Podcasts about sculpey

264. Simple Ideas for Incorporating Art with Children and Teens with Courtney Sanford   Colossians 3:23 NLT "Work willingly at whatever you do, as though you were working for the Lord rather than for people."   **Transcription Below**   Questions and Topics We Discuss: Can you give us an overview of the seven major forms of art and give an example of ways our children can engage with each? What are the best art supplies to have on hand? As our children grow, why is this helpful in the teen years to have a healthy way to express ourselves and our ideas?   Courtney Sanford is a dedicated wife, and mother who triumphantly homeschooled her three children. With one pursuing a career in orthodontics, another just finishing a master's degree while working in higher education, and the youngest studying computer science at Regent University, Courtney's commitment to their education has yielded remarkable success.   Passionate about nurturing creativity and self-expression, she guides students through captivating art classes, exploring the intersection of imagination and skill. With her background as a graphic designer and experience in studio art, Courtney embarked on a new adventure as an art teacher.    As a multitasking mom, author, artist, teacher, and adventurer, Courtney embodies the spirit of embracing life's opportunities and fostering a love for learning and artistic expression.   Beyond her love for education, Courtney has an insatiable wanderlust. She finds joy in traversing the globe, hosting art retreats, and volunteering at Spiritual Twist Productions: both painting sets, and serving on the board of directors. When time permits, Courtney indulges in spring snow skiing, hiking in exotic locations, and leisurely walks with her dog, Zoey.   Delightful Art Co. was born out of a time when life gave Courtney a handful of lemons, and she creatively transformed those lemons into refreshing lemonade. The Covid shutdown rather forcefully prompted a major shift from in-person art classes to online classes.    Courtney's Website   Thank You to Our Sponsor: WinShape Marriage   Other Episodes Mentioned: 202 Simple Ways to Connect with Our Kids And Enjoy Breaks with Beth Rosenbleeth (Days with Grey) 223 Journey and Learnings as Former Second Lady of the United States with Karen Pence   Continue the conversation with us on Facebook, Instagram or our website.   Gospel Scripture: (all NIV)   Romans 3:23 “for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,”   Romans 3:24 “and are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus.”   Romans 3:25 (a) “God presented him as a sacrifice of atonement, through faith in his blood.”    Hebrews 9:22 (b) “without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness.”    Romans 5:8 “But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”    Romans 5:11 “Not only is this so, but we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation.”    John 3:16 “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.”   Romans 10:9 “That if you confess with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.”    Luke 15:10 says “In the same way, I tell you, there is rejoicing in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents.”   Romans 8:1 “Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus”   Ephesians 1:13–14 “And you also were included in Christ when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation. Having believed, you were marked in him with a seal, the promised Holy Spirit, who is a deposit guaranteeing our inheritance until the redemption of those who are God's possession- to the praise of his glory.”   Ephesians 1:15–23 “For this reason, ever since I heard about your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love for all the saints, I have not stopped giving thanks for you, remembering you in my prayers. I keep asking that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father, may give you the spirit of wisdom and revelation, so that you may know him better. I pray also that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you, the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints, and his incomparably great power for us who believe. That power is like the working of his mighty strength, which he exerted in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly realms, far above all rule and authority, power and dominion, and every title that can be given, not only in the present age but also in the one to come. And God placed all things under his feet and appointed him to be head over everything for the church, which is his body, the fullness of him who fills everything in every way.”   Ephesians 2:8–10 “For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith – and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God – not by works, so that no one can boast. For we are God‘s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.“   Ephesians 2:13 “But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far away have been brought near through the blood of Christ.“   Philippians 1:6 “being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.”   *Transcription*    Music: (0:00 – 0:09)   Laura Dugger: (0:10 - 1:36) Welcome to The Savvy Sauce, where we have practical chats for intentional living. I'm your host, Laura Dugger, and I'm so glad you're here.   I am thrilled to introduce you to our sponsor, WinShape Marriage.   Their weekend retreats will strengthen your marriage, and you will enjoy this gorgeous setting, delicious food, and quality time with your spouse. To find out more, visit them online at winshapemarriage.org. That's W-I-N-S-H-A-P-E marriage.org. Thanks for your sponsorship.   Courtney Sanford is my guest today, and she's an amazing artist and teacher and author, and I'm just so excited to share this conversation. If you're like me and you're ready for summer and your rhythm changes with your kids, she's going to share some super practical tips for incorporating art and beauty into our homes.   And I think that you're going to conclude this conversation by knowing where to begin and understanding why it matters. Here's our chat.    Welcome to The Savvy Sauce, Courtney.   Courtney Sanford: Thanks for having me.    Laura Dugger: I'm so excited to hear more about your story, so will you share what has led you into the work that you get to do today?   Courtney Sanford: (1:37 - 4:20) I sure do like to share that story. I didn't start off as a homeschooler. I didn't imagine that that would be where my life went, but I was always a creative person.   I was a graphic designer, and I worked in the Performing Arts Center, and I got to do lots of fun design for shows. Then along came kids. I actually enjoyed dropping them off at school and going to Target, and I was okay with that.   We didn't do public school because the school near me didn't look safe, and we had lived near Columbine High School and thought it was just a beautiful, beautiful school. And when we left Colorado, we thought, oh, isn't it sad that our kids won't go to school there? And then just about a month later, the whole Columbine shooting happened, and so we were kind of traumatized by all of that.   And then when I saw the school that my precious five-year-old would go to, it didn't look safe, and so we sent them to a private school. So here we are spending a lot of money, having high expectations, and the kids were doing all worksheets all the time, and they started to dread going to school, and they didn't love learning, and the excitement of learning just kind of drained out of them. And so we looked into other options and decided that homeschooling would be the way to go, and I found the classical model and just loved the way that sounded, and we tried it, and it worked, and the little lights just came back on in their eyes, and they started to love learning again.   And I just found my people, and I just learned everything I could about homeschooling, and I just poured myself into it wholeheartedly as unto the Lord. And had a great time, and I just loved my time with my kids, and I felt like it was successful, and I encouraged other people to do it, but I wasn't really sure that it worked until they got into college and they turned out to be successful, thriving humans, and we're really proud of them. One will be a doctor in about a month.   He's about to graduate. He has a wife and a little girl, and then my second one has her MBA, and she works for a Christian college where she leads trips, and she's getting ready to take a group to Paris and London, and so she kind of ministers to students through that, and then my youngest is still in school staying to be a software developer. So now I can confidently say it was worth all the energy that I put into it.   It was hard work, probably the hardest thing I've ever done, but so worth it.   Laura Dugger: (4:21 - 4:40) That's incredible, and I love hearing the success story where your children are now, but you really also inspired them with beauty and art in their learning and growing up time, and I'm curious, are there any personal lessons that the Lord has taught you through art?   Courtney Sanford: (4:41 - 6:32) Oh, goodness. Yeah, I think my desire was to make learning interactive because I saw what they were doing in the private school, which was sit in a chair all day and do your worksheets, and it was just worksheet after worksheet after worksheet and then a quiz, and then you get graded, and so I was thinking if I'm going to pull them out, I've got to do better than that, and so that was my standard, and I was going to beat that standard every day, and so I pulled in art because that's what I knew, so if we were learning about an animal, we would draw the animal. If we were learning about a continent, we would draw the continent until we could draw it from memory, and I really learned with them. I did not have a great elementary education or even high school education, so I would learn this stuff, and then I would think of creative ways to get them involved with it, so a lot of times it was drawing.   It could be painting. It could be making things out of clay. We used to make things out of Rice Krispie Treats, and then they could take it to their co-op group.   Well, it was a classical conversations group, but they do presentations, and so we made a Mayan temple out of Rice Krispie Treats, and we would make volcanoes, and then they could take it to their friends and share it with them and tell them about it, so anything I could do that would get us out of the chair using our hands and using our senses and think, you know, how can I incorporate all five senses, and that just made learning so much more fun for them and for me, and so a lot of it was art. Some of it was science.   Anytime I could incorporate a sense of play into what they were learning, I could see that they would learn so much more.   Laura Dugger: (6:32 - 6:55) I love that, trying to incorporate all five senses, especially. That gets some ideas coming, but can you even back it up, and because you're an artist, will you give us an overview of the seven major forms of art, and can you give us examples as parents for ways that we can engage our children with each of those?   Courtney Sanford: (6:56 - 10:58) Oh, sure. Let me think. All right, so drawing, of course, you can draw what you see, so when I teach students to draw, I do a progression, so we'll draw from line art, and you can find line art anywhere.   It might be in a children's book, so using the library was key for me, so I'd get a laundry basket, and I would go to the library with an index card of what we'd be studying, and I would grab all kinds of books related to that, so when you come home, you get out a kid's book. If you see a good line drawing, say you're studying a lizard, if you see a good line drawing, draw from that. They could even trace it to start with, so you draw from the line drawing, then once they get really confident with that, you go to drawing from photos, and then you go to drawing from real life, so maybe you have a fish tank.   Maybe there's a fish in the fish tank, and you could draw from that or draw things in your yard, so that is how I break down drawing for them, and it could be years. You could draw from line art for years before you go to drawing from photos, and then to drawing from real life, and drawing's great for learning to memorize things. For painting, painting's just fun, and so I like to go to the kitchen table every afternoon and paint what you see, so you start off with the younger kids.   You could start with color and markers and fill in the areas, and then you can teach them how to shade using painting. Sculpture is also fun with kids. I like air-dry clay, and I like Sculpey clay.   I like to get a one-pound block of Sculpey clay and teach them the basic forms, like roll out a snake, do your hands together. Those of you who are listening, you can't see my hands, but I am making a sphere with imaginary clay. These are really good for developing their fine motor skills, too.   We also make the letters out of roll-out snakes and form your letters. That will really help if they're reversing letters. It takes a while to build the whole alphabet, so maybe you do three or four letters a day.   You work on it a couple times a week. It might take a month to make the whole alphabet, but that can be one goal, to get them working in three dimensions. We usually do additive sculpture, like adding on, and you can use found objects to make sculptures.   One time, my son took apart a pen. I rearranged the pieces into a human shape, and it was lovely. Getting them thinking in three dimensions is related to sculpture.   Carving, I don't like to do until they're old enough to be safe with a knife, but once they are, especially the boys love to go outside in the yard and get a log. They spend a lot of time carving spoons. Just a simple shape they can hold in their mind and then carve it is a good activity.   It keeps their little hands busy, too, if you want to read aloud to them and you don't mind a little mess in the house, they can carve. You can also carve out of a bar of soap as well. For that, that's a subtractive sculpture technique.   Let's see. That's the three main ones, drawing, painting, sculpture. I know film is one.   Film, I don't really incorporate much into my homeschool, except we will occasionally watch a movie about history. That has gotten me into trouble a few times because some of those movies that I think are going to be historic turn out to have racy scenes in them, and I'll have to jump up and get in front of the TV or cough really loud. But there are some good films that you can watch together as a family.   That's about as far as I went with film.   Laura Dugger: (10:59 - 11:19) I would, if you don't mind me interrupting there, too. I feel like that's one that our girls have actually begun to develop on their own, where our eldest daughter once wanted a video camera, so she got the old-school video camera. They're making their own movies, and I've seen that as a form of creative, artistic play.   Courtney Sanford: (11:20 - 11:49) Oh, that's fabulous. Yes, so when my kids were little, we didn't even have phones or video cameras on the phones, so that wasn't an option. When we first started homeschooling, our TV died, and so we did not even have a TV for years.   We just decided not to replace it, which forced us into audiobooks and reading aloud and then just playing outside instead and reading books. So that was a blessing.   Laura Dugger: (11:49 - 12:03) I love that because that's one of the other forms. That was new to me, that literature is an art form. Sorry, I sidetracked you because we still have literature, architecture, theater, and music.   Courtney Sanford: (12:04 - 14:20) Yeah, I think the best thing that we did for our kids, of course, I love teaching them to write using Andrew Pudewa's method with IEW. It's kind of imitative writing, so you learn to imitate good writers. But also, my husband read aloud to the kids every single night.   That was his time with him. He gave me a break, and he would read for hours. He loved it.   The kids loved it. And he would choose classics or funny things, you know, science fiction. Probably not the books that I would choose.   I would choose classics and things related to what we were studying, but he chose what he wanted to read. So I would read aloud in the afternoons, and we would do audiobooks like Story of the World and all the Jim Weiss readings. And then he would read aloud at night.   And just whatever he wanted to choose, he would read aloud. And I think hearing good language produces good speakers and good writers. So he gets about 50 percent of the credit for the success of the kids, I think, for just reading aloud every night.   It was such a great thing to do for the kids. And then the last one, architecture. I do incorporate architecture when I'm teaching about a culture.   So, if we're doing art history or history, we'll look at the buildings. So, of course, you do that with ancient Egypt. You look at the pyramids.   When you're talking Old Testament times, you look at the tents. And then as I go through art history with the high schoolers, I'll point out more and more like neoclassical, of course, comes from the ancient Greeks, but it's come to symbolize power and authority. And that's why we see it in government buildings.   So, my degree is graphic design, but it was in the School of Architecture. So, I had a lot of history of architecture and I appreciate it. And so I'm always pointing that out to my kids.   And I do that in my class, in my art history class. I always incorporate the architecture just as a part of understanding a culture.   Laura Dugger: (14:21 - 14:29) I love that. And was there anything specific that you did with your kids for encouraging music or also theater?   Courtney Sanford: (14:30 - 15:29) Oh, yeah. One thing I wish I had done more of was kinder music. I don't know why we didn't do that much kinder music, but now I'm learning more about it.   I wish I had done more of that. And I did put them in piano lessons. One wanted to do violin.   So, they had a few years of learning the basics of music, and then they really got into theater. We have a great Christian youth theater nearby. And so that was a really good experience.   In their Christian youth theater, they would sing praise and worship songs before and during and after a play. They would be praying for the audience and singing worship songs in addition to the singing on the stage. And that whole experience was really good for them.   Even my quietest kid got a big role in a play one time, and he had to memorize a lot of lines and sing in front of people. It's just such a great experience for them.   Laura Dugger: (15:30 - 15:57) I would think so. Even if they don't choose something that we would consider a very artistic career, I can see why all of this is still beneficial. That leads me to another question for you.   Regardless of the way that all of us parents listening are choosing to educate our children, why is it still beneficial for all of us to incorporate art into our homes and into our parenting?   Courtney Sanford: (15:58 - 21:59) That's a great question. So, the first line of the Bible says God created. So, the first thing we learn about God is that he was creative.   He created everything. And then just a few lines later, it says then he created man in his own image. So that tells me that we were created to be creative, to create.   Now, he doesn't let us create stuff out of nothing like him, which is probably for our own good. That would be a mess. But we can create things out of what he created.   And there is a study done by George Land. And there's a video on YouTube of George Land giving a talk about this creativity study that he did. And he created a test for NASA to help them find creative engineers when they were trying to get to the moon.   And they used it to study creativity in children. And they tested five-year-olds. So, they found a group of 1,600 five-year-olds who were in school.   