Artful Adventures

Rings & Things Strikes Again!

For months now, our calendar has had the innocent enough looking words "bead tour" written on yesterday's date.  But let me tell you, everytime I saw those words, my heart raced a bit, a little smile crept over my face, and then I'd count the days.  This event, put on by Rings & Things, hits Green Bay in September & then again in the spring.  Gary & I met Amanda & her Mom there, and we had a friend, Julie meet us there.  Julie & Amanda's Mom were BSV's (bird show virgins), a little term I just made up-they're the ones with the biggest smiles and normally you hear the word "overwhelming" coming from them, all good things!  This event runs so smoothly, that I'm always amazed.  After working retail my entire life, I know all too well that it's not always easy to be calm, cool, and collected in a room full of women all shopping with enthusiasm.  In fact, last year when we checked out, it just happened that the lines were particularly long at that time, and yet, the gentleman that checked us out actually chased us down out in the parking lot to make sure that we had gotten our coupon for free shipping on our next order. THAT'S service!  Now the fun begins, pricing & putting the beads to bed (almost done), where they'll patiently wait for me to create something with them.  But they won't wait long-tomorrow morning it begins:)  Oh one more thing, after we got in the car to leave, Gary mentioned the tray of beads that he was carrying around, which I just assumd he wanted since he's played around a little with making jewelry and wants to do more.  Turns out, he claims they were beads he thought I might like and I was supposed to go through them and choose what I wanted, not just buy them-whoops:)  Personally, I think he really wanted them all along, he's not THAT easy when it comes to spending money!  If you hear of a Rings & Things show coming your way-go!  If not, you can always shop their website, you won't be disappointed either way.

More Show Report

Several of you have asked for more of what's become known as "the Show Report", so here goes:)  The show runs until Aug. 22, at Off the Wheel Pottery in Egg Harbor, up in Door County.  The gallery itself is one end of an old barn that's been converted for gallery use, but not in the traditional sense of the word.  There's this one white wall that's been installed to section off the gallery space from the rest of the barn.  The other walls are still the old barn boards, complete with the open spaces between the barnboards that let the natural light come streaming in.  I was in such a panic getting ready, that I remembered that wall being endless, and was worried I'd never have enough to fill it, and actually ended up bringing too much!  Bet that'll never happen again:) 

When you walk in the door to the gallery, "The Girls" are straight ahead, front & center!  Those are each 2'x3' , just to give you an idea of the size of the walls, and they're hung quite high  with displays of Renee's pottery beneath them-worked out perfectly. 

It's hard to see on here, but Gary built a jewelry display case that's hanging just to the left of the door.  He made it out of an old window that he hinged for the front and built a box type structure on the back to attach it to.  Not the best description, but you get the idea.  There's more jewelry in Renee's studio, and if you happen to get up there, make sure to go into her studio to see her work-you'll fall in love with it. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Besides wall art & jewelry (now why is this text all underlined?) I brought along some journals that I made out of the pages of nature prints that I did last year after reading LK Ludwig's book, Mixed Media Nature Journals.  If you don't already own this book, treat yourself and get a copy, it's a great one!  No blank white pages in these books-these 6"x12" books are loaded with color & various leaf prints from foliage around the yard.  Time consuming, but well worth it!  Try it, you'll be hooked!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Back to the opening (and apparently the underling is here to stay also!) it went just fine!  A steady flow of people that were all so nice, and I was a nervous wreck for no reason! I knew I had done work that I felt good about, so it was all fine, really.  Funny part though, I had ordered some clothes to wear from Oh My Guaze, wanting something to wear that was a little funkier.  I waited til the last minute to order, and as a result I got them at the last minute-just a few hours before we left for the show!  Someone was looking over me on that one-they fit, were comfortable, and was just the look that I wanted-whew!  There's actually more to this story about the show and how it all came about, but that'll be for another day.  Starting tomorrow there's another blog event you won't want to miss out on!  Seth Apter of The Altered Page is hosting an event that he's calling Buried Treasure.  All participants are asked to repost at least one of their favorite posts from their blogs, a way for bloggers to get to know each other better, and read something special in the process.  Something you won't want to miss!  Since I'll be participating, I'll see you all tomorrow!

Beads, Beads, and more Beads!

 

It's that time!  Time for the folks at Rings & Things to hit town with their bead show!  They're here twice a year and it's an event you don't want to miss.  It's such a well run event, the staff keeps smiling ( hey Dave!) even with a roomfull of women with glazed over eyes, grabbing & fondling strand after strand of beads, occasionally hauling out a calculator to see how bad it is, others just heaping tray after tray of beads.  My rule of thumb is if I can't fit it on one tray it can't come home with me.  But then I do that with drying dishes too, and it's amazing how well you can learn to stack 'em up:)   

They're the ones that got me started on trade beads, and I love them!  Last year that was the first table I headed for and the last one on my way out the door, just to make sure I didn't miss something.  But like I said, they only come to town twice a year, so if a trade bead fix is needed in between, you can either order from them (quick delivery!) or head over to my other favorite place for those special kind of beads, Africa Direct to make sure you're getting everything you need, including good service.  You could spend days on that site & not see everything, it's crazy-actually I'm the crazy one because I've tried!  Once again nice folks to deal with, I swear bead people are the nicest lot of vendors to deal with.     

