acc baltimore 2008.

Jung Yeon Choi

Haley Reneé Bates

Yesterday Sean and I drove out to Baltimore to visit the American Craft Council show in Baltimore. The two main reasons I really wanted to go to the Baltimore Craft Show were to meet CircaCeramics and Margaux Lange, but I also ended up finding some new favorites.

I've been a big fan of Chicago based CircaCeramics for a very long time: gocco and ceramics, genius! I frequently covet their work on Etsy where they've had some fabulous articles written about them in the Storque.

CircaCeramics

At Crafty Bastards 2007 I had wanted to see Margaux Lange's work but I didn't have a second to skip over to visit, so a few weeks later I bought this as a little gift to myself when I reached 300 sales on Etsy. Getting to meet Margaux in person was awesome, and I hope to cross paths with her at some point again in the future. Be sure to visit her blog where she writes more about her work.

Margaux Lange

It's always nice to visit with familiar faces, Caitlin of Rebound Designs is a member of Craft Mutiny and this was one of her biggest shows ever. Her display looked fabulous!

Rebound Designs

One of my favorite finds at the show was artwork by Elizabeth Perkins, made of cast glass. Described on her website as: "cast glass using the pate de verre method. They are replicas of tatting, lace, and doilies made by my great-grandmother and her sister. The colors are inspired by 1940's lingerie."

Elizabeth Perkins

Almost all of the work I was attracted to was in the 'New Wave,' 'Searchlight,' and 'School to Market,' sections, but all three of these areas were hardly given any space at this event. The New Wave section artists barely had three feet of space each, and they were all crammed together in a fenced off area. I would hope that a greater focus is given to up and coming artists at these future events.

glass3.

Tomorrow night is the opening of an international glass exhibit in which Sean will be taking part in: Glass3

Glass3 is a collaborative exhibit featuring the works of The Washington Glass School, Cohesion Artists from Sunderland England, and artists selected by the Arts Commission of Greater Toledo.

Sean will be exhibiting his latest work which combines glass panels and concrete.




February 21-March 9, Monday-Saturday, noon-8pm, and Sunday, noon-6pm.

This Georgetown exhibit opens Thursday, February 21st, 6-8pm, and is located in The Shops at Georgetown Park, 3222 M Street, NW.

bridges and balloons.

Sketch :: Day 4

I've wanted to draw a hot air balloon ever since I visited the Joseph Cornell show at the Smithsonian American History Museum. This was one of my favorite pieces:


[From a slide show on the SAAM web site. More pieces from the are exhibit here.]

I visited the Joseph Cornell show a few weeks after I spent a lot of time in some big galleries in Chelsea. Most of the work I saw in Chelsea was a larger scale than I had ever seen before. Everything seemed soooo big that it made me question small works of art.

But then at the Joseph Cornell show, all of the pieces were so tiny and detailed and intricate. I visited the exhibit three, maybe four times again before it closed, and every time I visited I found something smaller and more intimate to focus on. There I discovered that I was way more drawn to smaller works of art and it made me realise the track I was already moving on was ok. Small is ok.

I'm still drawing away in my sketch book every day, and am already finding that the pen is moving quicker and quicker as I'm filling more pages with drawings. It feels good to finally have a hot air balloon on paper, and lotuses too. I've been wanting to draw them forever.

Here are some more pages of my daily drawings:

Sketch :: Day 5


Sketch :: Day 8

no idle hands.

My little Moleskine notebooks are somewhere on me all the time. I find it very hard to sit still without having something in my hands. When my pen is out I transform into an obsessive sketcher and list-maker, so when I was invited to join 365 Sketch, I had to say yes. Here is a peek into my sketchbook from the past two days...




If my hands aren't busy drawing, painting, or doodling, you'll most likely find me knitting. When I first learned to knit, I was immediately fascinated by how simple and complicated it was at the same time. In my search for more information, I found a book about the social history of American knitting titled, most perfectly, No Idle Hands. No idle hands is how I think of myself sometimes.

Over the next few months I'll be keeping my hands busy, working on creating more artwork and new designs, and hopefully with more frequent updates on progress over here. To help make that possible, I plan to take a little break from setting up at craft shows. It'll also give me a chance to get to visit shows which is something I rarely get to do when I'm setting up my own work.

If you're in the DC area, today is Craft+Kisses, a valentine craft fair, organised by the lovely Moira of Bookish Lady. Sean and I won't be setting up, but there will be lots of awesome vendors there, and be sure to look out for Craft Mutiny friends!

I hope 2007 was a lovely year for all of you, and 2008 is even better.