About
INSPIRING CREATIVITY + OUR ART STUDIO + FOUNDER AND DIRECTOR
HANDMAKERY is a hands-on, art enrichment program for children & young adults offering specialized classes, camps, and workshops. We believe that every child is an artist ready to be encouraged, nurtured and inspired to flourish creatively. Our goal is to foster the personal vision, the unique style and to inspire the individual artist. With years of experience creating with children, we have observed children that have opportunity to express themselves in the visual arts discover their inner confidence + creativity + inspiration + passion + talent + voice and are able to connect and contribute to the world in which they live.
The visual arts is a foundation in developing the whole child. Artistically empowered children have a tendency to soar as well-rounded, expressive, open-minded, contributing, successful individuals. A child nurtured in the visual arts develops independence, imagination, self-expression, out of the box thinking, adventure for exploration + experimentation + discovery, can work strong collectively and/or independently, all in which are essential in making our world a better place. We aim to develop confident, creative-minded individuals, that have the tools to express and communicate creatively.
INSPIRING CREATIVITY we focus on the creative process. We provide exposure and inspiration to a wide array of high-quality art materials, tools, techniques & processes, art movements & styles, while providing exciting exposure to famous artists throughout history. We believe in an all-encompassing approach to the visual arts and do our best to also include a very well-rounded approach. Hands-0n exploration includes painting, drawing, collage, assemblage, printmaking, 3D sculpture, up-cycled art, sewing, papier mache, construction, pottery & more one-of-a-kind crafting! We are excited to bring local access to the children of the Roaring Fork Valley with over 20+ years of art education experience to Carbondale | Colorado!
OUR ART STUDIO is bright, inviting, open, extra spacious, uniquely organized but most importantly an environment that is nurturing, welcoming, fun, inspiring, safe, imaginative + creative… a place where magic truly happens daily! Get your dose of daily creativity over on @handmakery on Instagram!
AMI MAES | FOUNDER + CREATIVE DIRECTOR OF HANDMAKERY: Art Education + Experience as an Art Educator + Story
Ami holds a Bachelor of Science in Visual Arts Education K-12. She holds a professional license in Art Education K-12 in Colorado.
Ami’s 25 years of experience includes instructing artists from preschool-adult for well-known art organizations including:
- HANDMAKERY: A Children’s Art Studio {Founder + Creative Director} Carbondale | CO 2013 – current
- Anderson Ranch Art Center in Snowmass | CO 2006 – current
- Featured art presenter for Deep Space Sparkle’s Summer Art Workshop educating art instructors 2018 – current
- Part of an international group of art bloggers, the Rockin’ Art Moms, sharing art making all over the world!
- Recipient of the “Mary Ellen Nix Art Educator of the Year Award” presented by the Aspen Art Museum
- Roaring Fork School District instructing Visual Arts at the middle school level 1999 – 2017 in Carbondale | CO
- Aspen Art Museum in Aspen | CO
- Aspen Center for Environmental Studies in Aspen | CO
- The Art Base in Basalt | CO
- Carbondale Clay Center | CO
Born and raised, and still living life as a 4th generation Carbondale native, Ami’s passion for art began as a little girl. Highlights include her kindergarten teacher telling her she was going to be an artist when she grew up, winning a shopping spree for designing the most “glittered up holiday ornament” as a kinder, and winning first place, SEVEN years in a row as a child, in the “Color the Cover” contest hosted by Carbondale’s Valley Journal, today known as the Sopris Sun. Ami had the opportunity to grow up sewing and crafting handmade goods with her mother and sisters. When she had the opportunity to create, within a studio experience in high school working with young children, she knew she had found her passion ~ art + children + creating hands-on! She is excited to bring local access for little hands to create to her hometown of Carbondale, CO!
In addition to instructing at HANDMAKERY, Ami spends her spare time in her own studio, creating with her own children, working for other local art organizations, treasure hunting for one-of-a kind-finds, dabbling in photography + graphic design + art and crafts blogging, riding her colorful cruiser, gardening, decorating, rafting, camping, snowboarding, and with her family + friends, living life in the beautiful mountains of Carbondale, Colorado!
