Sunday, May 31, 2009

Arts Demonstrations at The Studio Gallery

Over this past Friday and Saturday, five members of The Studio Gallery participated in demonstrating some facets of their arts as part of the Artists Interactive program.


Amy Higgason, Pigeon Road Pottery, was working on clayboard, carving the type of designs she puts on her pottery. Each year, The Studo Gallery has a new two-sided bookmark printed with all the participating artists listed on it. This year, Amy did the graphic design work using this type of carving. Beautiful!


Wendy Powalisz, Back 40 Arts, does watercolors and makes beaded jewelry, and had set up to demonstrate watercolor painting. Last year's bookmark featured a watercolor painting by Wendy.


Kathleen Kimball, Salmagundi Arts, is a collage artist and soapmaker. On Saturday, however, she was working in The Studio Gallery. During slow times, she joined us out front in the sun and sat knitting on a sweater. I love how all these artists are known for particular areas of art, yet surprise you with what else they enjoy doing!

Louise Engelbrecht, Black Squirrel Studio, painter and weaver, had brought a table loom and sat threading the heddles. Unfortunately, she left early in the afternoon before we brought out the cameras.


I had been asked to bring my sock machine with, so I spent the two days making socks on the 1908 Gearhart Sock Knitting Machine and showing how the toes are closed by hand. People really seem to enjoy watching the process and asking questions. Most have never seen a sock machine before, but occasionally someone recalls a family member using one long, long ago.

The sun was shining both days, and though it was cool and windy both days, we all had a great time talking and laughing together. We will be demonstrating various arts again June 26-28. Artists Interacting!

6 comments:

Life Looms Large said...

Looks like a fun day! Loved the picture of the sock machine.....I feel like I have a slightly better idea of how one works now.

Sue

MadCityMike said...

I wish we lived closer! Glad that everyone had a nice time and I'm sure many people enjoyed seeing the demonstrations.

Terrie said...

Looks like you had a great day. And hope the folks that viewed your crafts where inspired. We have to keep crafting alive whether it be painting, weaving, knitting, drawing, pottery, etc. I have always loved doing craft projects of all kinds. Your all an inspiration. Keep up the good work and have fun.

Janice Zindel said...

Hi Mike, good to hear from you! Yes, we had a nice time, and will have again, we have a couple more demo days coming up in June, plus the Northwoods Art Tour here as my
studio is on it this year. Yes,
wouldn't it be nice to live closer to some of the fiber people we meet online.

Janice Zindel said...

Sue, these demo days are a lot of fun, love the time spent with the other artists as we usually only see each other at business meetings. Though we didn't have a lot of visitors at our demos in May, we expect that to pick up in June.

Janice Zindel said...

Hi Terrie, yes, we are all helping keep these arts alive aren't we?
So much is being lost today. I like feeling like a thread or link in a long chain through history, working at our arts, and hopefully be able to pass them on to future generations.