March 12 – 19th, 2010
Come on a week long journey to Moëlan-sur-Mer, Brittany, France with Holly Gage and Angela Crispin to learn new innovative techniques!
Try setting brilliant Titanium or odd shaped stones with Metal Clay, and enjoy the relaxed process of Metal Clay repoussé, carving and refined detail with Holly. Learn Angela's inventive seamless ring technique contrasting copper clay with silver clay or her unique ways of working with Faux Bone (tm) and silver clay. What a line up!
Visit Pont-Aven, Concarneau, Moëlan-sur-Mer while staying in an ideal and inspiring setting. The village of Pont-Aven is picturesque and has become a popular artist's paradise. Concarneau is a medieval walled town and one of the most photographed in the region. Moëlan-sur-Mer is ideal for long, stimulating outings between land and sea, with fishing ports, paths and fine sandy beaches.
Our stay at Le Moulin des Ducs, Moëlan-sur-Mer, Bretagne, France is an ancient mill first owned by the Duc of Brittany. Today a charming 3 out of 4 star hotel with its 12 hectare garden, nestled within a lush valley and offering a gourmet restaurant. Pretty granite homes house charming rooms and refined amenities surrounding a bend of the Belon river which flows through the property - a peaceful haven made for strolls steeped in ocean air! In the handsome traditional mill dining room, extended by a veranda overlooking the river banks you can enjoy savoury cuisine inspired by the best of regional local goodness by Chef Thierry Quilfen.
Retreat includes 4-5 full days of work of which 4 cover intensive workshops, a French outing, Room, breakfast, lunch + drink, complimentary transportation from airport (*)
Prices include accommodations, teaching fees, bench fees, all tools, equipment and firing. Consumable materials such as Metal Clay, etc will be sold per student useage .
Airflight is the responsibility of the student and not included above.
Retreat includes:
7 night stay
7 full breakfasts
5 full lunches including appetizer and wine (you are on your own for lunch on tourism outing)
4 workshops
1 French Excursion
Evenings on your own to explore
Spouses and French residents are welcome. Rates available upon request.
PROGRAM:
(the order of the workshops may be adapted to suit the excursion date to gallery seasonal opening hours)
Day 1: Welcome reception first night – wine and cheese
(check-in as of 2 pm)
Day 2: Faux Bone™ and Metal clay – an exciting combination with Angela Crispin.
Faux Bone™ is a very strong plastic material which allows artistic freedom and structural strength while attaining the aspect of real bone or porcelain. In this workshop you will learn how to cut, sand, pierce, shape, thermoform, stain, and polish Faux Bone™ to your own design, while adding metal clay accents and inlays to your work with cold and/or chemical connections. Examples will be shown to help you launch your own creative process with this exciting combination of materials.
Materials used: PMC3, Faux Bone ™ 6X6” sheet, epoxy resin, Sterling silver wire or brass wire,
Day 3:
Innovative Prong Solutions for Setting Titanium (or any irregular shaped object) with Holly Gage.
Free-formed rainbow Titanium can be very intriguing.It is bright, colorful, and sculptural. Against the bright shine of silver it certainly has the “bling” factor. One
method for setting Titanium is by making your own hand built prongs. Our exploratory trip will highlight innovative handmade prongs solutions; proper placement
and structural consideration for the prongs; basics do’s and don’ts of prong making; as well as learning how to design with shrinkage in mind. Your finished piece will
be of your own unique design inspired by your individual titanium or free-formed item of choice.
You may bring your own irregular shaped item for setting or purchase Titanium at or before class at Holly's website. Recommended size is 20mm – 40mm.
Materials used: Non-combustible Paperclay, PMC3, epoxy resin, Titanium
Day 4:
France Excursion
Morning : Visit the charming, reputed painter’s town of Pont-Aven, with it’s many art galleries and secret paths over the Aven river crossing the town center. Pont-Aven is world-known for Gaugin’s presence, artistic influence and launch of the “Ecole de Pont-Aven” painting style. 10 minutes from the retreat by motorway.
Open lunch-time (at your expense): a wide choice of local créperies and restaurants.
Afternoon: Visit to the fortified city of Concarneau, 20 minutes by car from the retreat and only 10 minutes from Pont-Aven by the express motorway.
YouTube Video here.
Day 5:
The Seamless Ring – a Copper Clay and Silver Clay combination
with both contrast and strength by Angela Crispin.
