Spring is in the Air!

I must admit its been a while since I posted to this blog. I wish that I could say its because I've been busy crafting, but its mostly because I've been busy planting, cooking and chasing around my spunky little malt terrier. I've also started a new blog, Dining In, that focuses more on food, especially our quest to try and eat more homemade and local grown food.

I am however still planning on participating in StART on the Street Spring Edition on May 22nd on Main St. in Worcester. I'll be selling my torn paper collages along with some prints and notecards, felted soaps, hair acessories, aprons and more. I'll have some new collages and some other surprises at my both this year too.

There are alot of other great crafters that will be participating this year, whose work I really admire, so I thought I'd focus some of this blog post on what else you can expect to see at this year's stART Spring Edition:

Steel Mountain Fabricators
Steel Mountain Fabricators is run by my husbands uncle, Stephen Szepanski. He creates cool metal art for home and garden by cutting designs out of steel with a plasma cutter. Garden signs, wall art and planters are just a few of the items you'll find at his booth.

Check out his website too: http://www.steelmountainfabricators.com





Gravestone Girls
The Gravestone Girls have been at stART events in the past. I love the decorative artwork they create using castings of primative images carved into old New England gravestones. Check them out at StART and read more about their artwork at http://www.gravestonegirls.com/index.html





Little Terrapin Jewelry

I met Little Terrapin Jewelry when its creator, Tyra Penn, organized the craft show at the Amazing Art Center in Framingham last winter. Her line of beaded jewelry primarily features semiprecious stone with copper or sterling findings. Many pieces also incorporate freshwater pearls; vintage glass beads or buttons; and cloisonne. Little Terrapin is inspired by the tiny ecologies we find all around us in gardens, marshes and woods. Check out her shop on etsy, too: http://www.etsy.com/shop/littleterrapin

Seed to Stem
I've never met Seed to Stem but have been admiring the tiny terraniums filled with beautiful succulants on Seed to Stem's facebook page and blog. I'm already a big fan and hope to get a little something from her booth on the 22nd! Check out her blog here: http://www.seedtostem.org


Hope you enjoy this preview! If you are going to be an artist at StART Spring Edition, please email me at saranoh77 at gmail.com to be added to future blog posts. And if your planning to attend as a shopper, please check back for more featured artists! Mor info on the event can also be found at http://www.startonthestreet.org.

Happy Crafting!

2011

The year is almost over, Christmas has passed, my craft shows have all finished up and everything is packed up for the year. Now I'm busy trying to get organized for next year. I'm ordering supplies, planning out my schedule for crafting and putting together a list of shows that I want to apply to. I'm hopeful that next year I can be more disciplined so that I can get more scarves and soaps and collages done and even get some new products designed.

SATS, Amazing Things

I have 2 great shows coming up! I will once again be part of the Start at the StATION craft show at Union Center on Sunday, December 5th. I will also be in Framingham the following Sunday at the Amazing Things Art Center. What fun!

This year I've added some yarn wreaths to my collection of goodies. I also have a ton of beautiful nuno scarves, felted soaps and "mommy & me" apron sets, yarn wreaths and some cute ornaments like these upcycled spoon santas. Can't wait to see how this year's shows go!

stART on the Street 2010

stART on the Street this year had a big family connection. Not only did my mom come to help me man my booth as she usually does, but my dad also came with her and hung out all day at stART. AND my husband's uncle was also a stART vendor for the first time and brought along his wife and his sister (my mother-in-law) as his helpers.


My uncle-in-law and I ended up getting booths next to each other, except we were separated by the second stage. I'm not sure if being next to the performances was a good or bad thing. The music, poetry and performances were awesome. And most of the time loud. So it made it difficult to hear customers at times. But it was awesome. And I dont think that it increased or decreased the number of people who stopped to look a the booth.

The weather was great and so was the crowd. I think here were more people than ever in attendance. This year the stART folks did not sell sidwalk spaces and had the vendor all through the center of the street. It was nice because it pushed the booths further up the road by the park which made it feel more connected to the art in the park event that was also going on at Elm Park. It also left more room for pedestrians.

The food was amazing as usual, with pile of local restuarants serving up some great options. I think my dad sampled a handful of different dishes throughout the course of the day. I was able to enjoy some awesome jamaican jerk chicken, red beand and rice and plantains from One Love, and I also had an awesome smoothie from NuCafe.

As for sales, I did OK at this show, not as good as last year, but better than my first year. For some reason my scarves did not sell this year as I was expecting. Lots of looks but only one sold. I had a number of small sales of things like coffee sleeves, notecards and felted soaps. My last sale was my favorite one - I sold two small pieces of my original paper collages! This was my first sale of my original art in Massachusetts since we moved here, so i was very excited to have someone purchase them! The two pieces that sold were of trees.. "On the Beaten Path" which was one of the first ones I made and "Paper Birches" which is one of the lastest ones I've done (and was just in the Fitchburg Art Museum Show).


StART was awesome, I'm always so grateful to participate in this event and so proud that such an event takes place in my new hometown. It is the highlight of my year, and the start of the craft show season for me. I am going to do a small show in Southbridge in November and then will probably participate in the Clark Curefest Show and StART at the Station in December.

Even though I didnt sell alot of scarves, I am still planning on making at least a dozen or so more of them, along with about 30 more soaps, and a pile of cute ornaments and perhaps a few more yarn wreaths. So I suppose I should log off now and get busy crafting!

Fitchburg Museum 75th Regional Art and Craft Show

I was very fortunate to be accepted into the Fitchburg Museum's 75th Regional Art and Craft Show. It opened on June 27th and will run until September 5th of this year. The exhibit features some amazing artwork. Over 100 pieces are hung in 3 galleries at the museum. Its really a stunning exhibit. Here's a few pictures: