Left to Right: Peter Vaughan Shaver, Christine Claringbold, Dawn Sorem, Jen Neitzel, Jenny Wells, Ivy Ross, Lorna Nakell, Diane Gilleland, Nicole Cipriano, Bridget Benton, Scott Sutton and Torie Nguyen

For this Teacher Feature we would like to introduce you to:
Scott Sutton

Scott is a new teacher here at DIY Lounge. He teaches DIY Paint: Make your own paints -1-Traditional Mineral Paints and DIY Paint: Make your own paints – 2 – Modern Synthetic Paints. Born in Corvallis in the mid-seventies, he currently lives in Portland, OR. He received his BFA in painting from OSU. His teaching experience includes printmaking and painting workshops at the Oregon College of Arts and Crafts, OSU, and Marysville Elementary School. His exhibition history includes venues such as Corvallis Art Center, Corvallis, OR, All Points Gallery, Prado, NM and Portland’s own Mark Woolley Gallery.

In 2007 Scott founded the Arterialist in hopes of creating an organization that embraces the art of all cultures. Arterialist’s focus is on understanding the roots of the creative process where culture, history, and the natural environment are at the center. Scott is currently working on a project in which he will involve local artists in the process of creating art using pigments he has mined from the earth. His plan is to have the project culminate in a group exhibition of the artworks created.

To find out more about Scott Sutton visit his web site: www.scottsuttonart.com

Have you ever been dissatisfied by a painting you’ve been working on because it seems to be lacking depth; everything appears to be on the same plane and has the same intensity?  Here are some techniques that will help you produce the appearance of depth while also creating a more dynamic painting:

1)      Work with glazing.  You can achieve a rich quality in your painting by starting with a background that has a neutral color wash (this can be warm like burnt sienna or cool like raw umber).  Then shapes and forms can emerge from there already having a nice mid-tone established.  This works better than trying to start your painting on an all white background.
2)      Work the classical way.  Build your painting up from dark to light saving the highlights for last.  In addition to creating depth this will help you add dimension to your forms.

Read more on Lorna’s blog.

Let the crafting begin!

Some of these people barely spoke English, but the universal language of creativity allowed us to communicate just fine.

Is it just me, or do these folks look a little like proud parents? Once people had completed these little cuties, I start to feel that my role had changed from art teacher to matchmaker or an adoption agent.

Look at the little dejected guy below. I really love him. He looks like some early man version of these sweater people.

I had all of these sweater people pre-cut into specific animal. The critter below was originally a cat, but his creator turned him into a pig. Cute huh?

The guy below made one of the most unique little people. It started out an owl and at some point he cut something out that looked like a mustache and was like, “I am going with this!” Then he added a cowboy hat too.

Both of these guys were the first ones to show up and were totally stoked on the project. Neither were were proficient sewers, but I told them that was not an obstacle. I think the guy below’s doll is about the sweetest thing I have ever seen. You know how sometimes dolls are portrayed as evil, like in movies or stories? I think this one could get away with murder. Who would suspect such an angelic little guy?

The girl below made a robot with all the little controls and gadgets on his tummy and notice that in her hand she has also fashioned a scarf for her robot in case it is a cool day (See what I mean? What a great mama!)

And last but not least . . .

I am so glad I was asked to participate in this event again this year. What a great time!

If you are interested in making your own DIY Sweater People we now offer this class at the lounge.  Click here to see this class 

Solve et Coagula! Divide et Impera! Here are some ways to sort through your stash of objects and let a story emerge.

First, make a righteous cup of tea or coffee and minimize your distractions. Put some music on. Gather up all the things that might be useful for the project, whether they “match” or not.

Then spread them out in a space that allows you to survey it all at a glance. Sort the things out by color first (for metal components I group by silver, gold/brass, and copper tones—but don’t do this just because I do, do it if it makes visual sense). Sorting by color doesn’t need to mean groups of one color only. I often sort things by color groups, colors I think look good together. Sometimes you find things going already in a direction this way.

Take a moment or two to just enjoy the look of your cool treasures. Take note of things that catch your attention. If something really inspires you, gather other things around it that might work well with it.

Then sort each color group by size. You might want to sort things into groups of small, medium-small, medium, moderately big, and really big (grade on a curve—some people work with pieces that are tiny up to medium-small, some do those giant fire-breathing Mark Pauline-inspired robots like at Maker Faire). On the other hand, you might want to sort into groups that have several sizes within each group.

By now, depending on the strength of your coffee and/or imagination, you may have begun free-associating themes based on the content of the pieces in the groups you’ve sorted. If not, don’t worry about it—others will! Pick a group that stands out the best. Refine it further if you want, taking out pieces that don’t strengthen the theme or flesh out the color scheme.

It may sound indulgent just to play with objects, but it’s really constructive. When you slow down and concentrate on taking in visual images, without the idea that you have to produce a finished product right away, it allows ideas to enter in.

