Ricë Freeman-Zachery's Blog

freeman-zachery

Tuesday, October 11th: Jill Berry I could spend years looking at Jill's journals. I first saw them at Art and Soul in Virginia, when a bunch of us sat around and passed around what we were working on. Then we got to sneak into her workshops at Art Unraveled in Phoenix, where I could have happily spent the rest of my life. Her work is really, really cool. And now you're going to be able to see more of it--she's got a book coming out soon: Personal Geographies: Explorations in Mixed-Media Mapmaking, to be released in November.

Hop over to Jill's blog, leave a comment for your (oh, no!) last chance to win, and take some time to look around and see what Jill's working on--you'll be so glad you did!
Thank you so much to everyone who's followed along with us on this hop--it's been lots of fun, and we've gotten to spread the word about art retreat goodness--even if it's an art retreat in your own studio~~
XO

Monday, October 10th: Jen CushmanI love Jen--she's like this amazing zap of high-speed energy, laced with humor and wit. Put the two of us into a room together, and we can light up the city, ideas buzzing. She's a self-described tech geek, so she has all this mind-blasting information on the latest technology, stuff that sparks all kinds of ideas. You can listen to our podcasts here and then this one here, where we geek out on QR codes.
She's does cool stuff for ICE Resin with Susan Lenart Kazmer, and she makes fabulous jewelry. She writes a column for CreateMixedMedia.com and another for Belle Armoire Jewelry. Did I say "high energy"? Oh, yeah. [image error]

Go over to her blog, look around, leave a comment for a chance to win. Good luck!
Tomorrow Jill Berry will be back from her European adventure, so be sure to head over there for your last chance to win a book!
Tuesday, October 11th: Jill Berry

Sunday, October 9th: Deryn Mentock [image error] Deryn generously contributed one of the projects to the book, allowing us to take her fabulous workshop at Shady Ladies in Saladao, Texas. With torches! They're so cute they don't seem nearly as scary as they do when you're, um, well: me. Torches scare the crap out of me, and I have no idea why. I supposed I think they'll turn on me in the middle of the night, flipping themselves on and creeping through the house, setting things on fire as they go: rugs, cats' tails, the bed skirt, dust bunnies.
Anyway, Deryn made them seem perfectly safe and useful, and she tells how to use them to create this fabulous bracelet, her project in the book: You'll make jump rings and twist wire with a drill and shape wire around a mandrel and make a clasp and all kinds of fabulous jewelry-making techniques.
Zip over to Deryn's blog, leave a comment, check out her work, and say, "Hi!"
Here's the rest of the blog hop--you don't want to miss a single day or a chance to win!
Monday, October 10th: Jen CushmanTuesday, October 11th: Jill Berry

Saturday, October 8th: Melissa ManleyHere's a confession: I dreaded meeting Melissa the very first time. Everyone had been telling me how talented she is, and I could see that from her website. What I could also see from her website--and what made me go, "Eek!"--was her photo: gorgeous, hip, together. You know: one of those people who has the world by the tail and is probably going to be a diva and really snooty and WAY hard to deal with.
I write that now and snort at myself. While Melissa is, indeed, gorgeous and talented, she is anything but a diva. Or hard to work with. She is, in fact, a total delight. She's a joy to work with, down to earth, accommodating, sensible. Plus funny! She can make using a jewelry saw and (yikes!) power tools doable even for someone like me (clumsy, apt to do damage even with a battery-powered toothbrush). Here she is at the Iron Artists' competition at Artfest 2010:
Melissa contributed one of the workshops for the book, a fabulous piece that teaches you how to--oh, my!--rivet: (And here I just realized we haven't done a podcast. Yikes! Gotta get on that stat.)
Hop over to Melissa's blog, leave a comment, and check out her fabulous work.
Here's the rest of the hop--you don't want to miss any of these!
Sunday, October 9th: Deryn MentockMonday, October 10th: Jen CushmanTuesday, October 11th: Jill Berry

