FOUNDRY DAY 2013

If you listen closely in the evenings, you’ll hear sounds….far off in the distance mixed in with the sounds of cicadas in love….hammers hammering,  knitting needles clicking, the whirring of a sewing machine,  the sounds of wood being worked, the muted mutterings of jewelry makers and painters, all frantically working to finish up their projects.  It’s that time of year again, FOUNDRY DAY!

For many artisans and shoppers alike, Foundry Day is Christmas, Thanksgiving, and the Super Bowl all rolled into on big sweaty, exhausting, thrilling day.  With good reason.  The sheer number of amazing talent lining the streets of Boiling Springs is awe-inspiring.  No mass produced tchotchkes here.  Just good old fashioned juried GOOD STUFF.

The YBC will be representing IN FORCE with the following artists having booths:

Kay Verbecken – Jewelry

Donna Damgaard – Jewelry

Don Kensinger – rock candles

Nancy Crochet – fiber

Ted Walker– jewelry

Don and Candace Cothard – jewelry

Margie Fultz – fiber

Len Baer – wood bowls

Bob Cappeluti – pottery

Bekka Rousek – wheat weaving

Dan Hayward – glass

Carol Heisler – quilts

Shedrick Sloane – photography

Greg Pencheff – wood turning

Bob Triplett – wood carving

Joan Rhodes – jewelry

Amy Kelsey – jewelry

Beth Moser – jewelry

Crystal Hunt – photography

Leslie Halaby-Moore – jewelry

Richelle Dourte – jewelry

Myra Klayman – glass

Clare Miller – wood etching
Nancy Crochet – silk jackets

Nancy Bryant – jewelry

The YBC will also have a booth, showcasing the talents of Paula Lewis (enamels), Connie Hollenbaugh (Copper),  Judith Sen & Soumana Saley – (Leather bags and accessories)  Erin Keck (Steampunk), Nolly Geisinger (Lampwork beads) and Stephanie Long (Fine Jewelry)  There will also be plenty of information WHY you should join the PA Guild of Craftsmen, and you may be able to sign up on the spot.

If all that wasn’t enough to get thee to Boiling Springs on June 1, there’s a whole bunch of different food and drinks available, Thai, Mexican, Cheesesteaks,  Crab Cakes, Pulled Pork, Lemonade, Salads, Strawberry Shortcake (!!) funnel cakes and all kinds of other non-fat, low cal goodies.  The Appalachian Trail Conservancy and Trout Unlimited will be there with their excellent displays and educational materials.

But wait, there’s more!  The Bubble Man will be on hand to entertain the kiddos, and you can probably bribe them away from the funnel cakes with the balloon animals and face painting.

Still not enough to entice you out to beautiful Boiling Springs?  Tsk.  You’re tough!  How about FREE admission…FREE parking….and a FREE shuttle bus from the high school to the Festival.

Really!  How could you go wrong with all that?

ATTENTION DIVAS & WANNA BE DIVAS!

Charmed I’m Sure Studio presents
Puttin’ On The Glitz

An Elegant Featherweight Tiara Class

by Lynne Suprock

Saturday, June 22, 2013 

10:00 AM – 4:00 PM

Hear Ye!  Hear Ye!

For all those Fairy Princesses in the land, or all those self-appointed fabulous Queens of the Universe….

Come spend a day at the Charmed I’m Sure Studio, making a simple and lightweight tiara for atop your pretty little head.  Wear this special piece to parties, to retreats, to the grocery store, or even to your upcoming family reunion!  If you would like one, but are too bashful to wear one, set it majestically upon the hearth shelf and admire it daily.

Either way, this workshop is soooo much fun, and at the end, everyone gets to feel pretty in a tiara!

Skills we will be using include soldering, wire shaping, collaging and using patina (optional for you)

Price:  $35.00

Additional Kit fee:  $15.00

Total – $50.00

What to bring (anything with a “*” means Jean or Lynne has some to share):

1.  Small pot holder or heavy cotton (no polyester please) garden gloves

2.  Glitter, pictures, stamps and inks*

3.  Soldering iron, 100 watt with a thermostat built into handle or a plug in one*.  Instructor will have a couple extra to share if you don’t have your own

4. A Soldering station which includes the following: a cellulose sponge, a sal ammoniac block*, non lead large bead solder (from Lowe’s OK)  a heat resilient silicone mat sold in kitchen stores or a tin cookie sheet if you have one.  Also you will need something to hold your tiara base that is flat like 2 fire bricks or one large ceramic tile* will work.

