Arts on Main

Community Arts Center in Gloucester, Virginia

1 Day Heirloom Collage & Mixed Media Exploration with Theresa Wells Stifel

1 Day Heirloom Collage & Mixed Media Exploration with Theresa Wells Stifel
Saturday, February 25
12:30pm – 4:30pm

 

Create your own mixed media masterpieces using those little pieces of memories too precious to throw away! Your quirky snippets, papers, jewelry, fabric, or any small odds and ends can be layered to create a charming and personal piece of art. If you want to practice without worrying about ruining a special object, extra supply packets will be available to purchase for $5 a bag so you can play with a free spirit.

You will learn how to layer paint, paper, photos, trims, fabric and more.  We will learn different types of gluing, fusing and stitching methods to build interesting layers for your pieces. We will discuss and play with mark making, color, texture and pattern, answering questions along the way. Feel free to email the instructor with any questions: theresa@stifelandcapra.com

Supply list for class:

3 stretched canvases 8×10 or smaller
Your 3 favorite colors of acrylic paint
Matte medium
2 or three paint brushes – inexpensive is fine
Container for water
Fragrance free baby wipes
Paper towels
Scissors
Large eyed tapestry needle
Photos or images
And the fun things: papers, trims, buttons, ticket stubs, fabric scraps, metal objects, shells, pebbles – whatever is in that drawer or box that you want to get out in view!

Cost of class is $95 per student.

Registration deadline is Thursday, February 23 by 5pm.




About the Instructor 

Currently residing in Gloucester County, Virginia, Theresa Wells Stifel was raised in a military/NASA family. Frequent global moves and wide-ranging duty stations gave her a wide range of life experiences and influences that fed her creative life.

Wells Stifel learned traditional craft, painting and needle working skills from her mother, every artistic interest was encouraged. “If I expressed an interest in a medium, from oil painting to wood burning, I was sure to find it gifted the next birthday or Christmas. This enabled me to really explore a wide range of tools, subjects and colors.”

Settling in the Washington DC metro area as a young adult, Wells Stifel moved from managing a photography studio to a recruiting career that lasted almost twenty years.  The arts were always a parallel effort. Moving on from her corporate job enabled her to concentrate on family and creativity.

After a blood infection cost her husband a leg and almost his life Wells Stifel was galvanized to create a family business that enabled them to care for her family.   Stifel & Capra, a 3000 square foot locals’ art gallery and vintage business, was born.

Stifel & Capra hosted monthly art shows, art classes, artist studios and provided a “home away from home” for creatives and design aficionados.

Inspired by her resident artists, Wells Stifel continued her art practice. Alexandria’s Art League, the Arlington Art Alliance Gallery Underground, Montgomery County’s Artist & Makers Studios and Tanglewood Works, Loudon County’s D’Amore Productions, Tysons Corner’s First Stage, Falls Church, VA’s Falls Church Arts and Alexia Scott’s Studio Gallery, Gloucester’s Arts on Main and Gloucester Arts Festival all hosted shows where her works were shown and sold. She curated Vienna’s “Artist Helping Others” Shows hosted at Vienna Presbyterian Church as well as multiple shows at Falls Church Arts and Stifel & Capra.

Primarily self-taught, Wells Stifel is known for incorporating vintage ephemera and hand stitching into her work. She thrives on fashioning vintage goods and techniques into something contemporary and is fascinated with the female form and the play of color on water.   During her career Wells Stifel has been featured in the Falls Church News Press, the Fairfax Times, the Gloucester-Mathews Gazette-Journal, and the Washington Post.

How to Create a “Zine”

There is a whole, wide and wonderful world of Zines out there! We’re going to give you a very brief introduction to zines, teach you the basics of how to make one and send you on your way to “self-publishing”.

Mini Zine, about life in quarantine, called Saraya’s Quaranzine

What is a “Zine”?

A zine is a self-published booklet that is, generally, about the size of a half sheet of paper, though it can be smaller or larger. They are filled with any number of things, from short stories and recipes to mimicking magazines or newsletters, and have a circulation of under 1,000 copies. The most current style of zine can be traced back to the 1930s when creating sci-fi fanzines was a popular pastime. Zines are created all over the world and there are a number of conventions held where zine publishers gather to sell and trade zines to collectors. One such gathering is held in Richmond each October, called Richmond Zine Fest.

Let’s Get Started on Your Mini-Zine!

Here’s what you’ll need…

-Piece of copy paper (8.5 x 11 makes an 8-page mini-zine)

-Scissors

-Something to write with

Optional Items

-Anything that you might want to use to embellish your zine. You could use markers, paint, stamps, colored pencils, crayons, collage, washi-tape, etc.

When it comes to creating and embellishing your zine, the sky is the limit. However, the point of a zine is reproduction. If you plan to reproduce your zine for distribution, make sure that the materials you use will remain flat when placed on a copier and won’t cast severe shadows when copied.

If you do not plan to reproduce your zine, you’re making a “one-off”…feel free to go wild!

Step One

Fold your sheet of paper in half, then into quarters and finally into eighths. Now unfold your paper completely. When you do, your piece of paper should look something like the image below.

Step Two

Fold your paper in half and cut a slit halfway across the middle from the fold, as shown in image below on the left.

Step Three

Fold your paper along the crease that has the slit and push the ends in towards one another. The sections will fold in to form a booklet with eight pages. You might need to straighten out some of the folds as you do this step.

Step Four

You now have an eight page mini-zine to fill with your amazing ideas! What will you fill your zine with?

Some things to consider:

-Do you plan on reproducing this zine? If so, how will you reproduce it? Photograph and manipulate in a computer? Make copies? Scan it?

-Are you going to make a series of related zines? What will the concept be and how will you layout the content?

-Are you planning on making this a “one-off”? If so, make sure to document your process through photographs so that you can share the creation of the zine with the recipient.

If you’re interested in learning more about zines and how to make them, there are many wonderful references available online. We Make Zines is particularly helpful website as it served as our reference for this post, and even provides several templates, in case you find yourself lost or want to try different styles of zines.

As always, if you make a zine, don’t forget to post your finished works on social media and tag us (@GloucesterArts) on Facebook and Instagram so we can see what you’ve created. If you’re not on social media, send an email to assistantdirector@gloucesterarts.org and we just might feature you in a future Weekly Roundup email!