But the real danger (for the wallet) is my favorite local bead shop, The Mother Bead.  She has, hands down, the best pearls, all the time.  But she also has a ton of other stones to choose from, as well as a lot of jewelry made up to show what can be done and to show what's being taught.  And once again, a super friendly staff to work with.  If I lived right in town, I'd have to get a job to support my habit!  See those chunky purple stones in the middle of the above picture?  They're amethyst, but big and rough cut, very organic looking and they're going to be a lot of fun to work with.  That's the other thing I like about shopping there, I always find something that I've never seen before and finding something outside the norm is always more interesting, don't you think? 

Considering that this is only part of one wall, it's hard to hold back & not break the bank.  Can't be doing that everytime I walk in there, or I'll be banned from the place-by Gary!  The funny thing is, he's getting as bad as I am about beads-hard to believe, but true. 

Don't you just love this necklace?  I'm hoping that it's a class that they're teaching so I can go learn how to do that.  Tara, the owner, was wearing one like this that she had made, and it was fabulous!  I've never learned anything about stringing at all, and now I think it's time.  There's a lot of news to catch up on from this past week or more, so keep checking back this week.  I finally have a lot to chat about and show you! 

Class with Misty Mawn

Being a little on the shy & quiet side at first, it was tough getting a photo of Misty, but here she is!  This was her first time at Valley Ridge, as was over half the class this time around, a bunch of "Valley Ridge virgins" with a smattering of old timers made for a great class!  Having never met her before, I was not disappointed one little bit!  She's sweet, talented, knows her technique & products well, and shared much more information than I had hoped for.  You just can't ask for more than that out of a class.

Both days she spent a good amount of time demonstrating the endless ways to build up layers & texture for a background, most of which I didn't have time to try out yet-it was mind boggling and she made it all look so easy. 

Time passed so quickly as we all gathered around the table, watching her work her magic.  And it really was magical as we watched her hands literally fly, as our jaws dropped at the many tricks she had up her sleeve, and the dramatic results that she achieved in no time at all.  Practice, practice, practice-you can tell that she has and that it's paid off, as the process seemed so natural to her.

I'm really not kidding about her hands flying around while she works, I had to switch the camera setting to running man so the photos wouldn't blur!  On the second day, she showed us how to draw faces and paint them, I was about jumping up & down, if I could:)  For some reason I assumed the class would be all backgrounds & collage, so I was thrilled.  As much as I love drawing & painting faces, being self taught, I always wondered how I could improve, and there's always room for improvement!  She had great advice & tips that I won't forget and will practice-my goal is to practice those tips daily and I'm going to make every attempt to do just that.   

We were to think seasons while we did our paintings, both in color & subject matter.  These sheets are just the beginning, there's a lot more layers to be added yet, but I decided to show them anyway.  It'll be interesting to see how they evolve. 

Again, much more work is needed on these, but I'm pleased with the beginnings.  Misty did help on the face by drawing in the ears and helping me get a more realistic nose than I had.  She was so helpful, I just can't thank her enough!  The goal is to get unpacked & reorganized in the studio today and then go at these again, using more of her tips & tricks, but still making it my own.  I'll keep you posted as I progess through them, you all will be my accountability factor to finish these 6 pieces! 

Here's Amanda, my traveling partner for this trip, and her first time at Valley Ridge.  The way I rant & rave to everyone about how much I love it there, I'm always a little afraid that newcomers will have unrealistic expectations, but once again, it was proven that I needn't worry about that.  Valley Ridge is everything I've ever said it is and then some, I've never seen anyone less than thrilled with classes there, and I doubt that I ever will.  If you want to see for yourself, meet me there for Katie Kendrick's class in Sept, it's going to be another great one!

After lunch one day, we were going to take a photo of all of our hands full of paint.  But because it was after we ate, our hands were too clean so it was decided to take a foot photo instead.  Who knows why, but it was fun:)  See that's the thing there, you can pretty much do what you want & always have fun doing it.  Like this group shot-someone had the idea to have all of us line up underneath the clothesline & hook our shirts to the clothespins for the group shot-and that's just what we did:)

Once again, another perfect couple of days spent at Valley Ridge, and being with the talented Misty Mawn just made it even better.  Thanks for everything, Misty!  Oh, and yesterday, I left you with this image:

