A Whole Lot of Jewelry Making at Beads and Bangles

It was a a wild and crazy weekend of hammering, bending wire, making fanciful mixed media charms and beads, playing with PMC clay, and learning jewelry skills at the annual Beads and Bangles weekend. Forty-nine enthusiastic artisan/crafters packed the nine introductory jewelry classes (most classes were full to capacity and them some). All went home bedecked and bespangled.

The "Faux Pewter" Make-N-Take at Friday night's opening reception was an absolute blast as everyone fashioned pendants that looked convincingly like metal from very humble materials - cardboard and hardware store aluminum tape!








There were two classes making jewelry with Precious Metal Clay (PMC) - one using Copper Metal Clay to make earrings, and one using Silver Metal Clay to make bracelets.










Lots of pounding going on in Cabinet Shop for the Hammered Wire Jewelry class - noisy but a lot of fun.

One of the great things about Beads and Bangles is the variety of somewhat offbeat jewelry classes, like the Handmade Beaded Bracelet class. Students made memory wire bracelets but it was really all about the beads...which students created out of some decidedly non-traditional jewelry materials.











Or, the Junk Drawer Art Charms class in which students made charms out of, well....junk. However, the results were anything but!

More photos on our online gallery.

Instructor Spotlight - Barbara Minor and Chris Hentz

We are pleased to have scheduled jewelry artists Barbara Minor and Christopher Hentz from Baton Rouge to teach at Shake Rag on their way home from the Bead and Button show in Milwaukee, where their classes are always popular. Here is a short interview with each of them.

Barbara Minor

 1) How long have you been doing enameling?

I have been enameling since my mid-20's.  While in graduate school, studying jewelry and metalsmithing, I took a two week enameling class with Bill Helwig.  It was an amazing two weeks that, literally, changed my life.  My next opportunity to do more enameling didn't happen until I was out of school and teaching at the State University of New York at Geneseo.  I was able to continue working with and expand upon what I learned during those influential two weeks, which encouraged me to include enameling as part of the jewelry/metalsmithing classes I taught at Geneseo.  Since the late 1980's, enameling combined with jewerly/metalsmithing techniques has been my primary focus for my work and for teaching workshops.

Enameled Beads

 2) There are many specialties in jewelry. What drew you to enameling?

The magical qualities of color and the endless possibilities when combining enameling with metalsmithing/jewelry techniques made enameling irresistible.

 3) Do you have a favorite process or technique?

My favorite time enameling is when I can turn on the kiln and just enamel without any specific task to complete.  I can explore and experiement with ideas for new ways of using enamels.  There is always the question....what if you did this?  Those are the questions for which I like to find the answer.  A favorite technique....that's hard because they all capture my interest and encourage creativity.

Enameled Brooch

 4) Where do you draw inspiration for your designs?

Color combinations - all kinds of places.  I seem to be especially drawn to Japanese fabric and decorative papers.  I really love looking at flowers - lately exotic hibiscus flowers have been of particular interest.  I think about color theory and color relationships, asking myself which color will really make another more beautiful and will convey the idea or feeling I'm trying to get across to viewers.

 5) What advice do you have for novice artisans starting out?

Learn from a respected teacher whose work you like and then practice the techniques taught as soon after the class as you can.  Remember what you've done in your experiments (colors, thickness of enamel, techniques used) and then make note of the results when the piece comes out of the kiln.  This will help you build your enameling vocabulary.

Barb will be teaching Enameling June 15-17

Christopher Hentz

 1) How long have you been doing metalsmithing?

Since undergraduate school - 1972.  I studied with Robert Montgomery at Indiana State University and Richard Thomas at Cranbrook Academy of Art.  

 2) What drew you to jewelry metalsmithing as a medium for artistic expression?

Silver and Turquoise Brooch

I chose jewelry/metalsmithing because the objects I could make allowed me to be a part of celebrating special moments in a person's life.

 3) Do you have a favorite process or technique?

That changes over the years.....  It has been raising/forming sheet metal, soldering/complex fabrication and currently Digital Fabrication (a.k.a. CAD CAM/RP).  

 4) Where do you draw inspiration for your designs?

