MAGIC, MISCHIEF, AND MAYHEM
OCTOBER 28,29,30,31  2010
NOVEMBER 1,2,3  2010

It is once again time for our fall MMM!

I am so pleased to announce that one of our teachers will be the incomparable Susie McMahon from Tasmania, Australia.  Susie is well known for her outstanding creations and award winning figures.  She is also one of the very best teachers around – making each individual student feel calm and accomplished.  Few people have the ability to do this.  Her classes are incredible and we are so fortunate to be able to include Susie this year.
As you know, I search for exciting artists and new teachers to bring to you.  Lucy Landry is just that person!  Her artwork is wonderful, vibrant and quite original. And what we will be doing in class will be new to all MMMers.
In April this year, we moved the event to Shelbyville, Ky, which is almost between Lexington and Louisville.  We will be at a wonderful Best Western Hotel.  The sleeping rooms are quite large, the venue is lovely, full breakfast is again included in your room rate, and I have been able to secure the same rate there as at the old hotel.  There are microwaves and fridges in some of the rooms and these rooms will be available on a first come, first served basis, so if you plan to attend, make your reservation quickly.  All hotel info will be found at the end of this newsletter.  Also, Southwest Airlines flies into the Lousiville airport.  This is great news as Southwest offers free baggage for 2 bags!

You will be paying your hotel charges directly to the hotel and making your own reservations.  The room rate will be $49.95 plus taxes for a double.  The rooms are large so if you want to stay 3 or 4 to a room, you can work it out with your friends, cutting your costs even further.

You will also be responsible for your own lunches.  Shelbyville is a lovely town, with many antique shops, and good lunch places, as well as our favorite fabric and trim shop, Making Ends Meet.  For that reason we will be having a 2 hour lunch each day, so you can enjoy the town. 
We will be on our own for dinner, but usually groups of us go out, so there is no problem if someone needs a ride.

Even though we will have the teachers now for 4 days instead of 3 as in the past, I am still able to cut the price by $75 from last September!  And I have another plan in mind as well.  The cost of the event will be $350 for 4 full days of classes. If I get sign-ups of 35 or more students, I will further reduce the price to $300 for the entire 4 day event.  We can only accommodate 40 attendees, so as soon as you know you will be coming, email or call me.

 So – without further delay, please read the information below and drool over the pictures!  Here are the classes:

SUSIE McMAHON:  DOLLMAKER

Susie McMahon has been making dolls for as long as she can remember. As a child she made small representations of the human form with whatever materials were at hand and carried this interest through her teens and into adult life. She attended Art School, majoring in Painting and Sculpture and the study of these disciplines has allowed her to achieve mastery in the doll form.

Susie has been recognized with numerous awards for her doll-making both in her native Australia and Internationally. Honors include having her work represented on an Australia Post stamp and being awarded the William Wiley Award for Excellence in the World of Dolls in 2000.

Susie’s work has, for a number of years, followed two fairly distinctive paths. Much of her work could be described as traditionally-styled and referenced in history and definitely recognized as being “dolls”, while other work is more difficult to categorize, in that it explores the more sculptural possibilities of the doll form. Susie says of this sculptural work; “Quite early on I recognized the innate power that a doll possesses. A powerful message can be conveyed in a direct, even visceral way, because this form is so immediately appealing and tactile.”

Since she left Art School in 1972, Susie has taught both general art courses and more particularly, doll-making to a large number of people in her local area, in Australia and more recently overseas. Of her teaching, she says; “I get a great deal of satisfaction from helping my students in a workshop situation to reach their personal artistic goals. To witness their awakening creativity and their obvious delight in achievement is enormously gratifying.”

 SCULPTING EXPRESSIVELY FOR DOLLMAKERS
Susie McMahon - 2 day class

Maybe you have acquired some basic sculpting skills and you would like to take them one step further and give your sculpts more expression and emotion. Or maybe you have never sculpted a head in your life but you would like to give it a try. If you fit into either of these groups you will gain a great deal from this class with Susie McMahon. Over the two days you will be guided through the steps necessary to suc-cessfully sculpt a head and then further, you will be shown all the little tricks to in-crease the expressiveness of the head you have sculpted.
We will be using air-dry clay for the class, but you will be given the option of covering your head-sculpt with fabric for strength and texture. The class will also cover painting the finished heads and simple but effective display options, such as mounting them on some kind of base as in the examples below. Time should also allow us to cover finishes, such as draped fabric, decoupaging images or textures and ‘antiquing’ to create a truly unique work of art.

    

      

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LUCY LANDRY

Lucy Landry is a cloth doll artist who likes to dabble in all things fabric.  She developed her love for fabric and sewing as a young girl playing among her mother’s fabric boxes.  From the beginning, she was making dolls and doll clothes.  A chance encounter with an art doll book a few years ago rekindled her love of dolls and enticed her to try to sew tiny, individual fingers.  Soon she was drawing her own patterns and designing her own dolls.  Dolls became her passion.  Her professional training as an Occupational Therapist with a background in human anatomy and body movements has directly influenced her art.  Her dolls have won numerous awards in local and national shows and have been featured in Art Doll Quarterly, Soft Dolls and Animals, and Dolls United magazines.
Lucy currently lives in Baton Rouge, Louisiana with her husband, Burton, and the last of her three children, Martha whose face adorns the Gypsy Moth. Lucy’s website is:  http://www.lucylandrydesig

