Some of us are born makers. I was fortunate to come from highly creative stock and was raised in an environment that fostered creativity. I was born to a family with kitchen designer parents and a fine artist older sister. Some of my earliest memories are of playing with clay in my mother’s studio or sewing bits of fabric together from her sewing room to make clothes for my dolls.
A consistent thread throughout my life has been living the life as a maker. I have always made stuff – whether it be with a paintbrush or a sewing needle in my hand.
Looking back – I have always traversed between painting and various fiber arts.
My college degree is a BS in Art Education with a minor in Fiber Arts. I worked as an elementary art teacher and decorative painter before the establishment of Tadpole Creations.
You could also say appreciating the importance of a child’s viewpoint has influenced my life as a maker. This carries over to this day, from the fabrics I choose for a product, to the method of construction.
The murals, quilts, clothing and critters I made for my own three children when they were very young provided the foundation for the beginnings
of the Tadpole Creations brand.
Moo-Cow – the earliest known Tadpole Creation. Made almost 18 years ago for my oldest child.
A popular new baby gift from present day – the elephant rattle – tails and seams are reinforced for durability, the ears are corduroy for tactile exploration.
A denim whale pillow – having great unisex designs along with classic girl and boy offerings gives my buyers a choice when deciding on the perfect gift.
A linen and Liberty of London bunny rabbit toy. Featuring a hand painted and stitched face.
My hope is that my creations are the ones that are well loved by your little ones, that some receive the greatest honor of becoming a childhood treasure. Like Moo Cow.
Home goods are a more recent addition to my line, as I expand beyond the baby goods market. Such as these linen and Liberty of London pillows.
My newest home products are hand painted pillows, each is one of a kind.
The best part of my job is getting to meet my buyers and hear about the little ones in their lives. I hope that we have an opportunity to meet at a future market!
xo
Renee D’Amico
Tadpole Creations
Visit her at our Upcoming Art Star Craft Bazaar in Asbury Park – Booth #8
when i started making pots under Stanley Chester & Albert about two and a half years ago, i had almost 15 years working as a ceramic artist under my belt, including a BFA and an MFA in ceramic sculpture. i started SC&A with a very simple premise: to produce well made vessels that would be accessible to a diverse audience and appeal to a population of people who normally didn’t buy handmade pots. with that in mind, i decided to stick to simple forms like bowls and cups – things that could be used in a variety of ways and be at home in any domestic environment.
i’ve always been in love with vintage imagery, pop culture and snark, and the unexpected ways they can be combined. as for putting them on pots, it all started about seven years ago when i was still in grad school. i made a vase for a friend’s birthday: on one side was a dead flower, and the other said “BITCH PLS”. no one around me really got why it was funny, but i thought it was hilarious at the time (and still do). ceramics sometimes has a tendency to be overly formal and serious, so i love to disrupt that expectation.
most everything i make starts on the potters’ wheel, thrown by yours truly. i favor simple, elemental forms. everything is thrown generously and has a solid weight and heft to it. i want these pieces to stand up to daily use in your home, not put on a shelf only to be admired.
after the pots are trimmed and dried, they are bisque fired to 1860 degrees, and then glazed and fired again to 2232 degrees. almost everything i make is dipped in a clear glaze to allow the clay body (which is a really delicious speckled while stoneware) to shine through. i try to keep glazing very simple, mostly because i really hate glazing, but also because i’m more interested in using the vessel as a blank canvas for the images i apply.
i was introduced to the waterslide decal process by my colleague and friend, Sharon Bartmann. i immediately saw the possibility of decals and ended up running with it like mad. i source my images from copyright free and vintage websites and books, in particular the Dover series of illustration books, which compiles a huge variety of images in one place. after scanning or downloading, i play with the images in Photoshop a bit, adjusting contrast, brightness, proportion and orientation. because of the way the printer works, high contrast images without a lot of shades of gray work best.
once i have the image the way i want it in Photoshop, i print it out using a special printer and special decal paper. from there, i cut out the image, put it in water, and then affix the cellophane image to the vessel. it’s fired once more to permanently bond the image to the glaze. although the images are printed with black ink, once they are fired they turn a lovely reddish brown sepia color. with that aesthetic in mind, i gravitated toward imagery from the Victorian and Edwardian eras. i love anatomy and so skulls, hearts, bones and brains frequently find their way onto my work.
