Join the Sarasota Chalk Festival in Venice for a 'Get Your Hands Dirty Workshop' November 5th, 10am - 5pm at the Venice Art Center.
Every year the festival creates props to bring awareness to the theme. This year we are very fortunate to teach the art of Mask Making. Please join us for the workshop as everyones learns while making props for the festival. The class is $20 to cover basic costs. Materials and supplies are provided through generous donations. All the props and masks created at the workshop will be for the festival organization - thereafter, additional events will be available to make your own mask for the Opening Gala November 13th.
To sign up for the workshop and help us create fun props for this years Opening Gala, click HERE.
To find out more about the Opening Gala, click HERE.
Paper Mache is versatile and popular worldwide. Historically it has been used for a wide range of applications, from cups to buildings, boats, and furniture. It was also used to create colorful items and folk traditions.
Paper was invented in China in the second century AD as a way to re-use the material which was then expensive and hardly accessible. It can be very strong but remain very light and was even used to make soldiers' helmets. Over time, with the spread of trade, the Papier Mache technique was introduced in Samarkand and Morocco and beyond until, in the tenth century, it was known in Spain, Germany, France, Italy, Persia and India.
It was French craftsmen who first recognized the great potential of Papier Mache, making snuff boxes and imitating stucco and plaster work. In England a strong development was in molding and baking either layered sheets or shredded paper to produce a strong board or, with lacquer, products like those made popular in Japan. For building work it was soaked in linseed oil before beiing baked.
In the later eighteenth century, the production of Papier Mache was one of the most important crafts in Central England, with Birmingham as a major centre. Trays, tables, chairs, lamps, book shelves, wall decoration, screens, bed frames were regularly made from Papier Mache. The lacquer work was mostly on a bolack background with patterns of flowers, with gilding and inlay with nacre. In France and Germany Papier Mache furniture was very popular. In America one manufacturer made boats. Russia and Scandinavia also developed their own industries. In 1793 in Norway a church, made in Papier Mache stood for 37 years.
Large scale production lasted for about a hundred years in Europe but began to decline from about 1870. While mass production has discontinued, the craft of papier Mache has gained considerable popularity and now has world wide participants.
What are you waiting for? Sign up for the class today! CLICK HERE
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