It seems as though anything can provide "visual stimulus".  So, it's not a specific subject matter, but can be any visual or verbal input.

Container Group

 5) What advice do you have for novice artisans starting out in metalsmithing?

Learn to see and think about forms and ideas.  Read a lot.  Observe a lot.  Don't limit yourself.

Chris will be teaching Soldering June 15-17

Patricia McNair Named Society of Midland Authors Finalist

It's so exciting to learn of successes and honors received by our instructors and students! 

Shake Rag Alley creative writing instructor, Patricia McNair, has been named a finalist in the Society of Midland Authors Awards for her collection of stories The Temple of Air. 

The Society of Midland Authors was founded in 1915 and includes published authors from the Heartland states of Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota, Ohio, South Dakota and Wisconsin. Each year since it's inception, the Society has presented awards for excellence in a number of categories. 

Patricia is runner up to Paula McLain's The Paris Wife, and fellow finalist with Donald Ray Pollock in the Adult Fiction category. Folks like Ray Bradbury and Dan Chaon and Janet Kauffman have been named finalists in the past; and literati such as Saul Bellow, Stuart Dybek, and Aleksandar Hemon have been named winners. Impressive company indeed! 

Congratulations Patricia!

See Patricia's website for more info about Patricia and her book.

See the Shake Rag Alley Creative Writing Class Listings for information on two workshops Patricia will be teaching at Shake Rag Alley this summer:

June 2-3 – Writing in Place: A Fiction and Memoir Workshop (manuscript consultation also available)

August 5  – Journal & Sketchbook (with co-instructor Philip Hartigan)

Garden Getaway - Garden Art and the Art of Gardening

Garden Getaway is Shake Rag's first big event of the season. This year's 8th annual Garden Getaway held at the end of March drew over 130 students eager to sink their hands into some hypertufa, bend some willow, make art from gourds, and gain some gardening know-how. Eighteen half-day workshops covered all that and more...and kept everyone hopping.

As in past years, the basement of the Longbranch Gallery was the epicenter of cement and mosaic activity led by our intrepid Mosaic Madness team of Judy Sutcliffe and Heidi Dyas-McBeth. Just couldn't resist this photo that perfectly captures the beehive of activity that took place there:

Faux Bois Planters was a new workshop this year...and very popular. Here two students apply the detailing to their "fake wood" concrete vessels.


Another jam-packed new class, Pebble Balls for Your Garden, was led by sisters Carol Rademaker and Janet Heubner. Below, Carol helps a student with the finishing touches.


The Shake Rag summer schedule has lots more opportunities to get your hands into some cement, including TWO more Faux Bois classes. Click here to see the class listings.

There was also a lot of gourd art going on at this year's Garden Getaway. Terri Schmit taught workshops in Whimsies (making whimsical figures using pieces of gourd) and Carved Gourd Flowers. The Whimsies class was filled almost as soon as it was announced. If you missed out, don't despair. Terri will be teaching the class again in August (click here for the class listing).

As always, John Schakel's Bent Willow Trellis classes were a hit. This year John also led a workshop in making a willow basket...but he especially enjoys seeing his student's creative trellis designs. If you like working with bent willow, how about making a chair? John is teaching several chair classes, and even a Loveseat class later this year. Class listings here.

On a more practical gardening note, in Allen Pincus' Vermiculture workshop, even veteran composters learned a new way to use table scraps to create rich garden compost right in one's own kitchen...and even in the dead of winter. They made worm farms from plastic storage bins, learned ALL about compost and worms, and even got a supply of worms to get things started.


Allen's wife, Judy Pincus, taught everyone the virtues (and ease) of home canning in her Canning Demo. This was a "dry run" session, but next fall you can actually get some hands-on canning experience with Judy's expert guidance. She will be leading two workshops in which you'll actually go through the process and go home with some healthful and tasty canned goods. (Click here for the class listings.)

There were lots more workshops making mini terrariums, garden gizmos, dyeing silk scarves, making 5 board benches, carving hypertufa slabs, and learning about herbs and kitchen gardens. For more Garden Getaway photos, see our Photo Gallery.

March Workshops at Shake Rag Alley

March is the time to shake off the winter doldrums and kick our workshop season into full gear. And this March was no exception with 11 classes, most full to capacity or nearly so.
















