Louisville, Lord of the Rings, and Buttons

 

The buttons are a result of using the entire tree. I have gotten to the point where if I am, or someone else is, pruning a tree, I will look at the end of the branch. If it looks interesting, I take it home. And again, with the faces. When the tree spirits are happy, the Dryads smile.

Your sewing thread becomes the pupil of the eye. -Lindsay E. Frost

While I was at a show this past weekend, wondering around before the crowd, I was drawn to some beautifully hand crafted buttons. The Artist was not at her booth, she must have been wondering around too. I grabbed a card and began daydreaming about her buttons.

I believe we understand each other in a visual language often times better and deeper than other forms of communication, and finding this Artist's buttons is an example of that, and my other belief Louisville is a city that acts as a small town. I had the opportunity to talk to the artist after the show and purchase buttons for my work.

hand woven hemp with acorn/lichen button from Lindsay Frost

I told her upfront what I wanted to do, and showed her one of my hemp bracelets. I also told her I wanted to email her later and get a statement from her for my blog. Deciding I better find out more about this artist before I email her, I visited her website http://www.uniqueandunusualwoodcarvings.com

In her "about" section she says she returned to Louisville to appease her parents, (I returned to appease my ex-husband). She then goes on to talk about her logo and how it relates to using the whole tree. This is my philosophy on many things, for example, when cooking a squash for dinner, I will also save and roast the seeds to go on salads later. In fact I save the seeds from my garden for replanting, and use the dead plants for compost.  Even when weaving I save the scraps of my raffia to weave even smaller pieces, or how I use the card board boxes our food comes in to card my work.

Frost then goes on to pose the question, "Am I a ‘tree hugger’? Most definitely. I love the Ents in the Lord of the Rings. Especially when they picked up their roots and started walking. Just think what trees have been witness to.....so much history and the tales they could tell. They most likely know the real story." I had to share this part of artist's website with my husband because he often makes fun of either my tree hugging or Lord of the Rings trivia knowledge (read the trilogy twice, saw the movies over 20 times each). And yes I'm an Ent lover too.

hand spun wool from the Smoky Mountain Spinnery with hand crafted button from Lindsay Frost.

After reading over Lindsay Frost's website and taking a few pictures of how I had combined her buttons with my weaving, I sent her an email asking to give me a specific statement about her buttons. I told her the images I sent were all pieces going to Crafts Gallery that day. She responded by telling me her work was already there, and she, like me, loves the owners David McGuire and Karen Welch.

Blue cotton coiled with hand crafted wood button from Lindsay Frost.

You can find Lindsay E. Frost's work, my work, and the pieces I created with both our effort at Crafts Gallery: a contemporary and traditional art gallery created by Karen Welch and David McGuire in the summer of 2013. Craft(s) features fine artisan craft by local and national artists. Craft(s) Gallery is housed in the historic Guthrie Coke building at 572 South Fourth Street at the corner of Fourth and Chestnut Streets in downtown Louisville, Kentucky. In the emerging neighborhood of SOFO, South Fourth Street, Craft(s) is positioned between the renowned Brown Hotel and the iconic Seelbach Hilton Hotel. Another historic neighbor of note is The Palace Theater.

Hours
Monday–Saturday: 10am–6pm
Closed Sunday
502.584.7636 (SOFO)