Roxie's platter

Roxie came to pick up her "masterpiece" platter tonight, and we thought we had better take a photo before it left The Studio permanently. Normally she is a watercolorist in our Tuesday watercolor classes. She applied watercolor principles to glass fusing, creating many layers and blending colors. As you can see here, it's a technique with a beautiful outcome!
Also, new to The Studio Class Schedule this month is a wonderful craft called Primitive Rug Hooking, in which strips of colored fabric are hooked into wool or linen material to make many different things including rugs, placemats, coasters, wall hangings and more! In our beginner class on Thursday November 30th from 6-8:30 p.m., instructor Janet Venne will be teaching you how to make a set of 4 cool coasters with her own hand-drawn designs.

Doll Making Class

Thought you might like to see how the dolls in our 7-week polymer clay doll-making class are coming along! We didn't take a photo of each doll head, but here are a couple of them:

Jonny has managed a smiling expression on her doll, above (which is hard to do).

Molly, above, shows how she can get "a -head" in class.

Instructor Sarah Niemela observing Kristin's progress, above.

This is an interesting class to observe--almost like forensic science--as the students are asked to look in the little mirrors propped on the tables and try to replicate such small details as tear ducts on their doll heads. We are hopeful that instructor Sarah Niemela will be willing to teach a new session of this class after the holidays, so that we can offer it again.

It's Sunday at the Studio and we're winding down from a busy weekend. We had two kiln fired glass classes Friday night and Saturday afternoon. Our kilns got a little backed up because both classes were full. The last of the jewelry projects went into the kiln today for fusing. Students can pick up flat projects (like jewelry) Monday night October 29. Slumped projects can be picked up Wednesday night November 1.

For anyone reading this who doesn't know what kiln fired glass looks like, here is a recent example of what a talented mother/daughter team made in our Studio and picked up last week. Quite a beautiful iris plate! They cut and placed the shapes, and then we fused together flat in our glass kiln (at 1500 degrees) until the glass melted together. Then, in a second firing, we slumped into a plate mold at around 1300 degrees.

Last night we hosted a birthday party at the Studio for some enthusiastic 10 and 11 year olds. The birthday girl's little sister also did a great job on her mosaic mirror, which surprised me because I always think of age 8 or 9 as the very minimum age for a glass project. Here are the girls with their fantastic mosaic mirrors! I had a fun time with this small group. It made me realize that, at least once a week, I need to participate in a class or party instead of just doing supplies ordering, paying bills, planning class schedules, and all the paperwork! --Karen

Glass Studio Night Tonight!

Happy Wednesday! The Studio has been bustling with classes and events this week, and we've been seeing many more new faces at the coffeebar too for our delicious 'Winter Warmer' drinks as the weather outside gets chillier and chillier.
Tonight is Glass Studio Night from 6-10 p.m., so all you guys and gals that have taken a class or have outside experience in stained glass or glass fusing can come in tonight and receive free assistance from our glass instructor Colleen when you buy studio time! ($6/hour, half price after 2 hours) It's a great opportunity to further your skills and a lot of fun to meet new people (or reaquaint with old) who are here to do the same!
There are still spots available for our Basics of Copper Enameling class on Monday October 30th, where you get your choice of decorating either copper switchplates for your home or copper jewelry for yourself! To check out a few examples click on link Copper Enameled Switchplate. Sign-up today!

What's new at The Studio? (Above) Wire-wrapped dichroic glass jewelry (glass by Diane Swanson & wrapping by Deanna Burke) Take the class! Fused Glass: Jewelry or Ornaments Fall Leaves Glass Mosaic Mirror (by Studio employee Kelly Taras), Glass Fused Lattice Plates (by owners Karen and Dave Highness) Take the class! Glass Slumping , and a new adventure in the paper arts, Le Mini Book (by Studio employee Heather Feider) made with Chinese Bookbinding Technique and graphic by luxe paperie

All of these beautiful new items can be purchased at The Studio, get 'em while they're hot! Call for prices (763) 315- 3001. Hope to see you here soon!

Welcome to The Studio at Rush Creek blog! We are very excited to be able to share with you the day to day happenings here at The Studio. We will be using this blog to do all of the things that we can't do quickly on our website; post pictures of brand new studio projects, share stories and pictures of adventures in art and craft (i.e. what we've been tinkering and experimenting with), what's new and tasty in the coffeebar, new and exciting classes and upcoming events and so much more! With that said, let's get started!

Yesterday we held our first Artistic Handmade Books class, what fun! The above is a (slightly blurry) pic of the beautiful book made by Judy! Great work!