Holiday Boutique at the Village Artists Gallery and Studio

Dear Family and Friends,
I hope You can come to an art show and holiday boutique where I will be displaying my work.  I will have jewelry, pottery, watercolor paintings and vintage boxes just in time for your holiday gift shopping!

Hope to see you there!

Collaboration

I have been making pottery for over a year and I've started dabbling in jewelry.  What I like to make besides bowls are leaves out of clay.  I have had a few of my designs on Etsy featured in the RetroBabs Vintage shop.

I made this maple leaf necklace for the fall.  It happened to catch the eye of a wonderful artist, Barb Herb-Bonk.
She makes beaded jewelry and asked me to collaborate with her.  Barb created these designs using my pottery leaf and medallions.

I think they look fantastic and she really enhanced my work!   I am thrilled.

Making jewelry is another outlet for my pottery.
Here are the designs I came up with for the Village Artists show.  The show will be a Holiday Boutique on Dec 2-3rd in Homewood, IL.   They are located on Ridge Road and the gallery will features many artists from the group.

You can see I took a different route, than did Barb, but I tend to like simple jewelry.   I fashion these leaves and medallions out of clay slabs, hand sculpt them and then they are glazed at a high temperature in the kiln to give them that patina. 

I hope you can come to the show and celebrate the holidays with me!
A heartfelt thanks to Barb for a wonderful collaboration and using my pottery in her jewelry.
Blessings
Babs

Kiln

It feels very good to work with clay again.  I have thrown four bowls on the wheel at the Village Artists studio.  I have also been working on more leaves for necklaces. 
Best of all I have been given a free kiln!
  It is currently not working but I have not given up hope.  The kiln is a model 181 Skutt and it is old from 1960-1979.  I was given this from the Beverly Art Center, I answered an ad on Craigslist!  They told me that if I can get it working it can be used to slump glass as well as fire clay.  Of course this picture is off the Skutt website and is a new small kiln but this will give you an idea of what I am working with size wise. I am pretty excited.

We are getting ready for our Grand Opening and we are also going to have classes again.

The Village Artists will be starting classes again at our new space.  Artist, Pat Moore, has graciously accepted the teaching position.
The classes are as follows:


2011 Class Schedule
1957 Ridge Road
Homewood, IL 60430
708.798.4774

This beautiful art work is by Pat Moore, our Instructor.

Kids Classes ages 5-9 -  Instructed by  Artist Pat Moore

Art Variety 1
Saturdays: 2PM-3PM, May 7, 14, 21, & 28
Fee: $60 Materials included

Youth Classes ages 10-18 - Instructed by  Artist Pat Moore

Art Variety 2
Saturdays: 3:15PM-4:45PM, May 7, 14, 21 & 28
Fee :$75 Materials included

Teens and Adults Classes - Instructed by Artist Pat Moore

Mixed Media
Mondays: 3PM-4:30PM, May 9, 16, and 23, June 6 &13
Fee: $75 Materials not included

Construction is finished at the Village Artists

Construction is finished at the Village Artists store front in Homewood, IL.  The walls are painted and the floors are new.  Will be ready for our Grand Opening/Open House on April 29-30.  I have been working on more vintage boxes, creating miniature watercolor paintings.  I have also been making some more leaves for necklaces.  I hope they will be fired for glaze by the time of the show.

The boxes are fun, each one speaks to me, calling for a different painting.

This one is titled, "Cherub" and is a music box inside with room for jewelry or trinkets.

Last but not least, I wanted to show you my grandchildren, how they are growing!

Penny is a peanut, a sweet pea, blond with blue eyes.  Miles is all boy, dark eyes and tons of hair.  He out weighs his cousin even though he is 8 weeks younger!  Proud Gramma loves them to pieces, Skypes weekly and cannot wait to go and see them.

The Village Artists-Grand Opening

The Village Artists will be having a Spring Art Show, Grand Opening and Open House.

Friday  April 29th 2011  from  5 pm to 8 pm

Saturday April 30th 2011 from 10 am to 3 pm

Please stop by and visit us - 

See the art work, meet our members and let us show off our new space! 

Village  Artists

1957 Ridge Road, Homewood, IL 60430
708.798.4774

Come and see my new art work.  I have been making some new watercolors inside some vintage jewelry/trinket boxes.  I will also have some work displayed at the Flossmoor Village Library at the end of this month.

Hope to see you there!  Our construction is almost finished and I will be getting back to pottery soon.

Mixing my Vintage RetroBabs world with my Art world

I thought you might be interested on how I try to mix my RetroBabs Vintage & ReMix shop on Etsy with the ART world where I make my personal art.
I recently was involved in an art show with the Village Artists, an art co-op in Homewood, IL.  I brought a vintage suitcase and travel train case and displayed my art work inside these vintage items.  I received many comments on the display, the quirky, kitschy arrangement of fine art against old retro products. I think the juxtaposition is what catches people off guard. I passed out cards for both of my life's ventures and I hope the melding of them brings new customers to my life.   Networking as such has been a very powerful tool for me.

I hope you have a great Holiday and take care. My next post will show you some of my latest art work!