CraftBoston Spring 2012

Last Saturday I spent several lovely hours taking in the sights at CraftBoston, held at the Seaport. I had been surprised to learn that the event was going to have a steampunk theme, but it turned out that that was relegated to one section and the theme of the talks; aside from that, the event was very similar to last year. I did notice that a large portion of the booths had bright "New Exhibitor" signs on them, and I saw a lot of artists I hadn't seen before. A few highlights:

- Swan and Stone Millinery had a variety of wonderful hats and fascinators incorporating feathers and felted flowers. I really should have tried some on!

- There were a lot of stalls with ceramics at CraftBoston, but I'd never seen anything like the Art Nouveau style ceramics by Stephanie Young before. Her website has a lot of interesting information about her process and inspiration as well. I just saw her work at 13Forest Gallery when I was dropping off work there, so you can see a sample of her style in Arlington as well!

- I remember seeing Joe Bagley's amazing papercuts last year at CraftBoston Spring, but I was glad to have a chance to peruse them again. I was also amused to see a sign in the stall stating that one of his papercuts (a couple on a bicycle, I believe) was the first image pinned on Pinterest. Neat!

Forged Wire Rings

After the recent craziness of my schedule, I just had to doodle around and make something new -- and I'm pretty happy with how it came out! I saw a lot of rings like this while we were in San Francisco and I love the idea. I took it a step further by oxidizing the copper after forming these rings, then buffing off parts of it to reveal the pink copper color. I love how every second in the liver of sulfur bath creates a slightly different tone in the copper -- it turns from gold to maroon to grey to blue-black, all in about 20 seconds (depending on the heat of the bath and wire, I believe). Unfortunately the color in these photos isn't great, but it should give a sense of the difference in color that happens after only a few seconds.

Bronze hue (only a few seconds in the liver of sulfur):

Maroon-pink shade (about 8 seconds):

Deep grey (more than 20 seconds; burnished afterwards to bring out some of the pink color):

Detail of the pattern:

City Hall Show

I have eight pieces in this show -- four 18"x24" drawings (three of which are totally new!), and four of my favorite 8"x10" - 9"x12" drawings. 

Also, for anyone attending the TEDxSomerville conference at the Armory tomorrow, I will have a selection of works in the art show there, including a necklace and a teapot among others. 

New 18x24 maps

"Seven Cities" (pen and marker on bristol, 18"x24")

 detail:

"Graphite Civilization" (pen and graphite on bristol, 18"x24") - not quite finished

And a detail snapshot of one I'm still working on that's currently untitled -- any suggestions?

San Francisco

I haven't been posting much because I've been madly working on large drawings for a show at Boston City Hall (more on that later!), and also because I was away for about ten days visiting friends in San Francisco and SoCal. Here are some of the things I saw (click on them for the full effect):

New Booth Setup

For the Holly Fair last weekend I thought it would be a good idea to refine my booth setup, which is usually just a bunch of random stands and boxes that I've acquired over the couple years I've lived in the area:

It's always worked out for me in a sort of homey way, but I recently realized that the huge variety might end up overshadowing or obscuring the work. I also wanted to make sure visitors knew that both the maps and the jewelry were made by the same person. I did some brainstorming with a friend and decided that the deep red chests (which I came upon by lucky chance at a yard sale just days before my first craft fair ever!) should determine the look of the rest of the setup, since they're my favorite part. Besides those dark-colored display pieces, though, most of my work (especially the jewelry) looks better on light colors. I decided to go with a frame theme to connect the art to the jewelry, and also to set off the jewelry in their own spaces for each type. It's difficult with work this varied and individual, but I think my solution worked out pretty well:

I kept the earring stand, but painted it to match the fittings on the red chests, and replaced the old plastic cross-stitch mesh with light cream cross-stitch fabric, which still has holes for earrings to go into but is less translucent (so the earrings don't end up being backlit, which gets annoying) and also more organic-looking. I also kept the red frame with white lace since it's always caught people's attention, and goes well with the chests. For the flower earring display, I scrapped my old system of a cigar box with plastic mesh (too distracting and thrown-together) and hung the earrings with more space on two blank canvases hinged together like a book. I like the way it all comes together, and I think visitors enjoyed discovering the jewelry without having to search for it. We'll see if it works as well in the darkness of the Burren's back room this weekend!

