage event on the grounds of the estate. I managed to scoop up some bangles that I think will go perfectly with that doggone Butterick dress that's STILL on my sewing table. My goal is to finish her off this coming week. Which was also my goal last week...AND the week before that.

So much vintage awesomeness. With the exception of that tractor pillow. Like, ew.

I promise the matching straw hat was totally unintentional! dress: Urban Outfitters picked up a Plato's Closet; hat: Florida

What the Art Teacher Wore #69

On the Fourth: When I heard Anthropologie was having their 20%-Off-Everything-Still-Overpriced-But-We-Call-It-a-Sale-to-Soften-the-Blow Sale, I knew I had to get over there and see if they had this dress in my size. And they did! AND I managed to use a gift card, making the dress, like, free-ish. I mean, they practically paid me to take it. So I was actually doin' them a favor. Because I'm a giver. belt: Pin Up Girl Clothing; shoes: DIY here

 Hiya, kids. I don't know if you missed me or not (the correct answer here is: YES! We did! We've been worried sick, crying every night, checking your blog religiously, where have you been young lady?!) but I've been on a little bit of a laz-cation. We didn't make plans for the holiday weekend and then it rained for five days straight during which we started building an ark and then remembered we had kayaks and then remembered we'd never get all those stinkin' animals in our kayaks so we had some ice cream and took a nap. Seriously. That was our fourth of July. Oh! And we bought cat food. Because, in all seriousness, if we could only save one kind of animal, it'd have to be kitties. And camels because they spit at people and I think that's hilarious. Mostly because I often have the same urge.

So this super sweet vintage fabric has been in my stash for ages. I love it so much that every now and then, I just take it out and look at it adoringly. I finally came upon what I think is the perfect dress pattern for this fabric and I'm excited to share it with you as soon as the beast is complete. Because, in a moment of insanity, I decided to use another Butterick pattern. Keep me in your thoughts, would ya?

 So, yeah, the holiday weekend was pretty lax. We actually didn't even venture out to see fireworks, mostly because it was raining and the other mostly because we are Firework Connoisseurs. Some people might even refer to us as snobs but I say, "Until you've watched your husband spend $280 in an Alabama Fireworks/Flea Market/Grocery Store type place and then watched him set them off at a local elementary school but only after using them to blow up the gingerbread houses your family lovingly crafted, you don't know the Power of Fireworks." Which is probably why no one talks to me because I have a tendency to go off on random rants. AND because I spit at people. But only when annoyed.

Rainy Day Estate Salin': Turns out the day after the fourth of July isn't the best day to go estate salin'. Even still, my buddies and I managed to score a coupla goodies. On the cheap too as my bartering skillz are jammin'. Mostly cuz the folks running the estate sales will do just about anything to get rid of me. dress: vintage, thrifted; belt: LOST! I busted out of the thing getting in and out of the car and, sadly, lost my wee bow belt, sigh; sweater: Betsy Johnson, Buffalo Exchange; boots: Hunter

 I did manage to venture out to a couple of estate sales this week so I thought I'd share my scores with you. Which is what the "When I Scored" part of the post title is all about. Lest you think I was referring to something else. You naughty reader.

Lefty pinking shears, a super old button holer AND that wee container of hem marking powder. Which I convinced the estate sale dude to give me for free because, "Look at it, it's gross. You'll just end up throwing it away, so it's like I'm taking the trash out for you!" (See, this is why they hate me).

There's still white powder in it. Which could be vintage cocaine because that woulda been the ultimate place to hide one's coke, dontcha think?! I can just imagine the scene now: "Why, what do we have here, Betty?!" // "Oh, you silly husband! It's my hem marking powder aka How-Do-You-Think-I-Manage-to-Keep-the-House-so-Clean-Make-Three-Square-Meals-AND-Put-Up-with-You-with-a-Smile-on-my-Face powder. Whichever you'd prefer to call it, dear."

Let's Go Barbecuin': A buddy of ours had us over for a cookout which was a lot of fun. I have this bad habit of getting stuck in homebody/sewing room mode and I sometimes have to be forced to leave the house. This was one of those times and it was totally worth changing out of my 3pm-in-the-afternoon pajamas for. dress: vintage; sandals: Target, old

At one sale, I scored two large vintage scrapbooks for a dollar each. On the first page of this scrapbook, there were tons of these sweet get-well cards.

Complete with hand-written notes! I love letters, especially vintage ones. Their handwriting and choice of wording is always so elegant to me.

The other scrapbook was a total trip. It was completely full of page after page of wedding and shower announcements, invitations, and newspaper clippings. It had the Always-the-Bridesmaid-Never-the-Bride feel to it.

Most of the announcements were from the 1940s with many grooms in their military garb. It was like a book full of Baby Boomin' Baby Mamas and Papas.

Some pages of the book were simply cutouts from magazines...like a bridal pinterest board from the 1950's, dontcha think?

 And that's all I've got to show for myself from this past week. And I'm not promising much more this week as my baby bro (he's 10 years my junior) and maw are coming in for a visit. Again, be thinking of me, would ya? I have no idea what we'll be up to, but I'll be certain to pop back in and say hello. I'd hate for you to get all worried about me again, geesh.

Hope your week is grand!

