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

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!

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!

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!

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

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.

In addition to our existing selection of classes, we are adding screenprinting, quilting and an additional jewelry class, all happening within the next few months! All of the classes are taught by very special guest teachers who are working artists in the community.

Screen Printing 101 – This introduction to screen printing will walk you through using drawing fluid and screen filler to create 2 custom images throughout the course of four weeks. Special guest teacher Katie Bell will teach you how to reuse a single frame with multiple screens and print with layered images and multiple colors. Images will be hand drawn so please note that this course does not teach photographic emulsion. Print onto paper, t-shirts, towels, tote bags – the choice is yours!
Level: Beginner
Thursdays June 11, 18, 25 and July 2 from 6-8
Class cost is $145, plus additional $55 fee for materials and supplies kit listed here

Coin Stacked Baby Quilt – You can quilt! If you have basic sewing knowledge, comparable to taking our intro to sewing class, this modern baby quilt is a great project for taking your knowledge further. Special guest teacher Alissa Carlton will teach all of the steps to make a small scale quilt, from piecing the top, to quilting & binding. By the end of the class, you will have an original finished piece and the skills to recreate and reinvent traditional quilting over and over again!
Level: Basic Machine Ability
Sundays June 21 & 28 from 12pm-4pm
Class cost is $150, additional materials listed here

Molecule Ring and Earrings- Create elegant looking jewelry with this beginner wire twisting and beading technique. Special guest teacher Stefanie Louie will teach how to create a molecule ring and a set of earrings (or two more rings). Follow her pattern, or insert your own creative spin to make one of a kind pieces you’ll want to recreate again and again!
Level: Beginner
Saturday July 25 from 3pm-5pm
Class cost is $45, additional cost for materials (list coming soon)

*Due to popular demand, we’ve added a second Random Woven Sphere Lamp class, taught by special guest teacher and local artist Aaron Kramer!!!! The class will be held on Sunday June 7th from 10am-6pm. The cost of the class is $125, plus a $70 material fee. UPDATE 6.12.09 $30 material fee. To see and hear about the finished projects from our last lamp class, click here!*