NEW TOTEM STAKE COMPONENTS

Our totem series allows you to select your own combination of pieces and to build your own totem stake. Here are two new stake components ready for Heaven and Nature Sing which opens Friday, November 4 from 10am-6pm.

Puti Angel

Nature Sings Message Tile

GUEST ARTIST - ROSE MARIE DAMMANN

From the time of her very first class in lampworking (glass bead making), Rose Marie was hooked. On weekends you will find her hunched over her torch happily melting glass. When she’s not working with glass, she enjoys creating in many other mediums, making felt pincushions is her current passion. Rose Marie is an excellent craftsperson and a top-notch designer. Note the precision and the beautiful design she achieves in each of these beautiful handmade beads. She's always had a strong love for color which is evident in her work.

GUEST ARTIST - LYNN BAXLEY

Lynn has been working in clay for quite awhile but lately has been having a yen for fiber. The logical transition was to press fiber into clay. She discovered that weavings and crochet and lace make wonderful impressions in the clay surface. Now she has a whole new range of textures to explore!

Ceramic Wall Pockets

Lynn joined us for the first time at our Hollyhock Days sale in spring of this year. She offered beautiful ceramic orbs for use inside and out. For Heaven and Nature Sing, Lynn has picked up the theme of leaves and stars on these wonderful ceramic balls that make really cool votive or tea light holders.

ANNOUNCING OUR HOLIDAY RETAIL EVENT

LIGHT SHINE-HEAVEN AND NATURE SING

There will be a focused area at our Holiday Gift Open House featuring wonderful things that will either give or reflect light. Lisa Freeman has made these fun suncatchers from recyled glass and all sorts of beads. Talk about sparkle, shimmer and shine!

GUEST ARTIST - KAY YOUNG

It is exciting that the well-known glassware artist, Kay Young, has moved to Overland Park and will be joining the group at the Holiday Gift Open House.

She started Kay Young Glassware in 1993 selling her work at small boutiques and fairs. She was accepted to the prestigious Baltimore American Craft Council Show in 1994 to exhibit her work to the wholesale market. She was an immediate success! Her work has been sold in over 300 stores including Van Maur, Borsheims, Neiman Marcus, Nordstroms, The Boston Museum of Fine Art, the Oakland Museum and many upscale galleries and boutiques. At one time she had 10 people employed in her painting studio and the pace was fast and furious! She still sells her work nationally, but has scaled down her business to enjoy a slower pace.

Along with having a previous showroom on 5^th Avenue in New York City, Kay’s work has appeared in Better Homes and Gardens, Sunset Magazine, Cheers, The Crafts Report, American Craft, The LA Times, the SF Chronicle and other well known publications. She was interviewed for SF radio station KCBS after being invited to create a Christmas tree ornament for the Clinton White House in 1996. Her work has been collected by many celebrities including Kelley Preston and John Travolta and Sandra Bullock. She was featured on HGTV “That’s Clever” television show in 2005.

GUEST ARTIST - PAULA HAYEK

As a child Paula was always concerned about the feelings of her stuffed animal friends. That concern continues as she creates one-of-a-kind plush critters, allowing them to tell her just what their personalities are. They all have a strong unique appeal. Which one is going to end up with you?

These penguins are the newest critters who have posable arms, legs and even beaks!

NEW IN HANDMADE PAPER AND PAPER MACHE

Here's a nice twist on the usual bowl shape, star-shaped platters made from recycled handmade paper, boxwood leaves and beauty berry leaves.

This angel is made from mixed media including recycled handmade paper, silk leaves and various nature bits from the garden. It is one of 11, each with its own personality, that will be supporting our HEAVEN AND NATURE SING theme at this year's Holiday Gift Open House.

GUEST ARTIST - MARILYN GASH

Marilyn loves embroidery and the warm feel of beautiful wool fabrics. She still makes her signature pillows, ornaments and pincushions but has expanded to include albums with embroidered covers. Her creative stitchery enhances the album covers with pretty fabric-print pages that are hard to resist. It is hard to pick just one!

GUEST ARTIST - GLENDA FLANNAGAN

Glenda is a city girl who fell in love with wonderful country spaces. When she is not canning and making jelly, you can find her in the studio trying out different art supplies. Fabric dying and weaving have consumed her free time this year. After teaching art for many years, she is adding sparkle to her life finding out just exactly who she wants to be “when she grows up!”

