Mary Beth Shaw

Journey back to the roots of collage and painting and writing. Feel the gentle influence of the land, taste the flavors, experience the light and energy of this fabulous location and allow it to guide your art. If you look and listen, the roots will grow and sprout a new voice.

Mary Beth is limiting the number of students to keep it very small. One of the things she's learned is the incredible gift of intimacy. "It is a dance really, when one is attempting to earn a living – do I accept a lot of students (ie, more money) or do I keep it small? Well, this time I am keeping it small, very very small."

• Cost: $1,800 – includes lodging, majority of food and class.
• Visit mbshaw.com and mbshaw.blogspot.com to learn more about Mary Beth and her work.
• Contact Mary Beth at mbshaw@mbshaw.com with questions or to reserve a space.

Cheryl Frasca

Beading with Beadventures & Friends

Beadventures owner Cheryl Frasca and Italy Tour Leader Maggie Meister are bringing along several friends to enjoy La Cascade, bead, and simply hang out. The visit has the potential to result in a future Beadventure to France…

• – Session Full –
• Check out Beadventures.com for future plans!

Dayle Doroshow

Capturing Ancient France:
A Mixed Media Journey

In this spirited workshop let's create Artist Journals with your original prints, Jewelry and small medieval artifacts to capture our week in the French countryside. The region is rich with medieval villages, artists, flea markets and fairs, which we will draw on for inspiration, ephemera gathering and our art work.

Start the week making a handmade journal covered with beautiful French fabric and polymer clay elements – an idea collector to capture your inspiration and techniques. New printmaking techniques will be explored – easy, low tech and unique! Next, we'll create Jewelry and small artifacts that tell a story inspired by French medieval village life, the Renaissance court and your imagination.

We will learn a cornucopia of techniques using polymer clay, textiles, handmade prints and flea market treasures to create your ideas – jewelry, artist books, and mixed media collage and assemblage.

We'll spend instructed studio time each day in the lovely and well-equipped studio at La Cascade. Then, each day we'll jump in our cars for adventure and treasure hunting that will inspire our artwork. Field trips include sunflower fields, the nearby monastery En Calcat with its outstanding art bookstore, t he renowned Saturday market in Revel with its visual feast of goodies and treasures for body and soul, the Sunday flea markets and Albi, home to the Toulouse-Lautrec Musee, an awesome cathedral and other delights.

Open studio at night… Exquisite food from our personal chef… New friendships… Art-making… Live and work at La Cascade where time relaxes and creativity flows.

• Cost: $1,900
• Visit www.dayledoroshow.com for more information — and to learn more about Dayle and her work.
• Contact Dayle at dayledoroshow@hotmail.com or 707-962-9419 with questions or to reserve a space.

Nese Pelt & Dayle Doroshow

The Art of Cooking

If you would like to learn how to cook easy, healthy and delicious cuisine, create a handmade journal/recipe and menu book to record your adventures and discover this charming part of France, please accept our invitation to a very special event. For those of you who have been waiting to study cooking with Nese, the chef at La Cascade and Art Heaven, this is finally your chance!

You will reside at La Cascade – a beautifully restored house in the village of Durfort on the River Sor, one hour east of Toulouse. Durfort has been making copper since the Middle Ages, and today there are copper studios, leather, glass and other artists to enjoy. The area is rich with medieval villages, working artists, flea markets and fairs, which we will explore as the week unfolds.

Nese will teach cooking classes in the kitchen at La Cascade. Using the superb organic produce of the region and other specialties, she’ll share her recipes for delicious healthy food. On Saturday, we’ll spend the morning at the renowned Saturday market in Revel (just five minutes away) with its visual feast of goodies and treasures for body and soul. This market has been named one of the 100 most beautiful markets in France. You will have time during the workshop, if you want, to relax and experience gentle Yoga and stretching directed by Nese in her own nearby center, Centre Melisse.

Dayle will guide you in creating a handmade recipe/menu journal to use during the week to record your notes, sketches, and a place to gather mementos and treasures collected on our field trips. She will lead several field trips exploring nearby villages with plenty of time for wonderful photo-ops, including Albi with its astounding cathedral and the newly renovated Toulouse Lautrec Museum, the Sunday flea markets and other adventures connected to the local food & wine artisans of the region.

All activities are optional and you are welcome to relax by the river, work in the studio, join Nese in the kitchen, or explore on your own!

• Price includes
  • 7 nights lodging at La Cascade – double occupancy
  • Cooking classes, studio class, yoga classes, daily field trips and much more!
  • All breakfasts, lunches and dinners except one dinner and one lunch out
  • Many supplies and all ingredients for cooking classes
• For price information, questions and to reserve a spot, contact Michele at teagardentravel@earthlink.net.

