Ginny's Small Studio

Afternoon Opening

John and I enjoyed attending a lovely gallery opening yesterday afternoon. We were invited by several of the artists and very pleased to be included. Three of the artists had taught at Art Continuum and my former store and so I was excited to see their work with an uncluttered mind instead of with the head of an organizer. There were eight artists represented which allowed each to have many pieces displayed.

Don't forget that you can click on the photos for a larger version!

Gayle Pritchard, one of my favorite artists and a very good friend, excels at so many artistic techniques that it is difficult to label what kind of art she does. Here are several quilts she exhibited which included cloth, paper, metal, transfers, added objects, transparencies and more.

Gayle also displayed a grouping of cloth books, cloth boxes and shadow boxes. Layers and layers of interesting stories abound in her pieces.

Lois Carroll had several wearable art pieces on display and quite a few books. All wonderful.

And then there were Susie Shie's quilts.

They are amazing. Susie has been doing large quilts with the theme of The Kitchen Tarot Cards. They are "diary" quilts, as she calls them. Earlier ones featured hand embroidered words, but now she has mastered the air pen. She does all the writing with tiny surgical needles and it is exquisite, very smooth and easy to read. Look at this close-up below.

We were chatting about her work and I commented on the change in technique: embroidered vs air pen. She told me that she can do one of her large quilts now in one-two months rather than half a year. I, for one, am glad. We need more of her quilts.

It was fun and interesting AND inspiring to see all this wonderful artwork. The other artists represented were also interesting, unfortunately I only took photos of my friend's works.

Oh, Gayle's cute and talented husband Chris and his musical partner played their guitars and sang in the background throughout the event. Very classy. Some of you may remember Chris as our resident "Elvis" at the Creative Block.

Robert Rauschenberg

One of my favorite artists passed away this past week, Robert Rauschenberg. The art world has lost more than just another artist. Rauschenberg was an innovator and an explorer. Years ago, I saved up enough rationalization to purchase a very expensive art book of his works. A few years ago, John and I were fortunate to be able to see an exhibit of his work at MOCA in LA.

The exhibit was huge, displayed in several rooms. There were prints, collages, assemblages and installations. It was so exciting to actually see up close that which I had only seen in smallish photographs. After savoring the first few large works, looking at every detail and then looking again to be sure I did not miss any nuances, I then had to look again because John noticed something I had overlooked. We became totally overwhelmed and had to go outside and rest our eyes for the overload of stimulus.

Back we went for more. It was the absolute best exhibit I have ever attended. We talked about it for days and days and finally had to go back and see it again. There was so much more to see the second time because we were somewhat prepared for the overload. I wanted to live in that museum for a week...at least...and just feast on the ideas and executions of his art works. I loved the textures, the layers, the colors, the juxtaposition of unlike objects that suddenly made sense together and the series of an idea developed over and over.

I never met him, but I feel as though there has been a loss in the family.

Collections

Sometimes we set out to collect a certain thing. Sometimes we begin innocently with just one item and suddenly it becomes a full fledged collection. Sometimes we inherit a collection.
When my grandmother died, my father gathered my brothers and me together to choose what we wanted of grandma's antiques collection. Mostly she collected glass which was beautiful, but I was drawn to her small collection of figural napkin rings. I think there were five. Figural napkin rings from the late 1800s are generally silverplate over pewter (this can vary) and the ring is often held by children or animals. Easy to find are the barrel depicted rings. Figural napkin rings vary in price from a few dollars to thousands of dollars. Price is based, of course, on rarity, condition, subject and complexity of the design. Needless to say, I don't own any in the $1000 range.

I have looked for them nonchalantly through the years not really intending to collect more, but rather to see more of them since there are so many variations. They are American in origin, but I have spotted more in Europe and in Canada then here in the States. Once while in Heidleberg, Germany, we were walking down a shopping street and spied in the window of an antique shop, a small napkin ring held aloft by a teeny silver squirrel. Into the shop to negotiate the sale we went. After the shopkeeper insisted that he never had seen one like it, nor one in such good condition, we purchased it. The next day we walked this same street and in the same shop window was...you guessed it...the same napkin ring!