And when they tested them at five years old, 98% of them tested as creative geniuses. So, their plan was to go every five years and test them again just to see what was going on. So, they went back after five years.   The kids are now 10. And it dropped down to like 27%. They went back another five years when the kids were 15, and it was down to about 17%.   And then they were so depressed, they stopped testing them because they could see they began as very creative. So, we're created creative. And a lot of moms will say, yes, I can see that in my children.   But something happens. And this was all in school. Something happened during school that taught them to not be creative.   So, the school teaches the kids to be obedient, to sit still, and to get the same outcome from every kid. Right? There's an expected answer on every test.   And you're to try to get the answer that the teacher wants. That's not creative. So, the first thing to do to preserve their creativity is don't send them to school.   That's the safest bet. And then when you do homeschool them, which I think is the best environment for them, don't do what they do in school. To bring them home and to go to all this trouble just to do the same thing that they're doing in school is not worth the trouble.   So, you've got to not do what they're doing in school. And so, for me, that meant don't do worksheets, make the content interactive. So, I did rely on curriculum, but I didn't rely on the curriculum to be the teacher.   So, I get the content from the curriculum, and then I make it interactive using artistic, creative skills so that they can be creative. And I don't teach it out of them. So, if you have young kids, that's good news.   They're already creative. You just have to don't teach it out of them. If your kids are older and maybe they've been in school, then you might have to like undo some of that training and set up some experiences where you ask them or even like in my classes, I'll set up a challenge.   And I expect everyone's to be different because everybody's going to do it a little bit more creatively in their way. And so, at the end of class, instead of like calling out the answers to see if everybody got the same thing, they're holding up what they did and telling me what they were thinking. And everybody's is different.   And then I really praise the ones who did something different. Maybe they changed the colors. Maybe they put glasses on Mona Lisa.   You know, maybe they gave her a cat to hold. So, I reward thinking outside the box. Now to to pour in beauty, and I think I might have heard this from Charlotte Mason, beauty in, beauty out.   So, you've got to load them with beauty. Now, I think that we were naturally drawn to beauty and people will argue with me about this. They'll say, well, beauty is in the eye of the beholder.   But I betcha I could find something that's beautiful and do a survey. And I betcha I could get 100% of people to say, yes, that's beautiful. And I could find something else, maybe a Hindu goddess sculpture.   And I could find something that 100% people would say that is not beautiful. And so, I think that ingrained in some of us because we're created by God, I think we have a sense of appreciating beauty. I do think that it gets taught out of a lot of people.   So, with my kids, I show them a lot of beauty. And this can be as simple as get a coffee table book from the secondhand bookstore on art and put it on your coffee table. Get books from the library and have lots of beautiful things to look at.   And so, when I now when I was teaching my own kids, this is kind of a fly by the seat of my pants. Make it up as I go. Now that they've left home and I can think about it, I'm putting together books that are a little bit more thoughtful.   So, in my books, you will see I've chosen a piece of art that is beautiful and I will pair it with the lesson. And then I'll give you an art activity. So, for example, in Into the Woods, you'll see I've chosen a beautiful piece of art and I paired it with a poem, which is another piece of beauty.   Yes. And then I'll give you an art lesson so that they can get creative with it as well. So, it is this hard to pull it together.   So that's why I'm making books to help parents. So, you have something beautiful and something to do with it. And so, that's how I pour in beauty to give a beauty in beauty out.   Laura Dugger: (21:59 - 22:36) I love that so much. And just even holding this resource, it is so beautiful. There's so much to it.   When it arrived, our daughters were delighted to go through it and to dive in and get to learn. But I'm just thinking many listeners are fellow homeschool parents and also many are not. But I don't want them to be discouraged because I'm even thinking of your courses or if they do intentional art in the evenings or on weekends or summer break and winter break.   There are still ways for all of us to incorporate this.   Courtney Sanford: (22:36 - 24:28) Yes, for sure. Yeah. Even so, my mom, I was public school.   And of course, the word hadn't been invented back then, but my mom appreciates art and poetry and she would always have art books on the coffee table. And I would just stop and, you know, in my free time, flip through the pages. And those images stuck with me my whole life.   She had one that had a Monet on the cover of the Field of Red Poppies. And that was just ingrained in my mind as a piece of beauty. So just something as simple as putting it out on your coffee table.   She also took us to museums whenever we traveled. And she didn't make a big lesson out of it, but I was exposed to beautiful buildings. You know, most museums are in beautiful buildings.   You see the beautiful architecture. And I was exposed to a lot of art that way. So, that was that totally goes with which with summer vacations and your vacations to, you know, make an effort to see a gallery or an art museum when you're traveling.   That makes a big difference. It'll make an impression on them. And of course, the books you could do in the summer.   We have summer classes and we have an art retreat that might not line up with school because it's in May. But the books you could for sure add on. Hopefully someday we'll have evening classes so that you could go to school.   We've got some this coming year that will start at four o'clock. So, hopefully some kids can go to school and come home and join an art class. So, we're working on getting it out as we as I get teachers willing to.   Most of my teachers are homeschool moms, too. And by the end of the day, they're tired. So, I've got a few.   I've got a young lady who's just graduating and she's going to do some late afternoon ones for us next year. So pretty excited about that.   Laura Dugger: (24:28 - 25:04) I love that. And then even thinking of the beauty and beauty out stepping outdoors. There's so much beauty in God's creation and so much change depending on where you live throughout the seasons.   But I love how you also brought up the library, because anytime I'm trying to learn something new, that's my first go to is put books on hold at the library. And so, if we're wanting to know what to add to our library cart just to get us started into this, can you share books that you recommend, both yours and others that you think would be good additions?   Courtney Sanford: (25:05 - 26:19) Oh, that's a good question. Yes, there are. I love to think about the biographies of artists.   And if so, if you're studying ancient history, you could look up a biography on Giotto. And they're still tell the stories in such a nice, kid friendly way. Like there's the story of Giotto.   He was actually watching the sheep. And while he was out in the fields, he would draw on the sides of rocks like big rocks. But you get another rock and you would draw on the sides of rocks.   And another artist was walking through one day and he saw these drawings on the rocks. He was like, wow, you're really talented. Come with me.   I'll make you an apprentice. And those stories are just they're fun to read together and hear those kinds of stories. And of course, the Usborne books of art are beautiful and they often have projects for the kids to do.   I can't think of any specific ones, but I do love a short paperback on the particular artists. And so, I kind of line those up along with the period in history that we're studying.   Laura Dugger: (26:20 - 26:32) That's great. And even you're making me think of picture book biographies on artists. We've always enjoyed those as well.   Obviously, the illustrations are fantastic, too, but the storylines are so interesting.   Courtney Sanford: (26:33 - 27:23) Yes. So, I just grab whatever they have. I had a big laundry basket.   And and I know card and I just grab whatever I could find and sometimes let the kids choose. And sometimes I would choose. If you're going with geography, you can find beautiful photos of the different areas.   See the landscapes or the sunsets. And that can through photography. And you can really get to know a place through beautiful photographs.   I like that part, too. And then that might inspire a pastel drawing of a landscape. Maybe it's a beautiful sunset you could recreate with pastels.   So, photography books are really inspirational, too.   Laura Dugger: (27:23 - 28:10) It's a great idea. And circling back, you had mentioned Andrew Pudewa earlier in our conversation. And I remember learning from him that with writing, the worst way we can teach our children is to say just free write, just write something down or here's a prompt to finish this sentence because better writing comes through imitating.   And so, you've even mentioned tracing is a great way to start. That's not cheating in art if you're not stealing credit from them. But if you're just practicing and tracing, this is a way to imitate.   And so, I'm wondering, do you have any other cautions for ways that may be the wrong way to introduce our kids to art?   Courtney Sanford: (28:11 - 30:50) I agree that. Yeah, you can get writer's block. What I find funny is that some people are so afraid to imitate artists.   But if I were teaching piano, I would teach your kid how to play something by Bach in which he would learn what Bach did. And nobody would say I'm stealing from Bach. You know, and you learn to play Beethoven by playing Beethoven and you you learn to reproduce those pieces of music.   I do the same thing in art. We look at what the masters did and we'll copy it in order to learn what they knew. And that way we build.   We're like standing on the shoulders of giants. So, we don't want every kid to have to start with inventing the wheel themselves. We'd never get very far.   We want to learn what the masters knew and then build on that. So, I do a lot of imitation. And then as the students ready, I let them know you are free to change this or to experiment with it.   So just last week we were drawing and painting red poppies and learning about Georgia O'Keeffe. And so, I said we can do an imitation of her poppy. And I'll show you step by step how to reproduce her poppy.   And in doing that, we're going to cause us to look more closely at it and study her blends. Like she would blend from yellow to orange to red in every petal. And we can study that technique.   And then as we do it and we practice it, we look more closely at hers and it kind of becomes a part of us. And then we'll find another flower and we'll use that same technique on a flower that we choose. Or maybe it's a flower we make up and we take that technique and we can apply it.   And it's a much better way to learn than trying to learn it yourself without looking at what the masters did. So, I think that I think I pulled a lot of that from Andrew Pudewa. The idea of I'm going to assist you until you say I got this.   I can do it from here. So, I do assist until they get it. And then I always say whenever you're ready, as soon as you're ready, change it and make it your own or do your own thing.   And because turning them loose too soon can break their confidence. So, you want to build them up until they can confidently experiment on their own.   Laura Dugger: (30:51 - 32:34) Let's take a quick break to hear a message from our sponsor. I'm so excited to share today's sponsor, WinShape Marriage, with you. WinShape Marriage is a fantastic ministry that helps couples prepare, strengthen, and if needed, even save their marriage.   WinShape Marriage is grounded on the belief that the strongest marriages are the ones that are nurtured, even if it seems like things are going smoothly. That way they'll be stronger if they do hit a bump along their marital journey. Through their weekend retreats, WinShape Marriage invites couples to enjoy time away to simply focus on each other.   These weekend retreats are hosted within the beautiful refuge of WinShape Retreat, perched in the mountains of Rome, Georgia, which is just a short drive from Atlanta, Birmingham, and Chattanooga. While you and your spouse are there, you'll be well-fed, well-nurtured, and well-cared for. During your time away in this beautiful place, you and your spouse will learn from expert speakers and explore topics related to intimacy, overcoming challenges, improving communication, and so much more.   I've stayed on site at WinShape before, and I can attest to their generosity, food, and content. You will be so grateful you went. To find an experience that's right for you and your spouse, head to their website, WinShapeMarriage.org.  That's W-I-N-S-H-A-P-E Marriage.org. Thanks for your sponsorship.    Well, and as parents, once we're past the resistance to maybe invest some of our time or our money or allow the mess into our home, but if we push past through that and we're ready to get started, I'd love to go over some practical tips.   So, Courtney, first, just what are some great art supplies to have on hand?   Courtney Sanford: (32:36 - 37:13) A number two pencil and some Crayola markers you probably already have. Those are great tools. I like to have my kids work in an art journal, and you can get these real inexpensive at Michael's.   It'll say on the cover, mixed media art Journal, and they come in different sizes. I kind of like the big ones, and that will allow you to use paint, pencil, and marker or anything you want. If it says sketchbook, it's not going to hold up to paint very well.   So that's why I get the mixed media paper. So, I start with the art journal, and then I like to make that journal be their book on a subject. So right now, I'm doing ancient history with some kids, and so they are making their own book about ancient history.   So, every week we'll do a drawing or a painting or watercolor on a lesson in ancient history. And so, each piece is not a masterpiece to hang on the wall. Each piece is a part of the story in their book.   That takes all the pressure off. So, they don't see this as, I don't know if this is going to be good enough to hang on the wall. That's not even a question.   It's a part of the story in your book. They can also take some notes. They can show their grandparents and review the topic by presenting it to their grandparents and showing off their book.   And then you can collect their books and put them on a shelf. It's not all over the house making you crazy. And then you can see from year to year how their skills have improved.   So, I kind of like every year I like pick a topic to be the subject of our art journal. So, I call it arts integrated learning. So, I'm pairing an academic subject with art for that year.   So, it could be poetry. It could be history. It could be science.   Whatever you pick. That's what you'll add to your art journal with.   Pencils. I like blending tools too. There are some people call them stompies.   For those of you who are watching. Here's one. It's just rolled up newspaper, but you can buy these at Michael's.   They're really cheap. But it takes a drawing to the next level. You can just blend things out and shade things really lovely.   Mark Kistler does some videos and teaches you how to. He'll go shade, shade, shade. And so that's a good way to start.   And it really elevates a drawing and it gives them a lot of confidence. And then of course the good eraser. The book drawing with children is a really good one for our parents to read and then teach from in that book.   They suggest you have them draw with markers so that they don't spend an hour erasing. If you have someone who's a perfectionist, they will make one mark and spend 20 minutes erasing it. And so, if you go right to drawing with markers, that's gonna teach them to make a good mark first and then keep going and not spend half an hour erasing.   When I get to age nine or 10, I like to use acrylic paints, but I only buy four colors of paint and then I make them mix all the other colors. So, we use yellow, magenta, blue, and white. Those are like the colors in your printer.   Cyan, magenta, and yellow are the ones in your printer. And those colors can make all the other colors. Now your printer has black, but I don't give kids black.   Instead of black, they could make purple or brown or dark color. So, you know, you teach them how to mix the colors that they want. They'll learn to mix it because they want green or they want purple, or they want brown.   And then they develop a sense of color theory, and you don't even have to teach it. They'll figure it out because they want those colors. If they find, if, if you don't feel confident in that, you can buy craft colors of the specific colors, especially brown.   That's a hard one to mix. But I do like the coverage of acrylic paints. I like watercolors too.   That's a little bit easier to get into. You just take it slow and practice a lot. So that's really all you need.   It's pretty simple.   Laura Dugger: (37:14 - 37:27) Well, and I'm wondering too, even with the acrylic paint at that age, once they're older, that one, I'm assuming can stain. So are there any tips that you have for containing the mess?   Courtney Sanford: (37:28 - 38:32) Yes, I get, and they're a little bit hard to find. So go to Amazon and find a, a tablecloth that is plastic on one side and felt on the other side. I forget what you call it, but there'll be like picnic tables, tablecloths.   And the plastic ones are going to drive you crazy because they're too thin. So, if it's flannel backed, it's a little bit thicker. So I get a white one at the beginning of the year.   And that comes out anytime we do clay or paint, and it goes over the kitchen table and I don't worry about cleaning it. You just let it dry, fold it up. And I put mine in the China cabinet right there by the table.   And then anytime we do something messy, that tablecloth comes out and, and then just fold the mess back up in it. And it works, it works really great to, and then you might, if you're, if you're a neat freak, maybe plan on buying one at the beginning of every school year so that you get clean slates. And then the paint that gets onto the tablecloth is actually lovely and it'll be pretty next time you get it out.   Laura Dugger: (38:33 - 39:11) Oh, I love that. That's a genius tip. I appreciate that for coming indoors because in the summer, I guess we could take it outside depending on where we live.   But then what about any hacks for finding the time to do this? And I guess I'm thinking back to a previous episode with Beth Rosenbleeth. She's the one who started Days with Grey and she would talk about different art prompts that she would set out for her children in the morning for a variety of ages.   But were there any things that kind of required minimal time from you, but had maximum return for your kids?   Courtney Sanford: (39:11 - 41:06) Yeah, that's a good point. I had, I wouldn't say I had a strict schedule, but I had a pattern to my days. And the time after lunch was a good time to do messy things in the kitchen because we were in the kitchen anyway.   And as I could clean up lunch and start dinner, I could be in the kitchen with them and they could be creative at the kitchen table with minimum involvement from me. One of my best afternoons was we had the microscopes out to do something specific and I left it out as I was cooking chili. And as I cut up each ingredient, I would cut a thin slice for them to look at under the microscope.   