New Fall Art Classes

Fall is here and so are my new art classes at Castle in the Air, on 4th Street in Berkeley.
If you want to sign up for a class call the shop at 510/ 2049801 or go online here to sign up
I look forward to seeing you and creating together!
all the best,
elisabeth

Silhouette Luminary
Have fun playing with silhouettes, either affixing them to a luminary
to cast flickering shadows or framing them. For the silhouette, bring
to class some profile photos of you or a friend. Make sure they have a
light background. (These portrait silhouettes are more traditional,
but you could actually do a silhouette of almost anything – a bird, a
cityscape, a flower, or the Eiffel Tower, for example.) You’ll learn
how to use a scanner and a simple transfer technique to outline the
resulting silhouette on special, self-adhesive black paper, which
Castle imports from Germany. You’ll then use paper punches, black
Dresden, and decorative papers to create your silhouette luminary or
picture.
Fee: $75; includes materials. Bring a pair of sharp scissors for fine
cutting. Nail scissors work well.
Instructor: Elisabeth Alexander. Limit: 10 students.
Tuesday, October 5th, 6pm-9pm


Whimsical Witches
Here’s a chance for you to be a freakishly fiendish witch for
Halloween! It will be your face staring out from this Whimsical Witch
Halloween collage. Or perhaps you want it to be a friend’s face.
Before class, email the photo you’d like to use to Elisabeth (email to
be supplied). She will transform your photo into a black and white
image properly sized to fit seamlessly on a paper bodice. You’ll have
the fun of creating the witch’s costume from a selection of fabulous
papers, rubber stamps, Dresden, and ribbon. Give your card as a
Halloween gift or keep it for yourself. If you prefer not to use a
photo, Elisabeth will have extra images available for you to use.
Fee: $75; includes materials, but feel free to bring holiday themed
papers and ephemera to use.
Instructor: Elisabeth Alexander. Limit: 12 students.
Wednesday, October 27th, 6pm-9pm

Gilded Holiday Emblem
Inspired to create a more meaningful Christmas celebration, Elisabeth
designed these small holiday ornaments. Each contains a word or brief
phrase to identify something from the past year for which she’s
grateful, or to signify a quality or blessing she would like to invite
into her home and life for the coming year. The simple but charming
ornaments are created with vintage images, paper punches, rubber
stamps, and German glass glitter.
Fee: $75; includes materials, but feel free to bring small images
meaningful to you.
Instructor: Elisabeth Alexander. Limit: 12 students.
Tuesday, December 7th, 6pm-9pm

Amazing Decoupage Glass Plates

On Tuesday I taught Decoupage Glass Plate at Castle In The Air to a delightful group of talented arts and crafts aficionados. First we created a collage from the plethora of images available. Then we affixed this collage behind a glass plate. During the "glue-drying" break we created little mini collages behind magnifying glass pebbles that will stick with their magnetic backing to a refrigerator. I am really happy with the interesting designs my students came up with. It is always inspiring to work in a group, because you get a multitude of creative expressions.

Meeting Nikki McClure

I have been admiring the work of paper-cut artist Nikki McClure for a while. I bought two of her prints at Giant Robot and blogged about her here. So it was my good fortune to meet her in person, when she gave a talk about her new children's book "Mama, is it summer yet?"
(Thank you, Sarah, for alerting me to the event!)

I loved hearing how she does her paper cuts and seeing her tools, including an ultra-special Japanese sticky cutting mat. Meeting her in person was a delight, because she is such a kind and positive person!

Crafty Inspirations

Paper Quiling Mosaic


Lacy Cupcake Liners



Paper Rosette

Happy Mother's Day

I spent a lovely Mother's Day. My mother had sent me a yummy sounding recipe from Dr. Andrew Weil a couple of days ago. I knew that this is what I had to cook for her on Mother's Day. So for lunch I cooked today Dr. Weil's orange glazed salmon fillets, asparagus risotto, roasted beets, feta and spinach salad and for dessert crepes Suzette with strawberries.
Like every year I also made a card for my mom, which you can see above. It was interesting to try and bring some more dimension to my cards. It took me a while to figure out how to construct it and reminds me a bit of a pop-up book construction.
In the morning my daughter presented an amazing drawing to me, that you can see underneath. True to her beautiful pen and ink style she created another mysterious picture that reminds me of situations in a dream.
We also had a wonderful time in the kitchen together. She helped me cook the Mother's Day lunch and entertained me with cool music from her iPod. I wish all Sundays could be Mother's Day... days filled with the creativity and sensuality of making art, cooking food and enjoying each others company.

Fortune Teller Book

I fell in love with this beautiful Italian sheet paper, depicting a suit of vintage playing cards, that we sell at Castle in the Air . I bought several sheets and used some to create a Fortune Teller Accordion Book. I love the look of playing cards and had to investigate on the web. I found out that playing cards originated in China and came to Europe in the 14th century. The earliest versions were often hand-painted works of art. Nowadays vintage playing cards are highly collectible. This web site has a lot of interesting articles on the subject.

Inspirational Paper Art

1. Ferry Staverman is a Dutch artist that creates 3-dimensional objects with cardboard. Her striking paper sculptures seem to be inspired by the natural world and remind us of the organic and complex shapes of sea anemones or fractals. She seems to create shapes that exist in the micro cosmos.


2. Brian Dettmer alters books by carving and cutting away. He never adds to the books, but creates a new context and dimensionality by cutting away and sealing the remainder with varnish for stability. He uses mainly dictionaries, encyclopedias, science text books, as well as old maps, tapes and other out of date media.


3. Michael Velliquette creates dimensional paper collages from colorful cardstock. His work shows off vibrant colors , simple but abundant elements creating a dense and rich pattern structure giving it the look and feel of tribal or folk art.

Belated Anniversary Card Post

I made this paper cut-out for my darling husband Scott to celebrate 17 years of "not getting divorced" (quoting my friend Eric here) on November 3rd 2009. I am looking forward to many more adventures together with him!

Record your dreams

Kozo Arts is selling now this blank accordion book that I designed. I went into production for christmas and make every book by hand. It's size is 5x7 and it has 8 blank panels onto which you could affix some photographs, draw your newest inspirations or record your dreams. The book cost $ 45.00. And once you visit Kozo Arts, you can also stock up on beautiful giftwrap papers and notecards.

Amazing Moth Marblers

Notara from Kozo Arts introduced me to the amazing art of Ingrid Butler of Moth Marblers. Her marbled papers are without a doubt works of art. I have seen my share of beautiful Italien marbeled papers, but Moth Marblers papers stand out for their gorgeous gem-like colors and modern interpretation of this vintage craft.

More hand-made cards

The card's main image is a mother bird and her baby bird in a nest. I copied it out of my old elementary school biology book that I found last year in my dad's basement. It is just the perfect image and I used it on this mother's day card for my mom.

Sometimes it takes a while to get the creative juices flowing and I just mess around. So before I made the actual mother's day card, I had pulled out my hand carved flower stamps and stamped them out on card stock. Then I cut out each stamped image and affixed them on the card shown underneath. I use little double sided sticky foam squares to attach them. This lifts the image of the paper and gives the card some dimension.

Birthday Bliss

Here is a birthday card I made for my friend Ellen.

Inspired by my Asian trip

It's hard being away from my studio for such a long time. I was suffering from art withdrawal. So I assembled some materials and made these collages and note cards.