My studio is in a giant live/work industrial loft at Western Avenue Studios & Lofts in Lowell, MA, a complex of historic mill buildings that are home to over 300 artists. Lowell was the birthplace of the American Industrial Revolution and there are dozens, maybe hundreds, of old mill buildings that have been transformed into studios, condos, schools, restaurants, and small businesses.
A lot of artists and craft hobbyists talk about their tendencies to hoard fabrics, beads, paint, pretty much any kind of supply they can get their hands on. Here at Loomination, it’s all about the yarn. I usually have about 250-300 pounds of yarn on hand, and I use it up really fast!
Every product I create is made using fabric that I have woven myself. I start with the yarn (of course!) and thread it on to my vintage handloom, a huge wooden machine that is operated by hand. It can take up to 8 hours for me to prepare the loom before the actual weaving can begin. After the fabric is woven, the next step is to wash and shrink it before sewing into the final product. The fabric shrinks A LOT, usually 15-25% for most pieces, although it depends on the fibers I’m using. Calculating shrinkage is a big part of the process.
My newest collection of tableware – tea towels, placemats, and table runners – is what I’ve mostly been working on lately. I just started making placemats a few months ago and I’m a bit obsessed with them – there are so many different color combinations that I’ve been dying to try. Most of my home textiles are inspired by vintage feed sacks and ticking fabrics, everyday designs that are timeless and classic.
I’m really excited to participate in the 
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sPACYcLOUd was born in DC, from the mind of designer Tatiana Kolina (AKA Tati) with a focus towards the sui generis spirit that lives in all of us. The ethical core of sPACYcLOUd is built on self expression, love, and positivity. Its visual aesthetic breathes from the world of break dancers, hip hop artists, street artists, skaters, and motorcycle riders. Those whose wardrobe exists in a state of counter-culture, carving through life to the rhythm of their own choosing. sPACYcLOUd reflects political and social currents though clothing, artwork, and attitude.
I am so happy to introduce Desarc, and myself to the Art Star Craft Bazaar this year. I’ll be offering jewelry, accent lights, and decorative mirrors for sale. My objective as a designer-maker is to produce useful objects that are attractive, meaningful, and well-made.
I earned my BFA from the Tyler School of Art in 2010, with a concentration in jewelry and metals. The variety of ways I learned to work metal gave me the flexibility to explore object design and craft in many directions. Making functional objects like jewelry gives me a sense of purpose when making creative decisions. I love how jewelry intrinsically deals with concepts of identity. My current line, Resist, is an expression of personal introspection. The balance between the bold and the delicate elements in the collection celebrates feminine strength in an industrial aesthetic.
In addition to jewelry, I have fallen in love with making objects for living spaces. I created the Echoes line of light fixtures (and now mirrors!) years after a summer trip to England where I saw Stonehenge and many other ancient artifacts in London’s museums. Being close to the large monuments, watching the shadow play in and off the slabs of rock, and knowing our ancestors were so compelled to respond to their world, made me feel connected with humanity and craftsmanship in a new way. The Echoes collection is my homage to mankind’s commitment to shape our world like a river though rock.
Visit Samantha Skelton Jewelry in Booth #62 at our 
Architecture, music as math, chemistry, and symmetry–all my old flames– inexorably find their way into my work. I spend hours soldering and chasing flux through the narrow channels between my hexagons. Days fly by as I work out the kinks of an intricate piece of casting. Every method has its advantages and demands. To cast or not to cast? Precision soldering and cleanup versus casting and yet more cleanup?
I have an unending attraction to the physical changes that brass undergoes when thousands of degrees hit it. My necklace creations have intrinsic “torch marks” that deepen with age, lending depth and 3-dimensionality to an otherwise humble material. One of my necklaces can have upwards of 100 solder connections, sometimes less, sometimes more. As I’ve expanded my offerings, I’ve found the best 18K gold-platers in NYC and learned to make molds & cast silver with the lost-wax method. Each silver or brass Alt-triangle bracelet is hand formed, filed and finished, taking many careful hours from start to finish.
These days I look at my hands and wonder at what jewelry-making has yet to teach me.