And so they were looking at a bell pepper and a red pepper and celery and tomato. And they were so, they so enjoyed that and I was able to cook dinner at the same time, which was fabulous. And that turned, it was probably like a 15-minute science lesson into like four hours of discovering things under the microscope.   So that element of play and you can do that with your art supplies too. Like I'll demonstrate a technique and then leave it out. I'll turn my attention to cooking dinner while they see what else they can do with it.   And, um, you know, I'll give them a few tips. Like, um, if you mix these three colors together, you're going to make brown and then turn your back and let them discover it for themselves. So, um, I'm a big crock pot person.   And so after lunch would be the time I need to clean up lunch and put something in the crock pot. So that would be a good time for me to get them started on art or science and, um, and then turn my back and let them have that, um, that discovery time without me hovering or telling them what to do or something.   Laura Dugger: (41:06 - 41:22) Oh, that's a great rhythm. I love these ideas. And then I kind of want to go in chunks of age.   So, thinking of little kids, how would you define the difference between a piece of art and a craft?   Courtney Sanford: (41:23 - 43:41) Yeah, a craft is going to be something where the focus is on following directions and that's important. They need to learn how to follow directions. And so we would do, especially around the holidays, I might do a craft and we all follow directions.   Um, a piece of art is going to be where they're, they all come out different. They're allowed to play and express themselves. Um, for me personally, if I'm doing a craft when I'm done, I think, oh, I could make 50 of these and sell them.   If it's an art, when I'm done with a piece of art, like one of these paintings behind me, when I'm done with that, I'm thinking I could never do that again. That took so much out of me. I'm exhausted.   A little piece of my soul is in that that's art. That's the difference. Um, so I don't sell my paintings because there's a little piece of my soul in, um, my husband makes fun of me for that.   He's like, you could just sell your paintings. They're like, what? They're, they're like my babies.   I can't, I can't part with them. It took so much out of me to create them. Um, but a craft, yeah, I'll just give away things that are, that I just followed directions for, um, in terms of kids, younger kids will enjoy crafts, but getting to high school, they recognize it as slave labor and they don't want to do that.   They are in what the classical education people call the, the, um, poetic stage, you know, they want to express themselves and they want to be unique. I think this is why they get tattoos. The tattoo is a way of saying this is who I am.   This is what it means to me. I'm unique. Um, so I think if we don't teach them to express themselves in art, they're going to get tattoos.   So that might encourage moms to, to give them the skills so that they can express themselves. You know, they need to be able to write poetry or write songs or paint a painting or do a drawing. There's that need inside of us to do that that God put in us.   And if they don't have an outlet, then they're going to find something like tattoos or something that we don't want them to be doing. Yeah. I mean, some of my kids are tattooed.   It's not bad.   Laura Dugger: (43:42 - 44:25) Well, and you've kind of answered a follow-up question I had because we talked about little kids, but I'm thinking of teens. So going back, my background is in marriage and family therapy, and we would encourage everyone that journaling is a free form of therapy. But I think of art as the same way.   And there's even studies that show when you're engaged in something artistic, the critical side of your brain goes offline. So you can't think negative thoughts while you're creating something new, but with teens, there's that added benefit of getting to express themselves. So is there anything else with art that you see as basically free therapy for adolescents?   Courtney Sanford: (44:26 - 46:54) Oh, sure. I do see it a lot. I experienced it because I started my business because of the shutdown and because I was teaching in person and then I had to switch to online teaching.   And so, the group that I had moved online and I figured out how to do it and got a little bit better at it. And then that summer I offered a class for adults. These were directors and I was in classical conversations at the time.   And so a whole bunch of teachers are expected to teach Western cultural history without a lot of background. And so some of the moms asked me if I would do my art class for them. And so I had about a group of like 50 adults and we would get on for an hour and a half every day.   And this was at the height of the shutdown when turning on the news, just stresses you out. Going to the grocery store was stressful because people were in masks or they weren't in masks or, you know, we didn't know anything. It was such a stressful time, but that hour and a half that we had together, we, our focus was on discovering a piece of art.   So, we were looking at beautiful things and then we were creating something and that changed our focus from what was going on in the world. And we would just relax, and we'd enjoy it. Having the live class kept our focus on it.   And when I don't have a live class in front of me, I'll be like, oh, I should put the laundry in or I should start dinner and I get distracted. But with that, you know, with other people on zoom, it keeps me focused. And so, we'd have this wonderful hour and a half vacation from the world.   And after it was over, I would just have this sense of peace. And then I'd come down and be like, oh yeah, that's still going on. And it was, it was so good for our mental health.   And, and I get, I hear moms tell me that the hour and a half once a week they spend with me doing art has been such a blessing. Like one student lost her father a year ago and this is helping her. She said she's finally coming out of her depression and she's finding a way to express herself and find beauty again.   And it's, it's been transformative for some students. So, it is a blessing. And I didn't, I didn't read that somewhere.   That's just from my experience. So, I'm a big believer in that.   Laura Dugger: (46:54 - 47:51) I can see why I think you're bringing up two points. I don't want to miss both with art therapy and then also art in community. So art and community first, I think for all of us at any age, what can we do as this is airing probably when everybody's getting out for summertime, how can we gather others alongside of us for whether it's our kids or us as peers to get to engage in these activities together.   And so, I want to follow up with you on that, but also before I lose my thought, I also want to link back to Karen Pence's episode. She had started art therapy for veterans, I believe, and just incredible. The healing that is possible through this.   So, do you have any thoughts Courtney on ways that we can this summer gather together community at different ages and do something artistic?   Courtney Sanford: (47:51 - 52:15) That is a good question. So, we have, I have found the online classes are the easiest for people to get to. And it's I get people ask if we can do it in person, but honestly it's hard to get people out or they're busy.   They're doing things in summer. So, we do offer a class online in the summer that's live. We have recorded classes that you could do alone or get a few people together and, do them together.   I have some sampler packs too. So, some of them are just three lessons. You could get some friends together and find, maybe you could find three, three times during the summer to do.   I have like a Vango sampler pack and a couple of short ones that you could just pay for the video and do with your friends or maybe a mother daughter event. Maybe you do the self-paced class with your daughter. And I've had some seniors, like seniors in high school, do a mother daughter class together and just say, this is such a good time for us to spend a little bit of time together, a little bonus time before they go off to college.   During the school year, we have, I have a watercolor artist friends. She lives near me and she's a professional watercolor artist and she does the class called Bible journaling. And that is a beautiful combination of a devotion and a watercolor time together.   Those are hour and a half classes too. And they meet once a week. And we sometimes we'll have grandmas, we'll have high school students, we'll have mother daughter pairs do it together.   And they actually have a little prayer time, a little study of scripture. And then then Kate teaches them step-by-step how to do a beautiful watercolor and incorporate some hand lettering in it. So that's just a beautiful fun time together.   So I highly recommend her class during the school year. If, if a mom could get away, or if you have a high school daughter to do it together, that is a great experience. And then I have a short version of art history that you could do with friends or your high school daughter.   It's called paint your way through marvelous to behold, which is just 12 lessons that goes through. And that's a variety of drawing and painting. If you wanted to do something like that.   So, lots of things, or you can check out the books. And if you feel confident following step-by-step instructions in a book, you could use the book or a combination of videos and books. If you're feeling kind of like you could lead a art group, you could get the cell page video, watch the video and then do, you know, exactly what I said, do that live with a group.   And if you have any art experience doing that, you could get, probably get, I would like invite all the homeschool moms in your co-op group to get together. And I do some, sometimes I'll go to do a mom's group, do a watercolor or I love to do the milkmaid with moms because the milkmaid is this beautiful painting from the Dutch masters of a woman cooking. She's just pouring milk.   I think she's making bread pudding and it's just so beautiful. It's like, what I think I look like homeschooling. I'm wearing like a long gold gown and those suns coming in and everything's perfect.   I'm like, this is the ideal. This is what I think homeschooling is going to look like. And then I kind of use that painting as a launch pad for painting Delft tiles from the period.   And so sometimes I'll, I'll do that with some homeschool moms because I like to encourage homeschool moms. I know it's hard. And I had some mentors when I was homeschooling that I really appreciated.   So, I'm always happy to, to be the support and be able to say it's worth it. Keep going. I know you're driving a crappy car, but it will be worth it.   And so, the sacrifices you make now totally pay off. And you know, before I know it, my son is going to be homeschooling his daughter. She's seven months now, but it's going to fly by, you know, she'll be four before you know it.   And I'll be teaching her how to paint. I suppose.   Laura Dugger: (52:16 - 53:13) When was the first time you listened to an episode of The Savvy Sauce? How did you hear about our podcast? Did a friend share it with you?   Will you be willing to be that friend now and text five other friends or post on your socials, anything about The Savvy Sauce that you love? If you share your favorite episodes, that is how we continue to expand our reach and get the good news of Jesus Christ in more ears across the world. So, we need your help.   Another way to help us grow is to leave a five-star review on Apple podcasts. Each of these suggestions will cost you less than a minute, but it will be a great benefit to us. Thank you so much for being willing to be generous with your time and share. We appreciate you.    I don't want to miss what website to direct everyone to. If they want to sign up for one of these classes, where's the best place to follow up?   Courtney Sanford: (53:14 - 54:27) Go to delightfulartco.com and on that page, you'll see live classes, self-paced classes, summer retreats. I've done adult retreats before. I'd be open to doing it again if people want to.   So, I have, I would call it private retreats. So, if you want to get a group of women together, maybe somebody has a beach house, I'll come and do the art. It could be a one day, two day, or three-day event.   So that's an option. And we have self-paced classes. So, lots of things to look at.   I have a lot of sample classes on the website too. If you want to drop in and see what they're like. I think there's a how to paint Monet's water lilies is on the site.   You can watch that and see what it's like. Some people are afraid to try an online art class, but we all loved Bob Ross, and we watched him. So, if you can imagine saying, Bob, stop, could you do that again?   That's what my classes are like, and I'll be happy to stop and show you again. And then you can hold up your work at the end and I can give you some feedback. So, I'm like the new Bob Ross.   Laura Dugger: (54:27 - 54:46) There you go. That's wonderful. Thank you for sharing that.   And Courtney, I just have a couple more questions for you. If let's turn it back to parenting. If we want to get started today and we just want next step to get started.   What is an art prompt that we can still try today?   Courtney Sanford: (54:47 - 57:26) I would look at what you're, what, what are you teaching your kids? So, if you're teaching them, maybe you have a library book on the coffee table that you're studying biology. Pull out one thing from that and draw what you see and reproduce that.   Just one drawing a week. And before you know it, you'll have a whole biology book. So, I like to instead of saying parents, you have to add on another course.   You have to add art to everything else you're doing. Slide it into what you're already doing and it will enhance what they remember about that. And it's not like a whole other subject.   So just use art as a tool to help them remember what you want them to learn anyway. So, anything you want them to teach, if you have a photo or a drawing, have them trace it or draw it. I actually another good way to start is if you have little kids and Bible story time, let them draw what you're reading about.   My son loved to do stick figures. So, I have the whole Bible told in stick figures from when I'm from my youngest kid. And it is fabulous, especially like Sodom and Gomorrah.   And, you know, there's a lot of violent stuff. Boys love that stuff. So, he illustrated a lot of the Old Testament because I read it every morning, and he would just draw what he heard me.   I think I was using the Children's Illustrated Bible. So, he had some things to look at. That's another great way to get started.   Just let them look at the story and draw in their own art journal. So, there's so many fun ways you can use it in every subject. I had a mom tell me she read me an email.   She said, my daughter is just blooming in your classes. I wish every subject could be taught with an art journal and a paint palette. And I replied, we're working on it.   We're we've got we've got Latin and art, science and art, literature and art. There's just so many ways to find inspiration and what you're already studying and find the beauty in that subject. So, in our site, our art and biology course, students do a beautiful watercolor of the DNA strand.   And they draw the cell in watercolor. And it's just beautiful. And it helps them remember it and practices their art skills.   So, it's like a two for one. Think of it as a two for one. Take art and put it in another subject.   Laura Dugger: (57:26 - 57:46) I love win wins. That sounds amazing. And Courtney, I just have one final question for you today.   We are called The Savvy Sauce because savvy is synonymous with practical knowledge or insight. And so is my final question for you today. What is your savvy sauce?   Courtney Sanford: (57:47 - 58:15) The beauty, in beauty out, has been kind of my savvy sauce and also as unto the Lord. So, whatever I do, I do as unto the Lord. If I'm homeschooling, I'm teaching biology.   I'm going to do as unto the Lord. I'm not going to hand out a worksheet. I'm going to make it.   I'm going to make it a great experience. So, I would have to say whatever you do, do it wholeheartedly as unto the Lord and not for men.   Laura Dugger: (58:16 - 58:36) What a great place to end. Courtney, you are so inspiring. You've given us great ideas and kind of confidence to get to put this into practice.   Even if we're not artists like you, we're all created in God's image and therefore can be creative. So, thank you for your time and wisdom today. Thank you so much for being my guest.   Courtney Sanford: (58:37 - 58:40) You are sure welcome. I had a great time. It's good to talk to you.   Laura Dugger: (58:41 - 1:02:25) You as well. One more thing before you go. Have you heard the term gospel before?   It simply means good news. And I want to share the best news with you. But it starts with the bad news.   Every single one of us were born sinners, but Christ desires to rescue us from our sin, which is something we cannot do for ourselves. This means there is absolutely no chance we can make it to heaven on our own. So, for you and for me, it means we deserve death, and we can never pay back the sacrifice we owe to be saved.   We need a savior. But God loved us so much, he made a way for his only son to willingly die in our place as the perfect substitute. This gives us hope of life forever in right relationship with him.   That is good news. Jesus lived the perfect life we could never live and died in our place for our sin. This was God's plan to make a way to reconcile with us so that God can look at us and see Jesus.   We can be covered and justified through the work Jesus finished if we choose to receive what He has done for us. Romans 10:9 says, “That if you confess with your mouth Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.” So, would you pray with me now?   Heavenly Father, thank you for sending Jesus to take our place. I pray someone today right now is touched and chooses to turn their life over to you. Will you clearly guide them and help them take their next step in faith to declare you as Lord of their life?   We trust you to work and change lives now for eternity. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.   If you prayed that prayer, you are declaring him for me, so me for him. You get the opportunity to live your life for him. And at this podcast, we're called The Savvy Sauce for a reason.   We want to give you practical tools to implement the knowledge you have learned. So, you ready to get started? First, tell someone.   Say it out loud. Get a Bible. The first day I made this decision, my parents took me to Barnes & Noble and let me choose my own Bible.   I selected the Quest NIV Bible, and I love it. You can start by reading the book of John. Also, get connected locally, which just means tell someone who's a part of a church in your community that you made a decision to follow Christ.   I'm assuming they will be thrilled to talk with you about further steps, such as going to church and getting connected to other believers to encourage you. We want to celebrate with you too, so feel free to leave a comment for us here if you did make a decision to follow Christ. We also have show notes included where you can read scripture that describes this process.   And finally, be encouraged. Luke 15:10 says, “In the same way I tell you, there is rejoicing in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents.” The heavens are praising with you for your decision today.   And if you've already received this good news, I pray you have someone to share it with. You are loved and I look forward to meeting you here next time.

