Virginia Teacher Spotlight: Susan Lenart Kazmer

We are always beyond blessed and excited to have Susan Lenart Kazmer teaching at our events! Her work is built on years of researching cultures, repairing ethnographic adornment, art school, training in the craft of metallurgy, a strong fashion background, and time spent in the commercial jewelry field. This has made her work — that she likes to refer to as Expressive Adornment — a unique voice in the industry. Susan’s gorgeous jewelry includes talismans, prayer boxes, amulets and repurposing everyday items in a magical way for the fashion, museum, gallery and commercial world for over 20 years. Her work has been in numerous traveling exhibits including the Smithsonian Museum and the Art Institute of New York. Now that's pretty impressive! Here's what she has in store for us in Virginia Beach this year...

Caging Hollow Forms
In this 6 hour hands on workshop, you'll explore the cage form in sterling silver as small wearable relics by creating your own unique hollow form pendant. You'll learn or refresh your skills on proper metalworking techniques for soldering, shaping and clean up, while you delve into the process of combining filigree bezel wire, round silver wire and sheet metal. By the end of class you'll have a finished jewelry component complete with a leather adornment.

Building Bezels: Soldering & Setting Druze and Hollow Forms
In this full day workshop, you will build and strengthen soldering skills using fundamental metalworking techniques to build a box bezel from sterling silver. Susan will guide you on how to set a druze stone within that bezel. You'll also learn practical metal cleanup and polishing techniques like brazing, filing, sanding and finishing to create a small wearable piece with leather and attachments.

Wire Caging with Druzy Stone
In this 6 hour smithing class learn to anneal, solder, pick, shape, draw a bead and all skills necessary to build a unique cage-like bezel to encase a druzy stone... using an open form technique created from forged wire. This particular bezel allows you to view all sides of the object that you are encasing. Students will finish one pendant in the morning and the afternoon will have an opportunity to forge and braze a wire neck form. You'll  leave with a complete neck form and pendant.

Industrial Bangle Bracelet
In this informative 3-hour morning class you'll learn to build a unique bracelet in Susan's style and complete your own bangle bracelet, adding charms or druze stones to accentuate. Susan uses this technique as a core structure to her personal jewelry and fashion assignments. Expand your vocabulary in jewelry and learn to hand hammer, anneal and patina 14 gauge wire to create a bracelet with comfort, durability, and sophistication. Draw a bead for closure and learn to flatten the bead to create a gorgeous industrial look.

Wire Links: Forging with Ancient Techniques
In this 3-hour afternoon workshop students will learn the usefulness of an age old technique reminiscent of our ancestors long ago. Using 10 gauge bronze wire, you'll learn the correct methods for hand hammering and annealing wire for malleability and ease of creating structures. Your link bracelet will have a gorgeous, rustic look and feel and can be used as the start of a Talismans charm bracelet or for housing amulets, fringe or personal mementos.

Ancient Artifacts: Casting Resin
In this 3-hour evening class, you'll focus on new works in jewelry using resin as it has never been presented before... in casting! Students will sand, scratch, and scraffitto their way into creating unique objects and ancient artifacts in jewelry in combination with metal... learning new techniques and application for scratching, crackling, engraving, transferring of imagery, making marks and coloring surface with foils and tints. Each student will leave with a beautiful pendant and a journal full of ideas and a whole new direction to focus your work.

All Things Resin
In this full day class, you'll explore the vast possibilities resins have to offer in jewelry when you combine it with metal bezels, objects and organic materials. This hands on workshop offers many foundational techniques from filling hollow bezel forms with photos, text, foil and layering of materials. Learn proper mixing, application, combining and pouring layers, safety tips and a whole lot more. New techniques to take your jewelry making to the next level!

Virginia Beach Art & Soul

October 1-6, 2018

Virginia Beach Resort Hotel  

So, as you can see, Susan is one extremely talented lady. In addition, her playful spirit and willingness to share make her one of our most popular instructors, and her classes those that fill up fast. So if you haven't signed up for one of her extraordinary workshops, hop on over to our website and claim your spot today!

Susan Lenart Kazmer authored her first book Making Connections: A Handbook of Cold Joins for Jewelers and Mixed-Media Artists in 2008. She also authored the book Resin Alchemy, which was on Amazon’s 2013 best seller list. It includes a pioneering ten-year body of work combining metal and ICE Resin®, a jeweler’s grade resin she developed and brought to market. Susan She recently built the successful commercial line of components called Industrial Chic. Susan’s innovative new work has been seen in the March 2014 issue of U.S. ELLE magazine as she re-enters the fashion world and on the runway in New York and on her website at susanlenartkazmer.com.

