Back in the Saddle...

If it seemed as though we had dropped off of the face of the earth, perhaps it is because we sort of did. We had a marvelous color class with Lindly Haunani, followed by an adventure in eating to Savannah with her. The day after she went home, I checked into Northside Hospital for some back surgery. Well, the new improved, hardly gimpy at all, Sue is back, after only two and half weeks. We are back in the studio and working more hours each day. I will admit to getting tired, but I’m trying to be here for your needs. Obviously, it is wise to call before driving any distance to see us to make sure we are indeed in.

That being said, we have a bunch of new products out for sale. Primary Elements pigment sets, Silks Acrylic translucent glazes and Pure Mica Minerals with separate ColourArte Medium to mix with the pigments. Ellen has started experimenting with these products and I think you will be excited by the results. We also have seven or eight sets of PanPastels to choose from.

If you haven’t been in to see the retrospective collection in a while, you need to schedule a visit. We have quite a few new pieces. In addition to adding one of her fabulous “shards” necklaces to the collection, Libby Mills brought us a few pieces of Judy Dunn’s work, and a wonderful fish by Dawn Stubitsch that she won at a retreat auction. Mari O’Dell donated an Japanese themed “billet-doux”. Lindly made us two mounted Quilt Squares, a pin from her Sagacious Shale series and an incredible translucent petal necklace.

Cynthia Tinapple is coming next week to teach us the “Secrets of Inlay”. In addition to being the well- known blogger of Polymer Clay Daily, she has been inlaying polymer into wood for years. We have one of her large bowls in the collection, and her home is sprinkled with wonderful caned inlays. Don’t stand still too close to Cynthia or you might end up with a cane slice on your forehead!

We will be closed the last week of October to attend the Kentucky/Tennessee Guilds’ retreat at the Falls of Rough Dam State Park. Ron Lehocky with a few helpers puts on the retreat annually, and his new venue is even better than Mammoth Cave where it used to be held.

Finally, our last class of the year will be November 11-13, 2016. We are hosting Leslie Blackford for three days of fun making a “Winter Woodland Bracelet” and nightlights or lamps. She always has lots of great ideas and sculpting help. This class always amazes me. Everyone always claims they don’t do sculpting, everyone always leaves with a fantastic night light. There is some magic in the air!

 Don't forget to watch the "Upcoming Classes" page for classes coming up next year. If you see something that intrigues you, don't hesitate. Classes are small and fill up quickly.

Next...

We’ve had a wonderful week with Julie Picarello. She taught two wonderful sessions at CJS and is now winging her way back to California to her “day job” as a computer circuit board creator. Julie is such a good teacher and she shared all her techniques, from her style of mokume and ‘lizard tails’ to button blossoms and lunar beads. Our heads are spinning with all our new found knowledge and all I want to do is get back in the studio. Too bad I’ve got to straighten up and get set for Ellen’s two upcoming mokume survey classes. 
Then we have Lindly Haunani, our favorite color-meister, coming for a color class with a twist. We will be making skinner blended “fabric” to make quilt squares for wall hangings. It’s all about getting a palette that sings to you, so your work will make you happy, whether in wall hangings or jewelry. After all, it all starts with color.

 

There are more pictures with the description on the "Upcoming Classes" page. This class is a great confidence builder if you always struggle with your color choices. 

You will also see the new class description for Cynthia Tinapple's Inlaying Polymer (in anything that will hold still). There are also some new dates to put on your calendar for classes coming in the new year. Ellen has been busy lining up some fantastic classes for 2017....Laura Tabakman, Nikolina Otrzan, Jeff Dever, Sarah Shriver, Lindly Haunani...and we will get the descriptions up when it's time to sign up. 

"Hotlanta"....

I think this week "Hotlanta" is living up to its name. We got through the rain at the start of Meisha's class without a lot of fuss, had a couple pretty days and now all h... is breaking loose. Luckily we have air-conditioning and we can stay cool while we bake our polymer creations! We had a great class with Meisha Barbee and one of the nice benefits of her visit was a restock of her display in the gallery. 

We also got a box of goodies from Kim Korringa for the gallery, and brought back new batches of work from Jeanette Kandray, Laurie Prophater, Libby Mills, Alison Gallant, Diane McNamee and Ron Lehocky from our retreat up in Virginia. We added some new pieces to the Collection, thanks to the auction at the retreat. So many reasons for a visit….

Our next class is with Melanie Muir. She’ll be here June 10^th for three days of mokume fun. It’s a technique driven class with her shards necklace as a goal. She will be talking about design and construction as well. It will be interesting to get a European point of view.

In July, Julie Picarello comes to Creative Journey to share her take on mokume. There seems to be a trend here! We’ll have a full weekend of “lazy rivers”, button blossoms and lunar beads.

Finally, in August, Ellen Prophater is doing two weekends of mokume madness. There are only five spots in each class, so there is space to spread out your veneer samples. One of the highlights of the weekend will be creating your own pattern tools to impress your mokume stacks. 

Finally, we’ll end the summer with a labor day celebration of color with Lindly Haunani. Lindly has been quilting up a storm and decided to translate her color studies to polymer quilt squares. How fun to decorate your home with “quilted” wallhangings! This might be a quilt I could finish! Call soon to sign up for your annual color fix! Don’t procrastinate and be sad because the class fills without you. Remember that our classes are small and intimate, but that means they fill quickly. Sadly, we can’t  squeeze you in. Sometimes the teachers will allow us to offer a second session  and we make a waiting list to see if that works out.

Feels like Summer....

