Summer Art Camps

I am pleased to offer 6 weeks of summer art camps at Lewisville's a.l.o.e.  These camps will run weekly throughout the summer, and each week campers will explore art through a different theme. For example, during "For the Love of Nature," campers will incorporate nature into their art and find inspiration from their surroundings. Projects will include making a glass wind chime; a mosaic stepping stone; and paper ornaments and sculptures that incorporate seeds, leaves and plants the camps will collect themselves. Although I give the theme each week and ideas, it is my intention that each child create what they feel in their heart within a loving, open space that allows the child to flourish on their creative path.  Dates for each camp week and details about weekly projects are below.

The cost for the camp, which runs 9:00-1:00 Monday through Friday, is $100 per week. If you book a massage or nail service at a.l.o.e at the time of registration, you will receive a $10 discount. A sibling discount is also available: $100 a week for the first child, $90 a week for the second child. Please note that these discounts cannot be combined. Campers should bring their own lunches.

For more information or to register for the camp, call 964-0288 or email me at whimsicaljewels@rocketmail.com. You can also find information about the camps and the registration form at: Summer art camp Facebook events page.  If you register for two or more camps, you will be entered to win one of my fused glass pendants or a custom designed ring!

I hope to see you and your child at one or more of these fun, artistic summer camps!

COMPLETE CAMP DETAILS:
6/11-6/15
For the love of nature   (OFFERED TO 2 AGES GROUPS)
This camp features incorporating nature into the art and finding inspiration from our surroundings.

Older kids AGES 7 and up

1. Wind-Chime- Make a glass wind chime, celebrate the wind
2. Mosaic Garden Stepping Stones
3. Paper Ornaments incorporating seeds, leaves, grass found outside
4. Nature Sculpture using pebbles, feathers, flower pedals, leaves, shells, cones anything found outside

Younger kids  AGES 3-6
1. Tissue paper flowers with photo of the child inside and a paper mache vase
2. Painted Pot Using fingers to create lady bugs and butterflies
3. Butterfly, ladybug, or lizard paper mobile
4. Stained glass-using tissue paper

6/25-6/29
Loomed Ages 7 and up

This camp explores making your own loom from a shoe box and then weaving on it. We will also make straw loom and weave an item of your choice-belt, bracelet, etc.

1.Shoe Box Loom to create a woven fabric collage to hang in your home.
2.Straw loom to create something wearable

7/16-7/20
Collaged Ages 3-7

This camp features creating art using various forms of collage.

1. Paper person
2. Small nature sculpture
3. Small Trinket box with buttons, shells, beads, magazines, photos

7/9-7/13
For the Love of Nature   (OFFERED TO 2 AGES GROUPS)

This camp features incorporating nature into the art and finding inspiration from our surroundings.

OLDER KIDS (7 & up)
1. Wind-Chime- Make a glass wind chime, celebrate the wind
2. Mosaic Garden Stepping Stones
3. Paper Ornaments incorporating seeds, leaves, grass found outside
4. Nature Sculpture using pebbles, feathers, flower pedals, leaves, shells, cones anything found outside

YOUNGER KIDS age 3-6
1. Tissue paper flowers with photo of the child inside and a paper mache vase
2. Painted Pot Using fingers to create lady bugs and butterflies
3. Butterfly paper mobile
4. Stained glass-using tissue paper and colored cellophane

7/30-8/3
Everything Clay Offered to two age groups:Ages 3-6 AND Ages 7 and up 

This camp uses air-drying clay to make various projects. Both groups will make the same projects.

1.Clay decoration that child decides (ex. Sun, moon, tree, face)
2.Thumb Clay Pot to store small things- Paper clips, earrings, pencils etc.
3.Beads- Make your own colorful beads

8/6-8/10
Recycled and Upcycled Ages 7 and up. 
This camp features turning old, unused things into something new.

1.Paper Ornaments from old unused paper
2. Paper Mosaic using old magazines, recycled paper to make a wall hanging
3. Making a vase out of old glass bottles using recycled paper and tissue paper
4. Art from bottle caps
5. Colorful cap mobile 

REGISTRATION FORM:

Featuring POTTERY BY AMY!!

Introducing Amy Loggains...

I was born in Greensboro, NC and have lived here in the Triad all of my life.
I like calling North Carolina home! My husband and I currently live in High Point and have one daughter who still lives at home. Our son lives in British Columbia with his lovely Canadian bride, and our other daughter and her husband are currently teaching English in South Korea.

