Out and About in the Art World

I went with a friend to the The Brainery 2nd Anniversary a week ago.  It was a pretty nice set up. They had free food from ButaPub and Scratch Bakeshop along with some adult beverages. The gallery had some interesting art being shown at this time.  We could fill out a 4 page multi choice test based on questions from all of the classes they've had over the past year. I totally guessed on 95% of the questions- it's not a surprise that I didn't win. :)  It's hard to believe The Brainery has been up and running for 2 years. I'm excited for the owners and hope that they continue to grow and prosper.

Just yesterday I went with a friend to City Hall for the opening exhibition from Genesee Center for the Arts & Education for the Studio 678 show. http://www.geneseearts.org/Studio678  This is a Community Darkroom collaboration with some City Schools.  The photography and poetry/writings from these 6,7 and 8th grade students is fantastic.  It's frustrating to see that this type of wonderful supportive program has to struggle every year with funding instead of being able to offer this program to every city school.  It disappointments me that as a society we cut the programs that could help the most and fund the programs that are least effective. Check out the website above and support this program!

The Brainery Bazaar & a FREE Class

I had planned on stopping by the Brainery Holiday Bazaar http://rochesterbrainery.myshopify.comthis weekend specifically because I had scheduled to meet up with Amanda from Circuit Breaker Labs https://www.etsy.com/shop/CircuitBreakerLabs. I had met her at May Day and asked if she took computer donations and she said yes. I turned in my old laptop to her brother who was running their booth when I got to the bazaar yesterday. I did this for three reasons, 1. it's good to recycle/upcycle 2. what better way to make sure no one figures out how to revive your computer with all of your important data on it then to have your hard driver cut up into small pieces 3. it feels good to help a local artist out.  I was slightly disappointed to only receive $10 store credit but hey a. what was I going to do with a dead computer and b. any credit is good credit.  I had been wanting to buy a piece of their jewelry for a while so I splurged and bought a bracelet (instead of earrings or a necklace) in the hopes of getting something different than I normally would so I would try to where something new.  I got the bracelet below for $15! Thank you Circuit Breaker Labs!

I had no idea the bazaar was going to be so large. It typically is only in one room at The Brainery but the booths were throughout the hallways surrounding the business and a lot of artists were crammed in the space.  Unfortunately I was rushing to get the free class that Yelp of Rochester offered as a co-host to this event.  Don't worry though because I had time to check out the rest of the bazaar following the class.

So Yelp of Rochester offered 4 great free classes you could sign up as cosponsors to this wonderful festive event this weekend.  This was the only class I had time to take:

Mistletoe mayhem has you stressed to the core? Join us for our essential oil class with DoTerra. We're making bath salts and bath bombs to melt away the stress the holiday season brings upon us. (They make great stocking stuffers too! Who doesn't love a handmade gift?)

Recipes we made:
doterrablog.com/best-bat…
doterrablog.com/diy-fast…

In conjunction with the Brainery Holiday Bazaar Presented By Yelp Shops Local: bit.ly/1ruFeCwwe're bringing you Yelp's Holiday How-To -- a series of classes that will take place during the Brainery Holiday Bazaar featuring local businesses. Holiday prep, we've got it covered from stocking stuffers to decadent dessert designs.

This ended up being a really fun class. I made probably about 9 bath bombs and one small jar of soaking salts.  These make cool and pretty easy gifts. I think it would also be fun to have a get together with friends and make these things.

So what was everything I got at the bazaar.  The circuit bracelet, a free grocery bag, bath bombs, soaking salts, a free bottle of vitamin water, the chance to make a screen printed holiday card, and they had the awesome photo booth from the same company that did the pics from the Photofinish race.  I got my pic taken on my own and they had festive gear you could wear.  I know pretty lame but hey you have to get into the spirit of the season and have fun whether you are with people you know or by yourself. :)

My goods. The wrapped packages are from Writer & Books. They were having a party for anyone with a Little Free Library this coming Monday but I couldn't attend so they let me stop by early and gave me some packages full of books for my LFL.

My bracelet made out of circuits.

Lame photo booth pictures.

My screen printed holiday card.

Home made bath bombs and soaking salts.

Here's a pic of the awesome book tree for the holidays that Writer & Books created from a fundraiser for Little Free Library's.

Screen Printing

I spontaneously signed up for a class at The Brainery a couple of weeks ago. I've been wanting to take a screen printing class for a while now but the timing of the classes was never right.  While this time wasn't the most ideal time either but I decided to go for it.  So this past Thursday, I worked all day, taught my class and then hoovered my dinner down while driving straight to the 6:30-9pm class downtown. http://rochesterbrainery.com

The class was taught by the owner of Tiny Fish Printing http://www.tinyfishprinting.com, Tony.  There was 10 people taking the class and I ended up knowing another person through a friend of a friend.  The class came with step by step instructions on the history of screen printing, materials you would need to make a simple setup at home and then a walk through of the steps.

We ended up screen printing on stationary. It was really nice homemade stationary paper. We set up 4 work stations with 7 different prints on them. We learned to print with mixing paint colors and then printing 2 layers (different colors).  I ended up making 10 cards. None are perfect but I love them anyway and really enjoyed getting out, being creative, and simply creating.  It felt so wonderful that when the woman I knew in class mentioned that the October calendar for The Brainery just came out and she signed up the "lettering" class that I've also been wanting to take but the timing never worked out. Well, yesterday I looked it up and while it will be another full day of work, teaching a class and chowing down my dinner on the way there I signed up for the class!

Below are pics of the process and what I created!