Nese (pronounced Nesha) studied sports science and sports medicine at the University de Goethe in Frankfurt Germany. She has taught self-healing techniques at her health center, Centre Melisse, in Soreze France since 1996. She teaches yoga and mind-body awareness in German, French, and English. "We are all magic," says Nese. "We just forget it. Using a variety of techniques, I help you discover your own inner lamp, so you always have a light in your hand to show you the way."

Dayle is a mixed media/polymer clay artist and owner of design studio ZINGARO, Stamp of Distinction. She trained in traditional ceramics in NYC and sold her pottery there. In recent years she has emerged as an innovator in polymer clay and has won numerous awards for her work. She has been featured in several books on polymer clay, alternative photography and collage. Her jewelry, home décor, handmade books, and art dolls can be found at art shows on the West Coast. She teaches extensively throughout the US and enjoys the shared creative experience that happens during class!    www.dayledoroshow.com

Jeff Dever

Jewelry Pas de Deux

This workshop combines two of Jeff’s most sought-after jewelry techniques into one class. The goal of the class is to equip each student with a working knowledge of the techniques to allow them to design and create their own unique works of art.

Miniature Hollowware
The first technique explores making miniature hollowware pieces by constructing original form/molds over which we will fabricate small hollowware pieces with veneers of clay. After curing, the form/molds are removed and pieces reassembled. Next, the pieces are sanded and refined and finish veneer layers are applied and cured one at a time. Finishing techniques and various surface ornamentation options will be demonstrated and applied.

Reinforced Armatures
This technique uses a variety of materials to create strong armatures over which polymer clay is applied, sculpted and cured in multiple stages. When armatures are completed the pieces are sanded and refined and finish veneer layers are applied and cured one at a time. Finishing techniques and various surface ornamentation options will be demonstrated and applied.

When combined, these techniques afford the artist an infinite array of possibilities in polymer clay. While the class will use specific exercises to teach the skills required, this is not a project class and individuality and personal creativity will be encouraged.

While this is an intermediate/advanced class, a limited number of beginners will be admitted with instructor’s approval. Beginners with a history of working with various other media and a comfort level exploring new materials will be the best candidates for this class.

The instructor has explored a wide range of work with these techniques and will show a variety of pieces to illustrate the possibilities. A sampling of work will also be on exhibition during the class and a limited number of pieces available for purchase

If you’re curious, adventurous, enjoy a good time, and are up to a challenge, join us for a Jewelry Pas de Deux.

• Cost: $1,950
• Double occupancy room (seven nights)
• 7 breakfasts / 6 lunches / 6 dinners ... (Lunch and dinner prepared by chef Nese)
• Days filled with class time, open studio plus local excursions.
• Price does not include airfare, shared rental car, or off site meals.
• For more information or to reserve a space, please contact kay@deverdesigns.com.

Ronna Sarvas Weltman

A Happy Week of Creativity

Join Ronna in this adventure in creativity. We will create art using a variety of mediums and techniques. You may want to create art jewelry, you may want to create small vessels or containers, you may want to create and write in a handcrafted journal … or do all of the above. This will be a week of creating and collaboration in which we take our art seriously while never, ever taking ourselves too seriously. Design principals will also be explored, since a better understanding of design makes our art better.

Since our cook, Nese, is a magical, nurturing sprite whose gifts are too profound not to be shared, and food is part of the pleasure of La Cascade, we will also have a couple cooking lessons from her. I don’t know how Nese manages to feed us so abundantly and deliciously and yet we don’t gain a pound, but I look forward to capturing some of that magic to bring back home.

We will also have field trips to local impossibly charming places. Why go to the South of France and not indulge yourself in the magic of the South of France?

For those who feel that the only thing as much fun as creating is shopping for cool things to use creatively, please join me on the optional “Pre-La Cascade Gala Paris Shopping Trip.” We will spend a few days in Paris, going into little out-of-the-way shops to buy this and that ribbon or bead or found object to use as we create our little treasures, and then we will all make our way together to the charming, magical world of La Cascade.

• Cost: $1,900
• Charming double occupancy room (seven nights)
• All meals prepared by chef Nese with fresh local ingredients
• 7 breakfasts / 4 lunches / 7 dinners
• Lots of class time, and open studio when class is not in session
• Delightful local excursions
• Price does not include airfare or shared rental car (approx. $150 per person)
   
• Visit www.ronnasarvasweltman.com for more information — and to learn more about Ronna and her work.
• Contact Ronna at ronnaround@comcast.net with questions or to reserve a space.