WING BASIN

I am really excited to share this new wing water basin. It holds just enough water for the birds to enjoy after the sprinklers have gone on and then dries out by afternoon so there is no mosquito larvae problem. It is also "stepable" meaning, you can use it for a garden stepping stone. This will certainly be a feature of HEAVEN AND NATURE SING, our Holiday Gift Open House. Opening weekend is November 5-7. We're open from 10:00 am to 6:00 pm.

GUEST ARTIST - ROBIN MACKINTOSH

Robin is a lucky girl...she has a charming, patient, supportive husband, two fat, wiggly pugs (you cannot have a bad day when surrounded by pugs), a doting mother who taught her that she could do anything she sets her mind to, and she gets to do something she loves for a living! She loves to make things- it all starts with jewelry, but sometimes a brooch idea becomes a wall piece, sometimes earring ideas make better lamps so she has expanded her horizons. You could say she makes ornamentation for the body and home. Robin alsohas the pleasure of being a member of Eclectics, the artists co-op...could life be any sweeter?

GUEST ARTIST - LINDA MALONEY

Mah Jongg and vintage tiles are fascinate Linda because of their wonderful tactile feel and chunky fun appearance. She started making other items from Mah Jongg tiles, one-of-a kind necklaces and pins. She expanded to using dice and gaming chips in my designs as well. Recently I have been experiementing with small decorative vintage Christmas trees.

CONCRETE WREATH

Each summer, we spend a great deal of time and care growing and drying herbs and flowers from the garden to be made into beautiful wreaths. The one pictured below is our signature wreath and will be available among many others at the Holiday Gift Open House. Wreaths are the first products I made to share with others and this is reflected in our logo. The outdoor concrete wreath is new this fall and picks up our theme of Heaven and Nature Sing, featuring stars, leaves and an angel.

Summer's Garden Wreath

New Concrete Garden Wreath

GUEST ARTIST - FRANK MANGIARACINA

Woodworking is Frank's passion! He has been working with fine and exotic woods for the past 20 years, using woods from around the world – North, Central and South America and Africa. He selects woods that have interesting grains, rich color and that finish beautifully. Frank loves to create new, original and interesting pieces that you will enjoy using and/or displaying in your home, or giving as a gift.

GUEST ARTIST - JUDY PORTER

Having worked as a caricature artist for the last 25 years, Judy recently became interested in taking her 2D art to 3D with these little sculptures called The Sandbox Toonies. This is the result of drawing thousands of little children for parties and events. The Toonies are anywhere from five to nine inches tall. The head, hands and feet are sculpted from polymer clay, no molds were used. The bodies are soft sculpted in wool roving, embellished with various fibers. A metal armature allows these little dolls to be somewhat posable. So sit them on a window sill, hang from a curio cabinet or house plant. They are not suitable as a childs toy but rather a work of art. The Sandbox Toonies are "little kids doing what little kids do" for big kids to enjoy. It's a work of art that makes you remember your own childhood and smile. Check out, www.judyporterdolls.com and www.thefinetooners.com.

NEW GARDEN STONES

These new mosaic stepping stones featuring a cast leaves with recycled pieces of natural stone fit nicely into our theme, Heaven and Nature Sing.

ANNOUNCING OUR HOLIDAY RETAIL EVENT

HEAVY LITTLE SANTAS

For the fun of it, I made these little Santas out of concrete and decided to use the colors of our Heaven and Nature Sing color palette in a less traditional manner. They'll greet your guests out on your front porch or you can stick him in your bird bath so the birds can get in on the holiday spirit!

GUEST ARTIST - ANN DAHL

The more creative she is, the more creative she becomes. Ann has discovered that when she allows herself the time to create and to do the things she loves, it is all she wishes to do. It is fun to see the potential for artwork in found objects. Ann loves to reinvent and recycle license plates and finds great joy in putting new words and phrases together a sign together for a twist that sure to make someone happy.

GUEST ARTIST - JEANNE ELMER

Jeanne's artwork is inspired by all things miniature, childhood memories and the art of Joseph Cornell. She loves the idea of creating tiny alternate realities, captured and preserved behind glass. She gathers “little’s” gleaned from estate sales and flea markets and then re-assemble them in small boxes. The boxes are then soldered with lead-free solder. Each piece is unlike any other and like Cornell’s work, her pieces create a magical dream like effect. The pendant necklaces can be housed in a shrine box for display when the necklace is not being worn. Is that cool or what?