In this episode, Maria Coryell-Martin shares how her passion emerged out of collaborating with scientists to help tell their stories through art.Sponsored by ConceptsThis episode of the Sketchnote Army Podcast is brought to you by Concepts, a perfect tool for sketchnoting, available on iOS, Windows, and Android.Concepts' infinite canvas lets you to sketchnote in a defined area while still enjoying infinite space around it — to write a quick note, scribble an idea or to keep pre-drawn visual elements handy for when you need them most.The infinite canvas lets you stretch out and work without worrying if you'll run out of space. When combined with powerful vector drawing that offers high-resolution output and complete brush and stroke control — you have a tool that's perfect for sketchnoting.SEARCH “Concepts” in your favorite app store to give it a try.Running OrderIntroWelcomeWho is Maria Coryell-Martin?Origin StoryMaria's current workSponsor: ConceptsTipsToolsWhere to find MariaOutroLinksAmazon affiliate links support the Sketchnote Army Podcast.ArtToolkitArt Tool kit on InstagramArt tool kit recommend seriesArt Toolkit NewsletterJuneau Certified Research ProgramBrushmaker storyGet 10% discount at arttoolkit.com with code SKETCHNOTE10 through June 1st, 2023.ToolsAmazon affiliate links support the Sketchnote Army Podcast.All-in-one Zipper pouchPentel water brushesWaterproof penSketchbookSharpie penPentel brush penPelikano fountain pensCopic multilinersHelvetica pencilsRosemary & Co travel watercolor brushescollapsible cupNo-needle syringeBinder clipsRubber bandsPaper toweliPhone miniProcreateTipsUse a timer and set yourself a very small amount of time to do something.Give yourself the opportunity to play with color, what you see, and don't worry about composition.Paying attention to the world and just letting yourself start with notes just to start that attention.Trust the process.Practice not perfection.CreditsProducer: Alec PulianasTheme music: Jon SchiedermayerShownotes and transcripts: Esther OdoroSubscribe to the Sketchnote Army PodcastYou can subscribe to the podcast through iTunes, Google Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music, YouTube or your favorite podcast listening source.Support the PodcastTo support the creation, production and hosting of the Sketchnote Army Podcast, buy one of Mike Rohde's bestselling books. Use code ROHDE40 at Peachpit.com for 40% off!Episode TranscriptMike Rohde: Hey everyone, it's Mike and I'm here with my friend Maria Coryell-Martin. Maria, it's so good to have you on the show.Maria Coryell-Martin: Oh, I'm thrilled to be here, Mike. Thank you so much for having me.MR: You're so welcome. I had an opportunity to work with you on your YouTube channel, I think, was that last year or 2021? I can't remember now. It's so all a blur. We had a blast working together and you popped in mind for this season, and I said I need to have Maria on to talk about the work she's doing because she's a really interesting person. It's gonna stretch our listeners' minds a little bit further, which is always a good thing. Why don't you begin by telling us who you are and what you do?MC-M: Great. Well, my name is Maria and I'm an expeditionary artist and also the founder of Art Toolkit. I wear a lot of hats in my work.MR: Exactly.MC-M: Business owner and artist. The expeditionary art part came first. I've always been passionate about art, science, and education. And using a sketchbook is really how I've interpreted the world, and going out and just nonstop sketching ever since I was really little. I brought a few things to share so those of you who pop over to YouTube later.My father was a scientist and so I grew up really curious about his work and the scientific process. Part of his work brought him to the Arctic. He was studying the formation of sea ice. We grew up with Arctic parkas in the closet, and I remember big maps on the ceiling of my room.His work also brought him to Japan where he was invited to teach. This had a big influence on me because we lived down the street from a brush maker in Tokyo. The brush I'm holding up right now is one that he made out of my own hair before I left when I was, I think 11 years old. I would go up there and paint with him and my mom would help, but we didn't speak much of the same language, but the connecting over art was a really important part of my experience.He made this brush as becoming of age gift for me out of my own hair which he told me was a tradition in Japan. Ever since I was young, I've really known that art has this important place and who I am and how I experience the world, and how I can interact with it. That's where that idea of art as a tool started for me as a tool for communication, for education, for learning, for connecting, and haven't really stopped with that.MR: That's really great. And that's led, of course, to Art Toolkit, which is your business that sells materials that encourage that expeditionary art mindset or activity.MC-M: Yeah. With expeditionary art, I went to Carleton College. I grew up in Seattle, Carleton's in Minnesota, and really enjoyed traveling in part, maybe to get away from some of those Minnesotan winters, but had the opportunity to do some terrific study abroad programs, including the South Pacific, which was an art and printmaking program, Mali, West Africa, to study French and local culture and dialects languages. And took myself on some independent projects.Everywhere I went, the sketchbook again was such a part of what I did and how I experienced the world. After graduating Carleton, I had what's called a Thomas J. Watson Fellowship to travel and paint for a year. The Watson basically funds dreams for unique opportunity for 50 select graduates of this consortium of colleges.My particular dream was to travel to remote regions and paint and learn about how the landscape impacted me and the artists I can meet, how the landscape was reflected through their art. Long story short, I got a lot of practice in painting and traveling, and really my passion emerged outta that of collaborating with scientists whenever possible to help tell their story through art 'cause I've always loved science.The Art Toolkit came because I had this puzzle of traveling with art supplies and needing to keep everything portable. As an artist, part of just who I am is I really like to make things and to try and make things better. I was always tinkering every trip with the tools I had.I'm holding up now my first little watercolor palette I made, which just of out of an Altoids tin. And inside it is Sculpey, which I pushed a pencil in to make little holes and spray paint it. You see, Sculpey is really heavy, and so, it's not really like a backpacking pallet, and it's a little bulky.I thought, "I want stuff to be all in one, what can I do better?" Here's another one. This pallet is out of a Lamy safari pencil box or open box. I used this time little plastic pans that I could glue inside the tin. Some of them I put on magnets and held a lot more colors. It's lighter weight than my old mint tin, but still heavy.I had a trip to Eastern Greenland in 2010 with a walrus biologist. It was just really fun trip. We did a lot of sneaking up on walruses to observe them. The scientists were taking tissue samples, which was a cool process because they basically modified a crossbow to shoot a little tiny metal plug into—like imagine the tip of a pencil, you know? That was hollow.It'd take just a little plug of tissue out of the animal to get a little DNA sample. The walrus were sleeping in the sun, and they would grumble when they got poked. And then they'd fall back asleep, like, not a big deal. But sneaking up on these animals, we'd wear these zipper suits like machinist suits over our big warm gear, and we'd be crawling into sand so we wouldn't scare them.This is where the quantity of gear I had with me was really confronting practicality because I had my camera and an audio recorder and my sketchbook and my trusty watercolor box, but it would wiggle down as I was falling in the sand and keeping track of it felt like a challenge.That was the summer that Art Toolkit really started where I came back and my final watercolor palette that set the stage was this little business card tin, I'd adapted and found, okay, now I've got a pallet that can fit inside a zipper pouch and I can take anywhere a lot easier. I started making them myself with the help of a local company that helped with the pouches and making the little pallets. That was over 10 years ago.MR: Wow. Wow. That's really cool. That's I think the best kind of tools where it's not just something you make up and hope that it fits. It's like you actually field-tested everything to get to the point of like, okay, this is really working. I'm sure you field-tested that little business card thing as well to make sure everything worked. Just your nature, right?When you buy something from that a company or a maker, you take advantage of all that fieldwork that you've done, so you know it's gonna work when you get in that situation, it's not gonna fail you.MC-M: Yeah. I try and solve problems for myself. Then there's a point at which you think, with my work as an expeditionary artist that was around my passion for art, science, and education and wanting to go out, but I kept thinking, hey, I really wanna help share this with others and wanna help inspire and empower others for their own education or their own adventures and just going out.And so, I wanted to make tools to share and then kept making them better. Since then, we've done a lot of adapting to this palette from modifying it and changing the materials. We have them in three sizes. As if that wasn't small enough, we've got this really one size because it's so cute. I really like cute little things. My daughter teases me 'cause I'm always seeing your little cute things. Then we've got one that is about twice as big, but still slim.MR: Pretty thin. Slimness. I've got one of your kits, probably your smallest kit which includes a notebook. It's got a pallet and a water brush, and then it's all inside of a nice, pretty small, like a nylon zipper case. It all fits in there. Yep. Right there.We'll have links to Art Toolkit so you can go—if you're listening and you're not looking at anything, you're in the car or something. When you get to your destination, you can pop up a link and look at the breadth of tools. I think the other thing I like about the way you approach things is, well, of course, you're making tools that are tested and purpose-built 'cause that's really cool.The other thing I like is that you really focus on education. Like, having me on to talk about sketchnoting with people that like your tools or you're always doing stuff and then sharing. I think that's a really big key. It's not just that you're making tools, but you're actually showing them in practice and how to use them. It just makes for a whole integrated way of looking at what you're doing, which is really cool.MC-M: Oh, I'm so glad you appreciate that. It's been just central to our values and then the values now of Art Toolkit, you know, it's grown much beyond just me now about, I don't know what it was now, maybe when my daughter was two or three, she's seven and a half now.I realize I needed help with shipping and assembling and brought my mother-in-law in so to be my shipper, and she's still our primary shipper. Finally, got my husband on, and now we've got a team of about eight folks who work, some full-time, some part-time in making it, but really trying to keep those core values.I just think it's so neat. I get a little thrill when I see people out in the world and I get so inspired by other people's work. I suppose it's a little bit selfish in wanting that inspiration, but then the fun of sharing it and delighting.I tell you, Mike, the words that were mantras for me through the whole pandemic was just community and creativity. It was just like nourishing. I know that was the point where we connected. It's been something that's really grounded me.Well, that's great. I know sketchnote community is in a similar place. We all care for each other and lots of sharing and support and encouragement. The same thing happened for me kinda leaning into that community when the pandemic happened, knowing that there were other people like me that needed a connection, and so, well, let's make stuff, let's provide that.It sounds like you're on a similar path. That's really cool. You talked a little bit briefly about living in Japan with your parents and getting a brush made from your hair. I'm gonna now switch into your origin story. Now, you don't have to go and tell us every detail, we talked a little bit as we prepared for this. What were the key moments in your life that led you to where you're at and maybe some that specifically, I guess, integrated visual thinking into those decisions?I'm sure that living in Japan had a huge impact on the way you thought about visual thinking and observation and the way different cultures are and probably led to your interest in travel. There's probably a bunch of things that it probably influenced. Maybe start from when you were a little girl and became aware of the world and you're traveling with your dad and take us from there.MC-M: That's a great question. A few key moments come to mind. One was, so I've been to Japan four times and the first trip I was in grade school, I think. I don't know if it was summer after third grade or first grade, I can't quite remember.But the sketchbook for me then was just such a direct communication tool because I'd be sitting around with kids and I was out there with my family, but we spent a lot of time with other families and kids of that my parents were meeting and working with. I just remember describing things like, how we got to school. And they'd draw a picture of how they got to school, and I draw a picture of how I got to school or like what we ate.It was such this means of connecting and just like you said, that visual language. That stayed with me because it's brought joy and connection, and just like having conversations through a sketchbook. In high school, I loved art and I did a lot of outdoor education, but I really vividly remember, and I wish I'd grabbed this out of my files to show you, integrating art into my other classes as much as I could.For example, I had a mythology class where we'd have to write or review stories and instead of just, typing up or writing up a report, I put together a little book out of greeting cards, which I like sewed together and drew tiny little cartoon pictures with the whole stories for the whole assignment. Then I stuck in an envelope and gave it to the teacher who really enjoyed it.For me, it was a way of storytelling through art in my own way, and it helped me learn also. Which I think really relates to like the sketch noting of just visual processing and attention. Then another really formative moment was I spent two summers with the Juneau Icefield Research Program in Southeast Alaska.Each was a full summer one as a student in high school and one later coming back to help be a staff and artisan residence. That first summer, especially the ice field was this really stunning environment of rock and ice. Living in this environment, in these little cabins and traveling with a really neat group of people, science-oriented, also learning about field safety, so doing a lot of practice around crevice rescue and skiing and being safe in this place.And I just remember really coming away with, meanwhile, I'm always sketching, that idea of just coming at a subject from different perspectives. As an artist appreciating light and shadow, shapes, this sort of visual vocabulary. Then as a scientist, thinking about the why and asking questions.For example, crevices and why they're forming where they are, these practical elements. Then from this wilderness experience of how to safely navigate it, and travel it. Then also there's this emotional experience of this space that could change dramatically from this really wide-open landscape where you're skiing 10 miles and you can see your destination, but it feels like you're moving at the snail's pace or having the fog come in and all of a sudden, you're on the inside of a ping pong ball.Emotionally can be this entirely different feeling may be from going from this vast spaciousness to just this insular world. That made me just think a lot about how much I enjoy learning all these different aspects, and that's really was brought me to this expeditionary art of art, science, and education.MR: The sense that I'm getting from you to this point is you have a real fascination with layering. It's not enough that you learn, it's not enough that you're observing scientific phenomena, it's not enough that you're experiencing something emotionally, then you're layering on this art layer to try and capture it or express it or explain it. There's all this layering going on from what I hear.MC-M: Yeah. It's really neat when you get to be around people who are experts in those other layers because people of all sorts can just be the most delightful nerds, myself included. They're so passionate about little things that they know so much about, and just find it a delight to connect with those people and try and hear what they know and understand and use art as a jumping-off point to try and share that.MR: It's gotta be interesting to be able to express their nerdery about their specific thing in art, and then they see it and like, "Yeah, you get it." That's right. Maybe you even observe something because you're doing that art that they maybe didn't make those connections or maybe it sort of became clear for them. I imagine that's probably happened.MC-M: Yeah. Yeah.MR: That's really cool. Cool. Well, let's jump into what's the project that you're working on now that you're excited about to bring us right up to the present and share some detail.MC-M: Well, all sorts of projects going on. On the art level that's been something for my personal art practice that comes in and fits and starts now. I had a really lovely residency over the summer in Norway, which was an opportunity just to sink back into some of my painting practice. And so I'm excited to take some of that Norwegian work and develop it into larger paintings.I often like to work in the field, you work really quickly or might be filling up little sketchbooks. Here's an example from little small, just playful sketchbooks. I'm holding up one from some sketches in Alaska I did with a scientist that are—MR: Oh yeah, look at that.MC-M: Very much kind of little storytelling elements of about the project. Then in my studio I like to work on a much bigger scale often to try and catch some of the emotional sense of what I feel. Then on Art Toolkit side, there's all sorts of nonstop projects there, but I really enjoy developing new products and collaborations. I'll have to just share that there's some new paint-filled pallets that we're working on. We've got some variations on—oh, I don't even know if I should say yet, but if you stay tuned to Art Toolkit.MR: You'll find out. Yeah, get on the mailing list.MC-M: This spring, there's some a few things coming out that I'm really excited about.MR: Sweet. That's really great. That's great to hear. You're like me, you got lots of irons in the fire keeping things moving, so that's pretty cool.MC-M: Yeah. Yeah. I will say will be announcing our early spring workshop soon, and that's something I'm excited about too, is getting to connect with other artists who may wanna come and help inspire our Art Toolkit audience.MR: Excellent, excellent.MC-M: We'll have those coming up soon too.MR: Great. Let's switch to tools a little bit. You probably got lots of tools you could show. I guess we do have to remember this is typically about an hour show, so I'll have to cap you a little bit. But maybe you put in the context of someone's listening and they're like, expeditionary art or visualizing nature.Maybe they're in an urban environment and they don't think about nature, but the reality is nature is all around you, birds and trees, and it would be interesting maybe the start observing like, well, what nature is in my urban environment that I could capture? Or maybe I get out of the city and I take a sketchbook or something along.Maybe talk—when we talked before you were able to provide me with a little starter kit to try. Which is really great. Maybe talk about if someone's interested in getting into it, what would be the right tools that they might consider? Maybe that's the way to go about it.MC-M: Well, I think like the sketchbook it's similar to what people say about a camera, that the best camera you have is the one you have with you. The best sketchbook is the one you're gonna be able to have with you. For me, that's where having this little all-in-one zipper pouch of the Art Toolkit, which we offer in two sizes really came in because I just wanted this like no excuses kit.My no-excuses kit is usually the small one. I carry a bigger one when I wanna head out with more goodies and more things to share. But just to be really no excuses. In this kit, one of my favorite things is a water brush. I typically use Pentel water brushes. They're really durable. I find that you don't often clog. Last a long time. If you haven't used a water brush, you untwist the caps, you can fill them with water. Really cold places, you can mix it in with some vodka or gin to help lower the freezing temperature.MR: Your paint freeze.MC-M: Paint freeze. Another perk of the pentel that I like is they're oval, so they're not gonna start rolling downhill as quickly.MR: Fall into a crevasse or something.MC-M: I always find a water brush is handy. The most fundamental, all you need is a pencil or pen and a sketchbook. But I'll show you a little just what is in my kit, I suppose. I like waterproof pen. I often sketch straight with pen because there's just the immediacy of putting your marks on paper, and I really try and embrace practice, not perfection, of not worrying about lines being in the wrong place.If I did something and I stop and measure, I just draw the line where I want it and only color and the lines I want to. It's part of the process. Practice, not perfection is a really big mantra for me. I love a waterproof pen, and depending on where I'm traveling, I might carry one that's—I don't like disposable things in general, but a little Sharpie pen. Sometimes traveling refillable pens can be a little explosive with going over mountain passes or altitude. Another waterproof pen I really enjoy is this Pentel brush pen.MR: I love those.MC-M: A little more like dynamic mark, and they're also waterproof. Then I have a little collection of fountain pens. I'll sometimes carry—this is a little Pelikano fountain pen by Pilot. That's pretty cute and not too expensive too, so if you are not gonna worry about losing it too much. Copic multiliners are another waterproof pen I like. These are kind of a in between, see if I can pop this out. Something that is disposable and reusable. It's got a very large ink cart that you can replace and you can replace the nibs.That's a little variety of pens. I've got pen, water, brush. If I do carry a pencil, I sometimes carry an automatic pencil. This is a little heavy, but—oh, I love these pencils. Mike, they're Helvetica pencils. We have the automatic ones and then we also have just wooden pencils. They're just these gorgeous pencils made in Japan. I have just a gorgeous feel and I'm a real sucker for good aesthetics and I really like their aesthetics.MR: I'm a mechanical pencil fan as well. I keep usually soft lead and like thick. I think I got Faber-Castell, it's like 1.4 millimeter, so it's really super thick. I can show you what that looks like. It's super thick lead and it's soft. If I'm gonna do pencil, I want it to be soft and feel really loosey-goosey. I dunno if that's a technical term, but I tends to like, I can flow around and I don't worry so much. It's not about perfection, so.MC-M: Yeah. Yeah. Oh, this is one I bought years ago with a big lid lead too, that I don't sketch with very much, but I picked it up 'cause it was just so beautiful with a very big lead.MR: I think that's technically called a lead holder. I think it moves beyond a mechanical pencil to lead holder.MC-M: I think that serves it right.MR: The grasping things on it, right?MC-M: A couple other things In my carry-everywhere kit, if I've got enough time, I do really enjoy travel watercolor brushes. A brand that I'm a big fan of and we carry, Art Toolkit is Rosemary and Co. These are made in England by a small family company, not terribly small, they've grown many over the years, but Rosemary still runs the company. They have a whole variety of shapes and sizes, but the big key is that when you're done painting with 'em, you can take it apart and put a cap over the point so that they won't be damaged in transit.To paint with 'em, I carry a little tiny collapsible cup that we offer on Art Toolkit website. I can pour a little water and sit down a minute. Sometimes for my water brush, I carry a little tiny no-needle syringe to squeeze out the water and pop it in my brush. I always carry little extra binder clips, sometimes rubber bands too for wind. They're really useful because you can also clip your palette to your sketchbook. So, if you're out, you can have it on one side and sketch on the other.MR: Got it.MC-M: I do that a lot, sketching standing up, or making sure something won't blow away. Finally, a paper towel to wipe my brush on. The paper towels I use, I've been using these for years and years and years. They're shop towels, blue shop towels that you can pick up at a hardware store. They're just so soft and durable that you tease them out and reuse them. I really like the feel and trying to reuse them.MR: Cool.MC-M: That's what's in my daily carry. For folks getting started, your daily carry can just be as simple as like I said, you know, a pen and a pencil. I think water-soluble pens can be fun with a little water brush just for black-and-white paintings. Just keeping things simple with what feels like you've got space for in your daily bag.MR: Well, I've got my little toolkit right here for those on video so you can see. There it's. I got a little ruler in there, my syringe, and stuff. It's been a great little kit.MC-M: Oh, I'm so glad. I love having a ruler too. Mine has slipped out at the moment, I'll need to replace it.MR: Exactly. Great. I think I've actually done some work. I can show you what I've done. You mentioned the Pentel brush pen. I was playing with this. This is in a train ride in Minneapolis along the river with my kids. Then I think I was standing at the back in the caboose and just captured the tracks rolling away from us. I gotta say, it was really fun. I was really enjoying it. I need to do more of it this summer, so thank you again.MC-M: Oh, that's wonderful. You're welcome. That brush pen is so big and bold that you can capture the shapes quickly and then the watercolor can bring it to life. I think that's something a artist friend of mine told me once was that big tools make for big ideas. That sometimes bumping up the size of your tool, you can fill something up quickly and just—MR: Loosens you up a little bit too. I think. Talking about the size, if you know what the size of a pocket Moleskine is, which I don't know what the exact size is. The kit is not much bigger. Well, maybe I'll take a picture for the show notes. It's big enough to hold it and then the tools. It's actually pretty small, all things considered. Pretty compact, and you could throw that in a bag really easily. I appreciate little things from when I was a kid as well, so I super appreciated how you packed so much in this little tiny package. It fit me. It suited me.MC-M: Oh, I'm so glad. Mine tends to get a little bloated, but the zipper holds, so I'm like, "Oh, I can just stuff one more thing in here."MR: One more thing, just one more thing. That's excellent. Now, typically with Sketch noters, they often will use iPads and pencils and stuff. Are you using any kind of digital tools for the work you do? And what are they if you do?MC-M: I'd say the biggest tool I use is my phone in just taking reference photos. I might be out somewhere and I find like being onsite and doing some sketching sort of activates my attention. It gets me into just active observation, paying attention. It doesn't matter if that's just color studies or notes, but just something to pay attention and get outta my head.But then having some sort of media, additional media, let's say I'm going and need to add more color later or wanna work on some larger paintings, having a camera with me is really helpful. I think a phone is—I just have a little iPhone mini that—I'm not always looking for the best photo, but just for the reference and the memory.Sometimes I'll even do little videos, especially if it's of birds or things that move so that I can get a sense of that motion. I can pause and maybe catch a different position. I will say, I'm curious about playing more with Procreate tools and other things. I had on my residency this summer, another artist was doing a lot of really cool development of his photos into digital images and it was good to see the potential there. But I'm a fairly analog person by nature.MR: I can imagine. The problem that I've had in the field is just when you need a thing, the battery's dead. And if you're cold weather, it's dropping faster and if it's bright and sunny, it's hard to see. There's all these considerations that paper doesn't have those issues a lot of times. I could certainly see why that might be the case.But well, that's a really great little toolkit and we'll, we'll have you send a link to all those things. We can put that in the show notes, so we've got links to all the stuff that you showed, or maybe the package of things that have them all in there. Maybe there's just one link and everything is already in there for someone so they can just buy it and they're ready to go. So cool.Well, now let's shift again. We're shifting away from tools, and this is the tips portion of the interview where I frame it that there's someone listening, a visual thinker, whatever that means to them. Maybe they feel like they've been in a bit of a rut or they're on a plateau and they just need a little encouragement or some inspiration. What would be three things that you would tell them they can be inspirational, can be practical, three things that they might do to help them just kind of shake it up a little bit?MC-M: I love that question because I'm a real process person and I already told you one of my mantras, which is practice not perfection. Another one of my mantras is trust in process. No matter how much painting I've done, I still sometimes look at a sketchbook or start a painting and I'm like, where do I begin? And I need to remember kind of, warm up again.I love having my little process to get started. One thing I love in just all parts of my life, I love timers. I am so hooked on, like, does this feel hard to do? Set a timer. In workshops with people of all ages, I love going through gesture sketches, which are really fast, energetic little sketches to get the big idea of something.Using a timer, we'll so often, start with a ten-second sketch, go to a 30-second sketch, a minute, and even up to two minutes. It's fascinating to see what can be done in just a couple of minutes. let's see if I have a little example here of some gestures. Here's some little, just tiny walrus gestures done with one project.MR: Oh yeah.MC-M: I'd recommend as one tip is, if you're feeling like you need a little prompt to get started is set yourself a timer. I'm gonna do this for three minutes, just to get yourself to sit down and get started. Another way to think about it that a scientist shared with me is the activation energy to get a chemical reaction started is bigger often than like continuing a process.I think that timer can help us have that boost to get going. then once we are in the groove, it can be easier to stay in the flow. My first tip, Mike, is use a timer and set yourself a very small amount of time to do something. Now there's the question of what to do. And that will be my next tip.Another tip I would suggest is if you're sitting somewhere and feeling like, "I need a little boost for getting going here." Would be just to play with painting the colors you see and not worry about composition. You might do this as little circles. An artist friend of ours with Art Toolkit lately has just been doing some really delightful little circle studies, in this vein of creating a little bit of a little wet circle on your paper, dropping a little bit of one color in, and adding a little bit of another color.This could be more formal or you can see this little slouch of color on the other side of just seeing how colors might mix together what you see in front of you. But take away the pressure of I have to like, paint something or, or do something more, I'm gonna put this in quotes, "Official" or "Real feeling." Just give yourself the opportunity to play with color, what you see, and don't worry about composition.Actually, there's a fun thing which I think we put on our website. I can send you a link to this, Mike. If you do this of just mixing the colors you see, sometimes you can go on top and just do a light pen drawing on top of that as well. I can send you a link to a little prompt of that.MR: Okay.MC-M: My last tip would be going the other direction from just looking at color to just starting with words. I think a lot about sense of place and palette of place is something, as an artist I pay attention to. you're building a vocabulary when you're outside of the colors you see of the environment of the stories you learn. if it feels too much to start with the drawing side of things, let yourself do some writing.I often think about, you know, the W's of who, what, where, when, why when I write. I think it can be really fun to play, this is something you do so well. you might play with your writing. This is a little exercise I did on one program where we were imagining the ocean. So let your words be fun where you might play with how you're writing.Then around those writings you might then add in little tiny thumbnail sketches or little icons and then be able to add some color to the page. with all of these tips, out of those three, it's about just simplifying your approach. setting a timer, putting a little limit on kind of your time and expectations, taking away composition, just focusing on color, and then just paying attention to the world and just letting yourself start with notes just to start that attention.MR: Those are great. Those are three great tips. I almost wanna say practice not perfection and trust in the process are almost like free extra tips. I dunno. 0.1 and 0.2, I dunno, whatever. They are also good things to remember. That's really great. Well, here we are at the end of the interview. Crazy enough, it just flows by, it seems like every time I do these.Tell us what's the best way to reach you to get to Art Toolkit to follow you. Are there social media channels where you're more active? What are the best ways to connect and explore what you're doing and what you're offering?MC-M: Art Toolkit, we're at art toolkit.com and Mike, I'll put together a little discount code that you can share with your listeners at the end. We'll put in the show notes. We have an active Art Toolkit, Instagram. Fun community there. And I've got a small team Art Toolkit who helped me with that, which is great 'cause we really enjoy featuring other artists featuring techniques.We have an Art Toolkit recommend series where we just really try and share inspiration and cool stuff to try and help inspire each other. My personal art is over@expeditionaryart.com. I'm a little quieter on the social media front these days personally, but really with the Art Toolkit newsletter is the best place to hear about what is coming up. We announce to our newsletter our new releases or special offers first. We really enjoy that community and so invite you to sign up for that on our website.MR: Great. Those are all great entry points. Everybody listening, definitely check out the code that'll be in the show notes, and then go visit and spend some money over here. We wanna encourage and support Maria and her team for the hard work they're doing and the sharing that you're doing, and you end up with good tools. Everybody wins in that case.Thanks so much, Maria, for being on the show and sharing your experience and it's so good to have you on the show. Thanks so much.MC-M: Oh, such a pleasure. Mike, thanks for everything you do and your work has long been inspiring for me too. Just really glad to share this community, so thank you.MR: You're so welcome. Thanks so much. For those who are listening, this is another episode of the "Sketchnote Army Podcast." Until the next episode, we'll talk to you soon.

