First Friday in Fredericksburg

A few posts back I was whining about taging and labeling my wares to take for sale at the Emporium at Liberty Town in Fredericksburg. Our local Queen of display, Susan, worked her magic on prepping the gallery for First Friday. This time she grouped each contributing artist's work all together rather grouping the pieces by color. This was a big change and it seems that the customers have reacted really well to the change!!! I was shocked to learn that my work had been displayed in the inside corner of the gallery and was really making a statement. I got three very excited e-mails asking whether I had seen the Emporium yet!!

Well I got down to the "Burg" on First Friday. (first Friday of each month is Opening Night at all of the Galleries in town- a wonderful experience).

It seems that several Snow People have found homes as well as some Jewelry Tuffetts and Ornaments! (click on the pics for bigger shots!)

I realize after seeinf all of my work in one spot, just how much work I have produced lately!! And this does not take into account the work that I have done for gifts, swaps and my Etsy Shop!! It is amazing how one can think that they are spinning ones wheels despite all of the work that is being turned out!!!
The gift of perspective is an amazing gift!! Thanks to Susan and all of the folks at the Emporium at Liberty Town!!!

Leslie Brier Creates Christmas Magic!

I must introduce you to the wonderfully talented Assemblage and Mixed Media Artist Leslie Brier!! Her wonderful work is gracing the window at University Cafe on William's Street in Old Town Fredericksburg for the month of December.

Leslie is a bargain hunter and THrift store shopping queen! Each of her assemblages is created using all sorts of wonderful bits and pieces, everything from old travel irons, parts of cheese graters and vintage seed spreaders. She has a special love for vintage composite Baby Dolls that she ressurects and honors as the focal points of her wonderfully whimsical constructions. You must click on the pictures to enarge them to see all of the wonderful details.

The cental Assemblage in the above picture was created from a body of a vintage Electrolux vaccum!!

Here "To THe REscue" is created using a roller skate, cheese grater parts, and verious metal bits. Did you see the little dalmation puppy safely tucked in behind the driver???? Marvelous!!! ISn't it?????

Here is a link to Leslie's art blog so you can visit and see more of her work and follow her as she continues her hunt for vintage assemblage treasure! Be sure to leave her a quick "Hello" when you stop in, so she knows that she has had visitors!!!

We are so lucky to have a wonderuflly vibrant and evolving artistic community in Fredericksburg and I know that we will all be seeing alot more of Leslie's wonderful work!!!

Holiday Shopping Time!!

I have just added more of my Collage Bird Ornaments and Hand Painted Tree Sculptures to my Etsy Shop. Each piece is a unique individual and can be enjoyed all year round! Add some art to your Holiday Celebrations!!

Fabric/Paper Collage Bird in a PEar Tree!

Gather your Holiday gifts at ETSY and buy handmade!!!

And the Mice Rescued My Day!!!

Saturday was the deadline. This was the status of ONE of my work tables after a very late night on Friday. Here I was at the worst part of the job- the labeling, tagging and pricing. How is it that I always forget how very long this part of the process drags on..and on...and ON!!!! I hate this part, I need elves!!!

By 2:30, I was on my way to Liberty Town in fredericksburg for the drop off. I still had to enter all of my wares into the log in book and assign matching numbers to each piece. The bottom line- I was not yet done!

Here are some shots of some of the items that I took for sale.

I recently came up with the idea to use scraps of my fabric paper to create some simple bird pins. They are very light weight and are sealed with many coats of laquer. I hope that people like them. I think that they would make a perfect little gift or even a stocking stuffer.

I modified my basic purse design to include a hand stitched fabric gusset. This makes the purse more usable and versatile. We will see what shoppers think!

I also made three more Pincushions which I am now calling Jewelry Tuffets. They make great pin cushions of course, but they are also wonderful for holding pierced earrings and pins, on ones bureau. I have a large one that holds many of my earrings.

By 4:30 pm I was finally doen and on my way home, heading north on Caroline Street through Old Towne Fredericksburg. When what to my wondering eyes should appear... but the return of the Whittingham MICE!!!!!! Now what, you might ask are the Whittingham Mice and WHY were you so excited??? I will tell you, of course.

Whittingham's is a wonderful Kitchen shoppe/Decor store in Old Towne. Last Christams they had a wonderful window display that was filled with hand felted mice involved in all sorts of kitchen antics. I did not hear about the windows till close to the New Year, so by the time I went down to check them out, the windows had been changed. I have been hoping that the mice would make a command performance and there they were!!

As I drove by, I looked quickly at the window and caught a glimpse of a Christmas scene surrounded by lots of people standing and looking. The MICE HAD RETURNED!!!!!And yes! There ahead of me on the correct side of the road (one way street) there was a parking place with MY name on it!! I dove into the space, grabbed my camera , purse and car keys and I was off to see the Whittingham Mice for my self , for the first time. Needless to say, I took many pictures. I even got down on my knees on the cold brick sidewalk to take shots and then wondered how silly I would look trying to get up off of my knees in the cold!

Well, I did manage to get up without causing too much of a scene and I did get some great pictures. If you live anywhere near Fredericksburg you really must come down to Caroline strret to Whittinghmas to see these marvelous windows. A local artist (I will investigate their name and update here soon) hand felted each wonderful little mouse.

Hence the title for this post! The mice really did top off a long and somewhat tiresome day with a wonderful jolt of Christmas cheer and joy!! One can find wonderful surprises everywhere if you are just willing to slow down and look!!!

Enough chatter! Enjoy the wonderful Whittingham Mice!

Aren't these mice wonderful!!??!

Sorry about the glare on some of these shots!! Plate glass windows and flash attachments often don't play well together!!