In this workshop we will explore the combination of copper and silver using one of
the very exciting new copper clays applied onto a ring-band using my “seamless ring-band technique” to obtain possibly one of the strongest forms of silver metal clay ring bands. You will have examples of many of the possibilities surrounding design, the best way to mechanically connect the two materials for a strong connection and many details covering the two techniques, which I myself use in my own designs. These ring-bands, if made and fired correctly, are so strong they can be stretched on a mandrel up to 1 and 1⁄2 sizes, can be hammered with a metal hammer for texture and even further added strength.
Materials used: PMC3, PMC3 paste, copper clay
Day 6:
Exquisite Designs Pendant: Silver Metal Clay Repoussé, Hand-wrought texture and carved details by Holly Gage.
I will share my secrets in transforming original photos or drawings** into highly detailed, low relief images looking similar in style to traditional repoussé. Students will learn to wet-work a reverse polymer mold of their image; manipulate the clay and use tools to create different hand-wrought textural effects; and to carve details for the finishing touch. The results are unique and original, beautifully echoing the hand of the artist.
Materials used: PMC3, Bake and Bend Polymer Clay
**We’ll take photographs on an excursion day, choose the best for the project and print them on a laser printer. So bring a camera with a memory card and a USB card converter. Instructor and others will have a camera and pictures to borrow if needed.
Day 7: Wrap Up – Open studio, finalize all work, Group Show and Tell
Day 8: Morning departure
About the Teachers
Angela Crispin
Brazilian born artist Angela B. Crispin grew up in both Brazil and Hawaii, before her heart made France her home in 1987. After obtaining her degree in International Affairs at the American University of Paris, she began making resin jewelry in 1990, while learning jewelry fabrication at the Ecole BJO (Bijouterie, Joaillerie, Orfevrerie), followed by metalsmithing, wax carving and enameling at Nicolas Flamel, also in Paris. By 1994 her work was mostly focused on sterling silver. In 1995 she discovered Precious Metal Clay but this material only became more easily available in Europe around 2003, when she immediately began to discover its possibilities on her own, followed by certification courses in England and in USA (Rio Rewards and PMC Connection, Art Clay World).
Since 2003 her work has been focused on the various metal clay techniques while incorporating other materials such as Faux BoneTM, resin, leather or impression techniques such as photopolymer plates, hand carving. Angela has exhibited her work in Europe (UK, Belgium, Portugal, France), and in the United States, and has received awards in Brazil, France and England. Her work has appeared in American Magazines such as Ornament, Jewelry Artist, Studio PMC, to name a few, as well as in Findings (UK) and in such French magazines as Le Bijoutier, Madame Figaro, Marianne Maison and Ateliers D’Art. Her work has also been published in various metal clay books (PMC Decade, The Premier Guild Annual,and more.
She sells her jewelry under her company name “L’Ange Est Là”, a play on words translated to mean: “the angel is present”.
After having lived in Paris for 15 years, she moved to the North-Western coast of France, in Bretagne in 2002, where she now lives with her family. She teaches metal clay classes in both Paris and at her home studio on the coast, and writes a monthly column on metal clay (“Tecnicas e Dicas” for the Brazilian website PortaldasJoias.com.br since 2006. She also launched the French Guild in 2007 to provide further information and support on metal clay in the language.
Angela sees her work as an intense, fun and sincere triangular dialogue between herself, the material and the future wearer.
Holly Gage
Holly enjoys creating contemporary fine art jewelry. The need to create is an essential and personal form of self-expression. Miniature sculptures, pictorial scenes, and symbolic use of materials and imagery replace words as a form of communication. She welcomes others into her world by means of her jewelry designs in an effort to share an intimate slice of life, idealistic thought or deep emotion. Her jewelry is crafted using fine silver metal clay. For its amazing play of saturated and subtle rainbow hues, she has one collection featuring her own Titanium, imparting a strong sculptural quality. This reactive metal, named after the Greek Gods (the Titans) for its strength, becomes, in her jewelry, a metaphor for the empowerment of the human spirit and a celebration of the beauty of nature. In constructing her pieces, she gets immersed in the therapeutic process of carving and forming and bringing life to something that was just a mere idea.
