'100 percent fun': Howell's newest center for all things crafty
HOWELL — The Art Learning Center and Gallery of Pinckney is expanding to Howell, and it's bringing along mi Craft House for the ride.
The organizations will operate under one roof, helping locals get in touch with their creative side through drawing, painting and crafting.
An official ribbon cutting with the Howell Area Chamber of Commerce is slated for 4:30-8 p.m. Wednesday, Aug. 9, at 516 E. Grand River Ave.
Cindy Mitchell and Victor Bertl opened the Art Learning Center and Gallery in Pinckney at 123 Pearl St. just before the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. The shop focuses primarily on providing art classes for children.
Meanwhile, Carole Paison, owner of Mi Craft House, taught the art of felting, basket waving and egg decorating to adults in the evenings. Now, she'll operate under the same roof as Mitchell, teaching teens and adults alike in Howell.
Mitchell is an oil artist. She specializes in fundamental drawing and will also teach watercolor, acrylic, pastel and more.
"It's really hard to find a mentor that teaches you those fundamentals, so that's why I want people to know we're here," she said.
Paison is a local fiber artist. Her mother was a potter. In 2001, she retired as a project manager in multimedia.
"Luckily, I had a great husband who said, 'Yes, Carole, you can make a homestead and get goats and alpacas.' We got all those animals, we adopted a child," Paison said. "I dove heavily into the fiber arts and started taking workshops around the country, learning everything I could about weaving and knitting."
Her specialty is utilitarian-type crafts.
"Things you can actually use for something," she said.
She'll offer classes on leather flowers, tufted rugs, felt trivets, dot mandala candle holders, landscape art, mini diffusers and more. She'll also teach classes about Ukrainian egg decorating, basketry and needlework.
"I opened this to have fun and meet people and provide something to them that's 100 percent fun-driven," Paison said. "I'm also excited to show people they can make things without being crafty and still have fun doing it."
The building on Grand River also features an art gallery with local works. Dawn Purcell of Purcell Music Studios will offer half-hour music lessons to high schoolers.
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For more information about classes and hours, visit micrafthouse.com and art-learning-center.com.
"It just seems like such positive feedback from everybody," Mitchell said. "They're so excited."
— Contact reporter Patricia Alvord at palvord@livingstondaily.com.
This article originally appeared on Livingston Daily: '100 percent fun': Howell's newest center for all things crafty
