New Gather Handmade Shoppe in Bloomington Indiana

Since moving to Indiana and getting involved in the arts/artisan markets here, I've noticed a resurgence, and very well supported, movement back to handmade. Gather Shoppe is one of the latest to join this much welcomed group.

Like Home Spun: Modern Handmade in Indianapolis, Gather supports artisans through the sale of goods, workshops, and featured shows, for the emerging and established maker.

With humble beginnings, Gather started with Pop-Up shows titled Gatherings, and keeping with the self-sufficiency movement, Gather opened with a Go Fund Me campaign.

After a successful, and crowded, opening last month, Gather will be hosting it's first feature show titled Home.

Talia Halliday

From the press release: “The ache for home lives in all of us, the safe place where we can go as we are and not be questioned.” - Maya Angelou. This first Group Show at Gather will reach deep within the soul to ponder the meaning of what a home is to the various artists involved. From a bed made from books, to nesting bowls, to resting under leaves... The various modes of home confound and arouse us. 

 There are nine artists represented in the show: Katie Vernon, Vincent Desjardins, Joshua Allen, Kim Hahn, Lisa Wilson, Beatriz Vasquez, Talia Halliday, Lori Leaumont, and myself.

Michelle Amos

Show opens with an artist reception, Friday, October 3, from 5-8pm. Admission is free. Gather is located at 101 W Kirkwood Ave Ste 112, in historic Fountain Square Mall, on the south side of the square in Bloomington, Indiana. They sell the independent work of more than 70 artists, crafters, and makers from the Midwest and beyond. The work in the store ranges from handcrafted jewelry to bath and body, kids' toys, clothing, woodworking, illustration, knitted/crocheted work, and more. Can't make the opening? Shop hours: W-F noon - 5pm; Sat 10am-5pm; Sun noon - 4pm Phone: 812-785-1400

Art in the Loo

Amos' Woven Basket/Bowls on Urinal

In 1917, French Dadaist Marcel Duchamp entered a urinal in an exhibition to challenge the preconception about what art can be. The Craft(s) Gallery, 572 S. 4th St., is taking the concept a step further by hosting an actual art show in the gallery’s bathroom. “Art in the Loo” is an exhibition of new work by artists Suzanne Edds and Michelle Amos. The gallery will host an artists’ reception during the First Friday Gallery Hop on April 4 from 6pm to 10pm.

Suzanne Edds' Body Part Mandula Pieces above Urinal  

Edds, co-owner of Liberty Art & Tattoo, will drape the Craft(s) Gallery bathroom walls with a series of sensual images that have been printed on skin-like canvas and mounted on wood. Edds says the pieces were inspired by body parts, but she has focused so closely on specific shapes that the images have become abstract. Amos’ contributions are more utilitarian. She plans to fill the space with functional items like hand-stitched bowls filled with face scrubbies, ring dishes in spring colors, robes, and bed jackets.

Amos' Bath robe

Amos' dish with face scrubbies

Amos says the show came about because she and Edds both thought the colorful decorations and art hanging in the Craft(s) Gallery bathroom made it feel like an extension of the exhibition space. “We both love the bathroom at the gallery,” she explains. “We hope this show encourages people to look at the space, and maybe their own bathrooms, in a different way.”

All work will be available for purchase starting Friday, April 4 through April 30 at Crafts Gallery Only. 

Amos' decorative bathroom fabric piece with two nesting bowls and hand woven re-usable cotton balls

Craft(s) Gallery is 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–Friday: 10am–6pm; Saturday: 12-6pm;Closed Sunday
502.584.7636 (SOFO)

It's Cold Here!

High of 3 degrees yesterday, (2 degrees higher than projected), and a projected 12 degrees today. Ug! I know other areas have it much worse, but in this part of the country, even the schools have closed the past couple days because they feel it's too cold! I suppose the school districts feel our community is not conditioned to keep our children from getting frost bite on the way to school, because there is no ice or snow on the ground to create hazardous road conditions. So I'm dreaming of Valentine's Day and Spring to keep me warm. I stopped everything else I was working on to work on Spring Designs, it really helps the fantasy with the sun shining in the window.

