All posts tagged: craft night

work hard, clay hard.

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The September craft night at Jenny Lemons was all about clay! It was also my Mommy’s birthday so she and my sister joined craft night, too. Our instructor was Faye Kendall, a fiber artist based in the East Bay; she walked us through how to make air dry clay mobiles. Jenny Lemons shipped over clay and an India ink pen. We gathered additional items like a rolling pin, a mat/cover for our workspace, and toothpicks or other utensils for making marks and cutting. First, a lesson in clay. Then, how to create slats with cardboard to get a even thinness across your clay. We then rolled out our clay. I used a dowel. Some used actual rolling pins or glass bottles. Faye demoed carving out shapes and creating holes in our mobile pieces. We had to wait for the clay to dry before we could paint and assemble our mobiles. While we continued to create shapes, Faye used the rest of class to talk about design and where she draws inspiration from, as well as …

paint markers.

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I attended the Jenny Lemons virtual craft night on Friday with Dan Garzi, SF artist and designer. Such a fun activity to kick off the weekend! Jenny Lemons sent participants supplies (if you needed them). The craft night supplies included watercolor cards, envelopes, and a set of four paint markers. I had never worked with paint markers before so I was excited to learn. First, we sketched out smaller versions of the evening’s designs: a cactus, a parrot, and a family of pineapple cactus creatures. Dan shared tips on how to achieve proportions and dimension. Here are my sketches: Then, we transferred our designs to the watercolor paper cards. Time to color! Dan shared tips for layering and blending colors with paint markers. I love how the colors are so bold, and you can hide the marker streaks with additional layers. This color combo is so fun, and the black outline is so good. Yay us! Progress so far during class. Spot me! After class I continued on. Here are my final pieces! Thank you …

ink paintings.

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I attended Craft Night at Jenny Lemons with guest artist Kristina Micotti. Hubby joined me, too, and we made it a date night. We signed up for a 30 minute session, which means you jump right into painting! Kristina provided a brief introduction and showed a few techniques for using India ink. I am in love with this stuff. It’s like when you have a fresh black marker and the lines you draw are so richly black. Ahh… For inspo Kristina demoed quick paintings, and she also suggested a few things to Google. I searched for fat cats. Hubby searched for a cute panda. I also painted my Pilea plant and some art supplies. The paint is so basic, but so satisfying to paint with. It’s actually surprising how much texture and style you can give your piece with one color and one brush. It was so fun to paint alongside Kristina (she painted her dog!), and Hubby, too, duh. Can’t wait for another fun craft night!

play with clay.

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It’s time to play with clay! I hadn’t touched clay since maybe high school and so I had very low expectations for what I’d end up making at the evening’s festivities. All I knew was that with resident maker Terri teaching, it would be a fun and supportive environment! First off, clay feels amazing. It’s cool to the touch and has soothing properties the moment you place some in your hands. I felt very much at ease as I rolled, molded, and mushed the clay. We first started our lesson by making pinch pots and learning how to feel for the thickness of the clay and how to tell if the clay was being overworked. I also ended up making a larger bowl made of circles. Some of us were in the advanced class and made more than just bowls. Check out this mask! We still need to let these pieces dry before firing and glazing. I’m looking forward to painting my pieces and then using them as functional works of art! Have you played …

local love.

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West Elm at Bay Street threw a launch party for Local, an in-store pop-up shop featuring local artisans and makers. I was promised DIY stations at this party, so I signed up right away. Plus, a party in a store like West Elm has swanky and stylish written all over it and I’m all over that. Upon arrival, the Local artisan area of the store caught my eye, particularly the mini geometric planters and leather keychains. Richard, the guy behind the West Elm Instagram account, spotted us and even recognized my friend and I from our Instagram accounts. Does that make me Insta-famous? I spent the evening crafting, snacking, picture taking, and window shopping. The beverages and bites were delightful. Hanger 1 was in the house crafting cocktails with premium ingredients. Toast provided a feast of hummus, pita, chicken skewers, bacon wrapped dates, tzatziki, dolmas, and chickpea tartlets. And there wasn’t just one, but two craft stations – a make-your-own vintage map candle holder and a plant-your-own seeds bar. At first glance, I thought these little grassy …