Children pushing, pulling or balancing a ring are quite common for this not too common genre. Kate Greenaway little girls were a very popular subject for napkin rings. Boys in knickers and little angels also seem to be fairly common. I read about a rare baseball player ring that sold at auction for $4500! Unfortunately I was not the seller. When I say common, I mean that if you are lucky enough to find one of these rings, they generally are children or squirrels> At least that has been my experience.

When John and I were dating, I mentioned I had a little collection of these napkin rings. About six months later, for my birthday John surprised with the two napkin rings above.

One of the original five rings, is the chair one below. It is in good shape and has lots of detail. The legs of the chair are bamboo or twig-like, the seat back has a little shield and the ring sits on the seat.

It is fun to set a company dinner table with a different ring at each place.

Speaking of company, we had a house full on Sunday for Mother's Day. There were 10 adults (5 moms) and 6 kids from one year olds to an 8 year old. We planned on a nice outdoor BarBQue, but because of rain, ended up with a sit down dinner. The last minute menu change worked out with just a little stress on my part, but it all turned out fine. John who has definitely won husband of the year, went out on Friday and came home with 5 big pots of beautiful red Gerbera Daisies, one for each mom. He even transplanted them from the plastic pots to clay pots. We were going to center them on the patio table, but they ended up marching down the dining room table and one went home with each mom. I hope all of you had a lovely Mother's Day, too!

Good MAIL!

So far the mail count for funny Mom's Day cards from offspring #3. my daughter Amy, is 4. Each card is funnier than the next. I have been receiving them each day this week and it is really fun to think of her in the card shop opening them and laughing while standing in the aisle all by herself. Or picture this...a whole bunch of random people looking at cards and each laughing alone.

Then today, along with silly (but loved) greeting cards was a nice, thick manilla envelope all the way from Chittaway Bay, Australia. It was from my friend Rachel Grieg, the extraordinary photographer and owner of Darkroom Door. Rachel sent me a sampling of her product line goodies. There are PhotoBooth pictures, filmstrip photos, "photochips" (small 3x3 photos) and Montage, her travel photos, all on sturdy cardstock that can be altered, sanded and placed in artwork. In the flyer she sent, there are also unmounted rubber stamps and a floral collection. Everything is beautifully done. Note the wonderful handmade card she sent me too!

As if that isn't enough, she also sent an Australian stamping magazine, Stamping & Papercraft.
Inside, much to my delight, was a stamping challenge using a Stampers Anonymous stamp that I designed!

The stamp is Newsy Leaf K1-1113 and is part of a small collection I did about a year ago and includes Newsy Bird and Wordy Woman. (Page 128 in the online and paper catalog). These have always been among my favorite that I have done for SA. All the words on these three stamps are pieced together from other SA text stamps. They were fun to make and fun to use.

Your "green" comments were very interesting. Thanks for the public and private posts!

Numbers for today:
The government spent $41.8 million to mail notices alerting taxpayers to expect economic stimulus checks!!!!
Ricky Nelson would have been 68 today.
There are 7601 Ginnys in the US
There are 0 Smallenburgs (that' weird since I know 6 Smallenburg families, all in CA.
There are almost 1/2 million Carters, the 39th most popular name.
The 3 numbers were gleaned from How Many of Me?

More Tulip Tales & More

In the comments yesterday, it was mentioned by Shirley that planted tulips become less hardy each year. Again, my information from living in the Netherlands agrees with this. The Dutch actually dig the bulbs up after the foliage has died and then they are stored to be planted in the Fall again. The Dutch like the tulips best when they are full blown and to make them last longer, they put a pinhole in the stalk next to the flower head. There are even special tulip vases in Holland. Traditional vases have many openings for one tulip stalk each. The modern vases are slanted so that all the blooms lean lazily to one side. Both are very attractive.

