Sign up now for May Craft Classes at the Arkansas Craft School May is the perfect time for a get-away to Mountain View; while the weather is still pleasant and before the summer crowds hit. And what better reason for a get-away, than to take a Craft class! The Arkansas Craft School has some special workshops scheduled for the month of May. May 14 – 15, Little Rock potter and Arkansas Arts Center Museum School instructor, Beth Lambert will be offering a two-day class in making your own pottery tools and brushes. Traditional potters made do with what they had, creating useful tools from local natural resources. When you make your own tools, you are then making marks that no one else can make. In this workshop, students will learn to make ribs, scoring tools, stamps, brushes, and more – creating tools that are unique to you! Launching the first of our summer courses, May 16 – 20, the Arkansas Craft School will be pleased to welcome an extraordinary weaver of fabulous one-of-a-kind clothing creations – Handwoven Magazine’s former features editor Daryl Lancaster. Daryl will be offering her Wearables Extravaganza – a five-day course in sewing techniques to help you create a beautiful jacket from your hand woven, dyed, quilted, printed or felted fabric. Afraid to cut your hand-woven fabric? Daryl will share the secrets of forty years of sewing experience to help you not only sew a jacket from your art fabric, but personalize it to make it truly your own. Following right after Daryl Lancaster, another nationally known artisan – Paul Lewing will be offering his course in China Painting May 23 – 27. Paul is the author of the new book, China Paint and Overglazes, and teaches not only traditional china painting techniques, but novel, new approaches as well. Due to a generous donation from a private donor, there will be numerous blanks, glazes and stains available for students to have and use as part of their tuition. Paul will share his expertise in painting murals and other large-scale projects, as well as smaller more intimate pieces. Students will also be treated to a slideshow of Paul’s work, and the work of other innovative artists in the field. Memorial Day will see two workshops at the School. May 28 – 31, Scott Riedy will open Heritage Springs Blacksmith Shop for a blacksmith class in “The Iron Menagerie.” Embellishment of forged items with the fanciful heads of creatures from the animal kingdom creates an air of magic and adds instant allure. Blacksmithing students will begin by fabricating the tools necessary in order to create the assortment of heads to be produced. Among the animals from which the student will be choosing are a duck’s head, a bear’s head, a rattlesnake made from a farrier’s rasp; an eagle and even a wizard’s head. Gain the skills to introduce animal magnetism to your work! May 30 – June 3, John Van Orman will be offering a class in learning to build your own frame drum. Whether you are interested in the Irish bodhran, a Native-American style drum or a Siberian Shaman’s drum; John will lend his thirty-five years of experience in instrument building to help you create an instrument of which you will be proud. Traditional drums have distinctive Old World features no longer common to frame drums of modern manufacture: the rim is steam bent from solid wood rather than constructed of laminate ply and natural skin is stretched tightly over the rim. Individual expression will be encouraged; and students will go home with a playable instrument that pays homage to history. Visit the Arkansas Craft School’s website, www.arkansascraftschool.org for more information on these and other upcoming classes; as well as registration forms and scholarship applications. Scholarship grants are available, based on financial need and merit. The Arkansas Craft School, located in Mountain View, Arkansas is dedicated to the education of aspiring and practicing craft artisans for success in the Creative Economy. The Craft School partners with Ozarka College which offers Continuing Education credits for all of its courses. Support for the Arkansas Craft School is provided, in part, by the Arkansas Arts Council, an agency of the Department of Arkansas Heritage, and the National Endowment of the Arts.
Sign Up Now For May Craft Classes!
May 3, 2011 by