My Saturday was filled with a shop of amazing & creative people and a serendipitous meeting of long lost friends. It all comes together here at the shop for so many people. Lisa & Tony Blackwell were here to teach PMC to a filled classroom of artistic women and each of them created 1 pair of resin filled earrings, a pair of post earrings and a handful of unique charms for other projects. This was the day to "unveil" and "fire up" my new kiln and Lisa and Tony did it beautifully. Just look at it. Isn't it beautiful?
Lisa & Tony brought their friends Cynthia & Greg of Green Girl Studios in to visit and they brought along their pewter charms. It was delightful to meet them and get to them and their daughter Azalea.
Later in the day a woman, Margaret Cornelius from Deland, Florida walked in and asked me if I knew Martine House, a well know fiber & quilt artist in the area.
I then told her that I knew Martine & that she was a teacher here. As we continued to talk I found out that her husband and Martine's husband both taught at the Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs and both were transferred to Germany. They had not seen each other in many many years so she picked up the phonebook, found her number called and became reunited. It was so much fun listening to her husband Ray talk to her native language of France. I just stood there quietly & listened to him speak in that romantic language. Long story short, they drove down the mountain to meet up with Martine. Every day is an adventure here at the shop.

He follows his dream... after moving here from Cape Cod, my friend Joyce Berger's husband Ralph began taking welding classes and is now selling his work at galleries and shows all over the southeast. The photos that Joyce took of his work and of him are extraordinary, don't you think?

On another topic, I am eagerly anticipating Lisa Blackwell from Zoa Art, teaching venue here today. She now lives in Tucson with her husband Tony Blackwell and teach PMC all over the country. I get to try out my new PMC kiln that I bought last August. Now that Tony set it up and it's ready to go I might be using it for what it was intended... precious metal clay. Today we will do pmc earrings with resin over collage/photos. Can't wait.
Earlier this week Tony and Lisa brought "Green Girl" artist Cynthia over to visit our shop from Asheville. Some of you may be familiar with Green Girl Studios that we sold a few years ago. Cynthia carves molds out of polymer clay, and forms the charms using pewter. We are talking to her about doing a "duo" workshop with Lisa.

Only one week until I leave for Bozeman, Montana to visit my daughter, Jonquil. I am counting the days and while I am away I will be blogging every day (I will try) so you all can see where I am and what I am doing. Bozeman is such a cool place and right near Bozeman is Chico Hot Springs, Yellowstone and more. Stay tuned for more day to day excerpts from Saluda and...Montana.

I saw this building as I was leaving a doctors office and stopped to snap this picture. Is it the color, the size, the charm, the shadows, the setting? Recently I have been attracted to that color, robins egg blue so it really caught my eye. It is a charming little building that must be a garage for a little car. Notice the white picket fence on the right and the little window up top. Someone loves this building and took care in painting it the right color. I can only imagine what's inside... wondering too what they have in their house. Is it as charming as this? Who owns it? What kind of person is it? Do I want to get to know them? Do you?

What a surprise it was on Wed to see 2 of our new friends from the far corners of Georgia visit our shop. By far corners we mean as close to Alabama and Florida as one can get! We met them at the Creative Palette convention in February and they were dying to see our shop. So, off they drove, 7 hours to see Random Arts in person. They loved us and we loved them! It is really a joy to see those familiar faces again in Saluda. Last week we had several quilt artists visit us who saw us in Charlotte and decided that they needed to make the short drive to Saluda to spend the day and in one case... the night. That's right, we have bed and breakfasts here in Saluda, each with their own unique flair. Some with a view, most have incredible breakfasts and all are welcoming and inviting. Thanks to all of you for visiting us in Saluda. Isn't it fun?

On another subject, I am getting all giggly preparing to go to Bozeman, Montana next week to play... Just a week in this beautiful part of the country to visit my daughter who volunteers for the wilderness society and works at looies and works out 24/7. I am so excited to get back there and visit chico hot springs, shop the thrift stores, eat, cook, visit yellowstone again and on and on and on. Yesterday another customer who recently moved to ohio surprised me at the shop, melanie kocher. What a joy to see her again after a couple of years. She, too goes to montana once a year and she told me about the boulder hot springs in boulder montana. its only an hour from bozeman so that is a must for a couple days next week. maybe i will see some snow. pictures will follow so stay tuned to see my adventures in the west.

