Well, this has been a very busy winter.  I had the great fortune to spend a few weeks in Key West, working in my friend, John Martini’s, studio.  He does this fabulously colorful sculpture which is engineered in a very similar fashion to my jewelry, except on a much grander scale.  This is John’s studio.

John Martini's Studio

Being surrounded by all of the this color and these great forms was really inspiring.  You’ll be able to see that inspiration in my new bird pieces.  Of course the actual birds and flowers of Key West were also pretty inspiring.  I had a couple of near misses with chickens while riding my bike around town which is not something that happens just every day.  I took lots of afternoon breaks at the beach, saw a couple of great sunsets, and thoroughly enjoyed myself.  Now I’m in Philadelphia for the Buyer’s Market of American Craft and next week I will be at the American Craft Show in Baltimore, MD.   I’m looking forward to seeing lot’s of familiar faces at the shows.  It’s going to be a busy couple of weeks!

Blind Bird

Happy Holidays, really, to everyone.

Lately I have seen some folks get all worked up because some of us are saying Happy Holidays instead of Merry Christmas. I have many friends who are not Christian and many who are. Some of my friends are Jewish and some of my friends celebrate the Solstice and some of my friends are Christian. I value each of these people equally and want to respect their traditions. So my wish for all of you as this year ends is that next year will be filled with joy and love and a sense of hope. I’m excited about what next year will bring. I’m trying some new things and I hope they will be well received. As I post images of new work I hope you will comment and let me know what you think. Until then, Happy Holidays!

River Gallery exhibition

one of the pieces that is on it's way to River Gallery

Well, Thanksgiving is over with and I managed to refrain from eating myself sick.  We had a beautiful day here in the mountains and we spent it at our friend, Rob’s, annual Thanksgiving dinner for all of his friends, and this year there were 62 of us.  You have to love a man who can put together a sit down dinner with appropriate stemware for that many people.  We each brought something to share and it was a lovely feast.  In the short time that I have been here in North Carolina I’ve made a lot of friends and many were at the celebration along with a few new faces.  I feel so lucky to have found this place and these people.  Even though I miss having holidays with my own family, this new community fills that void pretty well.  I hope you all had an equally lovely day.

Now, of course, it’s time to get back to work.  Today I packed up a whole bunch of work to send off to River Gallery  in Chattanooga, TN for 2 person show with fiber artist Jen Swearington.  The opening reception will be on December 2 from 6 until 8.  I’m looking forward to being there for the opening.  It will be my first trip to Chattanooga and I’m excited to see the town.  This will be the first time that I will be showing at River Gallery.  Let me know if you happen to see my work, there.

On that same first weekend in December the Toe River Arts Council has the studio tour and I will have work at Crimson Laurel Gallery in Bakersville, NC.

this piece will be available at Crimson Laurel Gallery

I’ll probably be there on Sunday if you happen to be in town.   If not you can see some of my work along with dozens of other artists on Shop CLG at www.CrimsonLaurelGallery.com.  My work is also available online at Artful Home.      No matter where you spend the first weekend in December I hope you spend some of your holiday shopping dollars with an artist.

Happy Holiday Season to each of you – Deb

It has been such a busy summer and fall that I haven’t had time to blog. I spent a month in the midwest doing the American Craft Exposition in Evanston, IL and the St. Louis Art Fair in Clayton, MO. So much great work in both of those shows so I hope you were able to attend. I also did the Greenwich Village Art Fair in my home town of Rockford, IL. It was wonderful to see so many old friends! This weekend I am at the Atlanta Contemporary Jewelry Show at the DeFoor Center.  The show goes from 10 to 9 today and 10 to 6 tomorrow.  The wine reception from 6 to 9, tonight, is always fun and tomorrow there will be some special giveaways in the afternoon.  It’s a marvelous selection of 25 jewelers.  You can even have lunch and/or a cocktail.  The food at the DeFoor is quite good.  There is free parking, too!

I’m feeling a little torn this weekend because there is a fabulous show opening at Crimson Laurel Gallery in Bakersville, NC that I will have to miss.

NOVEMBER 5 – DECEMBER 31 Interpreting the Cup: Process, Influence and Intent - Curated by Jason Bige Burnett

Earlier this week Jason and I set up the exhibition that he curated of over 400 cups.  It was a long day and a lot of cups but I think the show looks great.  David and John have been busy all week putting on the finishing touches.  If you can’t make it to the opening reception tomorrow night you can  see Interpreting the Cup:Process, Influence and Intent – Curated by Jason Bige Burnett online at www.CrimsonLaurelGallery.com.  The show runs through the end of December.

I know that we just celebrated Halloween but with these two great shows this weekend it’s the perfect time to think about holiday giving.  We’ve all been thinking more about buying local and what is more local that buying handmade work.  This year I hope everyone considers giving something with heart.  As artists we invest more than time and material into the pieces we make.  We invest our identity and our passion, along with our skill.  When you give something handmade you are giving a gift that is thoughtful and heartfelt.   Support the arts this holiday season.

I hope to see you here in Atlanta!

New Studio!

