Inspiration on the road!

So I was going to post a little project I had designed while I was away on a visit to the family. However, on a stop to rest our legs at the Berea KY Arts and Craft center, I ran across the most fascinating artists polymer cane work!  Artists James C. Rich and Diana Smith Thomas's work bewitched me.  I don't know them and have never met them but I looked and looked and looked at their beautiful work, and made an agonizingly difficult decision of which pieces to purchase.  I finally settled  on this beautiful delicate pink pair.   If you want to see more you can visit their web site at bspokendesigns.com or you can visit their facebook page at facebook.com/bspokendesigns.

I love love love finding new polymer clay artists, and their beautiful work, and I am THRILLED that it was SO available and SO visible at a wonderful travellers rest spot!  Maybe we as artists need to find more unexpected places to show our work:)

What a long strange trip it's been!

Wow!  What can I say?  My bestie Jen Crossley and I have crossed over 7 thousand miles together since September 15th!  (Not counting her flight over from Oz!!)  We did over 2,800 of them in the car!

Here is the catch up scoop!

We started off with 4 days at The Country Living fair in Columbus, Ohio.  Setting up a 10 x 10 booth, manning it for 3 full days, then tearing it down!  Sad to say, the crowds were really really down this year.  But we had a great time with our pals Shari Replogle, and Paula Marquis.  We loved seeing our friends Lisa Ohmer, Jenni Bowlin, Jeannie & Dallas Carter! 

We had only hours to tear the booth down, and then pack for the rest of our events.  We tore through the house like mad women, and packed up suitcases.

We had NO sleep at all, and then before we knew it, we were on the plane to Dallas Texas for the CREATE retreat! Aunt Annies Pretzels and copious amounts of coffee were the rocket fuel that propelled us that day!


 Dallas Create was a fantastic hit!  The students were awesome, and worked hard to make beautiful art- here is just a portion of my Gelli-Print Joy class, hard at it!


I  was informed this week- quite sadly, that the CREATE retreats are no more.  The suits at F&W have had their beans counted, and, as per normal, we artists have fallen short of some magical mystical math equation.  It was such a wonderful ride!  I am proud to say I taught for each and every Create Retreat except for the very first, very small one in Chicago.  It was a pleasure and an honor to work with the Interweave staff, particularly Maggie Reinholtz, Sally Slack, Jenn Mason, and Jeannine Stein. 

t was a royal treat and downright blessing to spend so much time up close and personal with so many wonderful artist-students.


I do have to say the Dallas hotel was really "out there."  It was the Night Hotel, very artsy, and very dark!  Even in the brightest part of the day, it was dark and illuminated by neon and blue/green/red chandeliers!  



 The best part is getting to pal around with your buds!  Natalie Kalbach and I shared our deep fear and loathing of bugs, and fondness for our mutual friends Joe Rotella and Joe Morgan!

Weird! it was all a bit much trying to eat your eggs in the morning to the 2 inch diamonte studded hot pink and gold chairs lit with blue neon- but it WAS heaps of fun!










Jen and I will NEVER forget that all the beds were lit from underneath!

Our roomie Jen Cushman looked quite fetching lit from the floor!







After teaching, we spent an amazing day with our dear friend Magdalena Muldoon!   How much fun it was to tool around the beautiful city with someone who lives there and loves it!

Before we knew it, we were heading home- pretty pie-eyed and exhausted, but cheerful and looking forward to our next event!

Dingy me, I was lucky enough to write an article for Cloth Paper Scissors (which will come out in January) and in our haste packing for Dallas- it went to Dallas with us!  So as soon as we landed, we had to turn around and go to the post office to ship the article and all it's step outs and finished pieces!  Here's a sneak peek!









Well, that's it for tonight, I'm turning into a pumpkin!
Stay tuned- same bat time, same bat channel, for more of the exploits of Jen and Kari!