Lynne Perrella & Lisa Renner

Moulin Rouge Revisited – Paper & Polymer Pizzazz

Double your pleasure… In France! Two leading mixed-media artists will give you endless ideas for creating elegant layered surfaces, as well as low-tech methods for working with dimensional objects and assemblage. In the sun-dappled unspoiled village of Durfort, we will explore the colors and drama of night life in long-ago Paris. Inspired by the posters and paintings of Toulouse-Lautrec, and his infamous depictions of dazzling colorful cabarets, and equally-theatrical performers; we will explore ideas that are fresh and dramatic. Lautrec was the master of expressive color, bold composition, with a love of text and typography… All of these touchstones provide perfect inspiration as we explore collage, paper clay, stitching, polymer clay and working with found objects, in the well-equipped studio of La Cascade. As a bonus, we will spend a day exploring the recently-renovated Musee du Toulouse-Lautrec in nearby Albi, as we immerse ourselves in the ideas and homeland of this quintessentially-French artist.

Our week will include lots of creature comforts, beginning with the unique décor of La Cascade; with plenty of places to curl up with a sketchbook or journal, cobbled paths to walk, the sunny yellow kitchen, and elegant dining room where we will share meals prepared by our personal chef. An efficient welcoming studio, on the top floor, awaits our art explorations and discoveries; plus there will be time for venturing into the nearby countryside for the lively outdoor market at Revel, as well as the antique book village, Montolieu, spilling over with books, collage material and ephemera.

Lynne and Lisa will guide you through fresh, unique and distinctive ideas that will easily translate into your future work in collage, assemblage, altered books, and mixed media of all kinds. Also, as part of the workshop, you will create theatrical puppet-like figures, incorporating fabric, fibers, paper, found objects – plus, explore sculpting and altering facial features out of either paper clay or polymer clay. We’ve cooked up some fascinating ideas to fill an entire week with lavish bold colors, complex surfaces, and surprisingly-easy ways of creating dramatic, mysterious faux textures. Are you ready for a one-of-a-kind travel and learning experience? – Join us at La Cascade!

• Cost: $2,500
  • $2,500 tuition includes lodgings, instruction, and some-but-not-all meals
• For more information and inspiration about our artwork, visit
  www.lkperrella.com and www.lisarenner.com
• For further details or to reserve a space, contact Lynne Perrella at
  lkperrella@aol.com.

Susan Lenart Kazmer & Jen Cushman

Ruins, Relics and Resin

Take your work to an entirely new level under the guidance of internationally-known Artist, Author and Instructor Susan Lenart Kazmer during an intensive weeklong metalsmithing workshop in the breathtakingly-beautiful Southern French countryside of Durfort, France.

Weekend flea markets and fresh farmer's markets offer the opportunity to discover authentic time-worn objects that students will use to create personalized Talisman jewelry. Innovative techniques originated by Susan will be taught to incorporate non-traditional jewelry materials such as fibers, organic materials and resin into your Talisman pieces. Jen Cushman, a mixed media artist and author of the award-winning book Explore, Create, Resinate; Mixed Media Techniques Using ICE Resin® will be teaching the resin portion of the workshop.

A 20+-year metalworker and mixed-media artist, Susan has always had a passion for found objects. What she does intuitively comes so easily in the French countryside where objects infused with a patina of time are commonly found and cherished. Students will learn how to re-purpose objects into something new and extraordinary while still allowing these objects to carry the magnitude of energy within them from previous lives that can be seen, felt and touched. In this intimate workshop, Susan teaches the best of her techniques that have garnered her many accolades over the years, such as bezel settings, enameling, prong and tab settings, hollow forms, Talisman and resin casting.

Each day begins after a breakfast crafted by Nese, an amazing French chef whose healthy-and-flavorful cooking gives nourishment to the body for a full day of discovery in class. Lunch is served on the terrace, and a gourmet dinner with candlelight and local wines of the region is served family style with much laughter and friendship taking place.

For those who are obsessed with their creativity, the workshop is open 24 hours a day. There is plenty of time for wandering the local flea markets and darling shops, because what would a French adventure be if it didn't include immersion in the local customs? Not to be missed is the renowned Saturday market in Revel ( just 5 minutes away) which is a visual feast. The memory of this market is something you will treasure always.

Paris 9/28–10/1 with travel day being 10/1 ...
Though it's not included in the workshop itself, Susan and Jen will be spending time in Paris the weekend before the event to gather vintage materials at the world-renowned Parisian Flea markets. Students are encouraged to join us in our adventures of shopping and dining before arriving in Durfort. Recommended Paris Hotel accommodation and activities will be included in trip information.

• Cost: $3,200
• Price includes:
  • Week's lodging at La Cascade – double occupancy
  • All breakfasts, lunches, & dinners
  • Workshop instruction and studio time
  • Some materials such as ICE Resin, wire, etc.
• Learn more about Susan at www.susanlenartkazmer.net, as well as Jen Cushman at www.jencushman.com,
• For more information or to register, contact Susan & Jen at iceresin@ymail.com.