Workshop with Lisa Lichtenfels

Last October I had the distinct privilege of taking a workshop with Lisa Lichtenfels.  I have admired her work for so many years and to be able to take a class from her was a dream come true!  

Her sculptures take months to complete, so she designed a simplified version of her techniques for this workshop.

It was a three day class, in Lisa's studio.  There were four of us in this workshop so there was lots of one-on-one attention.

Even with a simplified version of Lisa's techniques, the class was intense!  Without going into tremendous detail, here are a few pictures of my head in progress.  We began with styrofoam and batting.  Lisa hand painted some glass marbles which we used for eyes.  Here are the backs of the eyes, and the wires which will form the eyelids.

There was a lot of sewing with circular needles....

After the features are formed and covered in batting, the head is covered in nylon and the features are redefined with more circular needle stitching.

And here is my finished head.  One very cool aspect of this is that the eyes remain moveable, so you can position them to look in any direction!

I learned so much and had the best time!  Lisa is an amazing artist - do yourself a favor and check out her website:  http://www.lisalichtenfels.net/

And she is a wonderful, patient teacher as well.  I can't say enough good things about this class!