Also in the comments, Rachel mentioned visiting Keukenhof Gardens in Holland. The gardens have been open since the late 40s but only for about 6 weeks in the Spring. It is planted each year by various landscapers who vie for the privilege. About a million people visit annually to see the fabulous natural displays (see above) of spring blooms. One can spend an entire day there just strolling the grounds.

in the comments Joy wondered if the deer were eating her tulips. After we returned to live in Connecticut after our stay in Holland, we planted thousands of tulips only to have them eaten by the deer just as they bloomed. Rather than offer up another deer buffet, we opted to plant daffodils and narcissus. King Alfred is the common daffodil, but there are hundreds of other types. I really got into them while in Connecticut. My favorite was an apricot colored frilly flower. I have never seen them again.

I think my webgirl will have our new products online tonight. They include new Gaffer Tape, new Shrine Kit that fits an ATc or whatever else you want, new 3 compartment cubbyhole kit and new stand-up numbers.

We got dirty over here. We bought 7 huge flats of impatiens, several peonies, lupines, lilies, dahlias and enough flowers to fill two railing planters, one hanging plant and some big pots. We started planting on Sunday, but the allergies got the best of me, so John has had to finish. Even in their infancy, the beds look wonderful. When they fill in, I will bore you with photos.

Okay. Question of the day: Have you tried to be more "green" and how? I will start you out with my list of our greenness or lack of greenness.
1. We have replaced many light bulbs with the spiral type and have use reduced wattage in the ones we can't replace.
2. I take canvas bags to the market with me. If I have overflow or I forget them, we recycle the bags back at the store's recycle bin.
3. We recycle tins, bottles and plastic. Our town has a weekly pick-up.
4. We opt for no bag if given a choice.
5. We try very hard to use up the last of every thing to reduce throwing out spoiled food.
6. I try not to buy Made in China or other foreign product. It is difficult and sometimes disappointing. A few weeks ago, I needed to buy some new bath towels for the guest bathroom. I went to the local bedding store and bought the Made in the USA rather than the made in China. I brought them home and washed them. The two identical bath towels I bought turned out to be vastly different in size and the edges, after washing, had come unraveled. I am frustrated.

A Memory of Tulips

We lived in the Netherlands, Holland Province, in the late 80s. The little village of Wassenaar was just a suburb of the Hague and all the wonders that cosmopolitan city had to offer. But surrounding our village were tulip fields, real honest-to-goodness tulip fields. In the spring we watched the fields as the bits of green pushed up through the furrows and began to grow taller and taller. Soon we could see the bulbs begin to form on the stalks as we drove by. We were getting more excited each day about seeing our first bulb fields up close. Then one day there they were...row upon row of bright red tulips bobbing their beautiful little heads in the breeze. I hurried home, gathered my daughter and off we drove with cameras in hand ready to record this awesome sight. As we approached the fields I couldn't believe my eyes. The red tulip heads were laying in a huge pile next to the road. In the distance we could see large machinery cutting the heads off of each and every tulip plant. Close by us were workers with huge baskets, loading the heads of the flowers and tossing them into the backs of trucks. It was surreal. The stems were short, maybe two inches, so the cut flowers were not intended for florists. Finally one of the men came over and explained that these fields were for bulb production. If the flowers are left on the stalks, they will drain the strength of the bulbs. the flower heads are left on the plant after opening just for a few days and then are cut. Tulips for florists are generally grown in greenhouses.
The short stemmed tulips showed up a few days later in roadside stands as "slingers", (a garland of flowers) to be added to the front bumper of one's car or truck. I loved seeing so many cars festooned with this Dutch debris, as we called it in our house. The Dutch never waste anything! They looked like big Hawaiian leis.
The Dutch export several billion flower bulbs a year and over 10 billion cut flowers a year all over the globe. From the time they are cut in Holland to showing up in a US florist shop can be as few as 48 hours! This is accomplished through the Dutch flower auctions. I visited the Aalsmeer flower auction outside of Amsterdam. It was truly amazing. Be sure to visit the auction no matter what season you there. The public is welcome.
As much as I love tulips, I have had such negative experience with them trying to enjoy them before the deer eat them. I know we have deer at our house, so I will not be planting them here, but they are in bloom around town and I am so enjoying everyone else's floral displays.

