The Creative Retreat

Amidst an enormous apple orchard and forest of trees in Chippewa Falls, Wisconsin, is situated an incredible creative retreat center. White's Wildwood Retreat is one of the nicest places I have visited - here is a link: http://www.wwretreat.com/. Daily, I (online) chat with roughly 30 wonderful girlfriends. We are close, all over the USA and Canada, and we share so many incredible common bonds. This group of incredible and incredibly talented women is one of those special things in my life that I treasure and hold dear to my heart. Once a year, as many of us as possible, meet at the retreat center in Wisconsin for an elongated weekend. I call it 'My Yearly Creative Outing'. This photo represents 23 of those wonderful ladies that were able to come.

I am standing, long blonde hair, center back. Heather Nichols, our organizer, (or 'Pine' as we call her - her blog is here) took this amazing photo. Pine is standing, far left. You may recognize many, many creative people in this photo - it is truly an incredible weekend and an honor for me to attend. This year I took my holiday cards to work on, and talk, laugh, eat, drink, create and share. It is a magical time. This year, Pine asked if I would teach a class at the retreat. First subject that came to mind was Ranger's Melting Pot! I have taken several classes with Suze Weinberg here in New Jersey, and I hope I lived up to Pine's and everyone's expectations. (That's me with Tim Holtz's denim apron on!) I demonstrated how one can bake polymer clay in the Melting Pot (actually I learned that from a Tim Holtz DVD...), and I showed how to create patterned paper buttons with Ranger's Ultra Thick Embossing Enamel (UTEE for short) and a non-stick mini-muffin pan, UTEE donut pendants with a non-stick mini doughnut pan, relief stamping with UTEE, and 'river rocks' from black UTEE puddles and Frozen Opals. Then I demonstrated Rangers' Mold & Pour - a two part silicone material that when combined and molded on an object, can withstand the heat of molten UTEE (the molds can actually withstand heat up to 800 degrees - that's kiln temperature). There is more information on Mold & Pour here. After I finished the demo, the ladies created works of art using the supplies I had brought - adding wire, delicate miniature beads to their UTEE creations...oh what a wonderful time it was!! Thank you ladies, for an incredible weekend!!! Can't wait until next year!!!! (all photos used with permission from Heather Nichols, Pinefeather)