Seattle and Artfest....

We are in Seattle for a bit of shopping and I love the front of the Fireworks Gallery with this mosaic figure at the entrance.
Daiso is such a fun place! It is full of cool items from Japan and the price of most things is $1.50!
Yes, only a dollar and a half! We managed to fill a basket with little odds and ends and then LE found us a great spot for lunch called the "Jewel Box".
LE and Syd at the Jewel Box....great sandwiches and salads and I had a taro bubble tea.
After the first day of classes we had an "Iron Chef" type art competition, not really a competition, but only 30 minutes to create something with the box of supplies given to each teacher who wanted to participate. Syd, Tara, and I went for it along with about 30 0r 40 others. It was fun and intense and great to see what everyone came up with. The art pieces were auctioned off later for an Artfest scholarship for next year. Above is Traci's piece (I think!)
And the smiling Traci Bautista...
While we worked the local band called "Surrealized" played for us. After the kick off meeting they played in the big hall and Colleen and I danced until they stopped playing...it was fun and something I had wanted to do when I heard there would be live music.
Here is what Syd and I created at the Iron Art contest. She was in the 3 D group and I went for 2D.
Here's Tara Ross with her fun painted circle piece.

An early morning walk by the beach was so invigorating. I picked up some beach rocks to remind me of my stay here and how much I love coming up to this part of the world. My first class was with Catherine Wetherall and we made some nice PMC beads and rings. Colleen and I shared a table and had fun stamping and collageing with the silver. Catherine was a great teacher...so much fun and action that I forgot to take photos of the class. I'll post my beads soon, though.
My second day of classes were with the Portland painter and musician, Jesse Reno. Many wonderful paintings came out of his classes. I had a bit of a struggle, but still loved what he had to share with us. I love his personal stories and how we just jumped in and painted with our hands!
We used red, blue, yellow, black and white to create a background with our hands..how simple is that?
Susan and Sukey working on their paintings.
Pam K. shared her work in progress with me...what a fun face!
Another work in progress....
On to vendor night....my table was pretty full of stuffed creatures! Colleen Darling was my partner the whole evening as we made sales and took a quick look at all the fun stuff the other teachers had for sale. Thanks, Colleen!
I also got to meet Kelsey who came all the way from England. She took home a hooked kitty and linen rabbit. So nice to meet online friends in person!

On Saturday I taught my "Charming Fiber Wearables" workshop and had the sweetest students ever. Above is Kimberly with her collection of fun fiber art made in class...her sister is one of my favorite teachers, Keely Benky.
Anita kept us smiling and came up with some amazing pieces. We are buddies from Artfiberfest.
And Shelley came all the way from Hawaii to create some beautiful pieces. Everyone was a joy to have in class. We had at least two from Canada and others from all over the United States. I got so busy during class that I forgot to take photos until almost everyone had gone...oh well...
On Sunday, Syd and I got in a quick visit to Port Townsend to see some of the things we missed on our way in on Wednesday. Fun things in the show at Artisans on Taylor and in the Underground Cavern there was a large showing of Jesse Reno's paintings.

We made it to Centrailia for lunch and a little antiqueing. LOTS of antique stores, but it was raining hard so we only went in a few. I found a bird cage to bring home and Syd found a doll house.
We found this fun place for lunch and got a piece of blackberry pie to take with us for later.

On to Ashland for breakfast the next day...we found a nice spot called Gepetto's and did a little more looking around...the fabric store was open and the shoe store too.
An angel sculpture outside the music store....
Fun shoes, but I just needed new UGG slippers and am happily wearing them right now!
Quick stop in Dunsmuir to see Big foot...Brown Trout was closed so on we went towards home.
We made it to Berkeley, all the cool stores were closed but we found a great place for dinner on fourth st. called Tacubaya. Super good food. Got home late...2 am - tired but happy and inspired from our Artfest adventure. Loved all my housemates, teachers and fellow students.
Teesha and Tracy created the most amazing gathering place for us artists to play and share and learn new things. I will always be grateful for this special experience called Artfest!