Open Gate - Weblog of Lisa Cook: Successful Soldering at Valley Ridge Art Studio

Published Artwork

Aimone: Adventurous Scrapbooker
Way cool alternatives to traditional memory books by lots of inventive artists!
Suzanne Simanaitis : Kaleidoscope: Ideas And Projects to Spark Your Creativity
A wonderful compilation of creativity prompts and ideas. Read an article a night for inspiration. I have one article in the book too.
Gabe Cyr: New Directions in Altered Books
Highly recommended! Lots of new artists who work "outside of the box". I have 2 AB spreads in it.
Susan Ure: The Altered Book Scrapbook
Brand new book by Chapelle/Sterling 2006. That is my book on the cover!

Vr_class As you can see from the photo, there were a lot of friendly faces in my class at Valley Ridge Art Studio located in the southwestern part of Wisconsin. Spring has not sprung yet, but bluebirds were sited and the robins were singing!

I want to show you some of the incredible pieces these hardworking people produced over the course of 2 days. Most students were new to soldering, but heck, you would never know it. I don't think I have seen a class of people work so intently and endlessly. My hats off to each and every one of them!
Bonnie made a lovely box with its own set of charms. Would you believe she made a different one the first day and decided that it wasn't "good enough" and so she made this one on the second day? Vr_bonniebox

Husband and wife team, Nina and Pat used their extensive art background to come up with some unique pieces. I love how Pat created a unique bird jump ring for this piece: Vr_pat_birdshell_2

He also formed this triangular tube and went outside and found bits and pieces of nature to capture inside the form.
Vr_pat_tube_2

Nina created several lovely pieces including nature in her work as well.

Vr_nina

Lori was the resident workhorse! She produced an amazing number of tiny charms. Vr_loridecker She admitted she came to the class with lots of pieces ready to solder. She meant business.

Janet created this lovely piece hanging from a small twig.

Vr_janetroell

I am in love with Valerie's work. She created pieces that had a unique voice using stones and other natural objects. I really love to see artists take the basic process and making it their own.

Vr_valerieh