May 30th, 2009

We will be at the Main Street Farmer’s Market tomorrow, May 31st, doing needle felting demos all morning, from 9am-1pm It is our first time being invited to participate in the farmer’s market and we can not wait!!! Follow your noses to the pancake booth because we will be set up right net to it. Needle felt with us, then get your fingers deliciously sticky with maple syrup after :-)

Read more about the local farmer’s market here

Tomorrow is also an amazing day of clothing transformation at the Santa Monica Museum of Art. 2525 Michigan Ave. Beginning from 2pm-5pm.
Bring a bag of t-shirts, any size, and get in for $5. Once inside you will be able to visit the design stations including, Hoodies, Silkscreening, Felting, Shopping Bags and more! Learn to alter your clothing into something unique! Find more about the event, including what to expect and what to bring, here

May 27th, 2009

We had a great class this past weekend with special guest teacher Kelly Kilmer. Kelly always brings lots of fun supplies and materials for her classes and each student got to make three swatch books. Here are some photos from the day!

May 23rd, 2009

Last week was the conclusion of Christine Haynes’ Strapless Dress class! Tara took our Intro to Sewing class just a few weeks prior to this course, and was able to make this fun strapless just in time for summer. :-) Take a peek at the photos from this class and find out more about Christine here!

May 19th, 2009

Kelly Kilmer is the kind of teacher who never fails to stir up boundless creativity. Her classes provide the encouraging nudge that gets you making things without hesitation or concern for perfection. She has been teaching altered art, journaling and mixed media classes for 12 years now, and has built a phenomenal reputation within the crafting community. In all, Kelly has taught over 400 classes; at least one class every weekend, major art retreats throughout the year and has most recently expanded to offering online courses.

This weekend, Kelly will be teaching a class called Swatch Books. What is that exactly? The project itself is creating a series of 3 books, assembled from “found” papers, stitched together and assembled with a variety of altered art techniques learned along the way. Kelly emphasizes that her classes are project based in order to apply specific techniques, but that the real goal is to explore and express a variety of creative ideas and apply new artistic approaches to any crafting endeavor you have or will have and want to pull from in the future!

Kelly’s favorite Swatch book is a Frida Kahlo book she made last year to document her trip to San Francisco to see a Kahlo exhibit at the SFMOMA. It ended up being a beautiful art book as well as a wonderfully unique documentation of a special and exciting moment. You’ll learn to make swatch books quickly. Kelly even carries her favorite little scraps around town and makes several little books throughout the day! Who needs Twitter when you can make Swatch books all day long? :-)

It’s no surprise that Kelly gets her students to take in their surroundings and express them in their work. Some of her greatest influences are the seemingly impulsive expressions of graffiti art and childrens’ art. Kelly talked to me a little via email about what inspires her and wrote that “They [children] realize that you can’t make a mistake with art, that everything is an opportunity and a fresh chance at seeing the world in a new way. I’m also inspired by keeping an art journal. I’m a firm believer in keeping a journal and have made thousands of them over the years. I always have one by my side. I post my journal pages on my blog, too, so that people will see that you can journal about anything and that we all have good days and bad days, and that your journal is your safe place to play.”

You can take Kelly Kilmer’s Swatch book class, here, at The Urban Craft Center this Sunday May 23rd from 10am-2pm. The cost of the class is $65 non-member/$60 member. Sign up in person, or over the phone at 310-392-0139. You can find the additional materials list here. See what else Kelly Kilmer is up to on her blog here!

May 16th, 2009

If you are in the Santa Monica area on Monday, head over to the Urban Craft Center for a free screen printing event. Join us while we participate in the filming of a screen printing demo! Get the scoop on a new home screen printing system and possibly be on tv. We will have free screen printing make and takes all day so head on over. If you have your own design that you would like to screen print, just bring it (note: it must be a black and white image 8 by 11 size). You’ll also get a chance to meet crafty author Mark Montano from The Big-Ass Book of Crafts. Plus, our studio will be free for the day as well as giveaways, food and fun. Join us at any time on Monday May 18th from 10-5pm.

Open Studio & Free Screen Printing Event
Monday, May 18th, 10-5pm
@ The Urban Craft Center
2433 Main Street
Santa Monica, CA 90405
310.392.0139

May 12th, 2009

We had a full house for our Mother’s Day Melt N Pour Soapmaking event this Sunday – Thank you everyone who came out to play! Our long tables were filled with pans and mason jars atop hot plates, all melting with gorgeous colors and scents :-) It was great to see families together, helping one another, and working on a fun project for the day.

Here are some pictures from the event. If Melt N Pour Soap is something you’d like to do, but don’t want the mess at home, you are always welcome in the studio!

Our studio fee is $6 for one hour, $11 for two hours and $15 dolllars for the whole day! Soapmaking supplies are extra, but you don’t have to wait for a class to try it yourself. We have lots of books in the library to help guide you along, and private lesson options if you prefer a more guided approach. It’s a great activity to spend a few hours on, especially if you enjoy quick results with your craft.

May 7th, 2009

May 6th, 2009

We just finished up our three week spring Soapmaking Series yesterday!

Students experimented with layers, colors and oils to make melt ‘n pour soap the first week. Our Hot Process method – soap from scratch in two hours – took place the second week and is just one of those crafts that puts you in a good mood. It’s an organic process. Everyone comes away with soap, but each batch looks, smells, and feel so different. The final process, packaging your goodies was a lot of fun, too. I taught students to use the Cricut die cut machine to make little boxes, gift bags, tags and letters. As you can see, the packaging is the finishing touch to ultimate luxurious, handmade soaps. By the end of the class, there’s enough to last you a year and to share with friends!

Here are some pics: