Oct 15th 2009 07:33:26 am
Meeting fellow swappers online is wonderful, but sometimes it is even better to meet up with your Swap-bot friends in real life. Swap-bot member, , recently met up with three other Swap-botters at the in Portland, Oregon. I asked her if we could share her report on the event. It sounds like it was a wonderful experience!
Art & Soul Retreat 2009 by
I was at the Art and Soul Retreat in Portland, Oregon, Oct 1 to the 5th. It was so much fun. I thought I would share it with you…
It is amazing to meet Swap-bot friends, you feel so comfortable right off. It is amazing!
I rode the train down to Portland on Thursday and it was so nice. The train is so quiet. You have so much more space and you can get up if you want to. The seats are nice and comfortable and pretty views for a lot of the trip, if you can stay awake. The Art & Soul Retreat was at the Embassy hotel and at the Holiday Inn hotel. The main office and the store were at the Embassy and they had classes at both hotels. We were staying at the Holiday Inn. Both hotels had shuttles that would take us back and forth and we could ride on either one. It was like a mile and a half – too far to haul a bag full of crafting and art supplies! The drivers were so nice and friendly.
Brenda () got in on Friday night. Her flight was an hour early and I was not in the room when she got there. I was surprised when I opened the door at 9:30 and there she was. I was expecting her after 10! We chatted a little bit before it was time to hit the sack. She was tired from her flight and I was tired from my day of crafting.
We met Lori () on Saturday at the Portland Saturday Market, which is a an arts and crafts market. Then, she took us to lunch at a really cool restaurant and took us to the Rose Garden where we sniffed hundreds of roses, and then to the biggest book store ever, Powells bookstore. She was a lot of fun. We did a lot of chatting and laughing.
We had dinner Sunday with Marina () and her boyfriend Steve. They came back to our room with us and we did show and tell with our projects we had made. Marina brought some gorgeous quilts that she has made and Steve makes the most gorgeous wood items out of exotic woods. He could name every one of them, and everything he made was so smooth and beautiful. Two very talented people! It was so cute how proud they are of each other.
Of course, I bought too much stuff! The Saturday vendor night at the Art and Soul Retreat was amazing. It was even larger than I expected. Lori and her partner came. Most of the artist teachers had tables with their original works and books they have written. All of the other booths were full of old vintage items that could be used in altered art. There were only about two booths with some new stuff. I bought three precut book leathers for only $10. I could not believe how low her prices were!
The on-site store at the retreat was just great. It had pretty much everything you could possibly need for the classes and a ton of collage sheets and ephemera. My teachers were wonderful. The classes were a lot of fun! I just need to do some finishing touches on two of the projects, and the third project I have more ambitious plans for.
Friday, I had a class on Coptic binding a book with window and niches. We made the book from the very beginning decorating our covers and cutting windows. Then we learned the double Coptic stich. I have a few more finishing touches on mine. Or, maybe a lot if I decide to keep it and decorate the inside. Lots of joking and laughter in this class even though there were only seven people in it.
Saturday was our sightseeing day and we met Lori and had a fantastic time. It was great that we had picked that day so we could get to know each other a little better.
Sunday, my class was taught by the owner of . We decorated “Dream Boxes.” We got to use so many of the products from her store, which were high quality and fun to work with. I recommend the German Scrap and transparancy and collage sheets . We made a little pendant one first and then we made a larger one. I have a couple of finishing touches I want to do on this one also. Again, lots of joking and laughter in this class even with only six participants.
Monday’s class was called the “Ultimate Passion Book” – a cute name for making a book. We started with an accordion book kit and glued pages together so that it was a four page book. Our instructor was really into Gesso and gave us some great ideas for using it. Her basic formula for making the book after the pages were glued was to gesso the pages, putting it on real thick sometimes stamping into it and sometimes using a stencil to put it down. Then, rub in paint and wipe off. I stuck to a palette of blue, green and an antiquing color (similar to a yellowish ochre color). The next step is to collage if desired. Then, add some more paint and add any pictures or text that you want to show. Finish it off with pastels to emphasize elements. I did not get to the pastel point on this one. I choose to go with an Alice in Wonderland theme, they had a collage sheet in the store and it is the theme for next year’s Art and Soul. The instructor had music playing while we were working, not too loud just a good background when people got real quiet and into what they were doing. She had so many people sign up that she had two rooms! She did all her demos in one room and in the other she had a drying station set up with heat guns and an ephemera table. She was so nice and patient with people. There were thirty-two people, but we had lots of room to work. It is amazing how much supplies everyone brings! People freely share items and borrow tools.
Like I said, all the instructors were just awesome. Knowledgeable, talented, friendly, cheerful and pleasant. Almost all of the attendees were friendly, cheerful, and pleasant with various degree of skills. In the last class we had one lady that did not have much of a clue, but since a lot of people did the instructor was able to spend more time with her. But, she was careful to spread herself around and not concentrate too much on one person.
It was such a fantastic trip. I hope that I can go when they are in Portland next year.
That’s my story and I am sticking to it, Linda
Categories: Swapper Report
Dutch Swappers Group
One of the most active groups on Swap-bot is the Dutch Swappers Group. The group, founded by littleZ, has 192 members. All of the members of the group live in The Netherlands and much of the group description and the very active forums are in Dutch. 
