A Wonderful Time with Tim Holtz at The Queen's Ink

Hello everyone.  Just wanted to share with you some of the highlights from my trip to The Queen's Ink in Savage, Maryland, where I had the great pleasure of taking four workshop classes with the master, Tim Holtz, and his merry band of helpers.  

And here, Joyce and I are enjoying every moment with Tim.

Joyce Shaver, Tim Holtz, Barbara Rankin

Pictured below are the four class projects.  Of course, I did not finish three of my pieces yet.  Frankly, since I was flying, I was afraid it would all come apart on it's return home.  And as it turned out, I did have to do a bit of re-gluing on what I had finished.  Between the heat and the rough handling, well, thankfully, all has been saved.  

Here is Mario, always working and thinking ahead.  Mario was absolutely wonderful and ever so helpful to me.  He took pity on me and made up a kit for me for one of the classes that I was not able to reserve in advance, and then invited me to sit in on the class.  Boy, was I a happy camper.  

When Tim says you don't need to bring anything to his classes, he means it.  Below is a picture of the table supplies in front of us.  These supplies were placed in front of every four people, and there were duplicates of some of the more useful supplies.  

Below is a picture of one of our table mates, Carol Yeo.  She flew in all the way from Singapore to take Tim's classes.  We three became fast friends and shared information to keep in touch.  I'll bet you cannot guess who won the door prize for traveling the farthest.  It made my trip from Memphis look like a hop, skip, and a jump.  

Left to right: Joyce Shaver, Carol Yeo, Barbara Rankin

 Tim shared many funny stories with us during classes.  One that we three really enjoyed was the story pertaining to the frozen Charlotte dolls.  

Carol Yeo recorded his story and, with permission, I copied her transcript, as follows:

"We sent one of the broken dolls to China to have them molded, to make, and the first prototype that came back, they put arms on the dolls, and they didn't have arms to begin with. And we were like, what happened? Well, you sent us this doll, but the arms must have broken off, and we added the arms back on. I was like, there were no arms in the box, so they didn't break off. Please, leave the arms off. So we send it back, and they make it again, and so we've already paid for the molds the first time, and that was wrong, and now they make it a second time, and now there're no arms, but they decided it would be a good idea to put shoes and socks on the doll, cos it was barefoot! And by now, we've spent so much money, and I'm like, there were no shoes and socks on the doll. But at this time they were like, it's ok, we'll go and try and patch up the shoes and socks on the mold. So the dolls that you have, if you look closely, there are little socks on there, what's left of it, they're like tube socks, so that is the story of the dolls."

The Savage Mill, where classes were held, is a historic cotton mill complex in Savage, Maryland, which has been turned into an indoor mall of shops and restaurants.  The buildings date from 1822 to 1916.  Below is a picture of the ballroom that was large enough to hold all 100 of us.  The lighting was spectacular, and there was plenty of room for everyone.  If you look real closely, you will see Joyce and me sitting up near the front at the table pictured in the foreground. 

I hope you enjoyed my recap of events with Tim Holtz and friends.  It was one of those experiences that one never forgets, and I will certainly remember all of the fun I had and treasure every memorable moment.  

Thanks for stopping by and sharing this wonderful experience with me.  I would like to borrow a quote I saw recently online and share it with you.  

     "You can't use up creativity.  The more you use it, the more you have."

                                                             - Maya Angelou

Have a happy and creative week.  

Barbara