December's Meeting.

Here is your Midwest Collage Society Newsflash! Lots of interesting info this month, so please read carefully.


1. Freeport Art Museum Exhibit
The MCS artwork has been picked up from Freeport and is back at Tania's and Dennis/Dianne's homes. Please contact the person who dropped off your work about when you can pick it up.


2. MCS Holiday Potluck and Gift Exchange
Our annual "Eat, Gab and Grab" meeting will be Sunday, December 2, from 12:30 - 2:45 PM at the Darien Municipal Center. There is no studio fee for this meeting. Come and reconnect with people you haven't seen and meet some of our newer members!


For the potluck, bring a dish to share (appetizer, entree or dessert) and our amazing hospitality committee will provide everything else. When you decide what you're bringing, please drop a quick email to Barb Arntzen at jarntz@wideopenwest.com to help her plan. If you find you can come at the last minute, don't worry about the RSVP. Coffee, tea, and water will be the drinks of the day. We do have some members who have some specific allergies (gluten, etc.), so if you have a dish that works for everyone, you might consider bringing that.


For the gift exchange, create (or purchase) a small piece of art or craft work and wrap it up. Each wrapped gift will be given a number, then participants will blindly draw a number to receive their gift. This is always a highlight of our meeting!


We will also take time to discuss the future of MCS, the kinds of programs and exhibits you're interested in having, and how we all can continue growing and moving forward as artists and as an arts organization.


3. April 2013 Exhibit
For our April 2013 exhibit at Downers Grove Library, we have chosen the theme Book/Art. We are asking that each piece of art have some connection to books in it - whether that's using a book page or cover in your collage/assemblage, an altered book, or a reference to books in your work. Just keep in mind that most work will need to be hung, so if you alter a book you will probably need to mount it to a backing that can have hanging hardware attached. More info will follow as we get closer to the exhibit date, but we wanted to give you ample time to create.


4. 2013 Retreat
The MCS Retreat for next fall is already set for September 25 thru 29. The cost will be $215 for four nights and 11 meals. Mark your calendars now!


5. January Meeting
We WILL be having a meeting this coming January, on Sunday, January 13. Details on the program will be sent out soon.



Hope to see you at the Holiday Potluck and Gift Exchange on Sunday, December 2!


Jerri

More Call for Art

Call for Art Bridgeport Art Center

Citra Solv  Call for Art

marketing and pricing

 Jane Hamill came into our group today and we are all fired up to Focus!! 

 The white board behind Jane came in handy for her presentations we really got a good feel for what we need to know.

 Even though Jane is a designer in the fashion world the information she presented to us works for all creative types. check out Jane's website.

 

At least there were about 26 members that came to this great meeting. Jane is a awesome speaker and loaded with tons of great information...for all that are looking to sell their product.

November Meeting Don't miss it!!

The next MCS meeting is Sunday, November 4, from 12:30 - 3:00 pm at the Darien Municipal Center. Our guest will be Jane Hamill, who helps creative types with low-cost, high return strategies to market their business and sell their work. She also helps with costing and pricing and the confidence needed to sell.

We have asked Jane to address pricing our artwork and ways to maximize our sales.

As always, you may bring treats to share and any art materials and collage/assemblage fodder you'd like to swap. Hope to see you there!

 

Here is Jane's bio:

Jane Hamill helps creative entrepreneurs start, fix, or grow their business -- even if they hate selling, flunked math, and have no idea to market themselves. She’s the creator of several online courses including "How to Sell Your Line to Boutiques" and the "New Designer Program: How to Start a Fashion Business”.

Jane designed her own women’s clothing line, Jane Hamill, and owned a boutique in Lincoln Park for many years. Her work has been seen on CNN, Fox, inStyle, Lucky Magazine, WWD, Chicago Tribune, Chicago Magazine, McCall’s, NPR, etc. Her product was carried in Macy’s. Saks Jandel, Bloomies by Mail, and Saks Folio. In 2007, Jane sold both her wholesale and retail businesses (14 years and 2 kids later) and founded Fashion Brain Academy (www.fashionbrainacademy.com). Through FBA, she coaches creative entrepreneurs to have a manageable, profitable business, while focusing on the BUSINESS side of things like pricing, marketing, and selling your work. She’s an adjunct faculty member of Columbia College Chicago and collaborates with the Chicago Fashion Incubator as the Director of Design Education.

Jane offers a 5 Day Mini Course to Help You Sell Your Line. You can get it at no charge at this link: http://janehamill.com/blog/free-sales-course/

Tania Blanco's Collage work at Downers Grove Public Library

Stopped by the Downers Grove Public Library last week to view one of our own Members of MCS and Past President and Vice President's work. Wonderful show of Tania's work,  a must see!

Workshop in Oil and Cold Wax with Dianne Martia

Oil and Cold Wax Level I WorkshopNovember 16-18; Friday-Saturday-Sunday; 3 days
9:30am - 4:00pm

Explore the technique of combining oil paint and cold wax. Unlike encaustic, cold wax is used at room temperature, without heat, to extend the oil paint and act as a medium. Incorporate other media such as oil sticks and pigment to create dynamic paintings. You will use an array of non-traditional tools to build layers, create texture, and add depth. This class emphasizes the process and is experimental in nature.

LaGrange Art League
122 Calendar Ave.; LaGrange, IL 60526
(708) 352-3101
www.lagrangeartleague.org

Our October meeting.

 Mary W. demonstrated today with alcohol inks and the technique could be use for many other projects.

 In this photo a member is dabbing the inks on the counter top sample, I think there called Counter top tile chips. Using felts cut up in little squares...pick a clean one for each color so you don't get a mud background...Mary suggested to use just maybe three colors.

Mary is sharing with us about using the small spray bottle of rubbing alcohol too to spray on afterwards to get different effects. 

She has little wooden blocks cut to a nice size and then some Velcro stuck on there so that it hold the felt pieces nicely and you don't get your hands all inked up.

Samples of what Mary and other members have made with this process.

Mary giving a demo with the wiping off some of the inks to make room for other colors, if one would like.

Second table Mary is sharing the technique of using the paint markers to edge the tile chip, makes for a nice finished look but you have to work on it now at this stage so instead of at the very end. 

Stay on ink pad is what Mary used for the stamping of nice detail with the rubber stamps. Looks great Mary.  One could do stamp before the collage papers are added or after.  Might be a good Christmas gift..good way to use up some of the old Christmas cards.

Here Joan is gluing on some of her collage papers to the counter top tile chips.

Or some might want to make there own Name badge...Great Idea Joan.

Here is the lacquer used after all details are done...brush on.

Mary is sharing more great tips.

Her tile chip is on a piece of cardboard, makes for moving it around a lot safer as the final coat takes a few hours to dry. 

 

Mary is finishing up with her coat and then adding some embellishments like glitter or buttons this will set in nicely with the final coat.

 

 

The Fiskar Drill for anyone that was interested in this handy tool, it was used to drill holes in the tiles for added embellishments hanging from the bottom of the tile chip.

 

It was a great meeting Thanks Mary we really enjoyed it.