Sign up to receive news and updates from Handmakery: Subscribe to our Newsletter

galaxy

You + Me + a Teepee Alpaca My Bags

HAPPY NEW YEAR!  We’re onto 2019, hip hip hurray!  Excited to share with you our latest workshop ~ You + Me + a Teepee ~ Alpaca My Bags ~ DIY Artful Adventure a project dreamed up in the studio and created with children, ages 5 – 13, over an 8-week session!  The best part of this project you ask?  It’s multi-layered, dimensional, full of exploration + experience, completely artful + action-packed, personalized, and even A-G-L-O-W to light up a stargazing night!  Take a peek!

NEW ART WORKSHOPS BEGIN JANUARY 8TH!

JUMP IN AS WORKSHOPS ARE QUICKLY FILLING!

SIMPLY ENROLL:   WORKSHOPS + CLASSES + CAMPS

Early online enrollment is highly encouraged as seating is limited!  Start a new year making + creating + connecting in a colorful community focused on a creative + collaborative childhood!

STAY CONNECTED @handmakery ON INSTAGRAM!

A proud + confident artist feeling aglow and over the moon with a stargazing smile!

Mini-exhibits were truly aglow.  It was our first show with gallery mood lighting, definitely the best ambiance of the year!  Artists were anxious and animated to show off their colorful creations to family and friends.

On a little side note:  Be sure to find us all around the Roaring Fork Valley in The Scout Guide Aspen, Volume 6!  A beautiful + NEW publication just launched!  THANK YOU for featuring HANDMAKERY in ~ Ones To Watch Aspen, via Amy Groom & Erin Jones | Owners/Editors of The Scout Guide Aspen!  Pick up your very own copy of this beautiful guide in our art studio, around the Roaring Fork Valley, or even read online!

SUPPLIES FOR ~ You + Me + a Teepee Alpaca My Bags DIY Artful Adventure:

  • Pencil + eraser
  • Canvas- stretched/framed
  • Watercolor pallet
  • Liquid watercolors + brush + sponge + water container
  • Salt
  • Tempera paint + brush + pallet
  • India ink
  • Glitter + metallic confetti flakes, metallic circles & stars + metallic sticker stars + snowflakes
  • White school glue
  • Gluestick
  • Modge Podge
  • 1″ utility paint brush
  • Black construction paper
  • Scissors
  • Wooden skewers and tiny wooden dowels
  • Masking tape
  • Papier-mâché + white light-weight paper + plastic cloth
  • Tealight candle (battery/non-flame)
  • Heavy-weight watercolor paper
  • Fine-point permanent marker
  • Gel pens- shimmer, metallic, brights
  • Faux alpaca fur
  • Googly eye
  • Peel + stick glitter foam sheets
  • Hot glue (adult use)
  • Embellishments- pom-poms, pom-pom ribbon, felt, tissue circle confetti, and more!

PROCESS FOR ~ You + Me + a Teepee Alpaca My Bags DIY Artful Adventure:

ONE  Begin with a galaxy sky on a stretched framed canvas.  Focus on using cool colors to stain the bright white canvas.  Work light to dark. Experiment with staining, dripping, splattering, movement, and layering techniques using a paintbrush, a watercolor pallet, liquid watercolors, and even build up to adding a tempera paint layer.  Use salt for additional experimentation and effects.  Dry.  Relayer to go darker.  Eventually, even incorporate some black.  Dry.  Splatter using metallic liquid watercolor and dip a tiny wooden stick with white tempera to stamp for distant stars in the galaxy sky.

TWO  Fully dry canvas.  Draw mountains using a pencil in the lower half.  Paint in mountains using India ink.  Dry.  Embellish sky with glitter, metallic confetti flakes, metallic circles and stars, metallic sticker stars, and even tiny snowflakes. Attach using gluestick and/or white school glue.  Use matt Modge Podge to lightly seal embellishments with a 1″ utility brush.

THREE  Draw and cut a small + simple paper silhouette which will become the “you + me” of this piece.  The silhouettes may include people, animals, trees, or even the combination.  Attach silhouette and seal with Modge Podge.

FOUR  Use wooden skewers to form a simple teepee frame with a flat back.  Assemble using masking tape and partners.

A peek at teepee armatures ready for a doorway and then a single layer of papier-mâché.

FIVE  Move onto adding a doorway that is front-facing with a horizontal crossbar and two lower sticks running verticle made out of tiny wooden dowels.  The doorway is a great addition to personalize the teepee but be sure it’s large enough for a battery tealight candle to be placed inside.  Doorways can be triangular, square, or even arched!

SIX  Papier-mâché the teepee armature using light-weight paper similar to copy or butcher paper, so the finished teepee will glow when the tealight candle is inside.

Dry teepee overnight.

A completed teepee just before being embellished.  Add a tealight candle for a lovely nighttime glow.

SEVEN  Sketch out bags for travel on watercolor paper.  Did you get the workshop title?  Alpaca my bags… I’ll pack my bags!  Gear for travel may include suitcases, stuffies, plants, firewood, gifts, coolers, and more!  Once sketched, outline with a fine point permanent marker and color using sparkle gel pens.  Carefully cut out.

EIGHT  The much-loved alpaca is smaller than a llama.  Simply sketch and cut an alpaca from faux alpaca fur.  The alpaca is best drawn from a side-view and embellished with a bag using fabric felt, pom-poms, and any other exciting decor.  The fabric alpaca can be attached to the canvas using white school glue or hot glue.

If you like alpacas, you’ll also love our DIY Llamas in Pajamas!

NINE  Attach the teepee to the canvas using hot glue or Gorilla Glue (adult use).  Dry.  Artists can then embellish their attached teepees using glitter sticky foam pieces, pom-poms, pom-pom ribbon, large tissue paper confetti circles, felt, yarn tassels, and more!  Repeat a design around the three sides of the teepee sculpture to create a little radial symmetry.

An alpaca artist at our mini-exhibit!  Love at “furry” sight!

Oh là là”… the nighttime glow just before the mini-exhibit + recognition ceremony.  All lights were on deck.

Probably one of our favorite exhibits with an amber glow and all-round ambiance into the night.

Galaxy skies aglow…

… a night to celebrate and remember!

THANK YOU to everyone for joining us in the studio for an artful evening to celebrate!

Are you yet following @handmakery on Instagram?

Tag us @handmakery with your creations on Instagram!  Follow our blog for more inspiring process-based art projects!  As always, thank you for following this artful adventure!  Send us a note anytime!  We’d love to hear what you’re thinking and dreaming!  Much love and happiness creating in this creative + colorful world full of collaboration + connection + community + arts & crafting!  Happy New Year!

xo Ami