DIY: A 1960s Diner Dress or Why I Think Butterick 5708 is the Devil

 I'm just gonna go out on a limb here and say that if there ever was a contest titled "Best Waitress Outfit for Trashy 1960s Roadside Diner", I'm sorry, but I would totally win. Like, don't even bother submittin' your entries cuz just look at this thing. It's like Bob Evans and Kentucky Fried Chicken got together and had a 1960s love child that actually turned out not to be a child at all but a dress (which is weird, I know, but that's just the kind of scientific anomaly this dress is. Seriously.)

 Where was I again? Oh yes, First Place Winner. Thank you very much.

 Ermkay, so hubs says I can't wear this dress to school because one of the bottles says "Hot as Hell" on it. I say nonsense. Learning that hell is one hot place just might improve the discipline in my art room, doncha think? You might remember me showing off this fabric here, along with my other Michael Miller retro barbeque themed fabric. 

I decided to pair the fabric with mustard yellow and red gingham. Because it just says Class, don't you think? That red gingham gives me flashbacks to my short-lived-because-I-was-super-sucky days as a waitress at Pizza Hut. Dude, not a single shift would go by when I didn't forget to put in someone's pizza order (I think I was secretly trying to do them a favor, but did they see it as such? Nooooo. Some people are just so ungrateful). Next thing you know, it's an hour later, their kids are screaming and they are barking at me all "Where's our pizza?!" and I'm all "It'll be right out!" as I stick my hand in my apron pocket to find the order ticket I forget to turn in. I convinced whoever was on shift with me that I was sick and needed to spend approximately 20 minutes in the bathroom and could they take care of table 23 for me, please?! Needless to say, I was the only waitress to ever get tipped...in pennies.

All the different ways you can wear the bodice of Butterick 5708. 

You wanna know what sucks more than my waitressing skills? Butterick 5708. That's what. 

Look, I don't know who Mrs. Butterick is but I can tell you this, she's one ambiguous b-- oh crap, are there under 12-ers reading? Fine: butthead. Granted, I'm still a very green sewer so I'm used to my sweet Simplicity patterns holding my hand, telling me which direction to iron my seams, how to understitch, making sure I brush my teeth before bed. Meanwhile, ole Butterick is all, "Oh, you know. Just make the bodice...if you can."

I think I'll stick to wearing my dress either tied at the shoulders (top photo) or pulled over the shoulders and tied at the chest as seen on the left. I love the idea of wearing the dress one shouldered, but to do so you gotta tie the fabric under your arm which made me feel like I had a giant underarm tumor growth. Not a great feeling.

 Confession: When I sew, I have conversations with whatever I'm working on. Most of these convos take place in my head so it's all good and hubs doesn't know what a crazy person I am (yes he does). However, this time around, it got a little loud.

Since the dress wasn't enough craziness, I decided to create my own shoes to match.

  I was working away on this dress when I thought to myself, you know, this dress isn't so bad. I'll just finish off this bodice, add the gathered skirt and--

Butterick: Ahem. Gurl, you got a lot left to do. You better slow your roll.

Me: Um, excuse me? I don't know if I'm more confused by your talking or the fact that you just said "slow your roll". Who says that?

Butterick: Paris Hilton.

Me: What?! That doesn't even make sense! She says stuff like, "that's hawt" and "ohmygurd" and other pre-rehab nonsense. You are full of lies, Butterick!

Butterick: What. Ever.

...and these are types of conversations I have WITH A DRESS PATTERN.

And while you digest that bit of craziness, let's talk about how I made these shoes, shall we? I started with this rather dull pair of wedges I snagged on the cheap. Armed with some gingham, an Exacto knife and good ole Aleene, I followed my own DIY shoe tutorial here.

 I wasn't in love with just the raw fabric edge on the shoe so I decided to add some rickrack. Using a hot glue gun, I drew a super small bead of glue around the tip and bottom of the shoe before attaching the rickrack. That patent leather top of the shoe looked a little too Golden Girls Grandma to me so I decided to bedazzle it with some bows.

 Making these bows is a snap. After deciding on the height of the bow, I doubled that measurement and added 1/4" for the seam. After sewing it right sides together, I flipped the tube of fabric inside out (using one of those wire-tube-turning-thingies that make you want to kill yourself. Just use a safety pin and watch a youtube tutorial for the love of those around you). I trimmed the edges with a curve and folded them inward creating the desired width. I then sewed a seam down the middle where I placed the pin in the photo above.

 For the tie around the bow, I used a small folded piece of fabric. I pinned that in place behind the bow. Because I didn't want to do any hand sewing (ewwww, hand sewing, me no likey!), I switched to a zipper foot on my machine and stitched as close to the back of the bow as possible.

 And then your bow is finished! I decided to add shoe clips to the back of mine so I could take them on and off. That's what you see me  hand sewing in the photo on the left.

 Yay, shoes! I'm thinking they'll go pretty nicely with this dress too.

In the end, I finished the dress. Actually, I believe the last words I said were, "BUTTERICK, I WILL FINISH YOU." To which she replied, "Oh yeah? You mean how you "finished" ole Simplicity 3877?" with a head tilt toward the heap of half sewn dress mess on the floor. I was just about to spit out some ugly grown up words when I heard from the next room:

Hubs: Cass? Are you talking to me?

Me: Well, yeah. Who else would I be talking to -- a dress pattern?!

It turns out I was right. I did finish it. But it wasn't until I was tying my shoulder straps that I realized Butterick got the last laugh: 

I sewed a pin inside one of the ties.

That's right. Now I have a permanent pin-pokey reminder of ole Butterick and her devilish ways. Thankfully I have this super swanky Pizza Hut/KFC/Bob Evans dress to show for my efforts. Sweet.