Bloomingdale Holiday Art Market

Get your Art! Drink your Rum and Cider! Buy your Christmas Trees!
The Bloomingdale Holiday Art Market Returns!

On Sunday December 5th, from 4-9pm, the Bloomingdale Holiday Art Market returns to the Big Bear Cafe in Washington, DC.

A small sampling of Artists and Artisans selected from the Crafty Bastards Arts and Crafts Fair will be setting up their work to sell. Big Bear Cafe will be open, Special Holiday Drink will be served, and fresh cut Christmas Trees will be available.

Vendors Include:

Goshdarnknit:

Ghost writers, imaginary friends, runaways, unite! Goshdarnknit is illustrated notebooks for your pockets and knit paintings for your walls, all by DC artist Rania. She knits, paints, embroiders, and gocco prints every surface imaginable with swirly tales of cherry swallowing, bunny spinning, arm doodling fun.

Sean Hennessey:

Sean Hennessey creates beautiful wall sculptures from upcylced glass combined with concrete and steel. Using common and slightly nostalgic imagery, he presents work as archeological remnants of our present world and ways of thinking, with hopes to inspire and make your life better.

60bugs:

"60 bugs" is a punk rock song written by a 5 year old. 60bugs is the line of awesome hand-embroidered and gocco-printed stuff inspired by it. Sometimes funny, sometimes absurd, mostly always cute, Debbie Lee of 60bugs makes fun items for all ages like tee shirts, pins, greeting cards and reusable coffee sleeves.

Tiger Flight:

I have a compulsion to make stuff. Lately (at least for the past 2 years) I have been really taken with making stuff out of other stuff. I use recycled materials in the creation of my animals which forces me to incorporate the patterns and shapes inherent in the found materials and work within the limited size and availability of the materials. Each piece I make is unique and done mostly without pattern which helps to reinforce the idea of originality inherent within each creature.

Eve VanDalsen:

Since taking summer classes at Parsons many years ago and apprenticing for a leather smith, I have slowly developed my own business of designing, making, and selling handbags, wallets and dog collars. I use material from deconstructed old leather bags and clothing as well as odd lot remnants and past season skins. Very rarely are two pieces the same. Every single piece is made by me from start to finish in my Capitol Hill basement and dining room table.

Figs & Ginger:

Figs & Ginger makes recycled Sterling Jewelry for all stages of life. Pieces are inspired by Forests and designed to grow with you. A new line of charms & family critter necklaces has been added to the Figs family. Pieces start at $10 and none go above $80. We're affordable, well made, and oh so cute!


And more! Here are the details, we hope to see you there!

What: Bloomingdale Holiday Art Market
When: Sunday, December 5, 2010
Time: 4-9pm
Where: Big Bear Cafe: 1700 1st Street NW, DC [First and R NW]

Crafty Bastards!

Yes, it's that time of year again! Crafty Bastards, the best show in the DC area, is this Saturday, October 2nd, 10am–5pm. If you’ve been, you know how awesome it is.

Sean has a new series of small glass sculptures that are ready to hang on your walls. I'll have knit paintings, a whole new collection of notebook designs, and a really cool new series...a surprise that you have to show up to see.



You'll find Sean and I on the tennis courts, at 18th Street NW and Wyoming Ave. NW. Here's a handy map on where to find us:

goshdarnknit will be in booth #117, Sean is booth #118. Hope to see you there!

Come early for the best selection, you won’t want to miss this show!

workshop: june 5.

Undocumented Border Flowers
image from consuelojunderwood.com

If you're in the DC area, and interested in the fiber arts, here's an interesting workshop for you.

The James Renwick Alliance have organised a fiber workshop by Consuelo Jimenez Underwood this coming Saturday, June 5. The Renwick Alliance are offering a reduced rate for fiber artists interested in taking the workshop. Details follow below.

There will also be a related lecture [free] by the artist on Sunday, June 6, 3pm, in the Grand Salon of the Smithsonian Renwick Museum. Artist Talk is titled "Political Threads/Hilos Politicos—A Contemporary Perspective on Issues Regarding Spirit, Land and Art” Fiber artist Consuelo Jiménez Underwood has been producing artworks expressing her memories of the indigenous peoples of the Americas for more than thirty years. Join the artist as she discusses the historical, societal, and personal references in her work.


Consuelo Jimenez Underwood, Virgen de los Caminos, 1994
Image from craftinamerica.org

More about the Workshop, from the James Renwick Alliance:
Consuelo J. Underwood has exhibited and lectured and given workshops nationally and internationally for more than twenty five years. She was born in Sacramento, California, and received her BA and her MA from the San Diego State University. She developed the Fiber/Textile program in the School of Arts and Design at San Jose State University after receiving her MFA there in 1987. Her contributions to the contemporary Chicano and Fiber Art movements have been referenced in multiple critical publications and her work is in several museums, including our own Smithsonian American Art Museum.

Shifting from brushes and paint to needle and thread early in her career, she has infused her woven and embroidered textiles with historical and political images from her personal and familial past. She has said she has felt empowered by the voices of her maternal ancestors to cross the intellectual borders that separated the hand and the mind from the “fine” art spirit, and that her “work reflects the quiet rage that has permeated the Americas for more than five hundred years.”

This hands-on workshop will be an interactive journey with Consuelo, revealing how threads have context, meaning and power. Participants, using miniature flags, needles and thread, will learn how to transform basic sewing materials and process into powerful statements that deal with contemporary social and political events.

Date: Saturday, June 5, 10am–3pm
Location: The Art League School
305 Madison Street, Alexandria, VA 22315
Fee: This workshop is being offered to visual and fiber artists at the discounted price of $45.
To register: Call Sarah Frey at the JRA Office at 301.907.3888
or email at admin@jra.org.

tribute to fiber art exhibit.

This Saturday, join me at an artist reception!



My piece titled Knit Circle will be on exhibit at the 3rd Annual Tribute to Fiber Art juried exhibit at BlackRock Center for the Arts in Germantown, Maryland. The show opened on March 3 and will run through March 27. The artist reception is Saturday, March 6, 5.30–7.30pm, hope to see you there!



BlackRock Center for the Arts
12901 Town Commons Drive :: Germantown, MD 20874
Artist Reception: Saturday, March 6, 5.30–7.30pm
Click here for map

Art Gallery Hours:
March 3–March 27, 2010
Monday to Friday, 10am–5pm
Saturdays, 10am–2pm
Free Admission