I hope that you all have a wonderful and fulfilling week!!

The JOY of Creating With Children

Yesterday I spent a wonderfully creative and giigly afternoon with my new little friend Julia! Julia came to Liberty Town Artists Studio's to take a class from me called Snow People Sculptures. For this class I was very lucky to have Julia as my only student and we had such fun together!
This project was first described in the December 08 issue of Cloth Paper Scissors magazine. Since that publication I have made many modifications to make this project my own. I save bottles and jars throughout the year and scour Thrift stores and Flea Markets in search of interesting b its of stuff and whatn ot to repurpose into accoutrments for the Snow People.
We fashioned heads from foil balss covered in clay and added polymer clay carrot noses (that I had created ahead of time), smeared on lots of glue and sprinkled lots of glitter. We filled our snow people with sparkly sequins and lustrous pearls that we gathered from discarded jewelry. We added old buttons and silver beads and cut letters from old books to spell wintery names for our Snow People. (Julia didn't realize that she would be having a spelling lesson along with her creative project!)

Julia dug through my box of bits and jewelry to find wonderful "hats" for her jolly snow people. For Twinkle, on the left she choose a vintage black button with a sparkling rhinestone jewel in the center and added a sprig of silvery eucalyptus to finish the elegant look. Then she create d a wonderful pearl and jingle bell necklace and wound a silvery scarf around Twinkles neck. To complete Storm's look, Julia decided that the top of an old salt shaker would be the perfect hat with an added red berry pom pom. Coppery garland held in place with a dashing scrapbooking brad completed the outfit!
Isn't this stylish couple delightful!!?!!? I was very impressed with Julia's creative and adventurous spirit and her" What if ...."artistic attitude!!
We had a bit of time left over to create one more Snow Person. "Icicle" had her name spelled out using letters from a reclaimed vintage book. Julia also decided that a colorful scarf repurposed from a discarded cotton sweater, would be the perfect touch to complement the vintage white and rhinestone encrusted button hat that Icicle shows off.

We had amarvelous fun even when we were struggling to get the pesky glue out of the bottle and chasing tiny letters flying pearls and runaway sequins around the work table!

Hopefully, next year , I will have more parents sign up with their children, so we can all experience one of the true joys of the season, creating magical moments with creative kids!!!

A FABULOUS Mail Day !!!!!!

Well it all started on Wednesday at about noon. Tom was just home from his trip to Florida, where he had been teaching for the Coast Guard. He walked in the door with the days mail. I asked if there was any mail for me, fully expecting his answer to be: No, just junk. Instead he said You got two things." HTe first was a lab report from the Dr.- big deal. But the second was The New Issue of Art Quilting Studio Magazine!!!!!
As soon as I saw what it was I started jumping up and down and hooting and hollering. Tom just stood there thinking ,"Well this is it, She has Finally lost it."
Do you know what it means when you get an advance copy of a magazine??? I am sure that many of you do as many of you have also been published. It means that some of your very own work has been published in that issue!!! I had almost completely forgotten what this piece looked like as I has submitted it back in January!!!!
Well here it is!!!

( A right click on all photos will give you a close up view!)

This piece is approximately 9 inches wide and 14 inches long and fits nicely in the middle of a door. I began by sunprinting some of my garden flowers ( Brown Eyed Susan's )and grasses onto a piece of cotton and then stitched around the bleached areas. (all except the images left by the dill seed head and the dill weed foliage. I beaded the seed head with sparkly silver beads and just left the foliage as is.)

After stitching I painted the flowers and grasses using Twinkling H2O Watercolor paints. I then added beads to the flower centers and in specail places along the grasses. I did the border with sari silk ribbon that I stitched around the center using Toho Matte finish seed beads.

I am thrilled with the job that the folks at Stampington did with my piece! It got a page of It's very Own. Getting a piece published is so much more awesome than selling work, not that I don't really appreciate when people like my work enough to spend money for it. But there is something really inspiring and UBER VALIDATING about getting work published!!!

This second issue of this new Magazine is wonderful and I strongly reccommend that all interested in Art Quilts check it out!!!!

An Amazing Gift

I wish that I could say that I had taken this picture, but I DID not! This is what I saw flying directly at, and slightly above, the windshield of my minivan yesterday morning as I drove along the back roads of Virginia!!! We were in Stafford Conty on our way to Dulles Airport ( going the "back way", I will do just about anything to avoid driving on I-95 ) to get my Mom to her plane home after a lovely visit with her grandchildren and granddoggies. It was about 8 am and I noticed,, out of the corner of my eye some movement ahead on the left of the car. Then some Turkey Buzzards took to the air and I figured that there was probably a dead animal off to the side of the road. As soon as this registered, I saw a huge bird flying right at my car. He had a beautiful white head and a golden yellow beek and he was looking right at me. It was a Bald Eagle!! The first that I have ever seen in the wild. What a thrill.!!!! What an incredibly beautiful bird!!! I did have my camera with me, as always, but I could hardly take a picture as I was driving.!! Instantly he adjusted his flight path and sailed up and over the top of the van and I was left almost hyperventilating with excitement.

Recently I had heard that there were several hundred Bald Eagle Nests counted along the Chesapeake Bay from Maryland to Virginia and down to North Carolina. I can remember a time, not long ago, when we were not sure whether we could bring the Bald Eagle back form the brink of extinction. Seeing this magnificant bird living and thriving in my rural, suburban part of Virginia gives me incredible hope that we can indeed help our planet recover form the ravages that we humans have subjected it to!!

Please take this opportunity to call your Congress People and Senators and implore them to support the Energy Bill that will soon be coming to the floor in Congress. This is not a partisan issue it is a PLANET ISSUE!!!