Tag: art star

Meet the Maker: Erin Draper

Hi, I’m Erin Draper. I design luxuriously soft clothing for women that is perfect for work or special occasions, but as comfortable as yoga wear.

A graduate of Parsons’ fashion program with a strong art background, I use athletic-inspired seaming, color blocking and drape to create garments that are striking, unique and very, very comfortable.

I make my clothing from fabrics that feel wonderful to the touch – high quality jerseys and sweater knits, silks and tencels, including many that are made or dyed in the US and sustainably produced.

My clothes are statement-making fashion, but as comfortable as pajamas. They transition well from work to dinner to a casual gathering of friends so you can move through your day in total comfort.

I design and make my clothing at my studio in Baltimore near beautiful Patterson Park. I create my patterns using a fashion CAD software which saves time, especially with grading the patterns to different sizes. (Most of my clothes are available in sizes XS to 2X.) I made my own cork-covered cutting tables and have three industrial sewing machines, each of which can do a different type of stitch.

In addition to studying fashion in school, I also studied photography so I take my own product photographs using friends as models.

I sell my clothing at arts & crafts shows, at an artist/artisan collective in Ellicott City, Maryland, and online at www.erindraper.com. I’m excited to be participating in the Holiday Art Star Craft Bazaar for the first time. I hope you’ll stop by and say Hi!

October 30, 2017
Meet The Maker: Jera Lodge Jewelry

Making jewelry was always in my sightlines, but it wasn’t until my early 20s that I discovered metalsmithing as a primary method with which to bring my designs to life. I love connecting to others through jewelry and adornment, creating exciting modern pieces for everyday wear. My focus is to create pattern-based jewelry that has the illusion of volume while staying very light-weight. I assemble architecturally inspired shapes with unique connections, resulting in playful, kinetic, and interactive jewelry.

All of my jewelry is created from start to finish in my studio, located in the Crane Arts building in Old Kensington. The process for each piece varies – some start as a sketch on paper, others I design as I build, so that the sketch is also the final product.

Many of the jewelry designs I made are comprised of many individual pieces, so my desk is a covered in parts and pieces that I’ll arrange and rearrange until a final design becomes clear.

I use a variety of materials in my jewelry. The voluminous wire forms are made of sterling silver. Keum-boo gold surfaces are achieved using 24K gold foil that has been bonded to silver sheet, and the color ombré effect is created with a spray-painting process. Further distressing is done by hand, resulting in a unique color application for each piece of jewelry. All of the steel jewelry has been sealed with wax or a clear top.

As a full time studio artist, I earn a living through a combination of gallery sales, online sales, and traveling to exhibit and sell at craft shows. Working in my studio is a constant balancing act between making the work and doing all the less fun parts of running a business; photographing work, submitting applications, ordering supplies, and doing web and postcard design are just a fraction of the many jobs a studio artists must attend to.

Since graduating from Edinboro University of Pennsylvania with a BFA in 2012, I have moved more than a dozen times. While building my business, I spent time living in New Jersey, Maine, Houston, and North Carolina, working at craft schools and doing residencies. All of the moving was both exhilarating and exhausting! I’m happy to have finally found a place to settle in to and put down some roots here in Philadelphia in the summer of 2016.

This will be my second year exhibiting at Art Star’s Holiday Craft Bazaar, and I’m very excited be participating in such a well-run show! If you’d like to stay up to date on what I’m making and where I’ll be next, you can sign up for mailing list at website www.jeralodge.com – or follow me on instagram @jerarosepetal

October 26, 2017
Meet The Maker: Lauren Quinn Ward of Felicette

Felicette® is all about bringing more fun, creativity and delight into the world.

If you:

feel compelled to put a cat on everything you own,
are looking for the perfect personalized stamp,
or think it’s time to switch up the pins on your tote bag*,

then Felicette is perfect for you!

I’m Lauren, the maker behind this one-woman shop. Growing up, I didn’t dress as a “stamp maker” for career day. And no, I’m still not sure what that would’ve looked like. But in 2008, I hand-carved my very first rubber stamp and within a few months, I found myself with a business!

I’ve since graduated to a laser engraver, which makes those oh-so-clean lines, but I still create all of the stamps in-house, from sketching concepts to cutting blocks.