What's Your Re-Purpose?

Flea market find. Bizarre bazaar. Junk junkie. Picker. Hoarder. Magpie. Pack rat. Rusty gold. Roached. If you've ever taken a workshop at Art & Soul, you're probably familiar with some of these terms. Because, when it comes to mixed media... well... there's just something about recycling pieces of the past!

Rummage sale. Yard sale. Garage sale. Estate sale. Thrift shop. Salvation Army. Goodwill. Heck... how about the garbage! We'll go just about anywhere and pick up anything that strikes our fancy. I know some days I've found more goodies in the trash or on the ground at the flea market, than I've purchased from actual vendors!

Grungy. Grimy. Patina'd. Rusted. Scratched. Dented. Worn. Well-used. The bigger the story an object tells... the better. We seem to love that about the items we covet. They just look like they have a tale to tell. And the way Art & Souler's upcycle these beauties in our many classes simply amazes me!

And whether you use your vintage goodies for collage, journals, assemblage, jewelry, art dolls, sculpture or something else... your creativity makes my heart smile.

So tell me girls and boys... Where is your favorite place to shop for retro recyclables? What's the coolest thing you've ever stumbled upon? How do you like to upcycle your fabulous finds? Do share!

Kansas City Wrap Up... sMiles & sMiles of Creativity!

Well, what can I say? Our inaugural event in Kansas City, Missouri this past April was a wonderful respite for creative souls of all kinds. With so many amazing photos to sift through (oh, and another Art & Soul Retreat in VA at the end of April), it's taken me this long to pick out a few to share with all of you!

I must confess... the first time you do anything new, there's always a sense of nervousness about everything going right. But I have to say... between the beautiful venue, the excited students and our multi-talented workshop instructors.... it was a time and a place to remember!

Our newest retreat took place at The Elms Hotel & Spa, located on the outskirts of Kansas City in the town of Excelsior Springs. Doesn't that sound just heavenly? Well, it was!

From the inside out, this historic hotel was an ideal setting for letting go of the everyday hustle and bustle of life, while attendees explored new artistic techniques and made wonderfully creative projects! The grounds and interior were absolutely gorgeous and the old timey feel only added to that.

Heck...  even the coffee was pretty! The staff was simply outstanding and met our very unusual demands with a smile. They enjoyed having us... and you could tell. And we enjoyed being there.

I mean... take a look at some of the classrooms! What an inspirational place to make art and create mixed media magic.

Like this amazing piece created in one of Cathy Taylor's classes. It's a brilliantly colored, cleverly shaded, excellently executed masterpiece! The students really take my breath away.

And speaking of masterpieces, want to paint like a master? Then study with Jill Berry and you'll be doing it in no time flat. Picasso in a day.... it can be done!

Like to play with dolls? So does Tory Brokenshire, here with some student work. Having students recycle tins for bodies and create clay people around them — each with their own unique look — was magnificent to see unfold in her Story Tellers class.

And talk about fine details.... you cannot even imagine the beautiful fabric and fiber creations that come out of any Liz Kettle's classes! All the careful, thoughtful placement of color and stitch is something that happens magically whenever she teaches a workshop.

Got Gelli Plates? Well, if you don't... and you try it... then you will. Ask anyone at Art & Soul who tried this technique... and they'll tell you they're hooked! A new and easy way to make fodder for your journal pages, collages and much more. So pretty!

Are you a metal head? We have all kinds at Art & Soul. These ladies are having a ball (not of the head-bangers type) in Jill Timm's dremel workshop. Now that's class!

Or maybe you'd like to Chime In... which was the clever name of Erin Keck's creative class, where students got to upcycle tons of vintage goodies to make a wind chime of the most extraordinary kind.

Perhaps you're more of the texting kind? Take a look at this amazing journal work. Just gorgeous!

A bit of schpritzing....

A little carving...

And a fabulous Vendor Extravaganza made this a first time event to remember!

We really had it all at Art & Soul Kansas City! The turnout was great, but the smiles are what made it all worthwhile. These pictures reveal only a fraction of the endless creativity and fun we all had, but I don't think Blogger will let me add any more in this post! So I'm going to just thank you all again... the attendees, the teachers, my right hand chicks, Judy and her pop-up store, our vendors, the hotel and staff.... Thank YOU! We'll see you all again in 2014.

Hugs,
Glenny
xoxo