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)

The Scarves relate to my Sculptural Woven Work

The scarves relating to my sculptural woven vessels and installations...

are now available at Craft(s) Gallery in Louisville, KY.

To create the scarves, I start with striping down yards of cotton muslin. Then dye them with coffee and fiber acrylic wash and dry them in the sun. I then rewash the strips to make sure the dye is set and there will be no shrinkage.



I give the strips a light pressing with the iron.

I make sure I have plenty of thread color choices.

Then I stitch the strips together, one at a time.

And in the end, the whole process creates a scarf with a unique raw quality. Super Fun to wear! Great Fashion Statement -wear art!

All scarves are slightly different in length, color choice of thread, and color choice of dyed strips combination. Sorry I'm not taking custom orders on these unless it is in bulk. Contact Crafts Gallery if your interested:
Craft(s) Gallery 572 South Fourth Street
Louisville, Kentucky  40202
502.584.7636 (SOFO)
http://craftslouisville.com/cms/

Late Spring 2013 Enchanted Forest Installation with Students

 







During my regular after school art classes, I talked to my 1st-11th grade students about doing an art installation together in our downstairs gallery. Because I am a fiber artist by trade, I asked the installation focus on fiber work. I taught them how to do twine method basketry and we looked at Appalachian basketry design for our form. I then gave them the option to make small people/animals out of Sculpey clay to include inside the baskets. Our theme was Enchanted Forest. Later I taught the modified twine method I use in my own work, and invited them to create vessels. The following images is the installation in the front two gallery windows at the studio.

How Teaching has renewed my interest in Functional Basketry





Student Weaving

I've been teaching basketry and fiber art as an Artist-in-Residence for six years; 

Blackacre Conservatory, 2007

and for most of those years I had been focused on sculptural work and installation art. Although my interest has remained constant in creating exceptionally well crafted pieces -with great attention to detail. I've had a conversion of sorts.

Student Work, Spot 5 Art Studio, 2010


I want to say it started with the amazing work my students have produced. -And I've been pretty infatuated with the materials, especially when they come in a big box full.



But I really think it came from working directly with the students, problem solving to create pieces they were interested in.

 

Most of my residencies are based in Public Schools, which involve requests for historical and/or cultural connections to our work; and most of the historical/cultural references to basketry are as functional art. Although I often introduce the concept of using basketry methods to create art object sculptures -with no functionality intended- the students often want them to have some sort of functional use. By the beginning of this year, I was becoming frustrated. I wanted to be one of the students in my class creating my own interesting, artistically designed, functional piece.

 

But one piece was not enough for me. I've started working on a whole series of funtional pieces. First it started small:

Just a few mini baskets. Then I started thinking bigger:

And then in functional multiples (nesting bowls):

Not quite sure what's next.

 

Animal Embroidery Schaffner Elementary

In January I was brought into Schaffner Traditional Elementary, on a VSA Arts KY inclusion grant, by art teacher and all around creative person Carolyn Brayden. I was to work with four 3rd grade classes on Peruvian inspired embroidery. Previous to my coming to the school, Brayden had introduced Peruvian embroidery and the history to her students. She then guided them toward selecting an animal to do a colorful embroidery on burlap.

In my first visit I showed some of my work and discussed life as a professional working artist. This was part of Braden's plan, so the students could make connections between what they are learning now and how those skills can be used as a professional. We then practiced threading a needle, how to knot the yarn, and how to do a running stitch. In the following visits students drew their animals on burlap, outlined them with a running stitch, and later filled them in with either a seed stitch or satin stitch. The following images are some of the beautiful work the 3rd grade students did. I would love to do this project with my children at home and turn it into a wall hanging.