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Tag: things to do in Helena Montana

October Window Exhibit Featured Artists

In the small street-facing gallery window this month is a two-person show by Caroline Davis and Sandi Bransford, both from the Puget Sound in Washington state. Davis brings considerable skill and creativity to her metalsmithing, creating elegant yet affordable and unique jewelry. Bransford uses ceramic, natural objects, paints and patinas to achieve her organic textural figures. Read more about these two artists and see their new work. See something you like while you're strolling by at 11pm or before downtown wakes up? Just scan the QR code in the window and grab it before it's gone!

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Two-Day Hand Bookbinding Workshop

Learn Two Techniques of Book Binding in Two Days

Instructors Robin Leenhouts and Amanda Determan will Lead this Two-Day Workshop, Aug 27 – 28, $280 includes all materials, limited to 6 participants

Here’s a great opportunity to learn the centuries-old craft of bookbinding. Make two books you can use to write thoughts, collect quotes, poems or lists. The unlined paper inside can be used for sketching, collage or whatever makes your heart sing. Make one for yourself, and gift the other to someone special. Once you are shown the method, you’ll have no trouble at all setting up your own book-binding space at home.

 

Ready for a relaxing weekend of making artful hardbound books? Bring a friend or meet new friends while learning a new artform

Over the course of the two day session, you will learn the creative process behind two traditional bookbinding styles and leave the class with two handmade books that you bound yourself.  You will also have the opportunity to learn about a number of different bookbinding techniques, with samples available to browse.

Amanda Determan will lead Saturday’s coptic bookbinding lesson, and Robin Leenhouts will lead Sunday’s session on hardcover bookbinding.  Both days will begin at 9 a.m. and end at 4 p.m., with a lunch break.  We’ll supply beverages throughout the day but participants should plan on bringing a lunch or ordering take-out from a downtown cafe.

All supplies needed to complete the books will be provided!  Once registered, you will receive a list of items you may wish to bring to add some extra personalization to your handmade books.

Robin specializes in case bound books: the final product is a traditional hardcover book.  The pages are prepared in signatures (typically 4-8 pieces of paper folded in half, depending on the thickness of paper and desired final thickness of the book) that are stitched together using a “long stitch” technique.  The covers are made of bookboard, a special kind of dense cardboard that is less prone to warping.  Bookbinders wrap case bound books in decorative paper (or sometimes a thin fabric) – Robin often uses prints that Maureen has shared with her from her printmaking studio practice.  Finally, a special bookbinding cloth (typically cotton, linen, or buckram) is used to cover the spine and add extra durability.

Robin’s books are heirloom pieces that deserve their place on the coffee table.  These books would make beautiful journals, photo albums, sketchbooks – the opportunities are endless.

Amanda will introduce participants to coptic bookbinding, which is one of the oldest forms of bookbinding: it was used as early as the second century in Egypt.  Coptic binding begins with signatures, similar to the case bound technique, but features an open spine.  In coptic bookbinding, the covers are also stitched directly to the pages, eliminating the need for glue.  Coptic-bound books can be opened 360 degrees and will lay completely flat at every spread.  Because they have no spine, they are inherently more fragile than traditional hardcover books, but many bookbinders love the coptic form for the decorative opportunities it presents.  With this form, many book elements that are otherwise hidden can be dressed up: the thread that binds it all together can be ornamented with beads or ornate stitching patterns, and the spines of the individual signatures can also be decorated.


The workshop is limited to six participants so our instructors can maximize the opportunity for hands-on interaction with each student. COVID precautions: To make sure workshop participants are as safe as possible, we will be set up with lots of room for each participant. Instructors are vaccinated and boosted and we have excellent air filtration in the classroom as well as fans to create good air flow.

See Details about this Workshop Below the Example Photos

 

DETAILS:

    • Date: August 27 and 28, 2022
    • Time: 9am to 4pm (plan to arrive at 8:45 to settle in with a drink before the workshop starts.)
    • Tuition: $280 includes all supplies
    • Location: 1+1=1 Classroom (rear portion of the gallery)
    • Address: 434 North Last Chance Gulch in Helena Montana
    • We will provide snacks and beverages. Please bring your own lunch or you can get lunch to-go from a downtown cafe´.
    • We have an excellent HEPA air filter and exhaust fans running in the classroom all the time. We also have lots of room for all participants to spread out in the classroom. Our instructors and all gallery staff are fully vaccinated and boosted. If you would be more comfortable, please feel free to bring a face mask.

 

Fabric-Cover Junk Journals with Judy Kline

Junk Journals with Judy Kline: $80, limited to 6 participants, date TBA
READY FOR A RELAXING AFTERNOON OF MAKING ART IN A SMALL GROUP of CREATIVES LIKE YOU?
Well, we have just the thing for you! At the end of this one-day workshop you will have a fabulous fabric-covered junk journal with lots of pages and pockets to write thoughts, collect quotes, poems or lists and loads of unlined papers for sketching. Make one for yourself, or to gift to someone special.

Using junk mail and other materials from our instructor and things you may have lying around the house you can make a completely unique and somewhat quirky junk journal. Judy Kline’s style of junk journals have ties to hold everything together – and truly, by the time you’ve filled your journal you’ll be happy to have the tie!

