First craft show of the season, and this month I’m at Stapleton’s Sweet William Market, a great little mix of crafts, antiques, food, music, and general merriment! Sweet William has a wonderful ‘feel’ to it; on the grass at ‘The Green’ at Stapleton, on the other side of the traffic circle from where the 2-block span of businesses for the 29th Avenue Town Center ends. (The Green is bordered by 29th Ave. & 29th Place and Roslyn and Syracuse Streets).  There is plenty of free parking in the lots behind the Town Center businesses.  You can find the Town Center at Quebec St. and 29th Avenue, just South of Montview.  The Market is Saturday, June 25th from 9 am – 2 pm only; so be sure and don’t miss that little window of time!

I will have mostly NEW items including whole new, never before seen collections of Mosaic Dog and Cat Tags for your sweet babies and recycled and upcycled Garden Stakes to further beautify your space.  I’ll also have lots of new mosaic jewelry, frames, mirrors, furniture, garden items, and I can’t even think of what else! If you’ve never seen my Easy Rider gallery piece, it’ll be making a special appearance as well.  I’m happy to announce, too, that fellow mosaic artist and teacher Cristin Buys will also be displaying some of her amazing work in the TMG booth!  We’ll be at booth #S12, on the SE corner of the park.  Come on out and see us and take a gander around at all the cool stuff!

I apologize for this being kind of late in the game, but, wanted to make sure you knew about a terrific event this weekend in Littleton.  The 39th Annual Friends of the Museum and Library Craft Fair will be held at Ketring Park, Saturday only, from 9 am to 4 pm.  There will be 300 fine arts and crafts vendors for what is said to be a terrific annual show!  I will have all kinds of new mosaic items (awesome new jewerly styles, Day of the Dead/Mexican decor and furniture items, a few garden type items, several beautiful mosaic tables, etc.) on display (and for sale) at my booth, which is just to the North of the Museum parking lot, on the outer edge of the booths.

There is no entry fee for the fair and Ketring Park and the Littleton History Museum are in a great setting, complete with horses, chickens, and a lake.  Watch for the blue “Littleton History Museum” signs on Littleton Blvd. and turn South on Gallup St.
 
(Ketring Park is up the hill/East of Old Town Littleton, West of Broadway, S. of Littleton Blvd. )   See map here: http://maps.google.com/maps/place?cid=15065483781473119321&q=Littleton+Historical+Museum,+Littleton,+CO&hl=en&cd=1&ei=Rw2lTO2hL5ncjAP5tuxQ&sig2=0xq3jNpAk3uXAHbIdl3sTA&dtab=0&sll=39.692464,-105.077106&sspn=0.205288,0.354318&ie=UTF8&ll=39.870223,-105.385666&spn=0,0&z=11&iwloc=A
 
I’d love for you  to come out and see me and all the other wonderful vendors…it’s only 2 1/2 months till the holidays; get some shopping out of the way now!

I’ll be posting LOTS of photos, information, ‘reports’, suppliers, and resources from the 2010 Society of American Mosaic Artists conference I attended in Chicago the week before last, starting with this short report…

I’m happy to report that my Art Salon piece, titled, “The Unknown” (question mark mosaic in pic; not the white background; that’s supposed to represent how it would hang on a wall; better pic of it on my Gallery page), sold to a gallery in Canada, outside Toronto, the Maplestone Gallery; www.maplestonegallery.com! Yey! SO Fun! I see a lot of their stuff is very bright like my piece, which makes it interesting.  I also see that they offer a variety of mosaic classes, in case you’re able to attend.  Check them out; I met Aiken, the co-owner along with Suzanne (who looks like she does FAB mosaic work), and he was really nice! I bet their classes are great! I see they are also offering a special visiting Artist workshop with wonderful mosaic artist Carol Shelkin in August; sign up now; she is VERY popular and her work is fantastic (see her piece below from the Mosaic Art International 2010 Exhibition)!  Anyone who’s attended or knows the gallery, please feel free to post your feedback here!

"Fabulous Hair" by Carol Shelkin

I’m so excited, and I just can’t hide it…Less than two weeks now until the 2010 SAMA (Society of American Mosaic Artists) Conference in Chicago!  SAMA is an organization for mosaic artists and fans, from those just beginning to discover mosaics to those that are seasoned professionals.  Of course, I’m kind of the “just beginning” end, so, this is my first conference!  I’m looking forward to meeting lots of other mosaicists (yeah; it’s kinda a word!), learning lots of new things, ‘networking’, and checking out the VENDOR marketplace!  Thank God, I’m flying SW, where they don’t charge for bags, b/c I’m bringing a whole empty one for lots of new GOODIES!!!

The photo above (titled, “The Unknown”) is a piece I’ve submitted for the Art Salon/Auction at the show; we’ll see how it does!  I’ll also be volunteering on the ‘Mosaic Marathon’, where we all contribute to the making of a huge mosaic installation to donate to a local domestic violence shelter.  It will be so fun to actually be designing & breaking & gluing some sh*t down w/other mosaicists!  I think the conference will provide some great inspiration, skills, and information to both inspire my work and add to my class content for my students.  I don’t know if I’ll be able to go every year, but I’m at least glad to be able to go now, at this more ‘beginning’ time as a mosaicist!  For anyone out there who’s familiar w/ SAMA and wants information and/or reports on the conference and its activities, I’ll be doing some posting (hopefully during, but definitely after) and can answer any questions you might have.  If you’re not familiar w/ SAMA and you’re looking for some information on mosaics, supplies, classes, artists, designers, etc., see their website  for all kinds of resources!

After much prodding and even more procrastinating, I’m proud to announce that I’ve finally posted information on “Me” / The “Ar-teest” on my ‘About’ page; hope you enjoy it!  (Click on the ‘About’ tab above or on the Right sidebar to go to the page.)