Gather your memories of people or places significant to you, and we will begin your journey of creating a spirit house that will tell your story. Here is the place for those mementoes and scraps of papers you couldn’t bear to throw out, the bits and pieces gathering dust in a drawer, the photographs in a box. All these mementos can be used as you tell your story in your personal shrine. So gather your memories of people or places significant to you, and we will begin the journey of creating a spirit house that will tell your story.
First we will explore collage techniques that can then be featured in your house. You will learn how to paint and layer all kinds of ephemera: images, decorative papers, old sheet music, letters, school records. Anything paper is fair game. (I suggest you make photocopies of anything too sacred to tear up or paint over). The images can be of people or places. I often use them as a focal point, the main feature of the story. You will learn a variety ways of attaching these elements, such as different gluing techniques and sewing approaches, so you wind up with an effective and pleasing whole. Those special embellishments from your attic/basement (beads, buttons, keys, old lace, etc., anything small) are the icing on the cake, and will enrich your spirit house. I will take the mystery out of collage!
You will learn how to build your spirit house from readily available materials such as foam board, paper and glue. I will show you how to make hinged doors, drawers and niches. Victorian or contemporary, elaborate or simple, you are the architect. For those who’ve taken this workshop before, here’s your chance to develop your collage skills, or even to remodel your starter house! Think of the possibilities, a remodel, or an addition? You could add wings to your first house, or more secret hiding spaces.
Your house will celebrate what’s important in your life, friend or family, a trip or event, or beloved pet. The story you choose to tell is up to you. Come and I will help you tell it.