The weather in Atlanta is incredible at the moment. We had a fabulous week with Bettina Welker. She definitely had heads spinning, and I think everyone will be playing in their studios with all their new found knowledge. She was in Dallas for the weekend and then headed back to Germany. It was a wonderful visit---not only a well-planned class, but fun meals, a few trips to Collet’s and a little German practice (hence my new name –“Liebe Susi”). We had a lot of our old friends in attendance…from New York, Connecticut, Florida, North Carolina, Alabama and Kentucky, as well as a few semi-locals. We had the fun of adding three new ladies to our CJS family….from Illinois, Massachusetts and South Carolina. Three brought their spouses with them and one, her mom, for a little mini vacation – what a great idea!

We had a bunch of new products to tempt everyone. I think Oyumaru, the Japanese molding material, was a big hit, especially after Bettina showed a few cool tricks with it. We all discovered Genesis Paints. I’ve restocked on Swellegant after that part of the class emptied the shelves. The KorTools were a hit and I’ll be restocking those this next week. Everyone enjoyed using the clay donated by Staedtler Canada (Thanks, Gail!) and many headed home with bulging bags of Fimo.

We are gearing up for Meisha Barbee’s class. Be sure to check the upcoming class page for the full description of Meisha’s, Melanie Muir’s and Julie Picarello’s classes. Don’t procrastinate and get disappointed when the class is full. That happens! Meisha is going to working in a more subdued, classy palette and has some new tricks for creating textures.

Has Spring sprung?

It's almost spring (Boy, are we ready!) and we are having beautiful weather that is inspiring us to restock and straighten, clean up piles of junk, finish up old projects and get ready for another year of classes and fun. We just hosted the GAPCG(Atlanta guild) for their Shop Hop. They had lunch at Aqua Terra and then spent the afternoon with us. Ellen demoed a bunch of wonderful products we carry in the store and had the ladies' heads spinning. Make yourself a promise to come for a visit and get the grand tour!

Be sure to look at the upcoming classes page for the latest class news. If you see something you like, don't hesitate until there is no space. Give me a call and get your name on the list before the class fills. Your check or charge holds your spot so you won't be disappointed. We have students from all over the country flying in to attend, and we only have ten spots, unless we are able to schedule a second session, so heed the warning...."she who hesitates, is lost!".
Bettina Welker's class is coming up....actually two sessions in April. Both are full but I am taking a waiting list. Next up is Meisha Barbee, who has come up with a fresh new look to expand your polymer knowledge.

We have a nice display of Meisha's work in the gallery if you are not familiar with her wonderful pendants and earrings. I know once you have seen her work, you will want to take her class. (more pictures on the "upcoming class" page).
In June, we are very excited to have Melanie Muir coming in for two sessions. She is expanding on her Shards Necklace class with a personal design clinic to help you with your own design decisions and construction problems thrown in, along with her special mokume gane variations.

Next, in July, we have a visit with Julie Picarello. Julie was one of our first instructors, way back when!, so we are very excited to offer her amazing expertise.

August will see Ellen Prophater (with twisted arm!) offering two weekend sessions of her small (limited to 5 students) class on Mokume Gane variations. Ellen likes the class to have room to spread out and to get lots of attention. She has a lot to share and the classes will be jam-packed!
Lindly is busy developing a new class for us and will be down in September to help us celebrate our birthdays and teach an exciting class. We'll post a description as soon as it is available.

The Holidays are coming....

Life is always busy, both yours and ours.....but never too busy for fun! We've been gearing up for holiday shopping. Historic Buford held an open house that most of the downtown merchants participated in. It was nice to 'fluff' the gallery and put out some decorations. We got the classroom ready for Jana Benzon's class that's coming up in December, on the 4th thru the 6th.

Sadly, we had to postpone Leslie Blackford's class (she had a disaster in her basement to clean up!) As soon as we figure out a replacement date, we'll post it here and on facebook.

Ellen has been working very hard planning classes for next year and is coming up with a dynamite line-up. As information becomes available, it will be posted on the upcoming classes page. If you see a class you think you would like, call us. Your check will hold your spot. We are very excited to be having more international teachers in 2016. Anke Humpert, from Germany, is coming in February.

Bettina Welker, also from Germany, is going to teach two sessions. She is scheduled to teach in April, and we are going to have the usual Friday to Sunday class. We are offering a special weekday session: Tuesday to Thursday, for people that can't get away on the weekend.

We had a great time with the Kentucky/ Tennessee Guild at the Falls of Rough Park in Kentucky. Dani Torres and Natalia Garcia de Leaniz were the guest artists. Ron Lehocky did a great job of running the retreat. It was a nice new spot and I think we are committed to another three years. It has taken us a couple weeks to unpack and restock, but we'd go again tomorrow if we could!

The Latest.....

One of the nice things about running Creative Journey Studios is having “regulars” who like to shop for supplies and who enjoy coming to classes. Linda Hall, my “twin sister”, has been known to come and spend the day doing tedious inventory stocking jobs with me. She is a member of the Greater Atlanta Polymer Clay Guild and used her basket making skills to turn our donation to their retreat into a spectacular prize! We were happy to support the guild and thrilled for Melinda Greene to win such a beautiful basket.

We are gearing up for Dani and Natalia. We can hardly wait to share their new techniques this weekend. Then we are off to the Rough River State Resort Park to join the Kentucky/Tennessee Guild for their annual retreat. Ron Lehocky has planned a jam packed few days and we are excited to see all our “Cave” friends attending this transplanted retreat. Ellen has been working on new techniques with Viva Décor paints that she can hardly wait to share. She uses them on the clay surface, with translucent clay, and in mokume.

In other news, we are incredibly excited to welcome Julie Picarello to the CJS Gallery. Julie loves to make  beads but had to fortify herself with loads of chocolate to assemble some necklaces for us. We think she did a magnificent job. Julie will be teaching for us next July. It’s been years since I’ve had a class with Julie, so I’m really excited that she will be part of our 2016 lineup.