handmakery
As the snow is softly falling this wintery + white day, I’m reminded how magical it was to create our GLITTERY SNOWFLAKE COUNTDOWNS for December in our workshop HANDMAKERY FROM THE HEART: making + creating to give with 6 – 8 year olds! Loved creating in monochromatic blues. Love the contrast of the black + white numbers. Loved the excitement + freedom at the glitter table. There is nothing more magical than adding glitter to make a piece of art sparkle + shine! {Hang with a little red + white twine to use year after year!}
Ami Maes
Founder + Creative Director
HANDMAKERY: A Children’s Art Studio
www.handmakery.com | Facebook | Pinterest | info@handmakery.com | carbondale.co
A little vintage camper drawing {on stretched canvas} started by a little artist in our workshop creating with six to eight year olds in HANDMAKERY FROM THE HEART: making + creating to give. Day #1 of a six week workshop, gathering to create once a week! This project was inspired by HANDMAKERY’S -{LOVE}- for vintage + collected + time-worn objects, graced with patina + imperfections + textures + unique colors, that tell a one-of-a-kind story. We dreamed up this project and envisioned it beginning 2-D, then moving into 3-D, with the addition of mixed media. Can’t wait to show you how it evolves and gets personalized below!
A few of our personal vintage object from 2Market2: clothing + handpicked goods located in Carbondale | CO used for inspiration + learning about vintage.
A photograph of one of our favorite vintage campers {borrowed for educational/artistic purposes} from one of our favorite blogs featuring Elsie + Emma at A Beautiful Mess.
Discovering vintage colors and developing a color pallet for our vintage camper painting. Think avocado green, bubblegum pink, creamsicle + clementine orange + more. We LOVED when each little artist shared their specific color scheme, as they were SO excited to create their own combination and very interested in getting the exact wording! Visit + follow our collection of “vintage inspiration” on our HANDMAKERY Pinterest page!
Take a peek above at all the variations of our Vintage Camper Paintings!
A close up of a Vintage Camper Painting complete with special editions including:
- a snowy + sparkly clothesline with wooden clips + handmade winter wear
- skis + snowboards
- garland created with washi tape + red and white twine
- a personalized quote on handwriting paper
- sparkles, shine + snowflakes, oh my!
(Continue Reading…)
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
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.
Ami Maes
Founder + Creative Director
HANDMAKERY: A Children’s Art Studio
www.handmakery.com | Facebook | Pinterest | info@handmakery.com | carbondale.co
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.}
(Continue Reading…)
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!
Ami Maes
Founder + Creative Director
HANDMAKERY: A Children’s Art Studio
www.handmakery.com | Facebook | Pinterest | info@handmakery.com | 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 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…)
{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!
(Continue Reading…)
A few favorite photos of the week instructing in the Children’s Program at Anderson Ranch Art Center in Snowmass, Colorado, over the week of Forth of July! In just four art filled days, we explored Monoprint Monday to Texture Exploration Tuesday to Wild for Linoleum Blocks Wednesday to Celebrating the 4th of July (off to be with family + friends) all the way to Freedom for Printing Friday! The class was sold out, so we had a group of 15 amazing little ones, ranging from 6-8 years of age, from all over the nation! Each artist explored everything from paste paper, monoprinting, creating with texture tools, transferring, linoleum carving, collagraphs, silk screening, plus various printing processes! The creativity, independence, confidence, and relationships formed this week, in these 15 aspiring artists, was incredible to watch blossom. So thankful I got to be part of it and to see it all in action firsthand, wouldn’t have wanted to miss it for the world.
Think you’ll be amazed at a few of the images captured when hands were not busy creating or full of printing ink! At 2:30 on Friday we celebrated with the children and their families with a little indoor/outdoor art exhibit + popcycles! Excited to be on the schedule for next summer! If you get the opportunity to visit Anderson Ranch Art Center you’ll be beyond amazed, exploring all the specialty studios- woodworking, ceramics, painting, just to name a few! I encourage you to head up to Anderson Ranch Art Center on a Friday afternoon to explore the studios, the artwork produced throughout the week in all the specialty studios and to have lunch in the cafe, which is by far, the BEST homemade food around- definitely one of the teaching perks! Enjoy the collection of photos from Printmaking 101!
Ami Maes
Founder + Creative Director
HANDMAKERY: A Children’s Art Studio
www.handmakery.com | info@handmakery.com | carbondale.co
(Continue Reading…)
Subscribe to RSS Feed
Get New Posts via Email