Holly enjoys exploring unusual materials and developing new techniques and teaching her findings to others who possess a similar curiosity and a thirst to learn. She has her BS in Fine Art and Education and is a certified metal clay instructor speaking and teaching locally in PA as well as nationally and internationally. Awards include the Narcissus Award, Silver Prize Winner in the Art Clay category Fire Mountain, Editor’s Best Choice Awards 2008 & 2009, Annual Bead Arts Award. Her jewelry and articles on techniques and design can be found in over 35 regional and national publications including The PMC Guild Annual 1, 2, & 3, Setting Stones in Metal Clay, Metal Clay Beads, Jewelry Artist, Art Jewelry, Bead & Button, and more. You can find more information about Holly’s jewelry, awards and classes on her "About My Art" Pages.
Transportation
We will provide complimentary transportation on the day of arrival and departure to and from Lorient at specific times, however we suggest you look into car rentals, which can be made either in advance through the internet, or on location at either the train station or airport. Travel itineraries must be submitted a week in advance to take advantage of complimentary service.
Here are local car rental links on the internet for your convenience:
http://www.Europcar.com/Lorient
http://www.internationalairportguide.com/europe/lorient_lann_bihoue_airport.html
Train stations and approximate distance by car from the Moëlan-sur-Mer retreat location:
Lorient train station – 30 minute drive (25 km)
Quimperlé train station – 14 minute drive (9.38 km)
Quimper train station – 43 minute drinve (47 km)
Airports and approximate distance by car from the Moëlan-sur-Mer retreat location:
Lorient-Lann Bihoué (national flights) –30 minutes (28km).
Brest Bretagne Airport – 1 hr 28 mins. By car (116 km) (flights to / from England and other European countries)
Rennes Airport – 2 hrs 14 minutes by car (170 km) (flights to / from England and other European countries)
Nantes-Atlantique airport – 2 hr 39 minutes by car (193 km)
All of the above offer direct daily connections to and from Paris. The city of Lorient is less than 4 hours from Paris on the high-speed train (TGV), and about 40 minutes by plane from the Paris’ Southern - Orly airport.
If coming by car, Moëlan-sur-Mer, where the retreat is located, is 522.28 km, or a 6 hour drive.
information concerning local distances, a useful map website
Weather, clothes and details:
The weather this time of year is a variable Spring weather, with possible rain and variable temperatures from about 5°C in the early morning to 12-15°C in the afternoons, and cool evenings. Bretagne is known for having “beautiful year-round sunny weather at least once a day”, although this is intended to be humorous, it means you may be subject to heavy showers at any time of the year. The retreat is located in the middle of nature, rooms are located in beautiful stone cottages spread throughout the grounds surrounding the main pond.
Bring comfortable clothes, at least one pair of comfortable walking shoes, a sweater and a lightweight coat and/or rain jacket.
local weather forecast
Dining:
Breakfast and lunch will be at the retreat property. The chef is also the owner and runs the restaurant. It is a gourmet 3 out of 4 star reputed regional dining location. If you care to dine at the hotel dining room, we think you will have an enjoyable experience.
Policies:
All bookings require a 50% deposit.
Deposits can be made by secured pay pal account, wire or express mail by check. In order to hold a reservation we must receive the deposit within ten days of the booking being made. The balance is due 45 days prior to your arrival date.
Cancellation and refund policy:
All cancellations are subject to a 20% booking fee.
Reservations cancelled prior to 90 days of retreat, 50% of retreat fee is refundable.
Less than 60 days, 25% of retreat fee is refundable.
Less than 45 days prior to workshop, accommodations and workshop fee is non-refundable.
Should any workshop/retreat be canceled the entire amount paid will be refunded within fourteen days after the tour's cancellation. Once this occurs, we have no obligations regarding any additional costs or fees related to the issuance and/or cancellation of airline tickets or other travel reservations. We accept no liability for any airline cancellation penalty incurred by the purchase of a non-refundable ticket. Nor does it accept liability for canceled flights.
Travel Insurance
It is strongly recommended that all workshop participants purchase Trip Cancellation, Emergency Medical Evacuation, Baggage, Accident and Medical insurance from a reputable insurance company.
*Dollar amounts are estimated based on the exchange rate at the time retreat was organized. ($1.00 US = $1.36 Euros) Fluctuations in exchange-rates may occur. We will re-adjust the dollar amounts to reflect actual cost of the workshop. For example: if the dollar gains strength against the euro, you will receive the difference, if the dollar looses value you will pay the difference. To lock in currhttp://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gifent rates, please consider signing up and paying in full now. To keep track of current rates visit the rates calculator.
For more information or to make reservations, please contact:
Holly Gage
hgage1@ptd.net
or
Angela Crispin
ange.est.la@wanadoo.fr
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