Workshop with Jill K. Berry at Whispering Woodlands

This past May I had the wonderful opportunity to participate in a workshop taught by Jill K. Berry at Whispering Woodlands. This time instead of teaching at Whispering Woodlands I was able to be the student.

This is how I first met Jill.
I had hosted several fatbook exchanges through a yahoo group. As I was looking through all the fatbooks for artists to invite, to contribute to my book, I was consistently impressed with the art of Jill K. Berry. So I asked Jill if she would be willing to be a contributing artist. The challenging part was developing the ideas while asking the artists to create them without being able to look at the book :) Jill was an active, enthusiastic, and prompt member of the group of contributing artists. Her work is a beautiful, inspiring addition to my book! In addition, it is constructed well and finished looking on all sides (something the viewers of my book aren't priviledged to).

I also knew that she was an art instructor. So when I was planning my first RAEvN's Nest Art Retreat for 2008, she was a teacher that I was interested in and to my good fortune she agreed to teach! I had not taken a class from her previously but in working with her I was confident she would do an excellent job. And she did! I received rave reviews from her students!

Jill's class "Painted Storybooks" is actually the first class that I have had the privilege to participate in as a student. I had no doubt that she would be a good teacher and that I would like the class. What I was blown away by was her beautiful painted pages. Pictures just do not do them justice. They don't capture the depth and subtleties that can only be viewed in person. Not only are the papers beautiful to look at but after layer upon layer of acrylic paint they still are soft and flexible - they still feel like paper. As many of you know, once you apply several layers of acrylic paint to a surface you are limited to the media that you can write on top with. This isn't the case with Jill's technique. These papers are especially ideal for calligraphy or to journal on.

Jill sharing one of her great stories :D

Some of our papers hanging out to dry. We added more layers to some of them later in the workshop.

Jill also taught us how to make several amazing book structures from the papers that we made. In the above posts are some of mine.

If you happen to ever have the chance to take a class from Jill I would highly recommend her. It just so happens Jill will be teaching the following classes at RAEvN's Nest Art Retreat October 23 & 24, 2009 :)

The Visual Journey, Inside and Out

Make a Scene

5 Books in One Day: Chapter 2