I’m just settling in to my new studio in Bakersville, NC.  Thanks to all who helped me make the move, especially to David who realized that the truck I ordered wouldn’t be nearly big enough, and that I should have 4 guys to load it rather than the 2 that I had planned, and of course, for helping pack.  Thanks to Amy Moore for helping me pack and the Dirty Boys for loading the truck (what an awesome job they did, you wouldn’t believe it!) and to Charlie and Brendon and Theresa, in Bakersville, for helping me unload it.  This week Niki Coverstone came in and unpacked and organized and filed everything in the office.   As much as I love Marshall, I think I’m going to be happy in Bakersville.  Already, two friends have brought beautiful flowers from their gardens, thanks to Bev and Janet.

artwork by old friends and flowers from new friends - plate by Emily Reason, drawing by Carol Weber, egg sculpture by R. Scott Long

It’s nice to have some spontaneity in my life, though I haven’t really had it for so long that it’s a bit foreign.  It’s been fun to be able to take off and go to Penland for an evening or pop out to Lisa Clague’s studio for inspiration.  We are looking forward to doing another collaboration so stay tuned for that.  Shane Urquart, my studio neighbor, dressed and anvil for me that I have had for years and never did anything with.  Now I just need a stump for it.  I think it will be fun to have a blacksmith for a neighbor.

I’m working on some new things for my upcoming shows (American Craft Expo in Evanston and the St. Louis Art Fair, as well as Greenwich in Rockford) so maybe next time I’ll have some new work to show you.  If you have some of my work I hope you saw the article in the last issue of Metalsmith magazine.  I hope to see a lot of folks in St. Louis that I haven’t seen in a while and I REALLY hope that all this crazy weather calms down before we get there.

Enjoy the summer, it’ll be gone before we know it.

Coming soon, to a show near you!

I can never find the lid for these things!

After a busy, information filled week at Arrowmont it is good to be home again.  I took a class for the first time in a long time and it was really different being in the position of student as opposed to being the teacher.  It was a lot less pressure but a bit more difficult.  Chris Hentz (the instructor) filled my head with so much information it may take weeks to digest it all.  If you ever want to take a class to learn how to solder, this is the one to take.  Chris, also known as the Jedi Metal Master, is a thorough and patient teacher for beginners and advanced alike.  Even though I have been soldering for years, I wanted to ramp up my skills.  Done.  I also managed to have a great time.  We were lucky to have a full class of fun people and we learned a lot from each other.  Arrowmont is a great place to spend a week.  I will be teaching there the first week of October 2012.  While I don’t have an magic tricks, like Chris, I do my best to show everyone a good time.

you can leave Arrowmont this way, or through Pigeon Forge, nature or torture

Now that I’m back I have a lot to do.  I have shows in Evanston, IL, St. Louis, Mo, Rockford, IL, Atlanta, GA, Boston, MA, and Chatanooga, TN, all before the end of the year.  Plus I have been shipping lots of work to galleries all over the country and I still have a few orders to fill.  Soon I will get my list of galleries updated but here are just of few galleries that have new work:  Smith Beverly Interiors, Cockerill, Nimbus, and The Real Mother Goose.  Of course you can always find my work at Crimson Laurel Gallery in Bakersville, NC and at Flow in Marshall, NC.

In other exciting news – If you don’t happen to get Metalsmith magazine you can read an article about me  this month in the online version or pick it up at the bookstore.  If you don’t already get the mag, it’s very nice.   Also, David and I rescued a hawk in our yard about a week ago.  The picture is not so good because it was dusk and you don’t really want to startle a hawk with a flash from the camera.  He was in sad shape when we found him but we fed him some chicken and gave him some water and that seemed to perk him up a bit.  We then loaded him into a crate and took him to someone who does bird rescue.  They said that he was emaciated and that they would put him on an IV right away.  We sure hope he is doing better.

That’s it for now.  I hope you are all having a great summer.  I hope to enjoy a little bit of it myself, even though I will be spending most of it in the studio.

Back at the bench not a moment too soon.

clean bench, sort of

Whew!  That was an amazing vacation and one of these days I will share some inspiring images but right now there is no time to sort through pictures.  In fact, we took so many that we had to buy an external hard drive to put them on.  But now I’m back in Marshall, hard at work in my studio and catching up with friends and studio mates.  It’s such a gift to come home to a place where your absence is noticed.  Even though I haven’t been in Marshall that long it feels like home.  It’s wonderful to travel but I can only be away from work for so long before I get sort of “twitchy” and need to make something.  I wonder if other makers are that way, too.  I’m not sure if it’s based on the amount of time I’m away, or how much visual stimulation I’ve had, or maybe I just start feeling that way when I know the end of the vacation is near.  Maybe it’s a sort of reentry process in which I start thinking of work about 3 days before I get home.  Whatever the reason, it makes me glad to get back to the bench.  Spring is stressful for me because I have a lot of gallery orders to fill and tax season always makes me queasy even though I usually file an extension at the last minute and then wait until the last minute in October to do my taxes.  (There is something seriously wrong with me when it comes to paperwork.)  The other part of the stress is that my studio is a disaster.  I haven’t really been here for about 6 weeks since I was away for two shows in February and then in Europe all of March.  I wish I were one of those people who left everything in perfect order when they went away but I’m not.  I’m the opposite.  My studio is a total shit storm.  I get a little crazy when I’m leaving on a big trip and I always have a million last minute things to do so tidying up just doesn’t happen.  SO!  When I got to the studio, yesterday, I spent a chunk of time cleaning off my bench.