Where oh where

Where have I been, you ask? Well, right here, but busy. I have been busy with orders from the Small Studio, busy with a horrible allergy attack, busy with cooking for a big party at my son's house and well, just busy with the dailiness of life, all in a good way.

Yesterday was grandson Joey's first communion. After a very nice church service, we went back to Tim's and Karen's for a big family party. There were 70 people. Those of you who live in the general OH area, know how hard it has been raining. The skies have been black, the wind gusty and the rain coming down so hard the windshield wipers do no good at all. Well, all during the service it was like that and all the way back to Tim's house it was dark with torrential rain and lightning and thunder. By the time we got the food on the table, the sun was shining, the sky blue and the full glory of spring blooms visible all around us as we sat outside under the big white tent they had rented for the party.

Then about 7pm, the sky darkened, the clouds gathered and Mother Nature reminded everyone that it was time to go home. Perfect timing.

Life goes on now. Back to normal. Maybe even some time for some art this week if I can pry my swollen eyes open. Love spring. Hate the allergies.

Ready for another question? How about this?

Tell me about the best workshop(s) you have ever taken.

The Weekend

The weekend with my son Wes and his family had highs, lows, twists, turns and nuances. Well, maybe I am being a bit dramatic, but it was eventful.

One of the highs was our trip to the Great Lakes Science Center. It is a hands on science museum on the Lake and was so much fun for all of us. Above is little Rachel with her hair on end at the static electricity exhibit. The kids and adults had a great time.

Another high was the art projects with the kids. They painted bendee dolls...Alli did a surfer dude complete with Hawaiian shirt. She did an excellent job. The twins made ticket bowls (one of mine is my art album) and cards using stamps, stencils and rub-ons. They did a great job on these also. I was amazed at how focused and how well the little ones followed suggestions and guidelines. I neglected to take photos, but trust me, you would have been impressed.

Another high was the instant camaraderie between the two sets of grandkids who had never met each other and the ensuing high pitched laughter, giggles and silliness.

The low was granddaughter Alli being in the hospital for two nights suffering from a tonsil problem. Son Wes stayed there with her. Poor little thing was scared and in pain. But she is okay and the unexpected result was that we were able to spend more time with Wendy (who draws great temporary tattoos) and the twins.

The twists and turns were poor Wendy trying to find the hospital with construction detours and alternate routes. What did we do before cell phones???

It was fun to talk to Wendy about home businesses. She has a wonderfully successful children's character towel business called YikesTwins!

Let's see. what else? I spent all day today trying to set up an Etsy shop for my items that are too limited in number to be on the website. I wish I knew more about sizing photos and other technical problems that arose. I will keep you posted.

Need another question of the day?

Name three things that made you happy this past weekend.

Mine are:
The visiting family both Wes and Tim's.
John and Wes bonding.
Doing art projects with the kids.

Gimmee Five

Five Things on my List To-Do Today

1. Grocery shop for son Wes and family who are coming for the weekend.
2. Work more on my Etsy shop so that it will finally be online.
3. Figure out how to alleviate my allergies that are in full gear today.
4. Go to the garden shop for some spring color, the bank for money and PO to ship orders.
5. Get warm weather clothes out of hiding

Five Things That Make Me Happy Today

1. John, of course!
2. A clean house
3. Open windows and gentle breeze
4. The anticipation of the aforementioned visiting family
5. The stack of reading beckoning to me that promises hours and hours of enjoyment.

