Friday, March 18, 2011

Book of Knowledge

Leslie Brier, Brier Design Studio

 This is the first piece I created last week in Stephanie Lee's Metal Magic Workshops at ArtBLISS. The pages inside are blank, but this book, for me, is a true Book of Knowledge. Stephanie shared a hundred- hundred big ideas and little suggestions with her students. I came home feeling inspired and empowered, and finally, after all these years of trying, unafraid of my torch!

And the group of artists that assembled for this class were amazing. They came from all over the US and beyond. Everyone brought their tools and their jewels. It was fun to see everyone's stash of treasures. This is the little pile of goodies that I started out with.
 Everyone came in with a spirit of collaboration and friendship. We really bonded over the few days that we had together. We all worked and played really hard, and everyone came away with absolutely beautiful work.
 This is the back page of my cover in its ugly duckling phase. The top piece of metal shows what it looked like before I Frankensteined it with the torch! It was fun, but it wasn't easy!

These are works in various stages by other classmates. I know the dragonfly piece belonged to Bette.  

 We got to create bezels, and fill them with my new favorite product, Ice Resin.


This is Michelle's finished book. It was only about 3" by 4", so sweet and so delicate! I haven't had time to add embelishments to the spine of mine yet. Look how beautiful these buttons were:
 This is another sweet little book, being worked on by Lois. She added ruching to the spine and it was absolutely gorgeous.

 This is the group from my table: Karen, me, Lois, Stephanie and Annie. We have vowed to stay in touch, and I really think we will. We already have a yahoo group started.
 This is the spine of my book. I got the knotting a little straighter on the second try. It'll all get covered eventually.
 Here is a closeup of my finised cover. As you can see, I did a lot of changing around before I got the final piece done. I was happy with the end result, and Annie had the perfect piece of leather for me to use as a tie.
More next week on the completion of this book, and the jewelry class  that was equally amazing! A big thank you to Jeanette and Cindy of ArtBLISS, Stephanie Lee and all of my classmates for a truly wonderful experience.

5 comments:

Cindy said...

Leslie, your work is the very first thing I noticed when I walked in the classroom on Friday afternoon!!! I was really speechless when I saw your book. Your talent is so tremendous. Everyone was talking about your amazing book long after the class was over! I'm so glad I got the chance to meet you...I do regret that we didn't have more of a chance to chat. But next time! :-)

Pretty Things said...

I'm amazed at all you did! I wish I could have taken that class but only got to take the 2nd one. I would have felt totally out of my element in this one, though, as all the books were AMAZING!

(Envious you got to use Ice Resin, though, it still scares me.)

Leslie Brier, Brier Design Studio said...

Cindy, thanks so much! The other one I did is much rougher, but I'm looking forward to finishing it up.

Lori, you can come for an ice resin play day with me any time. It is so much easier than I thought it would be. Also, if you get a bubble, you can just drill it out, and pour more resin in. It's self-healing. It's added a whole new element to my work!

Terry Pitzel said...

Oh wow is all I can say. I just love your metal work!
I am dying to take a class from you1 We have got to find a place for yu to teach some of these great techniques!

Elizabeth said...

Stunning Leslie!!! Can't wait to see it in person!! We need to have a technique swap!!!