I felt like we were on Project Runway!

We were just supposed to be getting together for some yummy Thai food, but then...

Last weekend, I had dinner plans with 3 other artists.   We get together fairly often to enjoy each others company and to yack about life and art. Three of us are colored pencil artists - myself, Anne deMille Flood (who wrote Realistic Pet Portraits in Colored Pencil) and Denise MacDonald.  The fourth member, Francis Buckmaster, is an artist of all mediums. Frances emailed us all a few days prior to our get together, asking if we'd meet 2 hours early for a little adventure.  She was quite mysterious about it, which upped the interest level considerably! 

We met in downtown Tacoma and walked a short block to TinkerTopia - a fun little place with bins and shelves stuffed with delightful odd items, big and small, rescued from the fate of eternal sleep in a landfill somewhere.  Frances told us we had two hours to create a piece of jewelry to wear to dinner.  Oh my!  The pressure!!  I'm one of the least "craft-y" people I know, so couldn't imagine what I'd come up with...but then it turns out we ALL felt like we weren't crafty. 

With just 2 hours, and loads of possibilities, we scrambled to look through the available raw materials.  I spied some false eyelashes right off the bat, so decided to make a face and started rummaging through more bins and boxes, looking for materials for nose, eyes, hair, etc. I swear, it felt just like we were on Project Runway, racing through Mood, looking for material.  Half way through our adventure, I fully expected Tim Gunn to come in, scowl concernedly at my piece, and tell me to "Make it work!"

In the end, I made a goofy "necklace" that everyone else said was a self-portrait.  Anne Flood made a wonderful necklace that was loaded with touching personal meaning, Denise made a lovely, refined piece that the staff of TinkerTopia was most impressed with, and Frances went right to town with her usual easy-going efficiency and made a real, honest to goodness necklace from utterly unexpected and in-congruent materials.  Oh, and we also made a mess we didn't have to clean up, which was pretty cool, too.

Great fun with great friends, followed by a great meal.  Hope you all get a chance to play with fellow artists now and again, too!