This is what happens to your shirt, supplies, and everything around you when you drop a huge jar of gesso straight down on the floor!  I picked the jar up by the lid to set down on the floor beside me, turns out the lid wasn't on tight and it came off in my hand.  Next thing I know, I'm holding a lid in my hand and have gesso dripping off my clothes, the table, chair, supply bags, and puddles all over the floor.  Honestly, for a second there I had no idea what had happened, what a mess!  It all got cleaned up quickly, thanks to everyone pitching in, including Misty, and I'm even allowed back on the premises-lol!  I'll bring raincoats next time around for anyone that dares to sit next to me:)

IsAbel's sketchbooks

Within the pages of this stack of 13 sketchbooks, lie a small fraction of the ideas of Door County artist IsAbel Beaudoin.  I've blogged about IsAbel before, here, here, and here, and here I go again:)  Last week we met with Lucy Roske, IAsbel's agent, and Debra Rosenthal, curator of the Miller Art Museum in Sturgeon Bay, so that we could look at IsAbel's sketchbooks.  When I asked Lucy last summer if she had any, and if they would ever be for sale, I had no idea what a treat we'd be in for.  When she walked in with this huge box full of sketchbooks, I almost fell over!  But before we dug in (well, we did quick peek at a couple) we all walked down the block to have lunch at The Red Room, and had some darn good burgers and even better conversation.  Lucy & Debra were so much fun, we laughed a lot, exchanged stories, learned more about IsAbel, it was all good!  Then on back down to the office, where we sat down with this box of books & started going through them-art overload is the best I can come up with to describe the experience.  The sketchbooks spanned about 40 plus years, seeing how she tried out ideas, reading her notes, seeing little sketches, some full pages, some painted, some with india ink, all wonderful!  And we even found her preliminary sketches of a piece that we own, now how cool is that!  Here's a couple of pictures showing a little of this treasure we brought home, if you want to see more, you'll just have to make a road trip:)  We're going back up after the holidays to look at the rest of them, it was truly more than we could digest in a couple of hours. 

This woman, IsAbel, is 86 years old and still painting, how many of us truly have that kind of passion about anything in life, the kind where you can't wait to get up in the morning and get to it?    

Watch Shan paint!

Despite the TV blasting that there was a tornado watch here all day yesterday (who ever heard of such goofy weather in WI in October?) we spent the better part of the day & night running around.  Going backwards, we ended the day by going into Green Bay to Weathered Goods for gallery night to get a chance to see Shan work her magic with her oil paints, seeing her work in person is amazing!  The thistle that she's painting in the picture looked so gorgeous, can't wait to see it when it's finished.  Earlier in the day, we were bead shopping.  Recently I ordered beads online, and decided that I'm much better off seeing them in person before I buy-live & learn:)  We hit one shop in Sturgeon Bay and another one in Luxemburg, a brand spanking new shop.  They converted a church into the shop and are calling it Rocks of Ages.  I met the owner, and we visited for a bit-very nice woman who grew up in a family owned jewelry business-which explains how she's done such a great job with her inventory already.  Looks like a place that I'll be spending a lot of time at, and less than 10 minutes from home-that just doesn't happen out here in the sticks!  And tomorrow I get to continue with the dreaded rummage sale, hopefully we'll get more people this time around.  I'll be doing it myself this time, Gary will be gone for the day helping Jessie & Michelle move into the home they just closed on this afternoon-an exciting time for them!  So I'm cooking a pot of chili at the moment, to have Gary bring with him tomorrow to feed the moving crowd.  Once we get through this week end, I can go lock myself up in my studio & get cracking, it's time!

Weekend off to a Great Start!

So far, this has been a GREAT art filled week end!  It started with a couple of long overdue phone chats with my friend Geri while she was driving to Valley Ridge to attend a 3 day class taught by Nina .  Geri makes the most wonderful handmade books, that you fall in love with as soon as you handle them, and is a polymer clay master as well.  The way she blends the 2, is pretty amazing!
Yesterday, we drove over to The Flying Pig to see the exhibit that just opened, featuring the most fantastic figures made by Holley Bakich.  It's her reproduction of the individuals that were in sideshows, commonly called "Freaks".  There's actually a movie from 1932 called Freaks (it's in public domain and can be seen by clicking on the link-cool!) that has most of these characters in it.  These dolls that she's made are just so freaking cool (no pun intended!)to see-each on it's own stage, with a colorful banner, and their own story written up.  So now, go back to Holley's link & look at these people-you'll love it:)
Then last night was the benefit concert for ArtBeet , and it was truly magical.  As we sat in the greenspace against and under a grove of cedar trees that were filled with tiny white lights, watching the full moon rise over the tree line to the east, we had the pleasure of listening to a performance by Dorothy Scott , accompanied by the bullfrogs in the pond:) 
As we were leaving the beach yesterday, we heard someone say there was going to be a wedding performed on the water's edge soon, and shortly afterwards we saw the bride go through town on a horse drawn carriage-it looked like a fairy tale!  On that note, since I'm always talking about the beach, here's some photos, everything from Gary rock picking to just random shots to give you an idea of why I like it there.  I have a feeling that the summer's going to fly by way too quickly this year!