5.  One small straight or bent nosed OLD jewelry pliers.  These will get flux on them so don’t bring your nice one for this!

6. Two straight nose pliers* (without teeth preferred) for making swirlies

7.  Scissors*

8.  Sharpie brand marker (any size tip)*

9.  Lint-free rag

10.  Elmers glue

11. Fume mask if you are asthmatic or sensitive to smoke.  Sold at Lowe’s.  Jean also has disposable ones to share.*

* The kit will include rhinestone trim, 2 different copper foil sizes, flux, flux cleaner, glass cleaner, all cut glass pieces, 17 gauge wire, patina and Q-tips, hammers and bench blocks to share.

OTHER INFO:

To secure your spot in this class, send $50 through PayPal to Jean Van Brederode (PayPal ID – javb2000@aol.com), OR send a check to the address listed below. Limited seating is available, so please reserve your spot early! Only one date is being offered – First come – first served!

Charmed I’m Sure Studio is located at 7 Nita Court, Mechanicsburg, PA 17050. Jean’s cell – 717-919-7444. I encourage you to arrive by 9.45 AM. Please park in the cul-de-sac being careful not to block the mailboxes.  Enter through the front door or around the house to the left through the studio door.  For those who have allergies, please note there are two cats who also live here.

No refunds after June 15th.

WE WILL HAVE A GROUP LUNCH AROUND NOON.  PLEASE BRING A STUDIO SNACK OR LUNCH GOODIE TO SHARE!  Jean will provide ice. drinks, paper products, & silverware.

Feel free to pass this workshop info on to friends!

SATURDAY! SATURDAY!

Saturday March 2 from 1 to 4 pm at the Village Artisans Gallery, our very own Erin Keck will be the featured Artist.

Come and visit the Goddess of Gears, and see some her amazing work!  While you’re there, check out all the other goodness at the Village Artisans Gallery.  There are amazing things to behold in every nook & cranny of this award winning FABULOUS gallery.  And as a bonus, it’s staffed by some of the nicest people!  Sign up for their email newsletter and never miss any of the cool upcoming events.

Winter Blues? Take it to the Studio!

So you’ve got a bellyful of ‘wintery mix’, you’re very SAD, and you’re pining away for Spring?  Fear not!  you can chase away those winter blues with the help of some of our members and their studio workshops.  Check ‘em out:

Laurie Kitzmiller and her Sunflower Art Studio will jazz up Saturday mornings with these workshops:

March 9 – The Joy of Zentangling (Yoga for your brain)
March 23 – Spirit Felting and Fabric Art
April 6 – Experimental Water Color & Mixed Media
April 27th – Printmaking with Mother Nature

Please check out Laurie’s website to get the full details, as well as some beautiful art.

Amber Kane has got some great workshop offerings as well:

March 4- Wire crochet jewelry (ONLINE!!)
March 16 – Freeform Crochet
March 30 – Digital Photo Editing for Beginners

Details can be found on her new, really spiffy website.

Last but not least, Jean Van Brederode’s Charmed I’m Sure Studio is hosting two unique opportunities:

February 15 or 16 – Nancy Snowden Clark will be teaching her ‘Trash to Treasure” necklace (or bracelet) class.  

March 3 – Jean will be teaching her Games People Play necklace.  This class will give you an opportunity to take one of the classes Jean will be teaching at the Portland Art & Soul this year.  Please email Jean at Javb2000@aol.com for the details.  SPACES ARE LIMITED FOR BOTH CLASSES!

What’s Happening?

I’m back from a brief blogging hiatus.  It’s hard to blog on a dead computer, and even harder to blog from a Kindle Fire.  (The KF is great, but not good for blogging.  If anyone is a KF pro, please contact me, I’m plodding along with mine)

So here we are, a new year, with a new President (of the Guild), new members and many new ideas for 2013.