What are the web addresses people can find you at? (website, etsy, blog, flickr)
You can view some of my pottery at this address.
http://picasaweb.google.com/POTTERYBYAMY/2008PotteryByAmy

Amy's pottery can be purchased at:

C J's Boutique - a Handcrafted Gallery

6000 Meadowbrook Mall Suite 7A

Clemmons, NC 27012

Boutique hours: Tues - Fri 10 - 6 and Sat 10 - 3

AND

http://picasaweb.google.com/POTTERYBYAMY/2008PotteryByAmy

What is your favorite color combination?
I kind of go through cycles. Right now, I love the brown & teal glazes together.

What is the first thing you can remember making by hand? How and why did you make it?
I remember making pot holders out of those stretchy loops of material.
I think I must have been about 8 or 10 years old. What a cool feeling to make something with my own hands - selecting each strand of color - and then my mother actually kept them and used it for many years!

What inspires you?
Ideas mostly.

Where do your ideas come from?
I see everyday things that have interesting textures or shapes that I think, "I wonder what that would look like if I......" So I just try it. Sometimes, I just try to make things out of pottery that I've never seen or heard of anyone doing before. I made a North Carolina map puzzle which has all 100 counties of NC. Weird I know.

Does the atmosphere affect your creativity?
It does to some extent but my frame of mind has more of an effect I think.

Where do you create, in a workroom/ studio or in a park?
I use the studio at the Greensboro Cultural Arts Center.

What are your favorite materials?
Clay is not very exciting, but I like to use different items to imprint or shape it, that are unique.

What is your favorite thing to do with your creativity?
I enjoy finding a different technique or imprint or shape, that is pleasing to me, but that maybe no one else has thought of using or doing that way before. Making business card holders is one example. I had never seen a pottery business card holder but I thought - why not give it a try... and it worked.

Why should people buy handmade?
I think it's cool to look at a piece and know it wasn't stamped out of some machine with 10,000 other ones just like it. Every piece of pottery I make is "one of a kind". For me pottery is an opportunity to break free of the constraints of precision and sameness and just try what ever idea is in my head that day and see what happens!

Any tips of wisdom on selling handmade stuff?
I really have no experience in this, but it does seem to me that a place like CJ's with a collection of many kinds of handmade goods - could be a good thing. I'm hoping so!

Apart from creating things, what do you do?
I draw buildings.

What have been the most valuable lessons learned from other artists?
Don't be afraid to try something new.

Read any good books lately?
Yes, my husband and I have been married 29 years, but our daughter just got married last month, so we've been reading books on marriage lately. "The most important year in a woman's life/the most important year in a man's life" is a great book for newlyweds or soon to weds.

Do you have any current projects that you want to describe, techniques to share, give picture of?

I've attached a picture & description of a french butter keeper and how it works.
One of the things that made me want to take a turn at pottery, was the french butter keeper.

What a clever little things these are - I loved the concept of not having to refrigerate butter to keep it from spoiling - but to have soft yummy spreadable butter right there on the countertop ready to spread on toast or what ever. I had seen a very few of these "french butter keepers" in a shop in Seagrove, but there was not much selection and although I loved the concept and design - none of the colors or styles appealed to me. So I set out to make a french butter keeper for myself and friends & family who also loved the idea of keeping fresh soft spreadable butter.

***In ten years I'd like to be...
Living outside the city limits in a more rural setting with enough land to romp around through the woods with my future grandchildren and teaching them to enjoy the simple joys that so often are never noticed in a more fast paced complicated lifestyle..

Featuring Shirley MacNulty!!!

Shirley MacNulty.......

Shirley and her husband divide their time between Wilmington and Sugar Mountain, NC.
Below she tells us a little about her self and her various handcrafted talents~

My main crafts are Knitting, Preserved Flowers and Sewing

- I design knitwear for South West Trading Company http://www.soysilk.com/ and One Planet Yarn and Fiber and have designed for Coats and Clark, Blue Sky Alpacas and Alchemy Yarns of Transformation.
- Technical Edit knitting patterns for One Planet Yarn and Fiber and also individual knitwear designers
- Designed a petit point needlepoint ornament for the Blue Room of the White House in 1997
- Chosen as the representative from Maryland to work the Maryland square in a piece for the United Way and Hallmark in the mid 1980's
- Author of Knitting for Fun and Profit, knitting book published by Prima Publishing
- Articles in Threads, Cast On and INKnitters Magazines
- Knitting Designs published in Cast On and INKnitters magazines and pending in Knit 'N Style and Creative Knitting