What you'll learn in this episode:   How Wayne used his trip around the world to learn the art and science of metalsmithing Why it's important for emerging metalsmiths to understand they are part of a global mosaic of creatives How Wayne made jewelry for the Grateful Dead and Blues Traveler Why Wayne is selective about the jewelry shows he attends Why teachers benefit from living as an artisan before teaching   About Wayne Werner Jeweler, goldsmith, and educator Wayne Werner is a third-generation metalsmith from Maryland. He has been jewelry maker for over 30 years with clients worldwide.   Wayne Werner has traveled around the world to learn with metal workers from Italy and Egypt to Java and Bali. Specializing in cold forging precious metals, Werner has incorporated the traditional techniques of gold and platinum smithing with his artistic vision of paying homage to the fertility cults of the ancient world.      Werner's work explores the relationship to metals liquid opus and the opus of mankind, both being a product of the earth cooling down. Through his work Werner attempts to remind people of the miracle of life and the cosmic happening that we all are.      Primarily making a living retailing his work, Werner has participated in over 250 high-end craft shows nationally. He has received many awards for his work including the World Gold Council's Gold Distinction award and the MJSA Vision award for Mokume Gane. Werner is a former instructor at the Fuji Studio in Florence, Italy, and was adjunct faculty at the Maryland Institute College of Art in Baltimore for 17 years. He has also taught over 100 workshops in universities and craft schools around the country. In 2006 he was asked to demonstrate his craft at The Mint Museum of Craft and Design in Charlotte, NC, an event marking his 40th birthday. He is founder and host of THE ALCHEMIST PICNIC, a metalsmithing retreat at Touchstone Center for Craft, now in its 6th year. Werner is also an accomplished musician who has appeared on both television and movies as himself. His clients are some of the most interesting people on earth.   Photos Available on TheJewelryJourney.com Additional Resources: Website Instagram Facebook Transcript Known for his psychedelic designs that reference ancient myths, fertility cults and the splendor of the sun, it's no wonder that metalsmith Wayne Werner has connected with clients like the Grateful Dead. A self-taught jeweler who learned traditional techniques by visiting metalsmiths around the world, Wayne has found success by selling his pieces at craft shows. He joined the Jewelry Journey Podcast to talk about his tips for building a long-lasting career in the jewelry industry; how he chooses the shows he attends; and why metalsmiths are all part of a global creative community. Read the episode transcript here.   Sharon: Hello, everyone. Welcome to the Jewelry Journey Podcast. This is the first part of a two-part episode. Please make sure you subscribe so you can hear part two as soon as it's released later this week.    Today my guest is Wayne Werner. Wayne is a very unusual and accomplished goldsmith. He is self-taught. As well as a goldsmith, he's an educator, an artist and a world traveler. He has traveled from Italy to Egypt, Java and Bali to learn different metalworking techniques and to be the best possible metalsmith. We'll hear all about his journey today. Wayne, welcome to the program.   Wayne: Thank you, Sharon. I'm flattered to be here.    Sharon: Thank you so much for being here. Tell us about your jewelry journey. You came from a family of goldsmiths, you said.   Wayne: Yes. I hope the journey has not already happened. I think it's still happening as we speak. But, yeah, I came from a family of makers, I would say. My one grandfather worked on the World Trade Center in New York and the George Washington Bridge among other things. He was an ironworker. My grandfather on my dad's side worked for the government. He worked for Aberdeen Proving Ground. He did metalwork. He made hand grenades and guns that shot around corners and weird things like that.    My mom was a decorator, but it was my uncle Russ Springer who really blew my mind and affected me when I was a child. Russ Springer, a German immigrant on the east side of Baltimore, was a watchmaker, clockmaker and repairman. He made jewelry, but he also did movie projections. He was a projectionist. He did things like help put movies on airplanes back in the 60s. When I went to see uncle Russ, he was working at the Essex Movie Theater on the east side of Baltimore. My mother took me there. She would leave me at the movie theater because he was working in the projection room, and she would go shopping. I was there to watch 101 Dalmatians, but Russ had a work bench in there, and while he was running the projectors in this small projection room, he was working on watches and clocks and carvings. Imagine being six years old, walking into a tiny room with flickering lights and big wheels turning, movies turning, and there's an old man with a skinny moustache and a German physique hunched over a workbench over little mechanical things that look just like that movie projector. I didn't want to watch the movie; I wanted to be in this little room with flickering lights and my uncle Russ. For me, that was the most fascinating. It was something out of a carnival, but all on a microscopic level. It really affected me.    The highlight of my six-year-old life was to go to Russ' house. He had a hundred clocks, and they would all chime or go off or do something. If I could just be at his house to hear all these clocks chime and go off at noon. It was Pink Floyd time. It was bing, bong, boom. It was so exciting, the anticipation and all that. So, Russ Springer was the one to hand me some wax as a child and light a fire of fascination with small things.    One thing led to the other. I started sculpting with Sculpey and things like that. When I was a young kid, I'd go to Bethany Beach and pretend to be a sculptor. I'd hang out under the boardwalk and do sculptures out of clay. Lo and behold, a man came up and talked to me and gave me a commission—I think it was for six dollars—and these little things fuel your fire. So, I was sculpting and doing wax carvings.    When I hit my teenage years, I was really getting into wax carving. The Grateful Dead came to town and my friends took me to a Grateful Dead concert. There were all these crafts in the parking lot and really cool counterculture stuff, so I started doing little wax carvings at 17, 18 years old and selling them in the parking lot of Grateful Dead concerts. I ended up selling work to the Psychedelic Shop in San Francisco and the Psychedelic Solution in New York City. These pieces were $12 to $20 each, but it fueled the fire for the next step.    That next step was to discover the American Craft Council. That was a really enlightening thing for me. I had a teacher at community college who was upset that I wasn't an art major, and he said, “Go down to the Baltimore American Craft Council's show. I want you to see the business of art, of jewelers and silversmiths, glassblowers, leatherworkers, all those kinds of people.” So, the American Craft Council in Baltimore was the first place I experienced contemporary craft.   Sharon: Did that make you want to go around the world?   Wayne: It's funny you should say that, but it did. I found myself, God forbid, growing up and needing to make money and do something, and I felt like I was getting good at metalwork. I was in California. I went to the Revere Academy for a few classes. I wanted to be in San Francisco around the Psychedelic Shop, but I was getting involved with shows. I met some successful craftspeople, and I realized it was something to commit to. Between the ages of about 22 and 29, I began doing ACC shows. I wanted to do crafts at Lincoln Center, which was interesting, but I put the brakes on it. I thought to myself, “I see how this could become you.” Becoming a craftsperson was a commitment. I would do it, but it was a commitment. Before I committed to being in a bunch of galleries and doing a bunch of shows, I wanted to pause and take a trip around the world. At the time, I had just done a commission for the band Blues Traveler. They commissioned me to do platinum rings for the band. I had worked for other rock bands before.   To get back to your question, if it made me want to travel around the world, absolutely. My 30th birthday gift to myself was to take a trip around the world, and I did that. I planned it for close to a year. This was 1995. I wrote letters to some galleries, artists and schools saying I had an intent to travel and visit these places. I literally paused my creative endeavors of trying to have a studio and trying to be a contemporary American craftsman. I paused and said, “Wait, let me take a trip around the world first, because I don't think I will be able to do it later.” This was pre-millennium and everything else, pre-9/11. I knew in my stomach that in the future, I felt like the world wouldn't be as easily traveled. Does that make sense?   Sharon: Yes.   Wayne: How did I decide to do that? I just wanted to do it. I wanted to say I did it. I wanted to visit metalsmithing places and villages, everything from King Tut. I wanted to see King Tut. I wanted to walk the Ponte Vecchio in Florence. I wanted to go see the metalsmiths in Java and Bali and get into their world, walk in and out of the door, at least for a day.   Sharon: Did you know they were metalsmiths? Did you know they had something you wanted to learn, something specific? Or did you just want to see what they did?   Wayne: A little bit of everything. One of the first things I did was go to Goldsmiths' Hall in London and see the show there. I had some friends there, made some friends, interviewed people like Wendy Ramshaw and Gerda Flöckinger. I was meeting people and I would interview them. I ended up in Pforzheim, Germany and Italy, but where it really got interesting was when I went to Egypt. I was in Cairo hanging around with metalsmiths in the market, who had all the time in the world but not the technology.    One of my destinations I had to see was Java, to see the kris-makers of Java. They used to make knives out of meteorite and iron. They're kind of supernatural and super fascinating. A kris blade is something that every Indonesian man possesses. It was the same thing with the Balinese doing granulation work. I had it loosely mapped out in my head. I had written my letters. I'd gotten some letters back saying, “You're welcome to come here,” or “You're welcome to come use the bench for the week.” It was really cool that I found this global family, not just the American craftsman family, but this global family. They're still there. They're out there for all of us.    Sharon: When you came back, did you find the travels influenced what you made or how you made it?   Wayne: Yeah, it really did. First of all, I realized there was some kind of metallic cultural heritage in different regions around the world. We talk about how in Toledo, Spain, they do inlaid work. I already mentioned the kris blades, Balinese granulation. That influenced me, knowing that being a metalsmith was being part of a cultural heritage. Being from Baltimore, the American Craft Council show was so important at the time. I realized I was a hammer person. I ended up using a hammer and forging when I did sculpting, and that led to Douglas Legenhausen, who I worked for. He worked for Ron Hayes Pearson. So, I found myself in that little tribe of makers.    The other thing I was developing at the time was not just making craft, but I was trying to bring in ancient techniques or ancient religious ideas. A lot of the travels I did revolved around going to temples like the Temple of Artemis at Ephesus in Turkey and the Temple of Isis in south Egypt. Those were fertility temples, and a lot of my work was a quest to document how amazing it was to be alive and how mother nature and all these things were such a force. That was the story I was telling. It got influenced by these ancient temples and religious things. The facts that mattered to ancient culture were written in metal or stone. It all started churning up, fermenting, but it all started with my fascination with psychedelic art and the art of Rick Griffin. He was a poster artist, and he did a lot of work that revolved around these fertility cults and temples. So, did it influence my work? How couldn't it influence my work?    You also have to accept the fact that there are some things that are much larger than any one maker. I realized I was in this mosaic of creative people; they just happened to be metalsmiths. They could have been musicians or poets or whatever, but they were metalsmiths. It was a crazy, life-changing adventure. It was survival. There were a lot of things that went wrong. There were a lot of things that happened that I never would have guessed. I didn't think I would have ended up in a workshop in Cairo, Egypt, looking over the shoulder of someone who was doing filigree work the way their father and father and father probably five or six generations before him had done.    It was amazing to me to realize that if the workshop had a dirt floor, the people in that workshop were very in tune with their creative process and the material. When you got into a room with a concrete floor and all these fancy machines, I think it really separated them from the earth and the earth, air, fire and water scenario. I found that the primitive metalsmiths were more tuned into their material. It's when I started to really pay attention to the material and what it could do, what it would do, and especially what I could and couldn't do with the material. Did that answer your question?   Sharon: Yeah, you did. I'm wondering if what you're saying is what resonated with the rock musicians you also talk to. Maybe you're making a different ring, but it's a different story or a different piece of jewelry, I guess.   Wayne: We'll back up to Psychedelic Solution. I was in New York. Jacaeber Kastor was his name, and he had a gallery where you could buy rock-and-roll collectable things, not only collectable posters, but original artwork from different artists like Rick Griffin and H. R. Giger. I guess they're psychedelic artists, outsider artists, pop or visionary artists, whatever you want to call them. I also sold to the Psychedelic Solution in San Francisco. That was more of a head shop, but they had some collectable posters. Through both of them, I met a lot of interesting people. I was just a lucky kid who had a relationship with his creativity, which happened to be metal, and things would happen.    Bill Graham and some of the Grateful Dead would have me do pieces. I met Jerry Garcia's guitar maker, and then Jerry Garcia said, “I'd like to have some little pins with my logo on them. I'm going to give these away.” It was interesting to be near those people. Blues Traveler, I made some platinum rings from them. Prior to that, they were silver rings. I found myself growing comfortable around certain bands. I remember riding on the road with one of these musicians and I said, “Man, you've got the coolest job ever,” and he said, “No, you've got the coolest job ever. You're playing with fire. You're sitting at home. You're listening to records, staying in your studio. You don't have to deal with what I have to deal with.” It's kind of cool to have a rock musician say, “No, you have the coolest job, not me.”    They were into the same stuff. When I told somebody where I traveled, I said, “Yeah, I saw the pyramids a couple of times and I went to see my cousin, King Tut.” He said, “Wow, man, that's great. Make me something. Bring these designs forward. Reinterpret them.” Again, I'm just a regular guy who got fascinated with metalsmithing and history and world religions and things like that. Whenever I sat down to write a story, it was in metal. It was all part of the fascination. I was a guy on the hustle, Sharon, like you wouldn't believe. I was not, in any uncertain terms, going to get a regular job and have a regular life. I thought there was a way to have a surreal job and a surreal life as long as you were willing to work at it. To me, the artists, whether they were musicians or whatever, they were professionally themselves. They were outsiders. They may have been socially inept, but they figured out a way to be professionally themselves. That was the goal. “The harder you work, the more luck you will have,” as someone said to me. I said, “All right. I'm going to go work hard at this surreal thing I have going on.”   Sharon: Is that when you decided to go into jewelry making, because he said it was a neat job? Did you realize, “This my thing. This is the way I am creative the way I work hard and grow”?   Wayne: I think any creative person has a time in their life when they have to make a decision. Do you bet it all on your creativity, and then you have the business aspect of this creativity? Because business, no matter what you do as an artist, is super important. They call it the music business; they call it the art business, because of half of it is art and half of it is business. For me, I got to a point where I realized I was getting some chops. Honestly, I was told by JoAnne Brown, who ran the American Craft Council's shows, “Wayne, you're one of the youngest goldsmiths to do these shows as a goldsmith. Not as a silversmith, as a goldsmith. You're really betting it all here.” I just had to laugh. I said, “I'm totally unemployable. I've tried it and I can't work for people. I have to figure this out.” All I wanted to do was find my niches and find other facets of a creative career to go into.   It's funny; I don't know if I made the decision or the decision made me. I swear to God, if this didn't find me, I would have had a very different path in life. Probably it wouldn't have worked out so good, but I love it. I love the craft. I love the makers I work with. I love everything about it. Alan Revere said something I thought was asinine at the time. He said, “Wayne, you're becoming a metalsmith. You could become a lawyer and people would come see you when they're in trouble. You could be a doctor and people would come see you when they're sick, but you know what? You're going to be a metalsmith and a jeweler. People are going to come see you when they're in love. Whether it's a wedding band or a gift or whatever, they're going to come see you when they're in love. You're going to be part of their love, their relationship.” I looked at him like he had two heads, of all the things to say.   After years of doing this, every time I make a wedding band, I thank the customer. I say, “You know what? Thank you.” The ultimate compliment I can get is for someone to say, “Make my wedding ring.” This week I'm restoring a wedding band that's close to a hundred years old. It was someone's grandma's, and that's pretty cool. I have to admit I'm so lucky to have that energy be part of me profiting from a passion I have.   Sharon: We will have photos posted on the website. Please had to the JewelryJourney.com to check them out.

