Showing posts with label Gourd Festival. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Gourd Festival. Show all posts

Saturday, August 14, 2010

Back again, from a long time gone...


Well, it's been forever since I last posted, and so much has happened...some with my art, much with my family, and many things that certainly intersect between the two. It's hard to figure out where to begin, so I think I'll just go back to where my last post left off and hopefully at some point we'll catch up...to what's going on today... or not, we'll see I suppose :)


In my last post I mentioned I was going to the Welburn Gourd Festival in Fallbrook Ca. Well I did go, and what a tremendous experience it was!



Not only was my friend
Barbara Hallman's gourd work fantastic as always, selling like crazy, the day in general was just beautiful. It can sometimes be pretty hot and dusty there, but the weather was
mild, the energy relaxed and I found loads of beautiful gourds to work with this Fall. Is she not amazing?

She makes these huge animal masks, but this was a set of
small ones I loved. Check out their sweet eyes.
Danny loved these little fish she made!


Another wonder of the day was a chance meeting with the wonderful artist that taught me knottless netting so many years ago! Leigh Adams is as cool as I remember. I think it's easily been over 11 years ago that I took her class. Here's the little creation I proudly brought home that day. Notice those lovely uneven hitches, sagging off the bottom?( and that's actually it's 'good' side:) Eeeek!
But I sooo loved it then, and I still do today.
Today Leigh is the artist in residence at the
Los Angeles Arboretum and has done some absolutely fantastic work in sculpture, mosaic and glass. She told me a little bit about a fairly recent work I can't wait to see in person known as the serpent trail. This gigantic glass tiled"Dream snake" sculpture created for the children's garden at the LA Arboretum is actually, visible from the sky! If you get the chance you've got to check out her work.



So now after all these years of knottless netting myself, I'm back to teaching as well. My class this past July at my sweet store Gilding the Lily in Fullerton was great. (It's been such a blessing to be able to "work" there on Sundays surrounded by a constant flow of beauty and inspiration thank you Nancy!) My students were so fun and so talented!

Here's a picture of the little kits I put together.

My lovely students... and a few of their projects...

What a wonderful day it was, to share art, laughter and fun. Well, I feel like I could go on and on , but for now I think this is plenty and hopefully my next post will be sooner than a month from now.
Love and light,
Bridgette

Tuesday, June 22, 2010

Teaching at Gilding the Lily!







Well, at the encouragement of family, and many sweet friends like you :) I'm getting back to teaching. I'm so excited! This July 17th I'll be teaching a new class called a Fairy's Haven, at Gilding the Lily in Fullerton and we already have sign-ups! I'm hoping to fill the class, which I 'm thinking should only be about 7-8 students. I'll talk about how to safely deal with the tiny African peyote gourds I love to use, I'll share my knot-less netting, various other cold connection techniques and more.
It should be lots of fun. My goal is that everyone goes home with a finished piece all their own. I'm working on collecting supplies for my little kits and am taking a trip out to the Welburn Gourd Festival in Fallbrook this weekend for another stash of the unique little gourd beauties. The hunt for just the right ones are always such a big part of the fun. Oh that reminds me! If you happen to be going this weekend to the festival you have to check out my dear friend Barbara. She's a multi-talented artist, who does some fantastic work with gourds.Here's just a couple of my personal little pieces, but to really see her work check out her blog, she paints, sculpts and carves and will be offering her highly collectible, award winning wares this weekend at the Welburn Festival and did I mention that she just finished recording her first CD? Yep, she's good... :) Stop by her blog if you get a chance. Well I better be going, I've got some shortbread cookies in the oven screaming to be dunked in some leftover ganche. I'll let you know how they come out. Ciao, for now!