Like my other mixed-media team mates, I, too, had the opportunity to attend the CHA (Craft and Hobby Association) trade show this past weekend. While there, I was busy snapping photos of some of our favorite mixed-media and collage artists signing books and demoing at the F+W booth.
And Tena Sprenger and Carol Wingert working the crowd in the booth demo area, filming the whole thing and signing copies of their book Lifelines.
Watching these artists in action, whether at demos or in a class setting, really is a fabulous experience--their energy and enthusiasm swept me up and got me hankering to get out the gel medium and start playing. More to come...
Yesterday I returned from CHA, along with my partner-in-crime, Jessica. Despite UPS delivering my box of demo supplies after my demo, nearly missing our flight home, my checked bag not showing up at baggage claim, the battery in my car parked at the airport parking garage being dead when I went to leave for home . . .despite all of that, I really had a great time at this year's winter CHA event in Anaheim. How could I not have had a great time getting to visit with such talented friends and mixed-media authors like Josie, Jane, Claudine, Alisa, Michael, Traci,Bernie,Margot and many others?
In addition to meeting with old friends, I also made some new connections. I got to chat it up with Jennifer, Carmi, Vickie and Cathi, among others.
I was very excited to see that acrylic/plexi was abundant at the show! Several manufacturers were showcasing plexi covers for journals, there were plexi scrapbook page frames, plexi cutout letters and shapes and my favorite find, a corner rounder that cuts chipboard, tin, leather and, you guessed it, Plexiglas! It's called the Round-it-All and is made by Zutter. I will definitely be getting my hands on one of these soon.
Another product I was drooling over was a nifty new line mediums from Golden Artist Colors. They're called Digital Grounds and they create a surface for you to print ink-jet images onto non-porous surfaces! This means coating foil or mylar with the medium and then running it through your printer. It also works on fabric, acrylic skins and more.
I'll save some products for Jessica and Christine to talk about too, but one final thing I was pretty geeked about were the new Pageframe Designs. They offer 12 x 12 sheets of flexible acrylic that can be easily cut, stamped on, embossed and so on, and come in a couple of different thicknesses. I want to get some to try combining it with good old Plexiglas for jewelry pieces.
If any of you attended CHA and have your own exciting finds to share, please comment and let us know about them!
I'd like to chime in and welcome you all to MyCraftivity! I'm Jessica, one of the cohorts Tonia mentioned in her first post, and I'm so happy to have this outlet to connect with all of you in the mixed-media and collage world.
As Tonia mentioned, we are book editors, and I have to say that sometimes editing books is a strange thing indeed. We work closely with the authors for a very long time--often well over a year--helping to bring their artwork and their voices to life on the page, and then we send the finished products out into the world and... well, and then that's it, for our part in the process! We move on to the next work in progress. But all of the books I have a hand in creating also have a special place in my heart, and many times I find myself wondering who reads them, who they have helped inspire, who makes up this elusive audience of crafters, what their own labors of love are, and what they are looking for to enrich their craft.
That's why I'm so excited about this group here in MyCraftivity; finally, we can all be part of one big, interactive online community. I look forward to receiving feedback from all of you on all things mixed-media. I look forward to reading your blogs and seeing your artwork in the gallery and hearing about your creative processes. And I also welcome the opportunity to share my own thoughts and creations with you here.
Here at the North Light Books office we are preparing to travel to Anaheim for the Craft and Hobby Association show. This is one of the rare opportunities we have to really spend time in person with some of our favorite talented mixed-media and collage artists and authors. Events at our company's booth will include special appearances by Michael deMeng, Claudine Hellmuth, Jane Wynn and Josie Cirincione, to name just a few of the many lovely and talented smiling faces we're looking forward to seeing in sunny California. Jealous? Not to worry; so you can live vicariously, we'll be sharing fun stories and photos from this event with all of you right here at the blog.
Welcome to our first Mixed Media + Collage blog post! I'd like to introduce myself and let you know how excited my fellow group moderators and I are to be a part of this group and share our love of all things mixed media with you, our group members. I'm Tonia, the Group Owner and I'll be sharing blog posts and forum monitoring with Christine and Jessica.
As acquisitions editors for a variety of great books from many talented and creative people, Christine, Jessica and I are not only passionate about the world of mixed media, we are also constantly on the look out for the best products, events and talent across a variety of artistic areas. You're going to meet people in this group that are collage artists, jewelry makers, painters, metal smiths, paper crafters, fiber artists, art journalers and more, for the arena that we call mixed media is a large one. We're all going to learn from one another here and, everyone's input and contributions are valued.
I'll begin the sharing process by telling you a bit about some of the things I am personally interested in. I enjoy painting, papercrafts, bookbinding, creative framing, art journaling and my current passion is heavily focused on using Plexiglas to create jewelry and dimensional artwork. I'm looking forward to getting to know you and what you are passionate about. In addition to the photos you may choose to post on your private MyCraftivity profile site, I would like to encourage you to post photos to the Mixed Media Public Gallery as well.
My crafty cohorts will be introducing themselves to you in the next few days and we're all very excited to share more of ourselves with you and learn what you have to share with us. Until next time, Tonia