Most days you can find me working at my studio in Rockville, Maryland or sitting quietly on the couch watching Golden Girls with my husband and pets. It’s likely no surprise that we have not one, but two cats, Gidget and Wendy. Plus one big pup, Suki – who is fairly certain she is a cat, too. (The cats are 100% confident that Suki is not, in fact, a cat.) I am very excited about participating in Art Star Holiday Craft Bazaar, where I promise to say hi and will encourage you to stamp a postcard to take with you!

I hope the things I create inspire you to share your one-of-a-kind personality with the world. And, of course, have some fun doing it.

*Sometimes the soft pretzel wins over the typewriter, you know?

Find Felicette at our November 18th and 19th Art Star Craft Bazaar or at
Web / Instagram / Facebook

October 23, 2017
Upcoming Exhibition with Casey Lynch

We are really excited to announce a solo exhibition with NJ based papercut artist, Casey Lynch of Squirrel Tacos. You may already be familiar with Casey’s work from the shop and all of our various craft bazaars and pop ups. I found her and her work at Inliquid’s Art For the Cash Poor a year ago and was enchanted. I immediately invited her to be a part of our Art Star family. Her new papercuts will be taking over the walls of our gallery from September 23rd through November 12th. The show is aptly titled, Joy Follows Like a Shadow. We will be hosting an opening reception with the artist on Saturday, Sept 23rd from 6-8pm. We hope to see you there.

Artist Statement
I often feel like a 3D artist working in a 2D medium. There is a drive to add more dimension, to make it more vocal. This show allows the paper cutter in me to live, very happily, with my sculptural heart. The portraits are up to 8 handcut layers of paper, each layer meticulously cut and assembled to build up depth that from a distance, can appear as a pencil drawing and up close seem to be a sea of chaos.

Meanwhile, the glass on glass frames and the shadow boxes of my single sheet papercuts let the work cast a shadow behind itself. I am intrigued with shadowplay, the themes of shadows in literature, and its failure to exist without light. Shadows allow me to add depth without compromising the clean lines and content created with my knife.

I make my work with a city dweller in mind, someone who loves the hive of activity but has a need to get lost in the woods to recharge and reanimate. I understand that desire to escape and keep a little wild and wonder in a concrete landscape. I am thrilled to create campers, forests, woodland creatures and mountain tops for this show. A lifetime of sleeping in tents and patiently waiting for owls to respond to my hoots is present in each piece.

BIO
Casey Lynch was born into a large family in Philadelphia. Childhood summers were filled with camping trips and exploring the woods. This continued into college where she traveled with the Penn State woodsman team, became a champion axe thrower, and later moved to Teton valley, Idaho. After returning to Philadelphia and experimenting with many craft and art forms she was star struck by papercutting. She started Squirrel Tacos, named for a corn tortilla loving squirrel that begs at the kitchen window, in 2012. Currently she lives in New Jersey, surrounded by woods and water and focuses her work on National Parks, camping, and lighthouses.
www.squirreltacos.com

August 9, 2017
Meet The Maker: Half and a Third

We are a couple who started our creative business together in early 2016. After much discussion & coaxing, Ian finally convinced Katey to quit the corporate rat race, and Half and a Third was born. Together, we make quality housewares and paper goods.

Half and a Third is the brain child of Ian Stafford and Katey Mangels. Ian, a woodworker, with a BFA from Tyler School of Art, where he majored in Glass and Sculpture; and Katey, a graphic wiz, with a MFA in Graphic and Interactive Design from Tyler School of Art. We make all of our products out of our shared studio in the Historic Frankford neighborhood of Philadelphia. The studio is located in a former textile loom factory that overlooks downtown Philadelphia. We have a full woodshop, screen printing room, and loft office – where our shop dog Sofie supervises us.

Working together we have found a creative rhythm. Having a shared aesthetic, we start working independently – Katey on graphics, and Ian on wood forms. We then come together with our ideas & sketches and find a way to combine the two. One of our signature products, our coasters, is a combination of both our disciplines. The coaster designs are inspired by Katey’s world travels and love for modern design. They are screen printed by hand on wood panels by Katey, then they are finished and cut to size by Ian. This is the process we use for many of our products.

You can find our products at the Art Star store, online at halfandathird.com, as well as the upcoming Art Star Craft Bazaar in Asbury Park – which we are very excited about! We are constantly making new products, so keep an eye out. Follow us on instagram @halfandathird to keep up to date on what we are up to next!

