Here’s Michael de Meng talking about everyone’s projects from the Island of Demented Toys workshop.

Last weekend we hosted a workshop by one of our favorite teachers, Montana based assemblage artist Michael de Meng. de Meng’s teaching style truly embarks a fearless sense of “you can make anything work, as long as you play around with it enough” sentiment that makes you feel empowered and inspired. He backs it up with his tried and true, trial and error know how that comes from years of experimenting with what works and what doesn’t, guiding & positively encouraging students to make any kind of creation they can dream up.

While observing his class last weekend, I picked up on something that really hit home with me. Seeing how easy it was for him to cut metal with the Dremel (a multi-functional power tool here at the studio) and seeing the endless possibilities of assembling together found objects you would never think go together are ALL possible with imagination, gumption, and de Meng know-how.

We also had the pleasure of hosting a book signing for Michael’s latest book “Dusty Diablos” as well as displaying an exhibit of his artwork. Michael spoke on his experiences from the book, like visiting Island of the Dolls in Mexico and bringing his students to a peculiar shop of religious icongraphy where for instance, you could find 20 replacement heads of Lady Guadalupe. Since we love raffles here at the U.C.C, we had one that night giving away a signed copy of his book, a monthly membership, and a needle felt kit, if you weren’t there you missed out!

Zines are small, low budget, self-published and self-distributed publications, written by authors outside the mainstream who are motivated to share thoughts or skills with a community rather than to make money or get famous. In a word, zines are awesome. We’ll be working on our own zines are well as collaborative projects, have zine swaps and lots of examples to peruse through.

Michael de Meng will be teaching a one day only workshop called “Island of Demented Toys” on Friday, April 16th from 10am-5pm.  Participants put their own personal touch on de Meng’s peculiar art form and will take away their own demented toy or shrine.  de Meng asks workshop participants to bring in rusty old junk, favorite thing-a-ma-bobs, and useless trinkets to turn into your own personal form of self-expression. (There are only a couple spots still open so sign up now to reserve your space!)

Pictured below are 2 of the 30+ pieces of deMeng’s artwork currently up at The Urban Craft Center.

Altered Arts is a personal craft. It’s tons of fun, but in order to allow yourself to express yourself you need a teacher with patience and exuberance to give you the comfort and encouragement to try new things within a 4 hour class. Guest teacher Sasha Harris is seriously amazing. Not only is she a talented improv actress, she also has an uncanny ability to take her skills as an actress into the crafting world. You’ll be inspired, productive and proud of what you’ve done. Her class, Altered Art Techniques is one of our most popular and fun classes – the best part is that you’ll also walk away with a book you’ve made filled with new skills to apply to any crafting endeavor!

I sat down with Sasha last week to learn a little bit more about her and about what she is looking forward to most in her upcoming class, Altered Art Techniques, this Saturday September 12th, 11-3pm. $65 non-member/$60 member

Q: What is your experience as a crafter?

If I tell you I was a Girl Scout does that say enough? That was the early years. In 2000 I made a New Year’s resolution to make a quilt. When I enrolled in the class I had grandiose visions of a puffy duvet type item. But of course, I was quickly met with geometry, rotary cutting, and so many triangles! I fell in love with quilting and I made three (non-puffy) quilts before I started graduate school. Most importantly I became a devoted lover of fabric.

Q: What drew you to altered arts?

Altered arts came into my life In the midst of graduate school when I was dealing with a significant personal loss. I took several classes in mixed media book arts and reveled in these tangible creations – so opposite of my graduate training. It was fantastic to be able to manipulate paper, paint, rip, tear, paint over, ink, write on, and best of all SHARE while creating with an ever expanding group of artists. Every day there is something new to learn, a new book or magazine to be inspired by, and new tools or supplies to play with. Every supply seems limited only by the imagination of the user and I am constantly surprised by the creativity of other artists.

Q: What would you say to someone who is doubtful of their creative ability?

It is 100% okay to be nervous about messing up. If you weren’t nervous it might mean that you didn’t care about the end result. But wherever you are just begin. Even if the first step is saying, “I have no freaking idea how to do this! Help!”

Keep in mind that once you learn how to use the tools you are 99.9% there.

It’s like learning any new skill, like, driving or riding a bike. Once you learn how to drive the car you are good to go, all that’s left is deciding where you want to travel. Same deal here, you want to make pillows, pants, or books it’s okay to spend some time learning about the tools first. You don’t have to be mean to yourself for not knowing all about the stuff right away. Be nice to you! Eventually you will make your masterpiece.

Q: Describe your upcoming class. What do you hope students will come away from the class having accomplished?

The Altered Book class is a playground class. The focus here is practice and learning – not the final product. That said, students will leave with a book full of techniques for their future projects. Students use a provided hardcover book to explore tools and techniques to alter the structure of the book. They’ll cut the cover, create sections, insert tags, create a block niche, cover-the-cover, and work with folds. Once the basic architecture of the book has been altered, students play with decorative elements to embellish their sections: gesso, fibers, stamps, and other findings.

My hope is that students will have either experienced something new or played in a way they didn’t expect of themselves when they walked in the door. Everyday that we create is a good one.

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!