setting up for the craft show

Here are some pics I took while helping Don set up for the craft show. They're not very exciting, but some of the ones of the interior of the Smithsonian are very pretty and some of the pics can maybe be helpful in visualizing what it looks like before the show starts.

Even though I was just setting up, I had a really good time with Don. He's so funny and laid back, and his work is absolutely gorgeous. The pictures I took really don't do his work any justice. In person, the colors in the glass he uses are so gorgeous and his forms and textures are so unique. I've never been a fan of glass jewelry until yesterday when I saw how amazing it can actually be when it's done by the right person.

If any of you don't have class on Friday or have free time on Saturday I would definitely suggest coming out to see all of the beautiful art that is going to be there.

Here's what I copied and pasted from smithsoniancraftshow.org:Thursday: 10 a.m. to 8 p.m.
Friday: 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.
Saturday: 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.
Sunday: 11 a.m. to 5 p.m.

Daily Admission $15
Seniors, Students, Military, and Smithsonian Associates $12

Daily Booth Chats
Talk with artists - Learn how they work.

Welcome to the 26th Annual Smithsonian Craft Show.

The nation's most prestigious juried exhibition and sale of contemporary American craft takes place from April 10 through April 13, 2008. Come to the historic National Building Museum in Washington, DC to discover delightful, one-of-a-kind and limited edition craft objects in 12 different media: basketry, ceramics, decorative fiber, furniture, glass, jewelry, leather, metal, mixed media, paper, wearable art and wood.

The 120 exhibitors in this year's show include emerging artists and master craftsmen, 39 of whom are first-time participants. Twelve of those selected were also first-time applicants to the show. Three of the exhibitors were accepted in two categories. All were chosen by a panel of expert jurors from a highly competitive field of close to 1,400 applicants.


pretty fountain in the center


huge, beautiful columns


random people setting up (all of their booths were black and boring - Don had beautiful burnt orange silk drapery)


Don's area before we set up

frame and curtains up


display cases put together

Some of Don's work

Cool new book

While I was looking for the Creative Caffeine book I found another cool book called 1000 Extra/Ordinary Objects. It's a funky little book with all kinds of weird and crazy objects and products.




One of my favorites is the edible potato starch plate, also known as the Biopic plate. I don't like it so much because you can eat it (it says they taste pretty yucky anyway), but because it can be used as compost decomposing in only 2 days, whereas styrofoam plates can take around 500 years to decompose!

Craft Show Jitters...

So I'm helping an artist by the name of Don Friedlich at the Smithsonian Craft Show tomorrow (setting up) and then working the show for him at his booth Thursday and Friday. I've never done anything like this before and I'm getting nervous! Very excited, but nervous. If anyone has ever been to this show and wants to share about it or has any advice or pointers to share that would be awesome! Thanks ya'll.

Most of Don's work is done in glass and gold. Here are some of my favorites that I found on his website -
http://web.mac.com/friedlich/iWeb/www.dfriedlich.com/Welcome.html

Organic Series Brooch - one of his earlier pieces of work


Magnification Series Brooch


Translucence Series Brooch

Materials Map

Thinking about Creative Caffeine

While looking for the book Creative Caffeine, I stumbled upon another book similar to it called Creative Sparks by Jim Krause.


There's a page in the book in the beginning that I really like because it reinforces what Jan is always telling us (but that I never seem to want to listen to!). "We must become human satellite dishes...We need to pay attention to what is going on today and what went on yesterday...Be receptive. Be tuned in to what's going on..."

So there are a couple of things that I've been thinking about for my Creative Caffeine exercise. The first one is based off of this page (p. 164) in the book:

I like the idea of coming up with words that have to do with materials and forms that I'm thinking about and then being forced to think about what might be the opposite of those words. I get so set on my ideas and never want to think past them. This might be a good way to start doing that.

Another page that stuck out at me was this one on contour drawing:

It suggests that you draw while looking at the subject, not at the paper. The point of this the book says is to "teach your eye to see and your hand to follow what you are seeing." I like this approach to sketching and figured maybe while sketching some forms that interest me, I'll end up getting another form that is completely different, but just as beautiful.

The one last idea I had that came to me after reading this whole book was to go out into the world and pick up/collect found objects (such as old coins, keys, feathers, pinecones, etc.), photographing them like we've been doing, but then taking it a step further by putting bits and pieces of these objects together in a shadowbox. This will display a piece of each object to form one larger composition. I think this would be beneficial because it will get me to start thinking not only about materials, but about form, texture and the interplay of light with each material/form.

So that might be too many tackle for this one project, but I plan on choosing at least two of these exercises to do to get my mind thinking in terms of materials and form.

flooding in my house :(

wax forms

Here are all six of my wax forms that didn't come out when I casted. :( My investment was waaaay too weak. Now that I know what I was doing wrong, the next two pieces that I cast came out!


branches carved from hard wax with scribed line texture to similar to bark - sprued, front view


sprued, back view


pink braches formed from sheet wax with texture similar to hard wax branches - sprued, front view


sprued, back view


pyramid with 3 sides carved from hard wax with scribed line texture - sprued




pyramid with 3 sides formed from sheet wax - sprued




sphere carved from hard wax textured to look like a ball of string - sprued




sphere formed from sheet wax textured to look like a ball of string - sprued