Kids Art Party- Birthday T Shirt Success

Kids Art Party
Artascope is the perfect place to throw a party! We specialize in Kids Art Parties for all ages. There are so many projects to entice our party goers with and we enjoy working with parents to make a memorable celebration.

We recently held a fantastic T Shirt Party at our studios. The T Shirts were pre-tie dyed by our teachers and ready for decorating. The birthday girl and friends got to make their very own stamps and begin decorating the colorful shirt to make unique clothing to wear. Talk about a cool party favor to go home with!

We are always excited to see the creativity flowing, watch friends help each other and witness a fantastic time had by all. It's a great way to take the stress out of planning an elaborate party at home. We supply some goodies and parents are welcome to bring a cake. Check out our private party offerings at http://www.artnightout.com/parties.htm

Hammered Metals Class and Fresh Art 2008

Hammered Metal Class Review
Betina Clark is our exceptional hammered metals teacher and she is always attracting a big crowd for her classes. Her latest class of 8 played with copper and silver wire. They learn how to manipulate the wire into desired shapes after a little time for sketching ideas. Once they have a handle on working with the wire, they hammer their creations to add dimension and harden the wire so that it will keep its form.

Here are a few shots from the class. It's a fun technique and very user friendly. Betina is always ready to help you finalize your piece or review possible designs. She is one popular Art Night Out teacher and a very talented jewelry herself. She will be teaching Sewn Metal Jewelry on Thursday night, July 31rst, from 6-9pm!

Fresh Art 2008
If you would like to do something exciting this weekend and support Betina's work, then check out some of her silver jewelry at her upcoming show, FRESH ART 2008! The event will be held at Sprague Hall on 1 Charles Jordan Rd in Cape Elizabeth this weekend. The show hours are Friday July 25th from 6-8pm (Gala Opening Reception), Sat 26th from 10-5pm and all day Sunday from 10am-4pm. It's the 10th Anniversary of this great group of artisans, so see what Betina has been up to!

Metalsmith Studio-Diane Brakeley's Recent Class Highlights

Art Night Out-Drilled Seaglass Bracelet & Silver Spoon Necklace
Diane Brakeley is one of our talents metals teachers, specializing in altering every day items like silver spoons and beach glass into beautiful works of art. Over the past month, Diane has taught to popular Art Night Out Programs, The Drilled Seaglass Bracelet and The Silver Spoon Necklace.

The Drilled Seaglass Bracelet students learn how to drill safely through glass, ceramic and stone with specialized diamond tip drill bits. They also play with wire wrapping the drilled items to embellish with beads and attach to the finished bracelet. Although most of Diane's students were local, she had a visiting student all the way from Miami. A perfect memento from our Maine Beaches to the Florida shore.

The Silver Spoon Necklace Class has been a hit at the studio for a few years. Diane has been handcrafting these unique necklaces as a part of her own jewelry line. After lots of interest on how she created her necklaces, she began to teach a class about her technique. She has quite a stash of silver spoons, forks and more to share with the class. Sometimes students bring in their own culinary to transform into their necklace. Diane teaches them about cutting and polishing the spoon ends that create the necklace pendant. Similarly to the Seaglass Class, Diane works with the students on how to drill through the silver spoons and add jewels and beads for color and design. Diane is currently teaching one of our 6 week Artist Series for Sewing and teaching private sewing lessons at the studio. "Tie One On" ArtEscape Weekend will be coming up on the 3rd weekend in October. It will be our second time running this fantastic weekend where you will play with men's ties to create your own woven chair. What an event! www.artnightout.com

ArtEscape Weekend Review-Stained Glass Superstars

ArtEscape! Weekend- Stained Glass Student Highlight
Every third weekend of the month, we offer a 3 day artist retreat called the ArtEscape! at Artascope Studios. Gayle Raposa, our stained glass guru recently ran a fabulous Stained Glass weekend. Here are some amazing images from our recent member, Garrett, who joined the studio after taking this ArtEscape Stained Glass weekends! Her final piece was inspired by a sculpture she saw while in Spain. After many hours cutting, grinding and fitting together this intricate and very ambitious stained glass panel, the result was spectacular! Garrett had never touched stained glass before and did not consider herself all that "crafty", but she made believers out of us! Can't wait to see what's next for Garrett now that she has full access to our studios. The options are endless.