July 14, 2017
Meet The Maker: Monique Platt from DuTill & Daughters

One of my earliest memories is the smell of gold luster, the tiny jar of minerals sitting on my mother’s studio table (which also passed for our dining table at the time). She was a china painter when I was young, and I’m sure she was frustrated when I got into her precious supplies, but I loved poking through the tiny vials of pigments and oils. So it’s always been a bit surprising to me that I didn’t start working with clay myself until I was in college. Once I did, there was never another medium that felt so naturally like “home”. My father was, among other things, a carpenter at heart, with a full wood shop in our basement, and the ability to execute anything that we women in his life could dream up. Between the two of them, I grew up with a solid love of building and making.

Once I graduated with my Fine Arts degree from The School of the Art Institute of Chicago (SAIC), I struggled a bit to find footing as an artist trying to make a living. This was before the days of Etsy, Instagram, and the amazing makers’ movement that’s happening now, and there was no real “career path” in ceramics unless you were into the nomadicness of applying for artist residencies. I spent some time working towards a Masters in the History of the Decorative Arts through the Cooper Hewitt National Design Museum, but as much as I love curating, that “publish or perish” environment of museum life didn’t feel like a good fit for someone whose hands itch to be creating. So I took a few years off from art and focused on making a living until the timing was right. Once Etsy emerged onto the scene, I opened a shop with my opposite-coast sister, and between the two of us we started building a small but loyal following. Eventually, her military life took her overseas, and I took over running the shop solo. That was almost 4 years ago. In the time since that change, the focus of the shop has become entirely ceramics. This past year or so I’ve really pushed myself to create a cohesive body of work, focusing on the level of craftsmanship in each piece, and making sure that when viewed together, the entire collection is recognizably DuTill & Daughters.

I was lucky enough at SAIC to work with instructors who were well-versed in nontraditional approaches to clay, so slipcasting is a regular part of my process. You’ll see repeated shapes throughout the collection, but no two pieces are identical, even if they have similar patterns. With the slipcast pieces, I’ll start out by making a mold of the shape I want, then pouring multiple layers of hand-colored slips (liquid clay) into the molds. Once the pieces come out, I alter them by piercing or carving the surface to reveal the interior colors. Sometimes the rims are smooth and even, like the drinkware, and sometimes I’ll scallop the rim like you’ll see on the berry bowls and colanders. I use a combination of glazes that complement the colored clays, and leave some exterior surfaces unglazed so you can experience the buttery-smooth texture of polished porcelain. All of my work is glaze-fired to Cone 6, which is a mid-range ceramic temperature, about 2260°F.

The other main technique I use is called Nerikomi. Nerikomi (this term is used for hand-built work) and Neriage (for wheel-thrown work) are processes that involve stacking and layering colored clays to create intricate patterns. It can be a bit complicated because your clays need to have a compatible moisture content or they’ll split and crack during the firing process, but the intricate surfaces that come through this way are like no other process in ceramics. Nerikomi is perfect for making plates and platters, and I will sometimes use this technique for bowls. If you were to break one of these pieces in half, you’d see that the colors and patterns are all the way through the clay, not just sitting on the surface. I love how I can roll, stack, texture, add colors, paint on thick layers of slip, roll again, and come out at the end of the day with these crazy beautiful designs that I could never have drawn out on paper. The three jewelry trays below all came from the same Nerikomi block, and you can see how much variety there is from a single block. It’s a process that allows your hands to really be felt in every piece. The Nerikomi pieces are finished in clear glazes with the occasional colored accents, which allow the patterns to shine through.

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Monique Platt is the designer and maker behind DuTill & Daughters Pottery and has been working with clay for the better part of 20 years. She lives in Cherry Hill, New Jersey with her super-tall, bearded husband, their two astonishing girls, and studio pup/escape artist Nyx. When she isn’t in the studio, Monique is probably soaking up other people’s art, listening to as much music as possible, or eating pie. Maybe cake. Sometimes ice cream. You can see more of her work at dutillanddaughters.com, and on Facebook and Instagram @dutillanddaughters.

Photo credit: Monique Platt and Renee Zublic.

