Sawdust Studio Art Classes Class and Instructor Descriptions
For Immediate Release
Laguna Beach, CA The Laguna Beach Visitors & Conference Bureau and the Sawdust Art Festival are proud to announce the official Sawdust Studio Art Classes schedule. Launching on October 15, students pay $95 for a professional artist to guide them through a specialized art process. Each two-hour workshop allows students to design a unique art piece to wear or share, with a choice from jewelry to pottery, ceramics, or tiles. Workshops are held Fridays and Saturdays at 10:00 am and 2:00 pm. Private lessons or custom group classes are also available throughout the week or the weekend with advance notice. The following is a detailed list of scheduled classes and respective instructors:
Tidepool Bracelet with Linda Ames
Class Description: Create a contemporary sterling silver wire formed bracelet with Sawdust Artist Linda Ames. The bracelet forms part of Linda’s exclusive “Tidepool” series. Choose from a variety of semi-precious stones and beads to create your own unique version. No experience required.
Instructor Bio: Linda is a resident of Laguna Beach and a long-term exhibitor at the Sawdust Art Festival where she has been voted “Best Jewelry in show.” She began her creative career as a painter before applying those talents to Jewelry making. Her designs are inspired by the ocean and characterized by a bold use of color and texture. Linda creates her own lamp worked beads which forms part of her signature style. She is an experienced teacher and is keen to share her talent and knowledge with others.
Dates: Oct 16 (am/pm), Oct 23 (am/pm), Nov 5 (am/pm), Nov 13 (am/pm), Nov 19 (am/pm)
Sushi Plates with Klai Brown
Class Description: Create your own sushi plate. In this introductory hand building workshop students will be making a slab plate fit for a sushi taster or simply to decorate your favorite room with. Surface may be adorned with a simple quote or a decorative pattern. Advanced students will have the opportunity to be guided through a simple technique of inlay, using scraffito and colored engobes to finish off their original ware.
Instructor Bio: Klai Brown is an Orange County ceramicist who received her BFA at CSULB and is currently exhibiting and selling her work nationwide. At times, Klai’s work shares a kinship with the expressive works of Egon Schiele and the youthful, playfulness of Yoshitoma Nara. Her work combines a juxtaposition of intense craftsmanship and fanciful whimsy, while being kitschy and self-reflective.
Dates: Oct 16 (am/pm), Nov 19 (am/pm), Nov 20 (am/pm), Dec 10 (am/pm), Dec 11 (am/pm), Dec 17 (am/pm), Dec 18 (am/pm)
Tile Making with Sherry Bullard
Class Description: Create a handmade sculptural relief tile with Sawdust Artist Sherry Bullard. Learn a variety of hand building techniques including imprinting and decorative embellishment. You will have the opportunity to choose and apply your own glazes to your piece.
Instructor Bio: Sherry Bullard is a resident of Laguna Beach and has been an active and exhibiting artist in Southern California for over twenty-five years. Her multi-media artwork covers a broad range of skills and talent, working with clay, mosaics, oils painting and watercolors. Sherry has exhibited at the Sawdust Art Festival since 1981.
Dates: Oct 23 (am/pm), Oct 30 (am/pm)
Pendant Making with Debi Burton
Class Description: Unique Layered Neckpiece – This stunning, modern, layered neckpiece can be worn in many different ways. On a handmade copper or silver collar, a chain, or leather, this versatile pendant can be combined in many patterned metals, put together with rivets, and draped with beads and pearls in any color. Let your imagination be your guide.
Instructor Bio: Debi Burton is a well known custom jeweler who had her own shop for over 15 years on Clement St. in San Francisco. She has made everything from a Bishops ring to a Gorilla bracelet in 18k gold. Debi closed the shop to sell art pieces of jewelry to galleries from California to Florida. These were pieces in fumed glass set in 14K gold with precious stones. Along the way she became interested in restoring antiques which she did successfully out of her studio for the next 10 years. As an antique restorer she worked for some of the top galleries in SF, NY, and LA. She enjoyed the challenge of combining old skills with new in bringing fine old art objects back to life. It was with casting and fabricating talents on a larger scale that drew Debi in the direction of antiques. She still does custom jewelry, but by appointment only. In 2008, Debi took up teaching with Saddleback College giving classes in jewelry making and enameling with the Emeritus program in Laguna Woods. She says the Art-A-Fair and Winter Sawdust Festival are wonderful venues for exploring new techniques and to make unique artwork for people to enjoy.