Affiliations
- Charter Member of the Association of Knitwear Designers (certified as a Designer, Author, Tech Editor, Gallery Designer, Teacher, Publisher and Retailer)
- Designer Member and also a Retail Member of the National Needle arts Association
- Member of The Knitting Guild Association where I helped write and served as first Chairman of the Master Knitting Committee for 4 years
- Member of the Blue Ridge Fiber Guild

Personal - married for 50 years to Bradford S. MacNulty - 2 adult sons, 2 adult grandsons, 4 adult step grandchildren and 4 step great-grandchildren
BS Nursing form Columbia University
Owner Bay Country Boutique, small retail needlework and gift shop since 1982 (now sell through the Great Train Robbery Emporium in Banner Elk and at CJ's Boutique in Clemmons, NC and The Prissy Hen (antique shop) in Cameron, NC (opening April 1,2008)

What are the web addresses people can find you at?
e-mail only - baycountry@bellsouth.net and baycountry@skybest.com
Shirley has a blog address but doesn't use it very much.....
http://www.baycountry.blogspot.com/

What is your favorite color combination?
No special favorites - do not like orange

What is the first thing you can remember making by hand? How and why did you make it?
I did a lot of knitting as a small child. I also did sewing and embroidery. The thing I remember most, and it was written up in an on-line newsletter in 2006, I knitted my father a pair of argyle socks for Christmas when I was in 7th grade and this was in 1946

What inspires you?
My inspiration comes from nature and also from reading magazines and catalogues.

Where do your ideas come from?
My ideas come from nature, magazines, knit designs come from reading fashion magazines and following fashion trends. I normally try to stay with more classic designs that will last a lifetime, not as much by the way out trends.

Does the atmosphere affect your creativity?
I would say I work better on cooler days, not on the hot 100% humidity days

Where do you create, in a workroom/ studio or in a park?
All over. My knitting is portable - and I do the pressed flower designs on the dining room table usually. I do nto have a separate studio - my things are spread out all over the house and under the beds and in closets, even in extra bathtubs.

What are your favorite materials?
Natural yarns - soy, bamboo, corn, wool, alpaca for knitting and flowers from my garden for my Preserved Floral Designs

Any tips of wisdom on selling handmade stuff?
I have been doing this for years. When I was younger I used to do a lot of shows, back before the days of having individual tents for the purpose. We really had to fight the elements. For multiple day shows, the worst part was having to dismantle everything and pack up each night and often have to walk a distance to the car. I have not done any shows for the past two years - the last one was so bad as had to shut down one whole afternoon due to severe thunderstorm watch.
As for advice, check out the show before doing it. Some may sound great, but turn out to be duds. I have done shows and sold nothing, other times have had great shows. The best shows I did were in the 1980's in Southern Maryland where we used to live. Nothing has been as good since we moved to North Carolina in 1990.
I also find that there is great discrepancy in the cost of shows - from free to several hundred dollars, even for outside space.

Apart from creating things, what do you do?
Cooking, gardening, socializing, work on the Computer

What have been the most valuable lessons learned from other artists?
Everything that you think will sell doesn't, but be patient.


Do you have any current projects that you want to describe, techniques to share, give picture of?
I am always working on new knitting designs for yarn companies - I have more ideas for garments and household items that I have time to knit. I also love to garden.

In ten years I'd like to be...
I hope I will still be alive and still creating

CJ's Boutique

SUPPORT HANDCRAFTED ITEMS!

Today everywhere we turn the familiar words, "Made in China" are seen. I rarely pick up an item and see the words "Made in America". I'm afraid that we have gotten away from our roots and the basics in life. We've traded it for more, more, more and in return have gotten what we have asked for. A diminished quality and a life that is filled with unimportant things instead of precious time with our friends and family. I say simple is better and although I haven't gotten there completely I'm working towards it. That's all any of us can do.....

With that being said a new boutique has opened that features ONLY HANDCRAFTED items and you won't find the 3 small words, Made in China. The boutique features different handcrafted items from over 50 artisans locally and abroad. It's a refreshing contrast from many of the products on the market and each item is made here in our own backyard.

Location

6000 Meadowbrook Mall Court
Suite 7A
Clemmons, NC 27012

phone 336-766-9355

email cjsboutique@bellsouth.net

Boutique hours:

Tues - Fri 10 - 6 and Sat 10 - 3

The perfect handmade gift, made with love, can be found for any occasion. Are you looking for something for a baby? A wedding? A gift to pamper yourself? Birthday? Your home? You name it, you can find it at CJ's Boutique.

Take some time out for yourself, grab a girlfriend and GO SHOPPING! Most importantly, tell your friends.....Spread the word.

Here's a peak in the window to a few of the items you will find at this wonderful boutique that celebrates handmade items.