July 6, 2017
Meet The Maker: Aimee Petkus

Jewelry design and metalsmithing is not my first career. For many years I worked in the world of contaminated soil as an environmental geologist. I worked first for the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection, and then for a private consultant in Manhattan. I handled soil from the testing phase, to the monitoring during digging or dredging, to its disposal. It’s not really what I imagined for myself when I was studying geology, but I thought if I could do some good in the world, then maybe it was worth it. However, after 6 years, it felt like it was killing me. I spent the last 2 years of that career scheming new ways to make a living. I was going to open a grocery store in my neighborhood in Brooklyn, because there wasn’t anything nearby. I tried creating a line of screenprinted linens. I posted ads on craisglist as artisanal gardener. I made canvas wall planters. I partnered with a friend to start a handbag company. I had to do something else. Anything else. Finally, I convinced my boyfriend (now husband) that we should save up enough money to fully quit our jobs and do a cross country rock hunting trip.

We bought a 1983 Mercedes Diesel Benz for $1400 from a guy in Jersey City. We set out on an adventure. I figured if I followed a path doing things I love, then all the pieces would fall in place. Along the way the pieces came together, and I decided I needed to get a second bachelor’s degree in metalsmithing.

I moved to Philadelphia 2 months ago. I rent studio space in Sharktown Studios, owned by a jewelry artist duo, Ford Forlano.

My process begins with my first love, the stones. I have to see all my stones at all times. I love all forms of stones. I have gems, huge mineral specimens, cabochons, and everything in-between.

I cut, shape, and drill a lot of the stones that I end up using.

Stones need to be done with diamond coated tools and have to be wet. They heat up very quickly and it can damage that stone. I do most of my work at my bench with a flexshaft. But I also have a trim saw that I use to break down large chunks of rock and to cut away the parts that I don’t want to use.

I create 3 different collections, so that I can diversify the different shows I do. My wire collection is my most affordable. I use a lot of crystals and drilled rough stones to create simple, lightweight, wearable pieces while still keeping the design elements that are important to me.

Many of the forms that I create are inspired by crystal geometries. In general my work is geometric, but with an organic twist. In nature, crystals have an orderly makeup, and therefore have geometric forms, but nature being nature, they’re usually imperfect.

My second collection is limited production which I can produce quickly for stores. I create the pieces through lost wax casting. For this collection I predominantly use traditionally cut gemstones to contrast with the forms that are created in wax.

I cast the components into sterling silver and gold and can play around with them to get different variations.

I set the stones in an organic crystal form that I have developed over the years.

I often do varying finishes for an additional layer of natural affect.

My third collection is what I produce for galleries and high end indoor shows. I’m currently creating a body of work for a solo show at Gravers Lane Gallery in the Chestnut Hill neighborhood of Philadelphia. It is very different from what you would see at the outdoor shows that I do, but looking at it you would still know that it’s me.

It’s all fabricated by hand, and I’m using sterling silver, with 18k gold solder to give a feeling of connection to how it was made.

Fabrication takes time, but it creates a finely handcrafted piece of wearable art. I use an acetylene torch to melt slightly lower temperature silver or gold, into a join to bond 2 pieces of metal.

You can check out more finished pieces on my website at www.aimeepetkus.com and follow me on instagram @aimeepetkus. I’ll be at Spruce Street Harbor Park Pop-up’s July 15, August 5, 12, 19th, and at Asbury Park July 29-30 and 2nd Street Festival August 6. My opening reception at Gravers Lane Gallery is July 13, 5-8pm and will be up until August 20. Hope to see you at one of the events!

July 3, 2017
Meet The Maker: Hailey Linette

My name is Hayley. I am an artist, designer and owner of Hayley Linette. I create hand-crafted/hand-painted accessories designed to bring a little happiness into the world. I grew my business from a dream to be different in the art and fashion industry. With that came my plan to design and develop handmade products incorporating all of my passions – painting, sculpting, sewing, and fashion design. With my infamous crazy, colorful patterns, I believe art should be fun and functional.

I hand paint onto faux leather vinyl and sew the painted vinyl into wallets, wristlets, clutches, cross body bags, and tote bags in my studio located in Lancaster, Pennsylvania. I also create earrings, necklaces and tassel key chains made with clay and left over vinyl scraps. Each design I produce is completely individual. My goal is to keep my designs unique, fresh, and forever evolving. I am inspired by current fashion trends, vintage patterns, and color.

Website: HayleyLinette.com
Instagram: @hayley.linette
Facebook Page: Hayley Linette

May 9, 2017
Meet The Maker: Ron Nicole

Photo by: Lianne Dunsing http://www.liannedunsingphoto.com

Hello, my name is Ronni Robinson. I am the artist behind Ron Nicole. I create unique botanical sculptures, herbariums, and stationary. I work out of my tiny apartment here in Philadelphia which I share with my husband, as well as our crazy cat and dog. Our living room doubles as my art studio.