Five Places I have Lived

1. Westlake Village CA
2. Westlake, OH
3. Westport CT
4. Wassenaar, The Netherlands
5. Rochester NY

Five Favorite Movies

1. Amelie
2. Pride & Prejudice ( the older TV mini series)
3. Castaway
4. Recently saw Vantage Point and liked the format/concept
5. For Fluff: Any Tom Hanks, Meg Ryan, Sandra Bullock kind of movie. What can I say, I am a hopeless romantic and believe in happily ever after.

Five Things on My Desk Today

1. Invitations to a Mother's Day Party that need to be sent.
2. Craft Supplies for a Project to do with the kids this weekend.
3. Some Casablanca quote stencils that Mike Meador gifted his friends last week.
4. A zillion colored pencils
5. Small Blank canvasses waiting for inspiration to hit.

Five Artists I Like

1. Robert Rauschenburg
2. Robert Villamagna
3. Keith Lo Bue
4. Jan Steen
5. Vermeer

Pick any one of the above and share your five here or do the whole list on your blog and link to the comments here.

You don't phone, don't write...

Sometimes one just longs to hear a certain voice. E-mail is great, letters are wonderful, a face-to-face visit the best, but sometimes a long chat on the phone is the best.

Before cell phones and computers, the excitement of the phone ringing was an event. I can remember my mom putting her hand over the receiver and saying in a loud whisper "it's long-distance". This meant she would talk fast and listen intently with her other hand covering her other ear. Boy, oh boy, we knew we had to be quiet or else!

Then in junior high and high school when girls never ever EVER called boys, we girls would wait and wait for HIM to call and when he didn't, we would continually pick up the phone to see if it was working. But if he did call, it was a sudden lurch of the heart and a tugging of the long, thick telephone cord as we pulled the phone into our bedroom and closed the door for privacy. If we talked too long, one of our brothers (and you know which one you are) might pull on the cord while we talked to the current heartthrob. In fact he might pull on it so hard that it might break in half. It happened more than once and we both were in big trouble...even though he started it!

Even though now we are all so connected to each other electronically and the cost of communication has become so affordable, it still is nice to hear a familiar voice at the other end. It is nice to know that someone was thinking of you and wanted to hear your voice, wanted more than a few lines of e-mail, wanted to know what your answer might be right now.

I have friends who call to chat and laugh often and I talk to my daughter almost daily (sometimes hourly if we are working on a project). Now my grandkids sometimes call to share a momentous event. Cees and Tony lost their first teeth this week. Joey called to tell me about his game. Ginny talked to me about her participation in the AIDs walk (she got to hold one of the signs). We may live miles apart, but the phone keeps us connected.

John and I are making preparations (trying clean off our worktables) for a visit from my son Wes' family this weekend. We haven't seen them in a very long time, so excitement is high. Oh, if the kids are reading this, I want them to know that besides broccoli and asparagas, I have also been stockpiling spinach, cauliflower and brussel sprouts for them. I am sure I heard them say they love all those veggies even more than cookies! Yes, I am sure of it.

Question for the day:
Tell us about your favorite craft books that you go back to again and again.

No, Really

The new stencils and postcards and stuff are really, really online now at Small Studio. Sorry for the delay.

Sunday Random Remarks

John and I were just sitting here chatting about this and that as we tend to do. He tells me his stories of the years I missed with him and I tell him my stories. There are many stories during that 40 year gap to be told. We think we might run out of stories about 2063. By then, we will have forgotten most of the first ones and can start over. John started talking about his wonderful peacock bass fishing trip last October in Brazil. I don't think I showed you this photo taken from the plane of the small landing strip carved out of the jungle and the little houseboat on the river where the men stayed for the week. As always, you can click on the photo to view it larger.

I am so glad he had such a memorable adventure, but everytime I look at his photos, I am reminded that my idea of roughing it, is staying at a Holiday Inn. He can have the cold river water showers, the fist size tarantulas in his bed and the other scary wildlife. I am sorry we did not share the daily visit of the swarm of intensely blue 12" butterflies or the incredible sunsets over the Amazon, but I am pleased he is so good at describing them to me.

I have enjoyed your comments about the tentative workshops. Thank you! And I have enjoyed the creative things you shared about the last creative thing you did.