One of our new members, Erma Martin Yost, is an amazing textile artist.  Her work is being featured in New York City at the NOHO Galleries in Chelsea.  Here’s the press release, which also features two pieces (Pond Shadows and Firefly Field) of her amazing work:

Erma Martin Yost

Felted Fields

February 5–March 2, 2013

Reception: Saturday, February 9, 4–6 pm

Erma Martin Yost presents Felted Fields, hand-felted stitched constructions, as pictorial and poetic metaphors. Using felt as her canvas and thread as her paint brush the magical mesh of fibers create a language of symbolic images and archetypal forms. Some fields lie dormant where shadowy shapes shift mysteriously. Other fields burst with brilliant color and fertile life. In all of Yost’s work a strong sense of place and personal poetry emerge as she fuses her natural and inner worlds.

Felt, the most ancient textile form, predates spinning and weaving by several thousand years. Nomadic peoples discovered felt when subjecting wool to heat and moisture, pounding it until it matted into a cohesive structure. These densely packed fibers were transformed into durable objects ranging from the utilitarian to the religious, even transportable tents. Today felt is a favored medium for fiber artists and the commercial textile industry as wool is a versatile renewable resource.

This is Yost’s 19th solo exhibition at Noho Gallery. Her work is in the permanent collection of the Museum of Art and Design and was included in their New Acquisitions exhibit in 1995. In 2009 and 2012 Yost’s work was included in Art of the State at The State Museum of Pennsylvania. Also in 2009 Yost soloed at the Johnson & Johnson World Headquarters. Yost received New Jersey Council on the Arts fellowships in 1991 and 1999. Through the New Jersey Art Annual: Crafts exhibitions, her work has been exhibited in the Jersey City Museum, the Newark Museum, the New Jersey State Museum, the Hunterdon Museum, and the Morris Museum. Her work is included in twenty-one books, including The Art Quilt Book by Robert Shaw and Object Lessons published by GUILD, Inc. and juried by Michael Monroe, former curator of the Smithsonian’s Renwick Gallery. View Yost’s work at ermamartinyost.com.

Gallery Hours: Tuesday-Saturday, 11-6  pm      

Pre-show contact: 201-401-8385; ermamartinyost@gmail.com

From Facebook & A word about Resolutions

This showed up on my wall today, and I thought it was interesting.  Not only are the words great, the video is also very cool.  It shows that it came from Ruprecht Studios in NYC.

Enjoy.

It’s the time of year where everyone wants to start fresh, with a clean slate.  They make big resolutions about what they’d like to accomplish in the New Year.  Changes to make, goals to achieve, you know, that sort of thing.

I really don’t make resolutions out loud. There are things I keep in my head that I’d like to see happen in the New Year.  It’s a nice list.  There are things on the list that have been there for quite some time.  Patiently waiting for the right time to happen.   I don’t put them out in the world for everyone to see and comment on.  They are my resolutions, and I’d rather not share.

Are your resolutions out there?  Do you make New Years resolutions?  Or are yours a work in progress that you keep to yourself?

 

Dear Santa…

On every crafter’s wish list this season, among all the handmade wishes, should be a subscription to The Crafts Report Magazine.

I got a A LOT of magazines, but this is THE ONE I enjoy the most.  It is full of great information on the business of craft. Plus tons of listings of good upcoming shows.

You can also subscribe digitally. (I’m not really a fan of the digital subscription to anything.  Finding the magazine and leafing through it for an article wins over scrolling the Kindle, but that’s just me!)

Another really cool thing about The Crafts Report magazine is readers can submit photos and articles (Much like this blog, but you wouldn’t know it, ahem) Several of our YBC members have been in The Crafts Report (most recently Amber Kane was featured in a full page article)  And then there’s Luann Udell’s column, which is always interesting.

You could probably even write it off as a business expense if you were so inclined.  So now you have no reason NOT to subscribe to The Crafts Report.

This message was NOT sponsored or endorsed by The Crafts Report magazine.  I subscribe and I like it, and you might too.