There is a reason Sculpey Clay sells the best polymer clay in the world. Their mission has been to inspire people to realize their creative potential through education and high-quality products. Jennifer talks about their wide selection of products for crafters and artists at any expertise level.  Click here to see all of their clay products.Polymer clay Kids – Sculpey Bake Shop®, Sculpey Bake Shop® Eraser, Sculpey Bake Shop® Glow, Sculpey Bake Shop® Bendy and Sculpey Bake Shop Light™Artists – Sculpey Premo™, Sculpey® SouffléGeneral fun – Sculpey III®, Original Sculpey®, Keepsake®Sculpting – Super Sculpey®, Super Sculpey Medium™, Super Sculpey Firm™, Super Sculpey Living Doll®, Super Sculpey Ultralight®Liquid Sculpey® Polymer Clay Sculpey Air-Dry™ Clay Sculpey Non-Dry™ Clay Sculpey Tools™ Art Supply InsidersClick here to subscribe & follow (and be notified of every new podcast): Subscribe & FollowPlease leave a comment (we love feedback!): CommentsSupport the show

Elyse DeLucci (@ElyseDeLucci) welcomes you into her living room talking about: best dressed a the 2022 Oscars... I mean, did you see Rita Moreno at 91 years young!?  I saw Funny Girl on Broadway -- first time back on since 1964 (!!), Easter bunny inflation, fun kids project: Sculpey clay, TV TAWK: WeCrashed, and my Ukrainian hairdresser shared some info on the latest in Ukraine and MORE! LOVE to LOVE YA! Let's hang out and tawk! Follow Elyse on TikTok: @ElyseDeLucci Follow Elyse on Instagram: Instagram.com/ElyseDeLucci