In Art Scarves - Felting with Wool & Silk, local shepherdess and fiber pro Kriss Marion showed her students several techniques to create one-of-a-kind wearable works of art using wool from her sheep and silk habotai scarves. It was messy, but a lot of fun!


In our popular Beginning Photoshop Elements workshop techie guru Cheryl Smeja, once again helped her students navigate the ins and out of Photoshop Elements in order to make their photos come out just they way they "pictured" them.  And if their heads were spinning by the end of class, not to worry - Cheryl sends everyone home with tons of materials they can digest at their leisure.

Speaking of messy art, the Mixed Media Paint Layering students had a great time playing with paint and collage and stamps and glues led by local mixed media artist Sharon Stauffer.  They made some really fun layered and textured papers and collages.

We also had the first of our ever popular Bent Willow Chair workshops led by John Schakel. Clearly a great benefit of  a Willow Chair class is that after a hard day's work you get to relax:

In other workshops, weavers assembled their own Salish Looms, photographers explored how to use their new camera beyond point-and-shoot mode, and students from many craft areas delved into Zentangles. Jewelry students made pendants in PMC clay and learned how to set stones in PMC, while others made jewelry creations from hammered wire.

This coming weekend is Garden Getaway, our annual extravaganza of workshops in Garden Art and the Art of Gardening, and our first major event of the year. Eighteen workshops in everything from how to grow herbs to making Hypertufa planters. Over 125 students and 15 instructors will be on hand for a very busy weekend. Should be a great time! 

Instructor Spotlight - Judy Coates-Perez

Our class schedule always includes perennially favorite repeat workshops, but every season we love to bring in new, talented artists who teach techniques we haven't offered before. Art quilter Judy Coates-Perez is just such an instructor, so were were delighted when she agreed to teach these two classes this spring:

April 21 - Heavy Metal Play Day, in which students will learn to texture and incorporate aluminum and copper metal into mixed media projects, and

April 22 - 10 Textile Techniques with Acrylic Inks, exploring a variety of painting techniques. Update 3/24/12: see Judy's blog post for samples of what students will be doing in the class.


Judy is an international award winning textile artist from Chicago, well known for her highly detailed, colorfully painted whole cloth quilts. She teaches at guilds and quilt festivals nationwide, has written numerous articles for Quilting Arts and Cloth Paper Scissors magazines, produced 3 instructional DVD’s with Interweave publications, and has been a guest multiple times on the Quilting Arts television program.

Recently Judy graciously took time from her busy schedule to answer some questions for our blog:

How long have you been doing fiber mixed media?

I have been making art quilts for 25 years. I began incorporating paint and other mixed media with my textile work about 15 years ago.

How did you choose fiber as your medium for artistic expression?

I love how limitless the options are working with surface design techniques on textiles.

I don’t think I’ve ever met an art medium I didn’t like, lol. In highschool my time was always divided between the art room and home ec. When I went to art school, I got a BFA in graphic design and worked for a number of years in that field. In my spare time I began making art quilts, incorporating the two things I loved most, creating imagery and working with fabric.

While living in Austin, Texas I also worked with clay; hand building and throwing on the wheel. I especially loved carving texture into the surface of my pottery, which paralleled my interest in creating stitched texture in the quilted surface. I loved working with clay, but I determined being a full time potter and investing in the equipment and space to work in that medium was not realistic for me and I refocused on textiles. I find that when ever I work in other media it gives me knew ideas to carry over into my textile work.

Black and Bloom All Over by Judy Coates-Perez

Where do you draw inspiration for the images in your work?

Everywhere! but to be more precise, my life experiences; my childhood, my kids interests while they were growing up, travels, nature, science, mythology and folklore.

What advice do you have for people starting out?

Try new things, take a few classes to get the groundwork, experiment and have fun! If it’s not fun, it’s not worth doing.

Thanks, Judy, for some great advice! We're looking forward to your April classes!

If you would like to see more of Judy's work and learn more about her processes, visit her wonderful and much-read website/blog, www.judycoatesperez.com.

