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Sparkle + Shine + Style

HANDMAKERY Little Style

Sometimes you have to put a sparkle + shine + style in your step at HANDMAKERY: A Children’s Art Studio located in beautiful Carbondale | Colorado!  * inspire * express * create *

Ami Maes

Founder + Creative Director

HANDMAKERY: A Children’s Art Studio

www.handmakery.com | Facebook | Pinterest | info@handmakery.com | carbondale.co

Instructing Printmaking at Anderson Ranch Art Center: Summer 2014

Excited to announce that we’ll be back to Anderson Ranch Art Center in Snowmass | CO for Summer of 2014 to instruct printmaking!  The 2014 Summer Workshop registration will begin in January.  Wanted to tell our HANDMAKERY families first, as space will be limited!  Here is a link to our PRINTMAKING 101 workshop at Anderson Ranch Art Center last summer creating with 6-8 year olds!  Link to our 2014 workshop–> Carve Away!  Below are photos of the printmaking process taken at HANDMAKERY: A Children’s Art Studio located in Carbondale | CO creating with teens.  {Above photo credit: Anderson Ranch Art Center}

2014 Summer Workshop at Anderson Ranch Art Center:

Carve Away! An Exploration of Linocuts and Block Printing

July 7-July 11

9am-3pm

Ami Maes, Art Instructor

9-12 Years

Discover the in depth world of printmaking as artists focus their week on linocuts and block printing. We explore the elements and principles of art and design while using our imaginations to come up with expressive themes for our art. We gather inspiration from everything around us such as nature, music, travel and more! Join the fun to create large scale carvings to print and an intricate set of stamps. Your everyday world of art making will be forever changed with this new set of printmaking skills!

Ami Maes has taught classes at Anderson Ranch, the Aspen Art Museum, the Aspen Center for Environmental Studies and the Wyly Community Art Center. She is the recipient of the Mary Ellen Nix Art Educator of the Year Award through the Aspen Art Museum. Ami is the founder + creative director of HANDMAKERY: A Children’s Art Studio in Carbondale | CO and also instructs art at the middle school level.

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Ami Maes

Founder + Creative Director

HANDMAKERY: A Children’s Art Studio

www.handmakery.com | Facebook | Pinterest | info@handmakery.com | carbondale.co

Creating Wool Foxes for a Community of Little Readers

 

Fox Group

Local teens + HANDMAKERY came together to create over 17 soft sculptures using reclaimed wools to give back to their community!  Each teen created a fox to live at the local library for children to read with, while visiting the library.  The process of hand-stitching these little woodland creatures took several weeks of LOVE + PATIENCE + DEDICATION + HARD WORK + HANDWORK + GIVING OF THE HEART  ♥.  Each fox is very unique and includes a photo of the artist + the name and personality of the fox!  Check these out at the local, NEW,  library!  {Photos of the process, foxes + delivery below.}

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Creative + Eco Friendly Lunch Design

 

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Must haves for creative and eco-friendly lunch design!  This is what we’re packing to head to the studio to create!  Love that it’s all beautiful + washable + eco-friendly!  Packing lunches = FUN!

1.  two+two chic reusable bags that are food-safe + eco-friendly and are locally based in Carbondale, Colorado.  Find them on-line, at the Aspen Saturday Market or in local shops!

2.  Stainless steel, stackable and easy to wash lunch containers with a convenient carrier system.

3.  To-Go Ware bamboo lunch utensils that include a set of chopsticks, fork, spoon, knife + a washable travel bag that clips onto your lunch box.

4.  Labels- Don’t forget to make creative + durable labels for your creative lunch wear so it will find its way back to your kitchen.  Create your own or head to Etsy!

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Ami Maes

Founder + Creative Director

HANDMAKERY: A Children’s Art Studio

www.handmakery.com | Facebook | Pinterest | info@handmakery.com | carbondale.co

 

 

Creating at Oktoberfest 2013 in Historic Downtown Carbondale | CO

HANDMAKERY: A Children’s Art Studio set in the outdoors of downtown!

It was a beautiful fall day that started out a little chilly but quickly warmed up as the sun began to shine in the Colorado, bluebird sky!  Art making began at 11 and didn’t end until well over 3PM as the children just kept coming downtown to create!  We had over 40+, little aspiring artists come to our art making/outdoor studio to create HARVEST CROWNS made of recycled cardboard + noodles + kid friendly paints in an array of festive fall colors + glitter to dazzle!  What a fabulous day of creative fun, set to the tunes of Polka + delicious Austrian food.  Lots of locals were out and about mingling.  Take a peek at our HANDMAKERY HARVEST CROWNS below!  A HUGE thank you to Carbondale Recreation Department for organizing this family fun event for the fall and keeping it FREE!  HANDMAKERY loved being part of Oktoberfest 2013!

HANDMAKERY OKTOBERFEST 2013 Harvest Crowns

HANDMAKERY HARVEST CROWN on one of our fabulous assistants!

Pictured below is a bit of what we captured when our hands weren’t full of glue, paint, glitter or tying aprons…our only wish is we could have captured even more!  Please view our entire photo collection of Oktoberfest 2013 in our HANDMAKERY GALLERY! (Continue Reading…)

Treehouse Design + Architecture

{One of our favorite workshops this summer at HANDMAKERY!}

Ooolala… A parent perspective:  
 
“Jack loved every aspect of Ami’s art class at Handmakery this summer. Randy and I were very impressed with the classroom, materials, special guest visitors, kid’s excitement and motivation about their project, and, of course, the final product. He is so proud of his treehouse! Thanks, Ami. Jack will definitely be returning!!!”    -Juliet  Carbondale | CO
 

We loved all the creativity and inspiration that came from connecting our aspiring artists with local architects!  We also loved the time these little ones spent designing + planning because it helps the students understand the importance of thinking about and planning their sculpture + it also becomes a second piece of art!  Students were given the freedom to choose what kind of additions they wanted to add to their tree houses- we had hammocks, tire swings, rope ladders, little log hollows, hideaways, woodland creatures….imaginations ran WILD and excitement was abundant!

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A Little Handmade Watercolor

HANDMAKERY created three hand-painted watercolors to share with those “close to our hearts.”   One for the lovely Miss Kathryn Camp of Miss Kathryn’s, a licensed home childcare program, Waldorf inspired, located in downtown Carbondale, Colorado, as a little “thank you” for creating such special memories!  The original painting was framed and wrapped for Miss Kathryn and colored prints were made for each child, as a keepsake!  Another watercolor was for the lovely teachers and children of the Children’s Rocky Mountain School, a fabulous preschool, located just minutes outside of Carbondale, again as a little appreciation for such a special year together + a little memory for each child!  The third as a little gift for our very own Nana + Popi!  Handmade comes from the HEART!

Kathryn Camp Photo

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