Jewelry Board

I just finished making this display board for the necklaces I've been working on. After every door knob in the house started getting cluttered with necklaces I decided to do this. It's hard to see from the photo but the wood we used to frame out the fabric has been hand distressed and so has the vintage wooden spools. I really love this.

Hobbit House

I made a cool terrarium today. I couldn't resist adding a little hobbit house.

Yep

The Crafts Report Magazine

Web Version

Favorite Things...

Chicago

Striking a Pose

Box

My super sweet husband spent his day making an enormous shipping crate to house my piece That Which Is Empty May Be Filled, while it travels in the FiberArt International exhibition. First stop...Pittsburgh, PA!

Brother Can You Spare a Stack?

Exciting News:

My handmade book, Alphabet Sonatina was selected for inclusion in an exhibition at the Center for Book Arts in New York called Brother Can You Spare a Stack. My book was traveling with the Sketchbook Project in 2011 and is part of the Brooklyn Art Library's collection. 

This exhibition focuses on experimental libraries and how they contribute to social change or serve a community. The curator, Yulia Tinkonova, visited the Brooklyn Art Library on several recent occasions to browse through the sketchbooks from The Sketchbook Project, and the books were installed this past Wednesday from her final selection. The books are displayed under locked glass museum cases, but visitors will be able to look at the books from the page that they are open to, or appreciate the covers of each book. My name is credited in the museum display.

28 W 27th Street, 3rd floor, New York, NY 10001 212-481-0295 www.centerforbookarts.org

Opening Reception for

The Center for Book Arts' Winter Exhibitions

When:TT Friday, January 18, 2013, 6-8pm  

Where: TT28 W. 27th St., 3rd Floor, New York, NY  

Subway: N/R to 28PP^thPP St, or F to 23PP^rdPP St   

Admission: TTFree

The opening reception for the winter exhibitions at the Center for Book Arts is Friday, January 18 at 6pm. Admission to the Center's galleries is free and open to the public.

Brother, Can You Spare a Stack?

Organized by Yulia Tikhonova,  Brother, Can You Spare a Stack? presents thirteen important socially engaged and performative art projects that adopt, as a model for their interventions, the symbolic and practical role of the Library and the Librarian. Working outside conventional gallery settings, and deeply committed to serving and inspiring local communities, they pursue a shared vision of the Library as a force for social change. Small and mobile, these projects resist the limitations of a controlled, highly organized system that governs our society.

The artists in this exhibit employ their own hands-on craft skills to respond to the current state of the public library system. They design and build from scratch, using the Library as model, to create an interactive field. In these libraries, there is an exchange that goes beyond the conventional checking-in-and-out of books, one that includes conversation, discussion and group activities. Hence, the artists' libraries have been enthusiastically welcomed by communities that have previously lacked these more personal and generous forms of exchange.

The exhibit borrows its title from one of the best-known American songs of the Great Depression. These mobile and interactive projects challenge old-fashioned library stereotypes - calling on them to "lend their stacks" to these alternative models. They insert themselves into the most unexpected situations and spaces, in this case libraries, to propose social and cultural improvement.

The exhibition includes: Arlen Austin and Jason Boughton; Brett Bloom and Bonnie Fortune; Stephen Boyer; BroLab (Rahul Alexander, Jonathan Brand, Adam Brent, Ryan Roa, and Travis LeRoy Southworth); Valentina Curandi and Nathaniel Katz; Finishing School with Christy Thomas; Anna Lise Jensen and Michael Wilson; Jen Kennedy and Liz Linden; The K.I.D.S. with Word Up Collective, Eyelevel BQE, Launchpad, NURTUREart, Weeksville Heritage Center, and individual partners, as well as with Emcee C.M., Master of None;Annabel Other; Reanimation Library; The Sketchbook Project (Leslie Pearson); and Micki Watanabe Spiller. The exhibition will be accompanied by a catalogue.

Gut Spine

Do the Work

Some comments from Krista Harris about her working process, helpful for all of us:

It's a very humbling experience to practice art on a daily basis…to go into your studio alone, to try and create, refine, express, explore, experiment and make sense of something so illusive as an idea, or thought or emotion. Some days, or some moments it works! It seems clear and pure and joyful, then the next it is painful and and unsettling and pure madness.

I think tenacity is critical for artists and probably painful for their friends and family. But there are no substitutes or short-cuts. The willingness and determination to keep at it, day after day, year after year, sometimes to the exclusion of all else is what it demands and deserves. You have to respect the process and put in the time in the studio. You have to just show up and do the work.

Cake Boss

I get the "World's Best Aunt" award for ordering my niece Emily a Cake Boss crumb cake...delicious!

It's Official

Today was my first day of teaching at Brunswick Community College.

Metal etching

Today I experimented with etching on brass bullet casings. I just wanted to see if I could do it so I didn't spend much time on the designs. I used a green permanent marker to draw and ferric chloride to etch. Tomorrow I'll add patina and post some more pics.

Regional Artist Project Grant 2013

I'm so excited to announce that I have been awarded a Regional Artist Project Grant from the NC Arts Council to buy encaustic supplies.  Now for a little online shopping....

Look at all of these awesome color choices from Evans Encaustics.

Kindness

My "one word" for 2013 is KINDNESS.  Seems simple enough but it does have a call to action: in my case it means I'll have to hold my tongue and keep my tempter in check when dealing with...I mean interacting with...I mean developing relationships with other people.  2012's "one word" was Preparation. I put a lot of thought into actioning that word throughout the year.  I thought about it in terms of preparing myself in my work by creating a better website and applying to exhibitions outside of NC.  I thought about preparing my home by helping my husband when we did gardening, canning, stacking wood, and becoming more sustainable. I thought about preparing myself spiritually by starting my mornings with prayer and bible study. I also allowed myself to take a break from the studio if I needed it. 

So this year, it's Kindness. A fruit of the Spirit. A word that will help me become a better person.