And, Judy has a second blog, www.paintedthreadsprojects.blogspot.com, where she has posted tutorials. You can find a step-by-step tutorial on how Judy created the Black and Bloom All Over quilt shown above at this post on Judy's tutorial blog. 

Instructor Spotlight - Rebecca Crowell

Rebecca Crowell came to us two years ago and quickly became one of our most sought after instructors, each year teaching a sold-out class in Oil and Cold Wax (see our blog post from September).


She is taking this year off from teaching the Cold Wax technique but instead will teach a two day 2-Dimensional Media Critique Workshop on April 28th and 29th. She will be back teaching the Cold Wax technique again in June of 2013.


Rebecca has been an abstract painter for over 25 years since earning an MFA in painting from Arizona State University. Her work has been shown widely in the US as well as internationally, primarily in Ireland where she was a 2011 artist in residence at the Tyrone Guthrie Centre.


Using a kind of "memory mapping", Rebecca creates works which, although visually quite abstract, often still retain faint echoes of landscape and nature - its plant life, earth and rocks. Rugged textures, earthy colors and a feeling of light, open spaces reveal her subliminal interest in the colours, mark-making and abstraction of at least a "memory" of landscape. Her process involves working in layers, cutting, scratching and digging back. She says "The goal in my process is not to render something in paint but to allow the paint to suggest a path through the work as it develops. I remain in charge of what to keep and what to discard, and how to structure and organize the image."

Not only is Rebecca an artist of considerable talent and stature, but she is also a skillful instructor. One of her Oil and Wax students called her "the best teacher she had ever had."  We feel very fortunate to have Rebecca as an instructor and are looking forward to her April class. She is the perfect person to lead a critique workshop that will give students practice in evaluating their own work in a supportive and non-threatening environment.

Find out more about Rebecca and view samples of her work on her website and at her blog. And here's an excellent video in which Rebecca talks about her work and her processes.

Phenomenal Woman Retreat

The 2012 workshop season got off to a grand start last weekend with Phenomenal Woman - a Winter Retreat for Women. Patterned after Maya Angelou’s poem, Phenomenal Woman, and led by the ever-inspiring Diane Sterba, the retreat offered women a weekend to share the cozy environment of Shake Rag Alley while exploring arty ways of getting back in touch with their "phenomenal" selves...those parts of themselves that may have been lost along the way.

They painted and embellished papier mache masks to reveal all those hidden parts of themselves...all those feelings we so often "mask".





















To respond to what their inner selves were trying to tell them, they created phenomenal woman assemblages from Di's incredible backroom stash. (If you've seen the back room, you know what a treasure trove of "stuff" that is. Just to be invited to play there is a treat in and of itself!)

In a relaxing evening session they drew some fantastic "zendoodle" women (not exactly Zentangles, but sort of in the same vein).























And, of course, they laughed, chatted and shared, spent time exploring galleries and shops in Mineral Point, and dined in the Mineral Point restaurants. They departed on Sunday after enjoying a continental breakfast at Shake Rag...renewed, refreshed, and feeling very "artful". What a great way to spend an otherwise dreary winter weekend!

See our Photo Gallery for more pictures of the weekend...and more great masks.

Winter Writers Series Brings Award Winning Writers to Mineral Point

With no arts and crafts workshops scheduled in winter, you might think this is a slow time for Shake Rag Alley, but not so! The new Winter Writer Series has been very exciting, bringing talented Wisconsin writers to Mineral Point. The writers were winners of awards given by Council for Wisconsin Writers, Wisconsin Academy of Sciences, Arts and Letters, Wisconsin People & Ideas, and the Wisconsin Poet Laureate Commission. They were invited to spend a week in Shake Rag's historic lodging, affording  distraction-free time to concentrate on their writing projects. They also generously shared their time and talents with readings, workshops, and visits with local community members and students.

Last week was especially busy with two residency writers staying at Shake Rag - Bruce Dethlefsen, current Wisconsin Poet Laureate, and Children's Literature Award Winner, Jacqueline Houtman.