See a demo on how to carve an sweet potato and how to sculpt with Sculpey to create surrealistic face brooches. Watch this episode on YouTube: https://youtu.be/nYDh9uJV6TY. Explained are the advantages of using polymer clay, showing three different colors of Original Sculpey. Learning to sculpt with carving tools can be very challenging and an object like a sweet potato which is easy to carve, but relatively rigid enough to hold it's form is an excellent entry point to figuring out how to approach a reductive way of creating sculpture. Demo by Art Prof Clara Lieu and Teaching Artist Deepti Menon. Support Art Prof on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/artprof  or make a one-time donation: https://www.paypal.me/artprof 

This is a long-awaited episode recorded back at the beginning of Covid where I dive deep into creative cycles with my good friend Misty Granade. All the wisdom stands up more than ever right now as we are all navigating creative cycles in our lives right now. Misty shares her experience and practices when she is in deep creative mode, what she does when she finishes a big project and when she is totally stuck. We have a fun, laidback chat about how we reset our brains when we're stuck or overwhelmed and navigating all the emotions and challenges that come with creating while living your life. Thanks so much to our Sponsor www.Sculpey.com use code HOWSHECREATES10 for 10% off your online order! Get shownotes here: http://www.lauren-likes.com/how-she-creates-creative-cycles-with-misty-granade-ep-412/

IT'S GIVEAWAY TIME!!! Enter to win an Apollo 11 Lunar Module 3D Puzzle! This week's episode features a clothing brand that is truly "Awesome," a crafting medium for the whole family, and a tasty bite of history. Plus, you'll get all the details on the Apollo 11 lunar module 3D puzzle giveaway! Show notes: Rockets of Awesome Sculpey Marshmallow Moon Oreos and... Apollo 11 Lunar Module 3D Puzzle Giveaway --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/kidconsumers/message

Today we are chatting with three talented Paper Florists, Kelly Grace Gibbons, Susan Bonn, and Jessa Parker, about their businesses and honing their craft! All three lovely ladies were at the Masterclass in the spring so it was incredibly nice to come together again and hear their stories. Get to know Susan Bonn's paper flower journey: Tell us a bit about your paper flower businessI started making paper flowers about 4 years ago. It was a hobby for me while still working my corporate job. After my retirement last year, I moved to a full-time career as a paper florist, and I'm so glad I did! My flowers are all made to order. I make flowers for all occasions and gift-giving. I love to personally deliver my flowers to their new owner—the look on the face of the recipient is priceless!!! How would you describe your paper flowers and/or your aesthetic?I'm pretty structured in my personal style, so my flowers reflect that aesthetic. I like to make my flowers look as realistic as possible. I use the dissection of fresh-cut florals as my inspiration. I'm working on making some less structured blooms, with more movement and fluidity in the structure—It's a learning process. What do you find the most challenging and rewarding about having a paper flower business?Running your own business is hard! Making flowers is the fun part, for sure, but there are many daunting tasks associated with running your own business. It's been challenging learning website design and maintenance, not to mention keeping up-to-date bookkeeping and business software. What advice would you give to new paper flower artists?Have fun! Pick up a pair of scissors and just start cutting. You'll be surprised at what you can do. Learn from nature-Mother Nature is so willing to share her creations. Pick a flower from your garden and take it apart—you'll see how Mother Nature put it together! Reach out to your fellow paper florists! There's lots of helpful information to access. Many of us have classes that can be viewed on platforms such as Teachable. Don't get too caught up in making it a business. Learn the basics. Make lots of mistakes. The business part will come later and you'll be better prepared. What's one tool you unexpectedly fell in love with and now use regularly?Omg—Life-Changing Blending brushes from Picket Fence! These are a game-changer for me I have several sets that I use to lay down Pan Pastels on paper. Get to know Jessa Parker's paper flower journey: Tell us a bit about your paper flower business. I've been making paper flowers since 2015. I started with my wedding where I made all of the boutonnières, bouquets, and decor using cardstock paper. From there, I took a year to build up a library of flower designs and to figure out where I wanted to fit in the paper flower community. I chose the wedding industry because I love making something that's custom to each couple and something that they can display in their home as a token of their favorite day. How would you describe your paper flowers and/or your aesthetic? My aesthetic tends to lean toward clean and tight like the way fresh flowers look right before they open. What do you find the most challenging and rewarding about having a paper flower business? The most challenging aspect is how to correctly price my items. It took a while to gain the confidence to call what I do more than just crafting in my spare time. This is my art, my style, my designs, and my time away from family that I'm sharing with clients, and the price of my work should reflect that. The most rewarding part about being a paper florist is, hands-down, the moment you present the items to the bride/groom. The excitement, appreciation, and awe on their face are unbeatable. What advice would you give to new paper flower artists? Start conversations within the paper florist community!! Ask questions, tell us about your work, share what inspires you and what your goals are for your flowers. Communication leads to friendships which leads to recommendations and opportunities. What's one tool you unexpectedly fell in love with and now use regularly? My favorite tools are the Create It lollipop sticks for rolling along with Sculpey style & detail tools and a thick yoga mat for a cardstock version of cupping. Get to know Kelly Grace's paper flower journey: Tell us a bit about your paper flower business. My studio is located in Frenchtown, NJ. I have a storefront with good visibility and I can sit a decent number of adults Comfortably. I live with my family 15 minutes from my studio in Union Township. It's a beautiful area. I recently rebranded my business name to Paper Floral Co. My store sign still says Crafting Space with Kelly Grace. I have been making paper flowers for two years now! I began making paper flowers during the summer of 2017 after I got married. I was a little depressed and was not feeling my best. I wasn't working at the time and I had just finished some pretty intense college classes right before my wedding. I started with wood flowers and moved on to book page flowers and I found some success with those. I discovered a video of someone making a crepe paper echinacea, I think it may have been Tina from ABC TV. One video led to another and I discovered Lia Griffith and then Amity from Florabeane, and then the Paper Florist Facebook group. I purchased supplies from Lia Griffith to make some crepe paper flowers and a couple of paper flower books off Amazon. Livia Cetti's camellia was my first tutorial. I just began to continuously make and create. I began to feel so much better, and I now truly believe there is merit to Creative Therapy in healing depression. Recreating nature using paper was great alternative medicine for me. It's not to say that medicine isn't the better choice for others but for me, creating flowers was impactful. Then grew the thought that this could be my job, and that was very much appealing to me. So I took the basic steps to start a biz and continued to create. Fast forward two years and here I am! How would you describe your paper flowers and/or your aesthetic? I'm still growing into my aesthetic and I love the color of all shades and tones but I seem to consistently have a bold beauty thing going on. What advice would you give to new paper flower artists? Practice and practice and just create. Unplug from social media if you can and just do you. Your style will emerge and will be perfect. What's your favorite tool and/or material to use? Pretty basic, but Tacky glue and doublette are my highest volume materials. But I sure do love my extra fine-tipped glue gun too! I like my bone folder and my Pan Pastels. As paper florists, aren't we all craft tool junkies? What's one thing you want people to know about paper flowers or the paper florist industry? It's a beautiful art and it's a growing trend that is here to stay for a while! Like the floral design, it's a multi-faceted industry. Value your time! You can learn more about each of these creative ladies on their social media platforms: Susan Bonn, Susan Bonn Designs (website/Instagram) Jessa Parker, 14keys_design (Instagram) Kelly Grace Gibbons, Paper Floral Co. (Website/Instagram)

Photo credit: Kelly Lemon Photography LISTEN TO PAPER TALK - EPISODE 7: Paper Talk Round Table: Let’s Talk Shop Today we are chatting with three talented Paper Florists, Kelly Grace Gibbons, Susan Bonn, and Jessa Parker, about their businesses and honing their craft.Read what Susan Bonn has to share about her paper florist journeyTell us a bit about your paper flower businessI started making paper flowers about 4 years ago. It was a hobby for me while still working my corporate job. After my retirement last year, I moved to a full-time career as a paper florist, and I’m so glad I did!My flowers are all made to order. I make flowers for all occasions and gift-giving. I love to personally deliver my flowers to their new owner—the look on the face of the recipient is priceless!!!How would you describe your paper flowers and/or your aesthetic?I’m a pretty structured in my personal style, so my flowers reflect that aesthetic. I like to make my flowers look as realistic as possible. I use dissection of fresh cut florals as my inspiration. I’m working on making some less structured blooms, with more movement and fluidity in the structure—It’s a learning process. What do you find the most challenging and rewarding about having a paper flower business?Running your own business is hard!Making flowers is the fun part, for sure, but there are many daunting tasks associated with running your own business. It’s been challenging learning website design and maintenance, not to mention keeping up to date bookkeeping and business software. What advice would you give to new paper flower artists?Have fun! Pick up a pair of scissors and just start cutting. You’ll be surprised at what you can do. Learn from nature-Mother Nature is so willing to share her creations. Pick a flower from your garden and take it apart—you’ll see how Mother Nature put it together!Reach out to your fellow paper florists! There’s lots of helpful information to access. Many of us have classes that can be viewed on platforms such as Teachable. Don’t get to caught up in making it a business. Learn the basics. Make lots of mistakes. The business part will come later and you’ll be better prepared. What’s one tool you unexpectedly fell in love with and now use regularly? Coloring tool or medium, shaping tool, scissors, etcOmg—Life Changing Blending brushes from Picket Fence!These are a game changer for me I have several sets that I use to lay down pan pastels on paper.Jessa Parker says:Tell us a bit about your paper flower business I’ve been making paper flowers since 2015. I started with my wedding where I made all of the boutonnières, bouquets, and decor using cardstock paper. From there, I took a year to build up a library of flower designs and to figure out where I wanted to fit in the paper flower community. I chose the wedding industry because I love making something that’s custom to each couple and something that they can display in their home as a token of their favorite day.How would you describe your paper flowers and/or your aesthetic? My aesthetic tends to lean toward clean and tight like the way fresh flowers look right before they open.What do you find the most challenging and rewarding about having a paper flower business? The most challenging aspect is how to correctly price my items. It took a while to gain the confidence to call what I do more than just crafting in my spare time. This is my art, my style, my designs, and my time away from family that I’m sharing with clients and the price of my work should reflect that. The most rewarding part about being a paper florist is, hands-down, the moment you present the items to the bride/groom. The excitement, appreciation, and awe in their face is unbeatable.What advice would you give to new paper flower artists? Start conversations within the paper florist community!! Ask questions, tell us about your work, share what inspires you and what your goals are for your flowers. Communication leads to friendships which leads to recommendations and opportunities.What’s one tool you unexpectedly fell in love with and now use regularly? Coloring tool or medium, shaping tool, scissors, etc My favorite tools are the Create It lollipop sticks for rolling along with Sculpey style & detail tools and a thick yoga mat for a cardstock version of cupping.Kelly Grace shares her story:Tell us a bit about your paper flower business My studio is located in Frenchtown, NJ. I have a storefront with good visibility and I can sit a decent number of adults Comfortably. I live with my family 15 minutes from my studio in Union Township. It’s a beautiful area. I recently rebranded my business name to Paper Floral Co. My store sign still says Crafting Space with Kelly Grace. I have been making paper flowers for two years now!I began making paper flowers during the summer of 2017, after I got married. I was a little depressed, and was not feeling my best. I wasn’t working at the time and I had just finished some pretty intense college classes right before my wedding. I started with wood flowers, and moved on to book page flowers and I found some success with those. I discovered a video of a someone making a crepe paper echinacea, I think it may have been Tina from ABC TV. One video led to another and I discovered Lia Griffith and then Amity from Florabeane, and then the Paper Florist Facebook group. I purchased supplies from Lia Griffith to make some crepe paper flowers, and a couple of paper flower books off Amazon. Livia Cetti’s camellia was my first tutorial. I just began to continuously make and create. I began to feel so much better, and I now truly believe there is merit to Creative Therapy in healing depression. Recreating nature using paper was a great alternative medicine for me. It’s not to say that medicine isn’t the better choice for others but for me, creating flowers was impactful. Then grew the thought that this could be my job, and that was very much appealing to me. So I took the basic steps to start a biz and continued to create. Fast forward two years and here I am! 2. How would you describe your paper flowers and/or your aesthetic? I’m still growing into my aesthetic and I love color of all shades and tones but I seem to consistently have a bold beauty thing going on. 3. What advice would you give to new paper flower artists? Practice and practice and just create. Unplug from social media if you can and just do you. Your style will emerge and will be perfect. 4. What’s your favorite tool and/or material to use?Pretty basic, but Tacky glue and doublette are my highest volume materials. But I sure do love my extra fine tipped glue gun too! I like my bone folder and my pan pastels. As paper florists, aren’t we all craft tool junkies? 5. What’s one thing you want people to know about paper flowers or the paper florist industry? It’s a beautiful art and it’s a growing trend that is here to stay for a while! Like floral design, it’s a multi faceted industry. Value your time! You can learn more about each of these creative ladies on their social media platforms:Susan Bonn, Susan Bonn Designs (website/Instagram)Jessa Parker, 14keys_design (Instagram)Kelly Grace Gibbons, Paper Floral Co. (Website/Instagram)