Leafy Jewelry

When I first started making singed fabric jewelry, I tried making some leaves to go along with my flowers, but it never really worked as a form. Maybe it's because I've gotten better at controlling the results, but I was recently inspired to try again and this time had success. So far I've made two pairs of leaf earrings and a leafy, autumnal necklace. I hope to have some more on display at the Union Square Winter Craft Market tomorrow!

Two craft fairs this weekend!

New items for these fairs will include brand-new holiday cards, leaf earrings and hand-printed woodblock cards. (Links allow you to view them in my Etsy store!)

Saturday, December 3rd, 11am-4pm: Winter Craft Market inside the Precinct at 66-70 Union Square, Somerville. More info

Sunday, December 4th, 10am-4pm: Comicazi-Con comics and craft fair at the Dilboy VFW in Davis Square, 371 Summer Street, Somerville.

You can also see my art in these local exhibitions:

Now through February 4, 2012: ”Plenty” group exhibition on display at 13Forest Gallery in Arlington, MA (167A Mass Ave, near the Capitol Theater, accessible by 77 bus from Harvard/Porter). More info

Now through mid-January: ”Small Works” group exhibition on display at Riverside Gallery in Cambridge, MA (5 Callender Street, near Central Square). More info

Joy Street Open Studios

Yesterday I had a slightly rushed but still wonderfully edifying trip through Joy Street open studios. Even though I was only there for about an hour, and missed several wonderful artists that I wanted to see, I still had a lot of interesting conversations and came out of it inspired to try new things. The first studio I went into was Elizabeth Heide's, where I was drawn in by the intriguing textures in her work. She uses a variety of printmaking techniques in her work, and was kind enough to explain some of them to me during my visit, particularly gum arabic printing, in which you apply a layer of gum over a photocopied image and then ink, wipe and print it. I've used gum arabic for photo printing before, but I hadn't heard of printing with it.

I also spoke at length with Ji-eun Shim, whose does 2-D work that incorporates repetitive markmaking as well as a variety of 3-D sculptural explorations. Her work is incredibly creative, and I was inspired just standing in her studio. She works with some unusual materials such as twigs and grains - there was one amazing repetitive wall piece done in what appeared to be barley. It reminded me that someday I should try doing twig sculptures again, if I can figure out a way for them not to dry out and fall apart -- I recently lost one of my favorite ones when it fell apart out of the blue. One more project to put on my list for when I have more time...

 Ji-eun Shim, Monster Seeds

Upcoming Shows

Instead of posting separately about each show, since I'm doing so many this holiday season I thought I'd just post a page with everything. Feel free to ask questions about any event in the comments!


Art Shows:

Now through February 4, 2012: ”Plenty” group exhibition on display at 13Forest Gallery in Arlington, MA (167A Mass Ave, near the Capitol Theater, accessible by 77 bus from Harvard/Porter). More info

Now through mid-January: ”Small Works” group exhibition on display at Riverside Gallery in Cambridge, MA (5 Callender Street, near Central Square). More info

Craft fairs:

Saturday, December 3rd, 11am-4pm: Winter Craft Market inside the Precinct at 66-70 Union Square, Somerville. More info

Sunday, December 4th, 10am-4pm: Comicazi-Con comics and craft fair at the Dilboy VFW in Davis Square, 371 Summer Street, Somerville.

Saturday, December 10th – Sunday, December 11th: Holly Fair art/craft fair in Harvard Square, Cambridge MA. I will be at the 56 Brattle location. More info

Saturday, December 17th, 12-4pm: SLAM craft fair at the Burren in Davis Square, Somerville MA. More info