Shadow Boxing at Saffron & Genevieve

Last night's Shadow Boxing class at Saffron & Genevieve was wonderful!!!! The shop was the perfect setting to inspire and the women had incredible energy, creativity and courage!

I am always impressed by what people make in a workshop. In a meagre 3 hours of collecting ephemera, composing objects and sipping wine, at the end each woman had created a one of a kind piece of art that is truly exquisite.

This Alice inspired box sat upside down while drying which makes perfect sense in Wonderland.

There are more pictures on Saffron & Genenvieve's Facebook page. Some of which are really great and show these women and their work in better detail! Thank you all for a wonderful class!

A Collection

I am a collector. It's in my nature.  I appreciate old and worn things, throw away things, miniature things, things that tell a story, things that I can tell a story with or through, and all these things end up a part of my space. I love to scour the thrift stores, antique shows and flea markets for unusual objects. But I am lucky enough to also have friends who sometimes collect on behalf. This little numbered bottle set was given to me by Ellen, a friend and co-owner of the^workshop in Berkeley. She said now she has a "Courtney" spot in her home of things she might find in her travels that no one would appreciate but me. I am so lucky to have such friends!

I'm not sure what I will do with these once I've put them in order. Undoubtedly fill the tiny vials with something... 

We'll just have to wait and see!

Paste Paper

Making Paste Paper for the upcoming Craftaluma show on June 29th. Am so excited to be able to produce work for a specific event; it helps push me forward. I love making paste paper, its like finger painting for adults. I teach this class at Paper Source in Berkeley and at the workshop space as well, but I was happy to get to make some one my own. It takes up lots of space, so its good to have room to spread out. I've been making paste paper since college, and have tried lots of various methods, but prefer using Methyl Cellulose for my medium. It helps the paint move smoothly for making patterns, and it prevents the pages from sticking to one another in an art application. Yea! I'm happy to be making things!

A Birthday Gift

Today is June 1st, and it is 13 days until my boyfriend's birthday. I made him a birthday countdown box from an old typedrawer. Kind of like an advent calendar, each slot contains a vial with a tag attached...13 vials in all, one for each day until his birthday. I filled the vials with various things, for texture and color then attached a tag with a sentiment related to the vial's contents. I tied the tags to the vials with baker's twin and sealed them with beeswax. To the right of the vials is an accordion book that reads "for you," when closed, and is the end of a message when the book is open.



A detail of the contents of one of the vials... tiny carrots for my "rabbit."