Dates: Oct 29 (am/pm)
Pendant Set with David Farris
Class Description: Create a unique textured copper pendant and/or earrings to impress your friends and family with jewelry designer David Farris. In this two-hour class you will learn a variety of different techniques including cold connection, stamping, texturing, finishing, metal forming and stamping. No experience necessary, alternate materials will be offered at an additional cost.
Instructor Bio: David Farris is a jewelry designer, metalsmith, and G.I.A. certified gemologist living in Orange County, CA. His jewelry designs feature a wide range of materials ranging from sterling silver and semi-precious gemstones to platinum and diamonds and often showcase unusual textures and markings combined with rich surface patinas. In all of his work, he believes that the design and composition of the piece is every bit as important as materials used. David considers his jewelry creations to be wearable pieces of art and believes that his formal fine art and design education from California State University, Long Beach gives him a unique approach to jewelry design.
Dates: Oct 15 (am/pm), Oct 22 (am), Oct 30 (pm), Nov 12 (am/pm), Nov 26 (am/pm), Dec 3 (am/pm), Dec 11 (am/pm)
Water Casting with Erin Elowe
Class Description: In this workshop we will create unique and striking pieces by pouring molten silver into water. This exciting and experimental casting technique will allow students to create beautiful abstract forms that can range from button or pearl-like shapes to dynamic splashes of silver. Each student will have the opportunity to explore varied ways of melting and pouring in order to achieve the desired result, and will come away with a pair of dazzling earrings and/or a completely one of a kind pendant.
Instructor Bio: Erin Elowe is a native southern Californian artist specializing in wearable metal sculpture with a retro-futuristic feel. She graduated from California State University Long Beach in 2009 with a BFA in Metalsmithing and Jewelry Design and has since started her own studio practice where she continues to explore the art of metal sculpture and jewelry making. Her studies and interest in such things as aviation, classic automobiles, cosmology, quantum physics and mid-century aesthetics are whimsically represented in her work.
Dates: Oct 22 (pm), Oct 30 (am), Nov 6 (am/pm), Nov 20 (am/pm), Nov 27 (am/pm), Dec 4 (am/pm), Dec 18 (am/pm)
Sushi Plates with Thalia Isen
Class Description: Create your own sushi plate. In this introductory hand building workshop students will be making a slab plate fit for a sushi taster or simply to decorate your favorite room with. Surface may be adorned with a simple quote or a decorative pattern. Advanced students will have the opportunity to be guided through a simple technique of inlay, using scraffito and colored engobes to finish off their original ware.
Instructor Bio: Thalia Isen wants to spend the rest of her life living by the beach and teaching ceramics. She learned to make pottery in California, but spending a year in Japan also influenced her aesthetic sensibility. Her artwork strives for formal and decorative balance, but she never tries to make two pieces that are exactly the same. She believes that using handmade ceramic objects lends a certain ritual significance to routine activities; objects that you made yourself are uniquely satisfying.
Dates: Oct 15 (am), Oct 22 (pm), Nov 5 (pm), Nov 26 (am/pm), Nov 27 (am/pm), Dec 3 (am/pm), Dec 4 (am/pm)
Wind Chimes with Robert Jones
Class Description: Create your own set of porcelain wind chimes with Sawdust Artist Robert Jones. In this workshop you will learn hand building techniques, shaping, forming and imprinting. No prior experience needed.