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Large Window Exhibit in September: All Clay

Helena is a ceramic town, anchored by the Archie Bray and augmented by art galleries and the Holter. We offer some of the most unique, creative pottery and ceramic sculpture in Helena through 1+1=1 Gallery exhibitions. We strive to show a mix of affordable clay by emerging artists and collector's ceramics by more experienced potters and sculptors. Come see what we have! Featuring clay art by Susan Mattson, Nancy Goughnour, Carla Potter, Maureen Cole, Trudy Skari, Gregg Edelen, Andrew Rivera, Eliza Weber, Wendy Anderson, Betsey Hurd, Bruce Kitts and others.

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Small Window Exhibit Features Paul Guillemette and Michele Landsaat

In the small street-facing gallery window this month is a two-person show by Paul Guillemette and Michele Landsaat. 

Paul Guillemette uses found objects, repurposed pieces of wood and natural objects he finds near his Los Angeles studio. His fabulous, colorful jewelry is popular in the big cities, and we happen to know it's very popular in Helena Montana! Necklaces, earrings, bracelets rings and cuffs ... there is bound to be the perfect piece of body-decor whether you are a diva who wants to command attention, or more subdued and just like to decorate your ears.

Michele Landsaat has shown in several exhibits at 1+1=1 and we hope know you will be as charmed as we are with her fragile-seeming, delicate etchings illustrating profound stories. Her prints are each pulled from an etching press by hand, and made in very limited editions. Michele comes from a background of bookmaking and writing. The stories she creates speak to an underlying and universal vulnerability, yet they are simultaneously whimsical in nature.

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Dawn Endean and Caroline Davis are Featured Window Artists This Month

Seattle Artists Take Over our Large Gallery Window
What a delightful combination we have displayed in this month's street-facing window exhibit! Caroline Davis' contemporary jewelry and Dawn Endean's monoprint/etchings.

Caroline Davis, a jewelry artist from Seattle, is relatively new to 1+1=1 Gallery. She debuted at the gallery during our 2021 BODY exhibit this spring. So many of our visitors were blown away by her gorgeous designs, we made the decision to continue to carry her work year round. Caroline Davis is otherwise known as "CREO." Her work is contemporary, minimalist, gorgeous and carefully crafted with attention to detail. Come in to try on, or just go for it online!

Dawn Endean has been showing with 1+1=1 for several years and has gained in popularity and collectibility in our Montana market during that time. We are featuring her one-off (monprints) of dogs in relatable situations. (Do you have a dog who tried to take a mile when you give him an inch? Do you have a "Good Dog?"  If you are a dog lover, or a printmaking lover, make sure to check out Dawn Endean's work. We also have several of the artist's tiny collages made from printmaking castoffs (something I myself do often) in small white frames. 

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STORIES: August 21 – Sept 30, 2021

An Exhibit of Four Storytelling Artists' New Works

"When you’re speaking in the truest, most intimate voice about your life, you are speaking with the universal voice." ~ Cheryl Strayed

Please join us on August 21st from 10 to 4, to meet the four Helena artists featured in STORIES. Each of thes artists is a storyteller and an optimist. Each is a magical being who uses narrative in her art, to tell about the human condition through humor, strength, story and beauty. Each speaks through art-making, in a true voice and therefore a universal voice. We invite you to spend time viewing these stories during the exhibit, and hope that you will bring their meaningful ideas into your own lives and homes. 

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LIGHT: July 17 – August 14, 2021

An Exhibit of Four Artists' Expressions of Light
How Do You Respond to Light?

How are we to understand the ephemeral ways in which light behaves, validating all of life? How might an artist pay proper homage to this vast and vital force? With wax and wood and paint and stitches. Light needs to be contained (but not caged.) Light needs context, it needs an outfit in the right size if we are to interact with it in such personal ways. 1+1=1 Gallery has invited four brilliant artists to respond to the theme of "light" and the resulting exhibition is truly profound. Visit the gallery during this luminous show and see new works by Tim Carney, Linda McCray, Pam Sullivan and Erika James.

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Debbie Smith Solo Window Artist This Month

Miles City Family Ranch to Helena Art Gallery: Debbie Smith

We are delighted to introduce the Helena Community to one of our favorite artists, Debbie Smith. Her whimsical mixed-fiber-media sculptures have become so popular we decided to offer her the solo exhibit space in our large front window. Don't miss seeing her lighthearted corvids and "Guardians" in this 24-hours-a-day 7-days-a-week show! Her artwork will continue to be available through our Online Gallery Store for the rest of 2021

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HOME exhibition June 5, 2021

Home, an exhibit of eleven artist's personal sense of place and home

Home is more than a place, it’s an atmosphere. At times, our sense of home is active and on the move, found only in our willingness to pursue the sweet breeze or sudden budburst. These moments of home, those we sometimes seek beyond our familiar walls and windows, are as true as the air is fresh. These rare encounters, when our precious, private inscape aligns with the ever assertive landscape, remind ing us that, in many ways, we are always home- that we each carry within us a golden ticket, an open invitation, a never worn out welcome to the hospitality of the heart.

In this exhibit, we shine the light on several artists who’ve gathered their own materials and traversed the tender territory of home for us to see. You’re invited to step into each piece as if you are an honored guest. Because you are. So please, by all means, make yourself at home.

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