Almost a hundred artists who dominate the media opened the doors of their studios this weekend.
The Art Leap 2023 car tour is conducted through Heartland Arts, an organization that brings together 16 arts and cultural organizations in the Park Rapids metropolitan area.
Thirty sites in Hubbard, Wadena and Becker counties welcomed Sept. 23 and 24.
Kris and Bob Sauser demonstrated Raku (pronounced ra-koo) in their studio, Creative Minds, Messy Fingers.
The Sausers said turnout was steady on both Art Leap days. They live in Fifth Crow Wing Lake near Nevis.
Raku firing is an ancient Japanese ceramic method used since the sixteenth century to shape products.
The Sausers fill a propane oven with ceramic coated with Raku varnish. The oven is baked at 1,800 degrees.
“You are right in the clay body. You can know when it matures. It’s warm and orange, but outside it becomes very elegant,” Bob explained. “We removed it with a pair of long tweezers and placed them in those boxes. “
These are steel boxes containing sawdust or newspaper clippings.
Burning ceramics ignite the material, then discard the steel caps and leave it for about 20 hours.
“Hot paper burns all the oxygen, turns off the chimney so that the teeth mature in an oxygen-free environment. That’s where the spots form,” Bob said. We are pushing the procedure forward by throwing them into the water to cool them. “faster. “
The end result is a coppery effect on the ceramic.
Sometimes they open the box and let the flames triumph on the ceramic, resulting in a bluish-silver sheen.
“There are too many variables. It’s unpredictable, so you never know what’s going to happen once it’s over,” Bob said. “Where there is no varnish, it turns black. “
Kris’ leaf-themed dishes, in a diversity of autumnal herbal colors, have been incredibly popular with customers. Almost his entire collection sold out.
“I ate it with maple leaves and they turned out good,” he said. He used a varnish to recreate the deep red of a maple.
Kris genuine leaves to make prints on your pottery.
“Here I put iron oxide to highlight the veins and it has no varnish,” he said of a soap dish with an oak leaf pattern. “Oak leaves have this color, even in autumn. They are quite rusty.
Bob shooting on wood about six years ago.
He joked that it makes wood piles more complicated. There is the pile of logs for burning and turning wood.
Bob works with poplars, birches and oaks that fall into his 50-acre forest.
He creates vases turned in wood and leaves the bark on them.
“It’s a lot of fun to do this detailed work,” Bob said. It’s going to make you laugh. I’m going to sand a little bit, so it’s minimal work.
He turned to a wooden room whose insects had eaten the marrow, leaving some holes.
It kept a “live edge” or strip of bark that came out quickly.
“We had a weekend,” said Brenda Mason of Park Rapids.
Design clothes and reused.
Sewing since age 15, Mason said it only takes practice. “If you can read the instructions, then everything is basic. You just experiment.
It turns Afghans into pretty sweaters. Or tablecloths on shirts. Cut the sleeves of the jackets and then add them to the vest, mixing and combining them.
“I reuse a lot,” he says. “Each piece is unique. “
In addition to Art Leap, Mason participates in Arts Off Crawl, which takes place over Labor Day weekend from Pine River to Longville.
“This year, I had a coat rack at Shenanigans in Nevis and two coat racks at Summerhill Adventures,” he added.
Mason welcomed fellow artist and Becky Steinhoff. He works in mixed media.
“Many years ago, I was a sign painter. Then I hung it for 30 years, until I picked up a paintbrush again, just before COVID. I had time to play,” Steinhoff said.
Incorporating scrapbook paper, wall stickers, quotes and his own art, Steinhoff creates inspirational panels.
Design jewelry, such as necklaces with pendants, rings and bracelets.
“I’ve been making jewelry since I was little,” she says.
Traditional Ojibwe art through indigenous artists from the Pine Point domain exhibited at Art Leap’s new site: Bam’idizowigamig Creator’s Place.
Pearl earrings, willow dream catchers, willow sticks with cut diamonds and much more were on display.
David Edwards, a visual artist, answered questions about his brightly colored pencil and pen drawings. They were encouraged through their family and Ojibwe traditions.