It’s the first Friday of May and it’s finally getting warm out! LOVE this time of year! This week on the bench time podcast with Todd & Brett Wiley we have fellow modeler, kit instruction writer and fan of the show Dave Kruiswyk on to talk some shop about what he’s working on currently. We are all over the place on this episode and we cover our current builds, some of the kits and projects that Dave has been working on as well as some talk about a few new kits that are coming out with the instructions he worked on. Dave also talks about his Schwarz build which was in dedication of the late Tom Schwarz and part of a build “contest” (all for fun) as part of the Modelers Forum. Dave also has his own model railroading and model building facebook page that you need to “like” and check out! Dave’s Workbench on Facebook is where he shares progress of some of his work as well as many other posts re-shared from a large collective of great facebook model builders! Contest Info: Last week’s winner of the Podcast Contest was Brian Tucker! Thanks for posting that photo of your son’s new DCC locomotive, I hope you both enjoy the new kit coming your way! This week’s contest: Post a photo in the comments section on our HO Scale Customs facebook page of your favorite trackside scene! This can be a small scene, large scene, building, rr crossing, literally any trackside scene that you just love on your layout! Post the pics before midnight Thursday for a chance to win a small craftsman ho scale kit! Love our show? Support us here! If you love our weekly show and live videos, consider supporting our efforts here: https://hoscalecustoms.com/support  Sculpey Shirts are BACK! They were MIA for a little while as we switched shirt vendors, but the "Hello my name is Sculpey" shirts are BACK! Grab yours here: Hello My Name is Sculpey T-Shirts

This week we have fellow modeler Dave Kruiswyk on the show and we get back to some of our roots of the podcast where we talk primarily about our modeling and what we enjoy most... Things on our workbench! Dave is very active online and if you want to follow along with what he has going on with his work and on the workbench, you can follow his Facebook page, Dave's Workbench. We really enjoyed having Dave on the show and we're really excited that he came up with the name for the new Official HO Scale Customs Mascot: Sculpey the Seagull, who is also the artwork for this week's episode! You'll be seeing Sculpey popping into the blog and photos from time to time here

In this interview they talk about who inspires them as creatives, which famous artists and sculptors they would invite to dinner, how they got started in the industry, their brilliant forum of sculptors, what they would be doing if they weren't sculptors and much much more. Special thanks to Lance Lones for his vocal intro and outro! Intro & Outro Music: "Zazie" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/ Be sure to subscribe and leave us a review if you enjoy the episode :) Sign up to our newsletter at www.paltiya.com/subscribe.html to keep up to date with us and be notified of any future classes and offers we have!

http://www.createalong.com With so many keys it can be hard to figure out which is for which. So I decided to make some simple but useful key covers to help me distinguish which key is for which door. You can embellish them any way you want after you learn the basics of making them.

http://www.polymerclaytv.com In this episode of Polymer Clay TV we show how to create beautiful silkscreen designs on your polymer clay that you can create jewelry, home decor and more with! We demonstrate the new Sculpey clay called Souffle. **Find out how you can win a multi pack of the new Souffle clay.**

Watch as Kira demonstrates why she loves Souffle Clay! And see how fun it is to create projects using flower power and fancy scallop cutters from PolymerClayTv.com

http://www.polymerclaytv.comNew Sculpey Products on Wondrous Wednesday at PolymerClayTVOn today's episode of Polymer Clay TV we share some of the new products from Polyform the makers of Sculpey and Premo clay. They have some awesome new accessories to use for the Mokume Gane technique, for stamping and adding texture to polymer clay. So many cool things to create with. Enjoy!

To see the HD (high definition) version please visit our You Tube channel at http://www.youtube.com/user/PolymerclayTV http://www.polymerclaytv.comIn this episode of Polymer Clay TV we share with you some of the new colors available in the Premo brand & Sculpey 111 brand. Many of these new colors have unique inclusions in them, get a closer look.

KarenThomas.us has some fantastic blank items for beading! Wine corks, purse hooks, pens, serving ware, and lots of other functional objects are available, and many at bulk pricing if you sell your stuff at fairs. Next week we will show you some ideas of how you can finish these items off and make gorgeous items to keep, gift, or sell!

Today, chapters 14-15 of ACYiKAC! Uncle Ordover’s newest book with photography by ! And new book by Kate Rockland . This week, the excerpt! (Remember, there’s a bit of language, so be cautious with children.) Deep fryer recs gratefully accepted, up and running on iPhone/iTouch app store, Twain’s wife’s family’s first little home test knitters needed (please ), Sculpey transfers a success using a photocopy (OfficeMax) of one of my early wee little watercolors (you can see the tile and water on the paper best in the first pic). LOVED Sweater Quest (evidently separated at birth from author) Funny Shark Week photo Fun picture and a series of that I can’t share from their site. Book talk starts around 33.

Walnut Hollow has made a commitment to polymer clay, and their new products are being shown right along side the new Sculpey display- at least at our local Michaels! We got the new extruder, which is like other extruders except for the folding heavy duty handle with turn-crank! It makes it much easier to squeeze out your clay. Check out polymer clay TV for our upcoming demo. Also be sure to check out our sponsor, Audible audiobooks, where you can sign up for a free, no-strings-attached 2 week trial and download a FREE book! just use this link: http://audiblepodcast.com/polymerclaytv, and have fun!

Kira and Ilysa have new Daylight lamps, from www.daylightcompany.com. They really make a big difference in your workspace. It helps to see what you are doing- from a color and brightness point of view! Especially if you are like many home crafters and you use a corner of your living or dining room or kitchen :) On our next video, we'll show you Kira's workspace under Daylight!

In this video, Kira talks about the texture makers and a few things you could do with them.

This week we talk about life, current events, and using the Studio by Sculpey texture sheets to make a cool project- which you'll see next week on polymer clay tv.

Get out your spooky and macabre images folks, because today you're learning how to transfer them onto polymer clay to make one-of-a-kind, funky Halloween jewelry. Not just for the holiday, these designs will inspire the skull-lovin' crowd any day of the year. Now gather up your tools- you need Whipped Cream Studio by Sculpey for a super-fine transfer, or regular white of any other brand of polymer clay- and some magic transfer paper, and an image. Try Ken's images from www.craftedonline.com, that's what we used! Enjoy!

This week, I will show you just how easy it is to create a leaf cane. It's all in the cut and flip! And, as a bonus, I am caning with Studio by Sculpey clay. Some people say don't bother caning with it, I say- you just need to work with it a bit and learn its properties. You can't have-at-it as if it were Fimo or Premo, because it's not. It goes thru a pasta machine like silk- even to a number 9, without rippling like the more sticky clays. Enjoy, and don't forget to check out Polymer Clay Classroom.com, where I will be doing a project using this cane and show you a Palm leaf too.

Enjoy our video discussion on how we like the newest polymer clay by Polyform, Studio by Sculpey!  

Enjoy!

This week, we had some news- Amaco and Staedler are joining forces to bring you the Spring Bottle of Hope awards at CHA in California, and we will again be covering the show. We will also be going to Synergy soon, and then the Clay Fandango retreat in Orlando. Studio Clay by Sculpey is going to be $2.99 a bar for 2.8 ounces. A pretty good deal (unless you're used to getting your clay at Michael's on sale, unfortunately Michael's isn't carrying it- yet.) We discuss the Jan/Feb Belle Armoire Magazine, graciously given to us by Stampington and Co, and there will be links to two polymer clay artist's blogs for you to learn more about color- come check out polymerclayproductions.com to find out more about that. Finally, our topic for today is covering lumps of scrap clay with slices of cane. A very useful technique. In Polymer Clay Classroom, we show you how to make a bullseye skinner blend cane and then cover clay and shape it to make a pretty fan pull. A great way to decorate!  

This week, we talk about making ornaments for the holidays or just to hang on your walls, we review Donna Kato's book "My Favorite Things in Polymer Clay," and we have a discussion regarding the new Studio by Sculpey clay- because Kira talked to her Regional Trainer, Jane Zhou, about it. Enjoy! Come back next week for the video demo on ornament making.

If you get this on an RSS feed, you will have to visit our site to watch this week's video- Join us as we discuss our experience at the CHA show (Craft & Hobbies Association) in Chicago last weekend. It was great fun. We met a few polymer clay artists as well as representatives of the three polymer clay suppliers- Amaco, Polyform, and Makins. We did video interviews with Lynne, Tommie, and Cat which will air next Friday, and filmed Amaco’s Bottle of Hope awards. You can watch part 1 today, and part 2, as well as the interviews, will air next week. We saw Polyform’s new product, Studio by Sculpey, and got a few samples to share with you. We also talked to Donna Dewberry about the upcoming release of Studio clay in December, as well as the Home Décor projects she has planned. Some of the things displayed in the booth included wall mirrors, vases, candlesticks, votive holders, and garden tables. The clay was used sculpturally to make floral and leaf designs, as well as made to look like faux tiles. It was interesting and we will share more about this new clay as Polyform gives us the info.   It was so much fun to visit the show as Press. We were treated really well by CHA, the Press has a quiet room away from the hustle where we could have a hot drink or get cold water, sit for a minute, and conduct our interviews. This is also where we picked up catalogs and samples left by companies that wanted to get the word out about their new products. Definitely visit a CHA show if you get the chance!   We also picked up some great product samples to review and try, and some to give away. Coming soon to our shop- a prize gallery, where if you win a monthly giveaway, you can pick your prize!   Here are some links to things we talked about today- www.studiobysculpey.com (nothing there yet but stay tuned) www.makinsclay.com (air dry polymer clay…and wonderful tools) www.amaco.com (check out the Bottles of Hope auction!) www.riverpoetdesign.com (Lynne Ann Schwarzenberg- check out her classes) www.catherienarts.com (Cat- check out her free video demos on Monday nights) www.pcagoe.com – vote on your favorite representation of “Summer memories‿ to win a prize!   Don’t forget to leave us comments on our site in order to be entered to win one of our Studio by Sculpey clay samples. Also please consider writing us a review wherever you download your podcast- itunes, meefedia, yahoo, google, odeo….reviews help our rankings, so we thank you for taking the time!

Award winning Polymer Clay Artist Ilysa Bierer and Art Educator Kira Slye introduce you to Polymer Clay Podcast this week. We offer an introductory exploration of the history of polymer clay, the popular polymer clay brands, and the many tools that can be used to create art and crafts with polymer clay. A brief history: in the 1930s, a German doll artisan was looking for a new material to make her doll heads, hands, and feet. She explored the polymers that were available and was dissatisfied. Eventually she handed off the project of finding a new clay to her daughter, whose nickname was FiFi. FiFi developed the product we know today as Fimo, named after herself. When Fimo hit the artist’s market as a colored clay with no special kiln required to cure it, a few artists became involved in pushing it as a medium for more than doll art. Nan Roche wrote the first book on polymer clay as an art medium, and called it The New Clay. Now, in 2007, there are several brands of artist’s polymer clays available on the market. Some are easier to find than others, such as the Polyform brands of Sculpey, Sculpey III, and Premo Sculpey, as well as the Fimo brands called Fimo Classic (harder to find) and Fimo Soft. Cernit is a popular German brand that is only available from retailers who import it, all online. Kato Polyclay was developed by polymer clay artist Donna Kato and it is the newest formulation of polymer clay. Ilysa’s experiences with creating art with polymer clay focused mainly on Fimo Classic which tends to be a more firm clay, very good for canework which she excels at. Kira’s experience has focused mainly on Premo, which is a softer formula. In the podcast they discuss in depth why each of them has used their favorite brand of clay. Polymer clay has become a popular material for art and craft due to it’s working properties- you don’t need any special tools or materials to work with it, and most of them can be found in, you guessed it- your kitchen! But we caution that even though polymer clays are non-toxic, any tools, including ovens, that are used with clay should be dedicated to clay and not returned to food use. Polymer clay does release fumes during the oven curing process, and these will coat the inside of your oven. For this reason some artists will bake pieces inside an enclosed metal roasting pan, a dedicated toaster, or a dedicated countertop convection oven. Many professional artists prefer the convection oven because it has the most even cooking temperatures. We recommend that you purchase an oven thermometer to be sure your oven dials are accurate and that your clay is being cured at the right temperature. Some popular kitchen items that can be used with clay: marble rolling pins and cutting boards, garnishing tools, pasta machines, cheese graters, food processors, bamboo skewers, fondant shapers, and vegetable peelers. Other necessary tools include a work surface such as a tile or piece of glass, a sharp thin blade, an acrylic rolling pin, rubber stamps, texture sheets, interesting textured materials such as fabric or tree bark, inks, linoleum cutting tools and brayers, wax carving tools, wire, tinfoil, magnets, and leather tools. In fact, almost any tool that can be used to shape, cut, or impress can be adapted to use with polymer clay. Any material that can withstand the usual curing temperature of 275 degrees Fahrenheit can be stuck into the clay and baked along with it and a few artists have taken this technique to interesting limits. Gemstones, Swarovski Crystals, Pearls, glass bits, metal parts, and other found objects have all been baked into polymer clay artworks with great success. We hope you enjoy listening to our first podcast dedicated entirely to polymer clay. Make sure to come back next week and watch Polymer Clay TV- where we will demonstrate in detail the use of many tools we talked about today. Please subscribe to our newsletter as well, so you won’t miss a thing.

In this episode, Ilysa Bierer and Kira Slye discuss how they met on Etsy.com, through the Polymer Clay Artists Guild of Etsy.com also known as PCAGOE. Both hosts live in Florida, Ilysa in North Florida and Kira in South Florida. They meet to film their videocast and use the internet to record their podcast about the popular art and craft medium of polymer clay. This includes the oven bake clays you can find at craft stores under the brand names Fimo, Premo, Sculpey and Sculpey III, as well as Cernit (another German brand) and Kato Polyclay. Listen to hear all about their upcoming plans for tutorials, webisodes (videocasts), podcasts, and products. Make sure to tune in on June 1 at Polymerclayproductions.com, when Episode 1 is released. You can also browse the shop and talk in the forum and read much more about your Hosts and polymer clay in general on the website.