Bridget Benton demonstrating bicycle inner tube jewelry

Bridget Benton demonstrating memory jewelry

Christine Claringbold demonstrating painting mandalas on vinyl records

Christine Claringbold demonstrating crafts for kids on Valentines day

Dawn Sorem demonstrating card crafts

Dawn Sorem demonstrating Valentine’s day cards

Dayna Collins demostrating matchbox shrines

Kelly Fitzgerald demonstrating what to do with your holiday photos

Linda Womack demonstrating collage with wax

Teresa Sullivan demonstrating beaded hand earrings

Oh wow, I see that AM NW mentioned the Willy Week Best of Portland that mentioned DIY Lounge. Here it is.

KUDOS

Here are some really great reviews that I found of students who have had positive experiences at DIY Lounge:

• Here is someone who attended Nicole Cipriano’s silkscreening class.

• Images of Nicole’s silkscreening class here
  (to register for this class go to www.diylounge.com).

• Another one of Nicole’s classes woodblock printmaking
  (to register for this class go to www.diylounge.com).

• Here is someone who loved Jodie Cord’s embroidery class
  (to register for this class go to www.diylounge.com).

Images from our silkscreening class, woodblock printmaking and embroidery classes.

Great teachers and great classes! I am so glad to know how much these classes mean to the people in our community! Hooray for art teachers, classes and students.

As a HoopShine Agent, I hear it all the time: “I want to, but I just can’t hoop!” I feel it my duty to challenge that assumption once and for all! Did you know that the size and weight of your hoop is of great significance? Most of the time when people say they can’t hoop it’s simply due to the fact that all they have practiced with are lightweight, store-bought hoops (reminiscent of the days of Wham-o). Today’s hoopdance hoops are made of weighted tubing, and are much larger than those of yesteryear. So get out of that self-defeating mindset, and get into a hoop that’s sure to make your spirit twirl with delight. Join us on Saturday, May 10th… and make a hoop that is the perfect fit for you!

If you have a digital camera, there is no such thing as wasted film. The best thing to do is to take a bunch of pictures of—anything, whether it’s a person, a tree, or your artwork. Do a bunch at the automatic settings until you get bored. Don’t delete any pictures until you load them onto your computer. You want to see the good, the bad and the ugly, not just the good. Download the images and see if you like them. You can always delete them from the computer; it’s good if you have some idea as to why that image stinks. Make a folder of the images and mark it “auto settings” or something to that effect.

Then keep the camera on auto and take pictures of your work. Shoot on a sunny day outside in the sun, on a sunny day outside in the SHADE (it will look different than in the sun), on an overcast day outside, on a rainy day on the porch, inside with flash, inside without flash, etc. To keep track of which is which, take a scrap piece of paper and write “sunny day in the shade” or whatever applies, since when you download the images you’ll want to know which is which. Keep a file of unaltered, un-photoshopped images, and copy the file so you can play with altering/improving the copies and compare to the originals.

Send the pictures to your friends and family on their computers, and look at the images on their computers, if possible. You’ll get a feel for how much a color can change just from being shown on a different monitor.

If you want to continue discovering what your camera can do, take it off the auto setting and turn the dial around to other settings. You won’t waste film, so you have nothing to lose. If you want to know what setting produced which image, include the scrap paper with the setting written on it in the image itself. If you have a great looking image you’ll be glad to know how you got it so you can do it again.

There’s nothing like actually taking your camera out and clicking the shutter to de-mystify it. Do this before you read the online forums on cameras and helpful stuff. Look up your camera and tips on cameras online AFTER you fool around with your camera—now that you’ve become a bit familiar with it, the information you read will make more sense. You’ll get specific questions answered that you thought of when you were experimenting.

The new store on Woodstock is slated to open on May 19th with an official grand opening party on May 31st. We will begin classes at the new location in July. I still have a ton of new teachers in “the hopper” that I will be adding on the schedule in the very near future. One of them is a stained glass and mosaic artist so we will have those as classes in the near future!

So completely unrelated to what I am talking about, I just got a hair cut and I love it! I go to see Beth at Nurture salon. Here tagline is stylist to the stars which is both funny and adorable. Here is a picture of me with my new do! It might be hard to see but it is longer in the front and really short in the back (sort of bob style with length in the front).

You know how in the old time movies and cartoons the “sexy ladies” would sort of fluff their hair in the back to appear more attractive? I used to think, who would do that? Please note that in almost every picture I am doing that. So who would do that? Me! With a sassy new do.

There I go with the hand again.

I have a smirky, up to something look on my face here, which is true. I am always up to something. Right now I am so hot to trot on reconstructed sweaters and sweatshirts. I can’t stop thinking about them. I want to make them so bad! I need to get a little more caught up and then watch out world, because I am dead serious here! I have this feeling in my hands and chest that I feel certain will only go away by making reconstructed clothing. It is a deep yearning to do this and do this now. I plan to make up some new duds for my other business Knot Ugly Designs and also to teach a how to reconstruct your wardrobe series at DIY Lounge. As a matter of fact I need to go and work on that a little right now! Chat later!

A checklist makes capturing a wedding a breeze

For the family member and/or friend who are planning to take on the job of photographing a wedding for another family member or friend it is strongly recommended that you put together a checklist of times and events so that the bride will not have to think about which photos she will want you to take on her wedding day. She will be busy with many other details and with a checklist you will be in a better position to capture the important events of the day.