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

Printing on Fabric Class

I spent my Sunday with three lovely and talented ladies in the Studio of the Imagination, which is the class room at Castle in the Air. I had the best time teaching "Printing on Fabric" to this unique group of smart, enthusiastic and very artistic students. I loved how they experimented with the medium, creating new and inspiring treatments with the fabric paints. I can't wait to find the time and stencil a batch of damask embellished linen tea towels myself.

Hand printed T-shirt

I am so excited by my "Printing on Fabric " class at the Castle. So I have been experimenting with stencil cutting and repeat patterns. The result is this beautiful t-shirt, which I hand stenciled.

Butterfly Reliquary (RIP)

Inspired by Ulla Milbrath's Reliquary Class I had a craft date with my friend John McRae and we set out to create our own personal reliquaries. But first of all, you may ask: "What exactly is a reliquary?" Well, according to Wikipedia : "A reliquary (also referred to as a shrine or by the French term châsse) is a container for relics. These may be the physical remains of saints, such as bones, pieces of clothing, or some object associated with saints or other religious figures."
My reliquary is a resting place for a dead butterfly I found on my porch. I initially had placed him on a book shelf to keep him safe, but knew that I had to find a safer and permanent home for him soon. I lined his oval box with crushed velvet and embellished it with vintage gold cord and Dresden paper trim. I also included a poem by Philip Larkin, which reads:
"And the case of butterflies so rich it looks
As if all summer settled there and died"
I wrote this poem with my finest nib in my tiniest hand writing. I closed the box with a window made from mica and soldered the edges close. The size of the oval box is 3 and 3/4 inches by 2 and 3/4 inches.

Fairy Habitat

I had the pleasure to create a Fairy Habitat from one of our Fairy House kits, we sell at the Castle. These kits are a perfect gift for any fairy enthusiast, no matter what age, who likes to be crafty and create. The kits are delivered in a lovely box (decorated with Italian paper - and can be used for storing other important items , once empty of its original contents). Inside youy find a plethora of natural materials, like twigs, reeds, moss, dried mushroom caps, fabric flower and German spun cotton mushrooms, as well as a wooden base and a lovely German Fairy doll. All you need to add is glue and you are on your way to create your own unique Fairy House.

The Mermaid Collection

This summer I created a special jewelry collection for Castle in the Air. Inspired by my co-worker, who suggested that I should make jewelry that the Castle's mermaid (she, herself a creation by John MacRae) would wear, I set out to assembly pearls, watery-pastel colored semi precious stones and cast my own silver sea shell and charms. The result has been displayed and is for sale at The Castle.

Fabric Flower Class with Ulla

In June I took Ulla Milbrath's "Summer Blooms" class at the Castle. I went with my friend Lisa. We had a wonderful time learning to make fabric flowers, which we turned into pins and necklaces. The weeks that followed I couldn't stop wearing my fabric flower necklace - I loved it so much! Check out Ulla's blog with pictures of the other student's creations.

My fabulous dress by Sarah Borruso

I am wearing in this picture the fabulous "Unfolding Dress" by the talented designer Sarah Borruso, who owns the San Francisco fashion label Stars + Ravens. I went to one of Sarah's trunk shows and fell in love with her style: vintage meets modern - very San Francisco. "The unfolding dress" was originaly created in a beautiful silk charmeuse . Knowing how chilly San Francisco and the Bay Area are most of the year, I opted for a light wool as fabric of choice. Sarah made this custom dress for me and I am so delighted with it.
Here I am at Sarah's second trunk show in another fabulous dress she designed. This dress is made of a lovely heavy silk that she hand painted. Her own dress has the same cut, but she cut lots of little slashes into the fabric. Very cool!
Last not least I had to try on her Monika Vitti dress, that sports a sexy opening in the back.

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!

My New Summer Classes At The Castle

Decoupage Glass Plate

Learn the fascinating technique of glass decoupage using a six-inch round plate as the object for embellishment. As part of the class, you’ll learn how to use an Epson printer/scanner as a fabulous tool for collaging. The printer/scanner enables you to preserve your originals, convert them into waterproof images, and easily manipulate the size. Elisabeth will bring hers in for you to experiment with. You’ll learn about the right glue, the preferred paper, and the inks to successfully collage on glass. Fee: $75; includes materials, but feel free to bring in some images of your own (no larger than 8½” x 11” inches). Tuesday, June 22, 6pm–9:30pm Sign up here Printing On Fabric Learn the essential skills for successfully printing on fabric in this one-day intensive class. In the morning, Elisabeth will cover design and the use of transfer techniques that don’t require drawing skills. You’ll use these skills to design and carve your own simple stamp from buttery soft rubber. In the afternoon, Elisabeth will discuss the differences in designing stamps and stencils, then teach you techniques for cutting your own stencils. She’ll also describe how to use both your stamps and stencils on other surfaces, including paper and even walls. There will be plenty of extra fabric for you to practice on and a set of two tea towels for you to take home. Feel free to bring any pre-washed, light colored cotton or linen fabric, such as a set of napkins or a tee-shirt, to stamp. Fee: $95; includes materials.Limit: 10 students. Sunday, August 22, 11am–5pm Sign up here

Valentina's music performance

My daughter had her music performance yesterday. She sang the R'n"B classic "Sitting on the dock of the bay", as well as played the instrumental version of "Hoppipolla" by the Icelandic band Sigur Ros. Sound quality could be better, but I filmed this with my iPhone.


"Sitting on the dock of the bay" by Otis Redding


"Hoppipola" by Sigur Ros

Lovely textures: ruffles and lace

I came across this new Bristish designer Erdem Moralioglu, simply known as 'Erdem'. He is a graduate of the Royal College of Art and won the prestigious Fashion Fringe Award in 2005. I love his use of lace and ruffle to create texture. He also does awesome prints.
On a visit to Bloomingdale's Valentina and I fell in love with this gorgeous ruffly/feathery skirted Diane Von Furstenberg dress, that I included as the last image, because it also plays successfully with texture. Now reading up on Erdem I find out that he worked with Diane Von Furstenberg for a year. They obviously share some design principles.

Valentina would look beautiful in this Diane Von Furstenberg dress. I love the juxtaposition of a simple tee-shirt dress with the ruffly-feathery skirt. On closer inspections we saw that this skirt was created out of many, many narrow leaf shaped , frayed organza pieces - just amazing!

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.