Instructor Bio: Robert was drawn into his work with clay twenty-eight years ago and has been actively pursuing the ceramics spectrum ever since. Ceramics is a complex craft, requiring controlled physical and mental discipline, the magic of the fire, and dabbling in the crucible of nature. After many years creating functional and traditional ceramics, Robert’s interests have shifted toward two much more unpredictable and spontaneous ceramic techniques, “raku” and “saggar” firing. These two methods have presented the artist with many exciting and demanding new challenges. Robert is a native of Southern California, graduate of the University of California at Santa Barbara, and annual exhibitor, since 1991, at the Sawdust Art Festival. He is also a member of the Laguna Beach Craft Guild. His work has been featured at the prestigious Montage Resort in Laguna Beach, and has been displayed in galleries and design showrooms across California. His ceramics can also be found in the hands of corporations and private collectors internationally.
Dates: Oct 29 (pm), Nov 6 (pm), Nov13 (pm)
Wind Chimes with Nadine Nordstrom
Class Description: Create your own set of ceramic wind chimes with Sawdust Artist Nadine Nordstrom. In this workshop you will learn hand building techniques, shaping, forming and imprinting. No prior experience needed.
Instructor Bio: Nadine had a successful career as a RN nurse before dedicating herself full-time to Ceramics. A Laguna Beach local and regular exhibitor at the Sawdust Art Festival, Nadine’s work reveals a passion for color, texture and geometric shapes. On the subject of ceramics she states “The learning process is slow, with some successes and many failures. But, that tiny modicum of success has always enabled me to keep trying, to keep learning, experimenting and growing as a potter.”
Dates: Oct 15 (pm), Oct 29 (am)
Brooch with Kelly Nye
Class Description: This intricately cut brooch is inspired by vintage silhouette images. It is fabricated from brass but can also be made from copper, silver and nickel. The images may vary in detail, ranging from famous head shots to small vignettes like this one. The major skills learned during the completion of this project are sawing and filing.
Instructor Bio: Kelly Nye has exhibited her wearable sculptures at several group shows within the Southern California area including the Metal Arts Society of Southern California’s Emerging Voices Student Exhibition where she received an Honorable Mention Award. Ms. Nye also debuted her sterling silver and silicone rubber jewelry at The Wexner Center for the Arts gallery store in Columbus, Ohio. She was involved in the California State University Long Beach MFA Open Studios Program and received her Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from Columbus College of Art and Design. She recently obtained her Master’s degree from California State University, Long Beach with an emphasis in metals.
Dates: Dec 10 (am/pm), Dec 17 (am/pm)
Teapots with Walter Reiss
Class Description: Join experienced ceramicist Walter Reiss and create a unique teapot of your own. Using a combination of hand building tools and techniques, you will experience the magic of clay. In this workshop you will explore texture, form and color.
Instructor Bio: Walter Reiss is an accomplished ceramicist who has been exhibiting his work for the last 37 years at both the Sawdust Art Festival and the Festival of Arts. Walter describes his work as a combination of dark whimsy using the plastic properties of clay to realize his vision. His numerous awards include the International Fletcher Challenge Award.
Dates: Oct 22 (am), Nov 5 (am), Nov 6 (am), Nov 12 (am/pm), Nov 13 (am)
About the Laguna Beach Visitors & Conference Bureau
Laguna Beach Visitors & Conference Bureau is located at 361 Forest Avenue, Suite 200 with its Visitors Center at 381 Forest Ave. in the Coast Sotheby’s International Realty office. The Visitors Center is open daily, Monday – Sunday from 10 am to 5 pm. Laguna Beach is Southern California’s premier seaside destination located midway between Los Angeles and San Diego and along the central coast of Orange County. Known as home to hundreds of local artists, and set amid 20,000 acres of wilderness, Laguna Beach is primarily served by Orange County Airport located just 20 minutes away. For more information, please visit www.lagunabeachinfo.com.
About the Sawdust Art Festival
The Sawdust Art Festival is located at 935 Laguna Canyon Road. The Sawdust Art Festival is a non-profit art organization dedicated to educating the public and promoting the art created in Laguna Beach. Two-hour Sawdust Studio Art Classes are offered every Friday and Saturday at 10 am and 2 pm on the Sawdust Art Festival Grounds. To check out more details about the Sawdust Art Festival and other upcoming events and festivals, please navigate to www.sawdustartfestival.org or call 949-494-3030.