Some book forms also make whimsical toys. Learn to construct a Halloween Jacob’s Ladder (with box), smash books that become stars or caterpillars, miniature button books, and more in this enjoyable workshop.
This year, send friends and family bespoke holiday cards. From the decorated envelope to the personalized sentiment, paper crafter Karen Cadogan shares tips and demonstrates techniques for creating simply elegant, unique cards that will become a keepsake long after the season ends.
Paste painting, a surface design technique, uses mark-making tools to manipulate pigmented paste to create beautiful decorative papers. These sheets can be used in books, collage, cards, and more.
Breathe new life into your unfinished or "failed" collages or paintings. Find ways to infuse interest and create a variety of compositions to change the look and feel of your pieces.
Create colorful poinsettias as you learn floral papercraft techniques. At the workshop’s end, leave with the ability to complete two realistic poinsettia shrubs.
Using mini-canvases as the base, decorative embellishments, and photos and other personal mementos, create one-of-a-kind small hanging artworks that can be individualized to fit any occasion for giving.
In this members-only series led by veteran arts educator Roberta Gasbarre, go behind the scenes and into the working lives of some of the most intriguing people from all across the Smithsonian and Washington’s worlds of culture, science, and education. This program features mixed-media artist, Sharon Robinson.
Create four different fancy-fold cards sure to impress the people on your holiday card list! Fancy folds can be intimidating, but this workshop painlessly guides you through the steps. Detailed instructions provide you with everything you need to create future fancy folds on your own.
Showcase your writing or art in a book as unique as you are. Book artist Sushmita Mazumdar guides students as they work with a variety of traditional and nontraditional materials to craft one-of-a kind storybooks.
Create your own story as you learn to upcycle book pages as surfaces for drawing, painting, and collage using gelatin plate prints, textures, photo transfers, drawing, painting, and text redaction.
Students are introduced to the materials, tools, and technologies used in collage and assemblage. They find inspiration in artists who worked in collage including Joseph Cornell, Romare Bearden, and Gertrude Green.
Explore the basis of abstraction by studying color, line, and shape as they relate to composition. Learn to create exciting and innovative works of art, using a series of drawing and painting exercises designed to examine non-traditional ways of handling traditional materials and subject matter.
Collage is an amazingly versatile art form with no limit when it comes to techniques and materials. In this beginner-level course, learn about tools, adhesives, materials, and appropriate bases for supporting a collage.
In an artist-led series designed to provide a tranquil mid-day break, create small but satisfying works of art as a way to hit “pause” and incorporate a bit of creativity into your at-home routines.
Using direct printing and water-based printing inks, create realistic looking schools of fish or a single artistic print simply by inking a whole fish and pressing it to paper.
Spend a day discovering the creative possibilities of the centuries-old encaustic method, which offers rich and luminous color and great compatibility with collage materials.