Summer Keepsake Box
Gayle was back in the studio teaching The Summer Keepsake Box class as part of our Art Night Out Series a few weeks later. Students has a chance to play with treasures from the sea that they would encapsulate into a stained glass box for all to see. What a great idea! I love thinking of staring into my little slice of summer bliss on those chilly winter nights and dreaming of the seasons to come.

Painted Floor Cloth and Folded Book Review

Simple Folded Book
Pat Knittel led a fantastic altered book class called "The Simple Folded Book". Students learned how to use decorative papers and basic folding techniques to create a personal keepsake for treasured photos, words and more. The students had a blast playing with our unique selection of craft papers and other materials for their books. Bone folders, a crafter's "need to have" folding tool, was used to create perfect folds for the project. We carry all of these paper need supplies in our store. We have kits and lots of interesting crafting items, if you get inspired to play.
Painted Floor Cloth
There is something about summer that always makes me think of colorful cottages by the beach....Willard Beach to be more specific. Filled with treasures from the shore and lots of sea themed artwork and decorations.....like hand painted floor cloths. No need to put down some drab beige rug at the sink or in the entrance of your home sweet home when you can have a colorfully designed floor cloth to invite you to step inside. Libby Barrett taught a fantastic two week Art Night Out workshop on the very subject. It was so popular that we have expanded our class offerings and she is currently teaching the painted floor cloth class as a 6 week Artist Series. Students are raving about the class and I am sure you will see it again on the ANO schedule. Check out our July and August classes.... www.artnightout.com

Glass Pendant Review-A Class for All Ages

Glass Pendant Class Review
What a delight to have such a diverse class as we did in our Embellished Glass Pendant Class. We pride ourselves on being able to bring together our community and make some fantastic opportunities for everyone to feel creative and special. From daughters with mothers, best friends and neighbors, the class mix is always different. It's great to watch people make connection with each other while they dabble in their artistic talents. There is always a sense of camaraderie and support not just from the teacher, but the students themselves. These are the times that Artascope truly shines. So many times we can record that magic moment when a student really begins to believe in their talent and get excited about their work. It's great to watch students interact and become jazzed about each other's achievements. So many one time students have to come back for more, bringing friends and relatives to share in their passion. Students become members so they can use the studio as their studio. Members become stewards to share in the support of Artascope as a functioning art learning center, store and gallery. The enthusiasm is electric. So, you won't know how you will meet in your next class or what inspiration may be found within our walls. Give it a try. http://www.artnightout.com/

Maggie Bokor- July Featured Artist

Maggie Bokor- Featured Artist
Have you checked out the Gallery at Artascope Studios lately? Every month the gallery changes for the featured artist of the month. We highlight our stewards, teachers and members in the gallery to share with our art enthusiastic community.

This month we are featuring Maggie Bokor, a multi-disciplinary artist, currently showing her recent acrylics, glass jewelry collection and polaroid transfers. Maggie teaches the Polaroid Tranfer Classes at Artascope and is a very loyal painting student of Liz Prescott's Acrylic Artist Series. This Thursday, she will teach a brand new class at Artascope, Reusable Fabric Gift Wrap! Should be a blast. You get to create your own botanical stamp and play will decorating your own gift wrap. Artascope is going green and we love it! Check it out on our online schedule, http://www.artnightout.com/jul2008.htm

Maggie's background is clay from the Rhode Island School of Design. She has worked in many materials and loves to play with color, form and function with all her work. She is also a local Nia instructor....a barefoot movement class taught at the South Portland Community Center and World Arts in Portland. You can find more about Maggie on the web at http://www.maggiestyle.com/.

Summer Artist Series Excitement and Acrylics Spring Session Review

Artist Series -Acrylics Spring Session...
came to a close last week. Emily Leonard taught our Tuesday night Acrylics class. It was a great success. Students focused on a famous painter and worked with their images to figure out the master's technique and discover their our individual style. Challenging themselves with this project gave each student confidence on how they view the world with their eyes and how it all conveys down to the brush on paper.