You may look at this picture and say, “really?” but trust me, this is as clean as this bench has been since the first week I moved here.  I kind of like it.  Maybe I’ll keep it this way.  Doubt it, but a girl can dream.  In just a few short days I’ll be shipping off new work to Appalachian Spring in the DC area and to a new gallery for me, Art on Symmes so keep an eye out in your area for new stuff.  And even though vacation is over the fun continues with a cookout at Marshall High Studios, the opening reception for “Submerging the Bathysphere” at Crimson Laurel Gallery (a super fun show), and the Potters of Madison County (our shining stars of ceramics) show in Mars Hill all happening this weekend.  I better get my butt over to that bench so I can go out and play this weekend!  Maybe I’ll see you at one of the shows this weekend?

Submerging the Bathyspere

Potters of Madison County

Inspired by travel

After two demanding weeks doing shows I had a couple of days at home and then headed off on the trip of a lifetime, two weeks in Paris, a week in Barcelona, and five days in Florence. Having just finished week one of the trip I have to say that, while I have always been inspired by travel, this trip really has me thinking. I have already seen so much that I feel like I’m in visual overload. The museums are amazing and there are so many that I won’t be able to see them all. The shops are beautiful, each with it’s own specialty and carefully arranged window display. The people are stylish, the streets clean, and even the weather has been great. The antiquity of this place is staggering when you have spent your life in a country that is just a couple of hundred years old. But don’t let that fool you, Paris is also modern. I have enjoyed the more contemporary art even more than the old masters. The Monet installation at L’Orangerie was breathtaking and the Museum of Decorative Arts had a marvelous exhibit of 20th century fashion that just blew my mind.  Of course we have seen classics like “The Thinker” and so many old masters at the Louvre that it’s impossible to count.  I did manage a little shopping and of course there has been food and wine.  There is something lovely about shopping for cheese at the cheese shop and breads at the boulangerie and, lucky us, the best ice cream shop in Paris is just a few doors from our apartment!  Mmmm, and did I mention the crepes?  So, what with all the walking, looking, eating, and drinking I may not post too regularly but I will try to share what I can with you and later, how it affects the work.  Bonjour!

I’m still here, just really busy!

xoxo

It has been a busy winter and it looks like it will stay that way until spring but that’s okay because it’s mostly good stuff.  I was snowed in at the studio for 4 or 5 days which translated to a lot of new designs for the February shows.  I hope that all of the snow storms are spent before I make the trek to Philly next week and Baltimore the week after that.  It would be a shame to make all of this new work and not get to show it to anyone.

Cynthia at the beach

I did head south for a week or so, to visit friends and family in Florida.  It was a relief to get away from the weather up here.  We had the pleasure of attending a little benefit for the Trophia Butterfly Foundation where I heard David’s brother, Sam, sing a beautiful rendition of My Way which he dedicated to their late father.  There is a lot of talent in Key West and it was great to see all of the folks who came out to raise money for the foundation. One of the singers that night was Cynthia who is pictured here modeling some of my new work.  Not only is she beautiful, but has an amazing voice.

You may be aware of Flow, the shop that we (8 creative women) have opened in Marshall.  It keeps me busy.  This past Saturday we had a lovely event with champagne and hand crafted chocolates and lots of other goodies.  Folks stopped in to visit and fill out the “Sweetheart Registry” so their sweethearts will know their hearts desire for Valentines day.  The big news is that Flow is expanding!  Later this week we will be doubling our space so if you happen to be in the area, be sure to stop in.

I hope to see some of you at the American Craft Show in Baltimore, February 24 through 27.  There is always an amazing array of talent from all across the country.  I will be in booth #520.

new colors

 

new work

 

 

 

 

 

Black and White

Recently I was driving past a field of grazing black and white cows and found them visually stunning. They were just cows, in an ordinary field and yet the sight really caught my attention.  It got me thinking a lot about black and white, literally and figuratively.  I’ve been drawn to black and white in a visual sense for as long as I can remember.   I still recall a black jumper and white blouse that my mom used to loan me when I was in high school and I still favor black clothing.  I love black and white as a balance to color in my work, too.  Black and white photos are almost always more dramatic than color and a black and white room is a classic beauty.  So why is it that black and white works so well in the visual world but not so much in life.  There is hardly ever a perfect answer, a black and white division.  Life is lived in gradient, or, if we’re lucky, in vibrant color and that means that there are shades of right and wrong, best and worst, good and bad.  It’s complicated, and interesting, and confusing.   Lucky for me I have my studio to go to where, while the decisions are still complicated and confusing, I can still have black and white when I want it because in the studio the decisions are all mine.