Gypsy Moth
This is a Gypsy Moth you would like to invite to your garden!  With her beautiful hand embroidered face and needle felted wings, she is sure to delight all who see her.  Gypsy Moth is a class packed with many new techniques including the intricate face stitching, needle felting, needle sculpting for body shape, and simple costuming.  She is 13” tall seated. Gypsy Moth’s hand embroidered face is an easy technique to learn.  The basis is a photograph of the student’s choosing that will be traced onto fabric for satin stitch embroidery.  Her wings are needle felted with wool and yarns.  This is a quick technique that produces rich textures on both sides of the fabric all at once.  The reverse side is as interesting as the front!  Gypsy Moth also has lots of needle sculpting on her body, hands, and feet which give her quite the womanly shape.  The costuming including the antennae headdress is easy to accomplish and can be embellished to any extreme!
  

  
 

 

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Because we do not know when Susie will return to the States, she will be offering 2 extra classes immediately following the weekend. Here are those offerings:

   * Making clothes, pockets to hide things in etc.
                  * Coming up with your own idea  

However you choose to finish your little doll, you will end up with something unique and wonderful!
This class will take place on Monday, November 1 at a cost of $75. 
           
    

 

Susie’s second offering is a 2 day class which will take place on Tuesday, Nov.2, and Weds., Nov.3 at a cost of $135.  Here is a description of this class:
               

 MAKING A DOLL WITH HISTORICAL FLAIR
                          With Susie McMahon (2 - day class with pre-work)

In this class you will learn to make a doll using a pattern and techniques derived from some of the wonderful cloth doll makers of the C19th, such as Izannah Walker and Philadelphia Babies.
This is a contemporary take on these old designs using updated techniques and materials and you will be given plenty of scope for individuality.
The class will cover:
          * Making a cloth body with hinge joints, loosely based on Izannah Walker’s                      
             body designs.
          * Creating a shoulder-plate head to fit the body.
          * Painting the doll.
          * Giving the doll an “aged” patina, if desired.
Although there will not be enough time in the class for making clothing, suitable simple patterns will be included.
This class should be fun and informative.
 
 

 
 

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FLY AWAY ON WINGS OF SILK! 

A short adventure on wing making with silk threads by Marcy Wyatt.

I have collected, adored, lusted after, and loved fabric since a very early age - the textures, colors, and variety of cloth send  tingles down my spine!  Lately I have gone crazy over dupioni silks - I buy them, sell them, sew them, shred them, paint them and anything else that my devilish little mind thinks up. Now I have something that I would love to share with you....a cute little project that uses silk scraps!

Fly away on wings on silk! In this short class I will show you how to create a pair of silk wings. No pre-work and no rushing around for supplies - I will supply everything except the sewing machine, a basic sewing kit and your favorite quick dry clear glue. I will provide the silk scraps, water soluble solvy, wire, instructions with patterns for many different wings you can try later on. Come join me for this colorful, fun, and wonderful new way to play with silk threads!

Sign up for this class on Friday evening at the Polls section of our yahoo group. Class cost including materials is $22.

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HOTEL INFORMATION ETC.
          

Here is the information for the hotel.  You can google Best Western, Shelbyville, Ky and view the rooms and amenities if you like.

Best Western
115 Isaac Shelby Dr
Shelbyville, KY 40065
(502) 633-4400

Do not forget to ask for the special Magic, Mischief, and Mayhem rates.  Also if you think you will be coming for the extra classes  from Susie, tell them when you book for the weekend.
As a review:  1. The cost of the conference is: $350 for the 4 days of teaching. If 35 or more participants sign up, the cost of the conference will be $300.
                       2. Susie’s extra 2 day class is: $130 or $65 per day if you can only attend one day of it.
                       3. Susie’s extra 1 day class is: $65
                        4.  Hotel number is: 502-633-4400; special room rate is $49.95 plus tax  for a single, double, etc.  You make your own reservations.  If you want a fridge or microwave – book quickly as there are only a few of them.

You will need to send a $100 non-refundable deposit  by May 20, 2010, (unless the event is cancelled, in which case you will receive all money back) by Sept. 30, 2010.
The second payment of $100 will be due June 20; and the final payment of either $150 or $100, depending on numbers attending will be due August 1, 2010.  I will let you know the progress. Monies for Susie’s extra classes will be due no later than Sept. 15, 2010.
No refunds will be made after June 20th, unless the event is cancelled.

PLEASE MAKE ALL CHECKS OUT TO ANNE HESSE .... THANKS !

Please  remember this MMM will be smaller to accommodate 40 participants, so the sooner you send your deposit, the better guarantee that you will be in!  If you need to work out a payment plan please email me privately at:

 Anniedolls@roadrunner.com
My address for deposits is:
Annie Hesse
1032 Palmetto Drive
Richmond, Kentucky 40475
Please include your full name, address, phone number with area code, and especially your email address.  All information including supply lists, pre-class work etc. is posted in a private yahoo group and I need your email addresses to invite you to join.
If you have questions, do not hesitate to ask by phoning me at: 251-648-0741 or 859-623-2455 or by emailing me at:  anniedolls@roadrunner.com

 

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All contents of this web site Copyright Annie Mayer Hesse

Email: anniedolls@roadrunner.com

1032 Palmetto Drive

Richmond, Kentucky  40475

859-623-2455

 

 

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