Feeling lucky?

I've been meaning to let you know about this, and now time is limited for you to win! For the month of September only I am showing the Brooktondale Community Center Apple Festival Raffle Quilt (pic attached). The Center provides wonderful services for the Brooktondale rural community, including free giveaways of food, clothing and more. You can help support this work, and maybe get lucky enough to be the winner of this beautiful piece! $1 buys you one chance, $5 buys you 6 chances. It is king size, and made by local quilters. The drawing is October 16, but I'll only have it for you to see for the next couple of weekends. Feeling lucky? Visit the Sink! (You might get lucky in other ways while you're here!--Stop, Oh!I didn't mean it like that!)

ARTIST'S ART GARAGE SALE AT THE SINK tomorrow, Sat, July 24 9am -3pm

Getting ready for the En Plein Air Artist's Art Garage Sale this Saturday by putting up my new 20 x 30' commercial tent to keep off the rain. It will be a wet job unless it stops by the time we get going (scheduled for 2 pm if anyone would like to help!) Dede Hatch sent some pictures of some of the GREAT stuff she's bringing...See? Hopefully the tent will bring those who are sick of slogging around in the mud for the route 90 sales...

Weekend Craft classes forming!

Thursday, April 15 and 22, 6-8pm Needlefelting with Donna Faivre-Roberts. $35 class fee plus $15 materials fee. Work with wool roving and develop needle sculpting skills. Kit fee includes everything you need.
Thursday, April 29, May 6 6:30-8:30 Collage/assemblage with Sandy Yahner. $45 class fee. Make a foam core box, cover, embellish. Bring your own embellishments or rummage through ours.

Thursday, May 27, 6:30-8:30 Kumihimo with Sandy Yahner, $35 class fee. Traditionally used to make lavish silk cords adorning ceremonial Japanese dress, this old technique is finding new uses--make bracelets, bookmarks and more. A variety of fibers and a loom included with class fee.

Sunday, June 20 and 27, 3:30-5:30 Altered Books with Sandy Yahner, $45 class fee. Make a reliquary from a hardcover book using a variety of papers, memorabilia, and found objects. Students will want to bring their own additional embellishments, books, paint, papers, provided.

Workshop!

Oh, ain't we got fun? The Sink's first workshop was led by Sandy Yahner, and it was great! We all felted a cute bag (well, I didn't, there were too many customers). Next Sandy's going to teach us to play with Precious Metal Clay and bring in her kiln to fire our pieces right on the spot so we'll go home with our charms or buttons the same morning! That's March 13, on a Sat., from 9:30 to noon. $!5 class fee plus $15 materials fee, minimum. I guess Sandy gets up early, like I do.

Also, new workshops by Loretta Louviere, collage adventures. Feb 20, 2-4 pm. Bring your own scissors and exacto, materials fee is only $5, class fee is $15.

Donna Faivre-Roberts is doing a needle felted animal sculpture with us on March 6, Sat. from noon-4pm. This is twice as long, so it's $30 with $15 kit fee with everything you need.

Painted Violins show opening a success!

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Introducing Pretty Hen Designs

I've been thinking about my mom a lot since starting my latest project, Pretty Hen Designs. She loved doilies and lace, chintz and flowers. I've been playing with my collection of those things and more: trims and buttons, interesting African fabrics with bold graphics, needlepoint and upholstery fabrics, etc. to create collage clothing pieces that are very modern, but mom mighta kinda liked, just for the originality of design. It's art to wear. It's cheep chic. I love it. It's the kind of thing I've made for myself and worn to great acclaim. I decided that I shouldn't be the only creatively dressed person around, and I'd like some company. Wear basic black or beige if you want for your core pieces, but then throw on one of these jackets or scarves, and you've made a grand statement!

The opportunity to show at the Holiday Spirit Store on the Commons was the impetus to get started, and I sold two jackets on the first full day of business there! That was just Saturday, November 7. The store is open every day through Christmas. So get down to see my stuff before it's gone! There are 20+ other artists and craftspersons there too, with really cool stuff. It's all in the old Plantations site smack in the center, near Petrune, same side. It was a dollar store last. www.holidayspiritstore.com.

Empty Nest

Well, my baby is off to college at SUNY Buffalo, and my oldest is a senior at Skidmore, and I am feeling pretty sad that a long chapter has ended. So as I always do, I work out my grief in art, and it usually makes those feelings into something beautiful and positive. So of course, I made a big empty nest. I've been cleaning out my attic and basement and finding all kinds of things from their childhoods to use in building it. I started with chicken wire and twigs from the backyard where my little ones played, and then I wove in all kinds of flim flam, just as birds find and collect stuff for building materials. I used a zipper from a dress I made my little Zoe, and a hairtie I found in the attic, and a little ripped piece of a hankie my mother wiped their tears with. I found yarn that I had used to knit a sweater for Canaan when he was just a toddler, and so on, mushier and mushier. I cried over it all day for several days, and now I feel a little better! Obviously this nest is personal, so it won't be for sale, but I could make one for someone else, using their personal items! It was fun, and I think I could make nests every day! I will be showing this from Sept. 30 through Nov 1 at the State of the Art Gallery, 120 West State Street, Ithaca. Go to www.soag.org to see the picture. Click on Art Trail show, then Artists. The nest is at the bottom left hand corner. Come see it in person during the month of October there at 120 West State Street, Ithaca. The opening reception is on First Friday, October 2 from 5-8.

I am also showing "Gorgeous Spirit" in the Rude and Bold Women Art Show Friday, Oct 2 6-10pm and Saturday, Oct 3 2-10pm at the Stephen's Square Building, 81 State St, Binghamton. This is an annual show held for just that one weekend, featuring cutting edge women artists from our region. There's always cool performance art too, this time it is "Guerrilla Girls". Check it out at www.rudeandboldwomen.com.