Last year I became aware of a technique called Ikebana (the Japanese art of flower arrangement). Inspired by botanicals and their delicate nature, I began to study everything about them, the way they hang, their texture and their fine details. I’ve always been drawn to nature so it’s no surprise that all of my art is centered around flowers.

When first coming up with this idea, I knew that I wanted to name each collection after a woman who inspired and pushed me to get here. It was my small way of saying thank you. I named my first collection Dorothy after my mother-in-law. At the time she was battling cancer but somehow always found the energy to offer words of encouragement and even helped get me art supplies.

I just recently finished my new collection called Raychelle. This series is named after my sister, who has always been a driving force in my creative thinking.

Whether I’m working on my own collection or preserving a bridal bouquet, I think about how I want the flowers to be arranged together. Just like a florist, a lot of thought goes into the design of the finished piece. I think about each flower and the imprint they will leave in the clay. Each flower placement is purposeful. I start by rolling the clay out until it is smooth and even. Then I press the arranged flowers into the clay, creating a deep impression. Then the flower has to be removed (often with tweezers) before pouring a blend of plaster and cement into the mold. After that, I wait…

I’m obsessed with flower preservation, so making art from my dried flower collection was a must do. They are not traditional herbariums. The white space around them creates a simplicity that’s easy on the eyes. Just like my botanical sculptures, I wanted to create something that would reflect my personal style. I want my art to embody the perfect balance of understated beauty and simplicity of design. My work speaks in soft tones. It doesn’t overwhelm or demand a room full of attention, instead it is humble enough to exist in the background.

This is my first year at the Art Star Craft Bazaar and I’m beyond excited. You’ll find me at booth #113. I hope you’ll stop by and say hello.

www.ronnicole.com
Instagram: @iamRonNicole

May 4, 2017
Meet The Maker: Carolyn Keys

Hello I’m Carolyn, of Carolyn Keys! I’m a designer and maker based in Bucks County, Pennsylvania. I share a wonderful studio in the woods with my husband Justin, who is a sculptor and metalsmith.

I’ve been making things with my hands since a young age when my father engaged me in wood shop projects that sparked my curiosity for materials, processes and design.

Though creating with my hands was always my first love, I decided that design was a more practical field to pursue, so that’s how I ended up studying interior design at Drexel University. I went on to work for design/build firms in and around Philadelphia, working on diverse projects from historical Bucks County renovations, to modern glass and steel homes. In 2015, after spending 10 years as an architectural designer, I started to feel the need to get back into the shop. Though I still love the complex puzzle of architecture and building systems, I wanted to get back to the simple act of making. In December of 2015, I decided to leave my full time job and give it a go, thus Carolyn Keys was born.

To be honest, in the beginning I didn’t even know exactly what to focus on. In the past I’ve made lighting fixtures and furniture, ceramics and printed textiles, abstract watercolors, and lamp work beads, to name a few. For several months, I just let myself experiment with lots of mediums to see what clicked. I started making simple modern jewelry that incorporated metal and wood elements. I loved how each piece was a small contained project, a sort of mini-sculpture that could be worn. I also found that I had fans eager to support my jewelry endeavor, so that has become my primary focus.

My process for making jewelry starts with many sketches of design ideas. This helps with figuring out the scale and proportion of pieces, and deciding what’s worth trying out in real materials. Depending on the design, my next steps involve hand cutting sheets of metal into shapes; cutting, bending and hammering wire; cutting tiny wood pieces out on a bandsaw, then sanding and shaping them. That’s followed up with lots of buffing and polishing of the parts before they get assembled into the final piece.

I’ve also been experimenting with etching, which is a process of drawing a resist onto metal then submerging it into an acid that eats away at the metal to leave a pattern. Once the etching is done, I blacken the piece and then buff it back to enhance the pattern.

I love how jewelry allows me to work with various materials and to learn new techniques. Having my own business keeps every day interesting whether I’m in the studio making, photographing new work, updating my website, or meeting interesting new people at an art show. I currently have work available at the lovely Art Star shop in Northern Liberties, and I’m excited to participate in my first Art Star Craft Bazaar, come visit me at booth #99!

April 27, 2017