Balzer Designs

I'm Taking a Knitting Class

Yesterday, I had my first knitting class. 

I once tried to knit a scarf in eighth grade.  Never finished it and kind of assumed that I couldn't knit.  But, I wanted to give it another go.  So, I signed up for a local class.  Soooo fun!  The teacher is a little bit scattered and doesn't give great instructions, but I'm already hooked (no crochet pun intended).  I came home from class and looked up some knitting videos.  This was my favorite:

So, you may be wondering why I'm taking a class if the instructor isn't that great and there are free instructions on YouTube?!  Well, I enjoy in-person classes for a few reasons:

• I enjoy learning new skills (or reinforcing old skills).
• I like mixing with other creative people. 
• I find direct feedback from a live instructor enormously helpful.  Often they can help me with an issue very quickly -- sometimes even before I'm aware that it's a problem.
• Taking a class forces me to block out the creative time in my schedule.  No one tries to impose on your creative time when you say: I'm going to class.
• I love being able to ask an instructor all of my questions and have them answered in real time!

I'm looking forward to next week's class (and hoping to make a lot of progress on this hat in the meantime).  In fact, I brought my knitting with me to a lecture last night.  I really enjoyed having the hand work!

So, here's my question to all of you experienced knitters: Do you have a knitting tip you're willing to share with me?

Thanks for stopping by!

Color Factory NYC

You've probably seen the photos online.  Super cool candy-colored photographs of this place called "The Color Factory."  It was a West Coast thing for a long time and then I heard that it was finally coming to NYC!  Well, I knew that I had to book tickets and go!  And so we did.  And it was super duper fun!  Take a peek:

Paper strips hanging from the sky!  Giant color buttons on the walls!

You have a timed ticket when you visit The Color Factory.  And you walk at your own pace through a variety of rooms.  You can take as much time as you like traveling through the various rooms, but you can't go backwards.  There are activities.  And food.  And drinks.

And weird enigmatic text that might be deep and might be a load of crap....

The ball pit was definitely my favorite part of the whole thing.  I was too old for ball pits when they came around in the late 80s/early 90s.  So I never went in one as a kid.  It was super fun to splash around in the balls as an adult!

Everything about the experience had a pop art element. It was super fun and I highly recommend it!

I'm always willing to be a little bit goofy, but The Color Factory 100% brought out the kid in me!  It was a place to play!

As I mentioned, there was lots of food.  The belt of macarons was straight out of my Willy Wonka fantasies.

I did a vlog back when we visited The Color Factory.  If you'd like to see the ball pit in action and hear us play beautiful music, take a peek (fast forward to the 3:13 mark if you just want to see Color Factory):

Thanks for stopping by!

Inspired by GOLDYFISH Handbags

I loooove going to craft fairs.  There's something so wonderful about buying art from the person who made it.  My absolute favorite is when the artist is working on new projects in their booth.  It's an opportunity to see how they create the beautiful products they sell.

When I walked into Jessica Joy's GOLDYFISH Handbags booth, she was sitting at the sewing machine stitching up a storm.  Her booth was filled with unique handbags -- no two exactly the same.  She uses a collection of several (hand drafted) patterns to create her handbags, but she uses different fabrics for every bag.  In fact, my Mom and I bought the same handbag -- but because the fabrics are so different, they don't look the same at all.

Isn't the patchwork style cool?

Some links for you:

• GOLDYFISH Handbags on Etsy (her shop is currently on a hiatus)
• My favorite purse making how-to book (an oldie but a goodie)
• This book looks great -- It has 5 stars on Amazon and the patchwork style of the bags reminds me of the GOLDYFISH Handbags.

I've made a number of purses/bags over the years.  Here are just a few:

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And if you don't feel like sewing a bag from scratch, here are two examples of painted bags (i.e. I bought a pre-finished bag and painted it):

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Thanks for stopping by!

Collage Faces: A One-Day Workshop

I hope you'll join me for a new in-person class I'm teaching on Saturday, April 6, 2019 at a private home in Hanover, MA.

Collage Faces is a super fun one-day workshop. To begin, you will learn all about the basic structure of the face. Then through a series of easy exercises you will learn how to render a face in cut paper collage. We will cover the subtleties of shading, eyes, and all the details that make your collage face really pop!

We'll discuss abstraction versus realism and I'll help you discover and embrace your own personal style of creating faces.

Supplies to Bring:

• Multiple surfaces to collage onto – canvas board, watercolor paper, wood, art journal, cardstock, etc. – whatever you prefer.
• Paper for collage – found papers, hand painted papers, etc. – bring more than you think you’ll need. Try to bring a full palette of colors.
• Scratch Paper (can just be several sheets of copy paper or notebook paper)
• Permanent Black Pen
• Permanent Black Marker
• Liquitex Matte Medium
• Credit Card or Hotel Room Key
• Paintbrushes in a variety of sizes
• Jar or container for water
• Scissors (small detail scissors recommended)
• Wax Paper or Freezer Paper
• Painter’s Tape
• Paper Plate or Palette Paper
• Optional: Apron, crayons or oil pastels, watercolor and/or acrylic paint, paper towel or rag, craft knife and cutting mat, charcoal, collage paper to share

The class is $135 and class size is strictly limited.  No refunds, but you can give your spot to a friend if something comes up and you can't attend class.

Hope to see you in class!

Adventures in Arting Podcast: Big House Craft Project

As you probably know, the biggest craft project I'm working on is a home renovation.  And renovation doesn't really seem to cover what it is.  It's kind of building a new house inside of the old house shell.  Listen the podcast to hear more:

If you do not see the podcast player above, please click on this link.  You can listen to a podcast anywhere and at any time.  It is a recording that is available to you whenever you'd like to listen.  If you'd like to download it to your iTunes library, click here.  You can also pause and rewind or fast forward as you desire.  I like to listen to podcasts while I'm making art.  It's a little like hanging out with friends while you art.  Please subscribe to our podcast in iTunes or wherever you listen and be sure to leave us a review!  Reviews help other people find the podcast.  Thanks so much!

And here are a few pics of the before and current situation:

 

It's going to be amazing some day.  I can't wait!  Thanks for stopping by!

All podcasts are archived here.  Subscribe to the podcast on iTunes here.  And if you like the podcast, please leave a review on iTunes!