Emily returns to teach a fabulous ArtEscape! Weekend over the first weekend in August at Fort Williams. Students start with a thorough introduction to the tools and materials and will play with the basic elements of line, form, color, and composition in an amazing outdoor setting. You will meet at Fort Williams Friday, Saturday and Sunday for a spectacular weekend of painting for both the experienced painter and a budding artist! Follow the link to learn more. http://www.artascope.com/artescape.htm

Summer Sessions Start Next Week

If you are itching to play with your paints and can't wait till August, then join Liz Prescott every Wednesday from 9-noon for our Summer Artist Series-Acrylics Course starting July 9th . She is a fantastic teacher and an established painter and craftsman herself, so get curious about your desire to paint and join the group. It's definitely a favorite around here, so sign up while there is still space.

Have you checked out the summer schedule for Summer Artist Series? We have one for each morning!! Mondays will be Decorative Painting with Libby Barrett, AND we will be bringing back an old favorite, Metalsmithing,with a brand new teacher, Christina Taylor! Tuesdays we will be Sewing with Diane Brakeley. Wednesdays....Acrylics. Thursdays we will be playing with Stained Glass with Gayle Raposa. And we will end the week with Suzanne Kiertianis' Sewn Beading Jewelry Session. All classes meet for 6 weeks from 10am-1pm except for Acrylics from 9-noon. The class cost is &175 for the 6 week session. Peeked your interest???? http://www.artascope.com/artistseries.htm

Benefit Yard Sale for Local Crisis Ministries Fund and Betina Clark's Opening

The Art Studios at Cottage Road's Benefit Yard Sale for the Local Crisis Ministries Fund was a huge success and started our Second Saturday festivities with a real bang. We transformed our lawn into a treasure chest of household goodies, art and craft supplies and fun items donated from our generous group of stewards, teachers, members and staff. Here's a cute pic of one of our lucky customers showing off her new books.

This was our second annual benefit yard sale for the Local Crisis Ministries Fund. We are very excited to report that we were able to raise a nice amount of money from all our local shoppers. We even had some donations made from folks just wondering by. For all our community support, we are grateful. Check out Pat relaxing in the sun with her favorite martini glasses.....hope she didn't sell those.....they are keepers for sure!

Betina Clark's Art Opening
Each month, The Art Studios at Cottage Road honor one of our stewards, teachers and members as our featured artist. Betina Clark, a very popular silver metalsmith, was our featured artist for the month of June. Her opening coincided with our busy Saturday morning yard sale. Needless to say, things were hoping all day. Betina was there to meet with guests and talk about her work. We had a busy night of traffic coming to check out Betina's new creations and spend some time one on one with the artist. You can see more about Betina by clicking on her link under "links we love" to the right of this blog.

Resin Jewelry Class Review

Resin Jewelry-
What a fun new class we added to our abundant jewelry offerings! Deb Freedman, has been working with resin as part of her jewelry line here at the Artascope Gallery. After lots of talk and interest about her unique work, we decided to put in on the schedule!

Deb led her class in designing their own mini 3-dimensional collages. They used craft papers, photos and small found objects the create their images. Then she taught them how to cast their jewelry pieces into molds and fill them with clear resin to add extra dimension. It doesn't take long for the resin to set and then you have an exciting multi-dimension collage jewelry item. Students worked with idol images, dried flowers and glitter. One student even played with a Maine map encrusted with seashells and sea glass.

Deb will take this class up a notch when we offer the Resin Coaster class this summer on July 17th! After checking out the creativity in these small jewelry pendants, the size of a coaster will be prime design space! http://www.artascope.com/jul2008.htm

Simple Photo Book Class Review

Simple Photo Album-
Suzanne taught a simple photo album class as part of our June Art Night Out Series to a creative mother and daughter team, Karen and Kristina. They learned how to structure a hinged photo album with fun artisan papers and sew the book together with gorgeous ribbons. The pages inside are sleeves, so they are ready to hold the photos of their choice!

This was the first time book binding for both of Suzanne's students and they did a fantastic job. The three hour workshop started with choosing paper, cutting out shapes from a template and gluing and covering their book board w archival glue. Karen and Kristina learned how to use a bone folder to create a professional folded edge on paper. They pressed their books for secure glue and chose coordinating ribbons to accentuate their designs. After practicing different manners of stab binding with 2 holes, they applied their lesson to the book and sew together their final product. Smiles all around! We will be playing with paper on Thursday June 26th with our Mini Folded Book class. Check out our June schedule and get inspired! http://www.artascope.com/june08.htm

PMC ArtEscape Weekend Review

PMC ArtEscape Weekend with Ann Liller-
Every third weekend at Artascope Studios, we run a weekend intensive. It's our ArtEscape Series. In May, our PMC guru, Ann Liller, taught a very packed PMC, Precious Metal Clay, ArtEscape intensive to 8 students. Friday night is the kick off from 6-9pm. It just happened to be Ann's birthday....not a bad way to spend your day. I am sure there were a few wine glasses used and treats to celebrate the beginning of the weekend adventures!