Friday, October 7th: Lisa Myers BulmashIf you've seen a copy of the book, you've seen one of my favorite photos of all time: (Do not ask me what we were doing; I have no idea. But we were having fun!)
My god, I LOVE this woman! The EGE and I have tried to adopt her, never mind that we're not actually old enough to be her parents. We could pass! We could give it a try! Of course, as she points out, her husband and sons might not be really impressed with having to move to Midland, Texas, to be with her. Cos they're giving her up. I've told the story of how we met Lisa, long, long ago, at Art and Soul in Portland on Vendors' Night, when we were selling one of the early books and some artwear. We saw her shopping and went, "Omigod, she looks like our niece!" and so of course I had to follow her to see if she really *did* (at the time, she did, a little). Instead of reporting us to The Authorities for stalking her, she came and hung out with us in our booth. Smart, funny, adorable in every way, she's truly one of our favorite people. Did I mention talented? Oh, yeah. You can hear our podcast here.
Here's Lisa being normal, without my interference:
Go over to her blog, check out her work, leave a comment on today's post for a chance to win. And say "Hi!" for us~~
Here's the line-up for the rest of The Hop:Saturday, October 8th: Melissa ManleySunday, October 9th: Deryn MentockMonday, October 10th: Jen CushmanTuesday, October 11th: Jill Berry

Thursday, October 6th: Carla Sonheim  If Carla Sonheim doesn't make you want to draw, you just really don't want to draw. Every time I see her work, I want to throw away everything else and just draw all day, every day. Little animals, mostly. I LOVE her little animals! I have a bunch on my walls. See?
Carla so very generously provided one of the workshops in the book--her drawing workshop at Art and Soul in Las Vegas. She shows you how to draw this guy, who's not finished yet: You can listen to my podcast with Carla here. Then hop over to her blog, leave a comment--and good luck!
Here's the schedule for the rest of the hop:
Friday, October 7th: Lisa Myers BulmashSaturday, October 8th: Melissa ManleySunday, October 9th: Deryn MentockMonday, October 10th: Jen CushmanTuesday, October 11th: Jill Berry

Wednesday, October 5th: Mary Beth ShawToday you're going to go visit Mary Beth Shaw for a chance to win. Even if you don't know Mary Beth, you've seen her in the book trailer video, here, right? And you've listened to my podcast with her here, as well. She's amazing--talented, funny, inspiring.
Hop over for a visit, leave a comment for a chance to win a book, and tell Mary Beth "hi!"
Here's the line-up for the rest of the hop:Thursday, October 6th: Carla SonheimFriday, October 7th: Lisa Myers BulmashSaturday, October 8th: Melissa ManleySunday, October 9th: Deryn MentockMonday, October 10th: Jen CushmanTuesday, October 11th: Jill Berry

Tuesday, October 4th: Seth Apter Seth Apter, of The Altered Page, is the only one of the participating artists whom I haven't gotten to meet In Real Life. We almost got to meet last summer in New York City, though, and I'm thinking it's going to happen, one way or another (I've been nagging urging to start going to art retreats, so it's only a matter of time, right? Because I'm so great with the nagging and all). Seth's blog is a wonderful place to visit, and the coolest thing ever is that you're going to be able to have that adventure in a book, coming out next year. Yes! Stay tuned, because there'll be more about that as the time gets closer.Listen to my podcast with Seth here.Then go visit Seth and leave a comment and wander around The Altered Page.
Wednesday, October 5th: Mary Beth ShawThursday, October 6th: Carla SonheimFriday, October 7th: Lisa Myers BulmashSaturday, October 8th: Melissa ManleySunday, October 9th: Deryn MentockMonday, October 10th: Jen CushmanTuesday, October 11th: Jill Berry

Monday, October 3rd: Melanie Testa I get to start off my blog hop with one of my favorite people. I can't even remember when we met Melanie--was it last year at Art and Soul Virginia? It seems like we've known her longer than that, but that evening when we all sat in the lobby and talked and shared journal pages and ideas and contacts--that was the best. We saw her again in June for the book signing for Creative Time and Space at The Ink Pad in New York City, where she so generously made the subway trip over from her home in Brooklyn to join us and talk about how her journal and her art are inextricably intertwined, which was way, way fascinating. And then we got to see her again in August at Art Unraveled in Phoenix. We've done a podcast, which you can listen to here. I follow her on Twitter because she's one of those rare people you can trust with the tweeting: if she tweets a link, you know it's worth following. Here are some shots from Melanie's soy resist workshop at Art Unraveled, which was one of those workshops I wish I had signed up for (she did let me come in and play, though!)

And now you need to zip over to her blog lickety-split and leave a comment to win a copy of the book. And tell her I said, "Hi," please!
Here's the line-up for the rest of the week--be sure to stop by and see what they're up to--because you know it's something fabulous~~
Tuesday, October 4th: Seth ApterWednesday, October 5th: Mary Beth ShawThursday, October 6th: Carla SonheimFriday, October 7th: Lisa Myers BulmashSaturday, October 8th: Melissa ManleySunday, October 9th: Deryn MentockMonday, October 10th: Jen CushmanTuesday, October 11th: Jill Berry