This past weekend was jam packed with the excitement of Kristi Steiner's class here in Saluda and the shop was alive with enthusiastic participants as we started our new year of workshops.
Kristi led 21 high energy women through the art of journaling in your altered fabric books, painting & altering fabric, fusing fabric together and the continuity and elements of collage.
The outcome is an accordion style book entitled "I am a woman who....". It's up to you to explore the possibilities of that statement and move on toward the completion of your book.
Short writing exercises in discovering "the woman" were thought provoking and inspiring for everyone. Kristi will return to Saluda for more exciting workshops as we create our way through 2007. Look for her workshops around the country and the world by visiting her
web site.

Speaking of web sites, Random Arts is excitingly updated? Is that a word? Excitingly? Well, it is to me right now and that's what matters. Many of you have been sending in photos of your work and we have been adding some of our own. We love to see what you are doing and we love to publish it on our gallery page.

The biggest and best thing since sliced bread is our "wholey" paper and it is being used all over the country right now. If you don't have any yet, you can get it on our eBay Store or you can stop by the shop. We are fully stocked and it's selling like crazy. The possibilities are endless. You can paint it, sand it, distress it, sew it, stamp it, tear it, print it, rust it, stencil it and who knows what else. I have used it for altered book covers, in ATC's, book covers, and Atlanta artist and Cloth Paper Scissors Cover girl, Cheryl Prater has used it for lots of her micro mini tiles that she is doing every single day. You can see her tiles on her blog... and look for the ones with the wholey paper... It's a "hole" new way to create.