Students learned about the properties of Precious Metal Clay and started experimenting immediately. The three day format allows them time to work out designs, investigate and invent new ways to play.

Ann had just returned from her PMC certification weekend and had lots of new and exciting techniques to share with her eager audience. Saturday is a full day from 9am-6pm. Lunch is on us as students work through their longest day. The weekend is finished off with a half day on Sunday 10am-2pm. Students are welcome to stay until 7pm Sunday to finish up their projects and have time to share their experience of the weekend class. Many times, members and stewards will stop by over the bustling weekend to check out the progress and see the dramatic results.

Here are a few pics to show the process of this amazing material. As you see, many students use nature not only as their inspiration, but for their actual piece. PMC can be rolled out and stamped, squeezed out for more delicate applications or even painted on the surface of objects. The possibilities are endless and inspiring! Once this porcelain like substance is finished and dried, it is loaded into our jewelry kiln. After only a few hours of firing, these fantastic creations are now solid 99.9% silver works of art. The PMC companies work with silver, gold and looks like there will soon be copper and brass versions to add to the mix. Metalsmiths take note!

Artascope in the Garden- Paper Flowers and Mosaics

Paper Flower Bouquets-
Spring has sprung at Artascope! Anyone walking down Cottage Rd will enjoy peeking around our blooming gardens that frame our front entrance. So much inspiration and color!

Here are a few shots of our paper flower demonstration that we held on our Second Saturday Art Stroll in May. What a fun way to make your own permanent flower collection for your home. Did you see our photo in the Forecaster a few weeks back? They came by to photograph the event. A conversation to create a paper flower bouquet class maybe in the works, since we received such a positive response at our demo.

Mosaic Table and Mirrors-
It's definitely time to get outside and celebrate all this beauty and we are so excited about all of our great classes that support your desire for the great outdoors and your personal gardens. We recently hosted the popular Mosaic Table and Mirror class at Artascope Studios. It was a very inspired group of talented artists and their final products are spectacular!

Students designed everything from a fabulous Chinese dragon to abstract eye catching designs. I find that with every class there is more and more levels of creativity pouring out of students and into these great pieces of art. There are more mosaic classes coming up over the summer along with other great garden themed Art Night Out and ArtEscape Weekends. Laurie will be teaching the Mosaic Stepping Stone Class Next Monday, June 2nd and again on Thurday, July31rst. Mosaic Table and Mirror will be happening again on June 16th & 23rd. So make sure to check out our newest schedules for full details! http://www.artnightout.com/

Woven Neck Tie Chair Workshop with Diane and the Callithump!

If you have ever stopped by Artascope and checked out our fabulous gallery full of artistic treasures made by our very own teachers and stewards, then you would surely remember Diane's fabulous series of Woven Neck Tie Chairs. Diane was savvy to find a class on saving your old wicker/caned chairs by replacing the thrush with old neck ties. Diane has mastered the art of weaving patterns and colors into exquisite works of art. Here are some pictures of Diane's students and their own Silk Tie Chairs from her impromptu workshop held earlier this month. The class was created when one of Diane's patrons purchased a chair and asked to be taught the process. Her daughter and a few of our stewards/local artists joined in for a Sunday afternoon of sewing, weaving and silk tie fun!












So make sure to take a stroll through our gallery to see one of Diane's new chair creations. Don't forget to bring a few quarters with you for our new Callithump! Vending Machine recently acquired by Artascope. Curious? Diane's daughter and son in law are taking their Vending Machine Art on the road. A Callithump! is a magazine that is sold out of toy capsule vending machines. Each capsule contains an "article," which might be a poem, a series of photographs, a small sculpture... really anything that they can create multiples of that fits inside a capsule! Never know what you'll end up with. Check out their website at http://www.callithump.org/.