Wisconsin Poet Laureate Bruce Dethlefsen

Monday, the 6th, was a delightful evening at Foundry Books. Bruce Dethlefsen read a number of poems from his newest collection, Unexpected Shiny Things. Bruce's wonderful poetry, as one attendee noted, is quite "accessible", not the stuff that leaves you scratching your head wondering what that was all about. The poems ranged from perceptive and moving to down-right hilarious, as in The Hot Dog Man (other moms may caution their children to be good or the boogie man will get them, but the mother in Bruce's poem threatens to sell misbehaving children to the Hot Dog Man who makes his hot dogs out of ANYTHING).

Appropriately enough, the evening was rounded out with poetry set to music written and performed by Jen Logueflower. Bruce, who as it turns out plays percussion in a band, even joined in to accompany Jen on the bongos.

It was a very special evening. Thanks to Gayle Bull of Foundry Books for hosting.


Earlier in the day, Bruce met with the Mineral Point High School AP English Literature and Composition students where he shared some of his poetry, after which the students had the opportunity to read some of their own.

Jacqueline Houtman, winner of the Council of Wisconsin Writers Tofte/Wright Children's Literature Award also visited the Middle School/High School last week. Jacqueline, a Ph.D. in Medical Microbiology and Immunology, describes her award-winning debut children's book, The Reinvention of Edison Thomas, as "sciency fiction", a story about Eddy, "a kid for whom science is easy but friendship is hard". The 5th Grade Book Club selected the book as their book of the month and made Jacqueline their honored guest at lunchtime. A presentation after lunch for 5th and 6th grade students began with songs by the band They Might Be Giants (Eddy's favorite band) who sing about science, and treats consisting of sandwiches of peanut butter and "bee vomit" (honey, in case you haven't read the book). Jacqueline described the many steps needed to bring a book to publication (it took her five years!) and answered many, many questions from eager students.

Winter Writers Series Coordinator, Heather Murn with Amy Lou Jenkins

The series kicked off in November with Short Story Contest winner, Allison Slavick (see our November 18th post). December brought CWW's Ellis/Henderson Outdoor Writing Award Winner Amy Lou Jenkins. Amy participated in a free meet and greet at Shake Rag Alley, and talked about her book Every Natural Fact. We were astounded by her depth of knowledge of Wisconsin natural history. Coleman and John Fetters were her hosts at Maplewood Lodge located in the countryside outside of Mineral Point, the perfect setting considering her subject matter.

Christopher Mohar

Christopher Mohar, winner of CWW's Larry and Eleanor Sternig Short Fiction Award, stayed at Shake Rag Alley's Clowney House in January and read some of his new fiction at the January Shake Rag Alley board meeting. He told us he was thoroughly enjoying luxuriating in the old house, regaled us with his colorful descriptions, and described his use of an old manual typewriter which helped him focus because "typewriters don't have Facebook!".










Next week, Shake Rag will welcome Krista Eastman, Kay W. Levin Short Non-fiction Award Winner. On Monday evening, February 20th, Krista will do a public reading from her award-winning essay "Layers of Ice" about living in Antarctica, travel, and myth. (7pm in the Cabinet Shop at Shake Rag Alley, call the Shake Rag office for further details: 608-987-3292).

Later in the spring, Shake Rag will be host to David Krump, winner of the Lorine Niedecke Poetry Award.

We are so grateful for the Council for Wisconsin Writers partnerships that have given us the opportunity to welcome such talented and gracious writers to our community. We look forward to many more.

Poemsong Performance Feb 11th

Don't miss next weekend's performance of Poemsong!

Jen Logueflower and friends put song to some of the greatest poetry of the past millennium. From Hafez to Blake, Browning to Cummings, they transform familiar and unfamiliar poems into something entirely new and wholly enchanting. It is a musical Valentine.

Those of us who were fortunate enough to catch Poemsong at the finale of the 2011 Alley Stage season are still in awe. We all went not knowing exactly what to expect. Poems set to music? Hmm, sounds like it could be a bit on the dry side. It wasn't! Great back stories on the poets read with humor and wit...and really, really terrific contemporary music performed by a group of very talented musicians. You won't be disappointed.

Saturday, February 11th

7:00 pm

Mineral Point Opera House


General seating $12; Student $8; Admirer $20.

Tickets available online here. (Be sure to scroll down.)

You can also purchase tickets by calling Shake Rag Alley, 608-987-3292.