Have you visited The Crafty Storage blog? Well, go there AFTER you finish here. You will be there a long time looking at all the art studios in her right hand list. One of the things she talks about is a full size cutting mat. There is a company that will make custom size to fit your particular work table, but they also have huge ones for sale and I think they are really reasonable. You can find them here.

Here is your question for today:
List the last few books you have read and your opinion on them.

I'll start you off with mine. I finished "Abundance" and ended up really liking it, but it was a bit of a struggle to get into it at the beginning. I think I would like to learn more about Marie Antoinette now.
I just finished "Water for Elephants" and couldn't put it down. Loved the format, the unknown to me world of the circus, the depression stories and the interview with the author at the end of the book. "Abundance" also had an interview at the end and a bibliography. Love books that do that. I just started "Pillars of the Earth"....it will be awhile before you get a review.

New Things

Just a quick post to alert you that new stencils and some paper goods are going up on our website, Small Studio, tonight or tomorrow morning. Here are some pics of just a few of the items.

Question for today:

What is the last creative thing you have done and how did you feel about it?

The Tall and Short of it.

I was listening to NPR while I was running errands today and the guest was a woman who is 6'4". She was discussing how her height shaped who she is now. I am not overly tall, but I was really tall for my family.

I reached my full height, almost 5'7", by the time I was 11 years old. I come from a short family. My mom, my aunts and uncles and my adult cousins were all quite a bit shorter than I am. My brothers and my dad are just an inch or two taller than I am.
Here is a photo of me at 19 with my Aunt Alvie who was about the same height as my mom.

I slouched, trying to hide my height. I hated wearing heels because then I was taller than my dad and brothers. I was very shy in elementary school, feeling like a giant. In fact I was the tallest person in my grade school in both 5th and 6th grade. I would try to convince my mom to let me stay home from school, faking illness. Needless to say, she saw through it.

But then I entered Jr High and there were many boys and girls taller. Many of them had caught up to me and even surpassed me. I no longer stood out in a crowd. It was truly liberating. I was just tall enough to be noticed, but not tall enough for comments on my height. I learned to stand straight and be proud of my height. I began to hang out with a group of kids who were all of good height and they were proud and confident in themselves. It rubbed off on me and really changed me. I still felt like a giant in my family, though.

Eventually I grew up and got married...to a very tall guy. He was 6'5" and played basketball so all of his friends were really tall, even taller than he was. Mostly their girlfriends were really tall, too, and suddenly I was "short". We even had some tall kids. Evidence below: me with my two tall sons (Tim on the left, Wes on the right) and an average-tall daughter.

My sons married taller-than-me girls and my daughter's husband is also 6'5". Finally I felt normal and even a bit short among all these tall people in my family. Well, life goes on and now I am married to average height John and in his family, I am really tall...again. This time it does not bother me at all and in fact, I like it.

Some observations:

My sons and my first husband say that often because they are tall, they are expected to be in charge and when they were younger, often were accused of being the ring-leader even if they were not.

In a crowd, I can always find them as they stand a head taller than everyone else except when we lived in Holland where it seems, everyone is closer to 7' than 6' tall.

I worried when I was a young mom, that my boys would be short and have height issues because their dad was so tall. It didn't happen, although Wes, who is 6'2" thinks he is short.

Most of my grandchildren are above average height. The short gene has not shown up in this new generation.

I like being married to someone who is closer to my height. We can comfortably hold hands, walk with our arms around each other's waist and easily gaze into each other's eyes...but that would be another story, another post....

Furthermore

I am thinking about organizing a few small class events. I found a nice space and now I have a few questions that I hope you will answer for me. Since I had some success with the puppy post, I am bravely hoping that you will continue to comment.

1. What instructors would you like to take a workshop with?
2. How far would you travel to take a good workshop?
3. Would you prefer a one or a two-day workshop?
4. Do you like lunch to be included?

(Photos of the Small Studio booth)