Right now, at this moment, my daughter Jonquil is baking lamb cakes for Easter and is planning on sending them off. She is carrying on the tradition that my Grama Teutemacher started when I was a little girl. Every year at Easter we could expect a lamb cake with toothpicks embedded in the ears to make sure that they didn't "fall off" during baking. She would spend hours frosting the cake and covering it with coconut. Green basket grass was used as whiskers, and jelly beans for eyes. Now Jonquil is doing the same thing at her young age of 34. She loves old things and is a hopeless romantic who wouldn't settle for an aluminum repo of the lamb mold. She HAD to have the old cast iron one that Grama Teutemacher used. Once she found it, she was on her way to a baking frenzy.
Not only is she baking these, but she is frosting,decorating and mailing them out from Bozeman, Montana to me and her sister in Charlotte. I wonder how they will fare out during all the bustling about in those big post office trucks? Picture to follow.

Good morning from Saluda. Having a laptop is a wonderful thing, but having a MAC laptop is even better. Wow, I feel so special however it is all new to me to be able to wake up, pick up my little bitty Mac lap top, while still in bed and start working... Did I say working? I guess I did and I guess I am. A laptop and a camera in my laptop. Wow. It doesn't get better than this.
I am still in recovery mode after that awesome workshop here at random arts with Janet Lasher from Charlotte. Everyone loved what they created using encaustic processes and the critique at the end of the day gave each of the participants an opportunity to #1 look at each others work in an introspective w ay and #2 to take a second look at where they might improve there technique, design or composition for future works.

The weekend spent in Charlotte at the quilt show is still fresh in my mind and more and more events from the weekend continue to surface. Our conversation with Valerie Fox from Fox Family Farm was certainly a highlight for us. Not only did we have the opportunity to meet her but she personally invited us to be a vendor at her annual benefit/fund raiser at her farm in Waxhaw, NC. They are in their 3rd year for this gala event held in their horse barn with enormously tall ceilings that openly express the need to have beautiful quilts hanging from the rafters. Each year they feature a local artist and this year they have chosen Fulvia Lucianao.
Jen and I are so excited to have this unbelievable opportunity to be in the midst of the these fine artists and quilters from this area. If you go to the their website you will be able see all that the Fox family does to make this dream come true.

Camp Sew & Sew is being hosted by Melinda Rose of Sew Originals in Boone, NC and Winston Salem, NC at the Broyhill Inn and Conference Center in Boone, NC on August 9th, 10th and 11th this year. We will be attending as a vendor for this event and hope to be teaching one of our unique, one of a kind fabric books while we are there. This event and sale
is open to the public for the entire weekend so if you are in the western NC area this summer be sure to stop by and see our assorted goods, take a quilting workshop or "lust" over the work being done by other quilters at the event. Boone, NC in the summer... it doesn't get better than this, so mark your calendar now and email us if you have any questions.

Etsy has become my new favorite place to shop and it should be for you, too. Right now I have added my wholey paper & copper mesh sheets to the supplies section and will soon add the large sheets of mica and all the other assorted goods for creative mindfulness. BUY! SELL! AND PLAY ON ETSY.

The Charlotte, NC Quilt Show is history and a great success story for Random Arts. Along with the 3 day event at the Charlotte Latin School we hosted a 3 hour workshop with 14 enthusiastic artists at the Marriott Hotel in South Park. It couldn't have been more perfect and what a mess we made of that place. Right girls? In that 3 hour time period each one of us created and completed a painted and collaged Meandering Book filled with embellishments, ribbons, photos, rusted objects and more. Not only did we go "outside the box" and break a few "rules" during the this fabulous workshop but we were able to enjoy some "real" homemade, delicious chocolately brownies made by Jan Smiley.
yummmmmmmy... thanks Jan from all of us. Didn't we all have such great fun?
One of the highlights for us was that "Starbucks Coffee Lady", Karen Kimmell, that pushed her cart through the event on Fri and Sat morning. Just look at her! She was a welcome site for sure.
With our booth set up in only 4 hours on Thursday, we were ready to party... not! Off we went to clean up and return to the Latin School for the preview party... There were a lot of whoops and hollers from the award winning quilters who were surprised to hear their names when the blue ribbons were awarded! Quilters were not alone with their winnings!
The Flights of Fantasy Doll Club had winners too with their portrait challenge of members. What a fun group they are!
All day Friday, Saturday and Sunday we spent doing demonstrations for hundreds of artisans on photo transfers, collage, and our newest ribbon cuffs. We have created a really unique cuff made from a wired ribbon, batiks, colorful fibers, metallic threads, beads & antique buttons. Quilters of all ages came through the show that focused primarily on the meticulous work of quilters from the Charlotte area. We are happy to link to a slide show here that will give you all a little peek at what you missed this past weekend.
Most of all we want to thank everyone who came to our booth for our assorted goods for creative mindfulness. Jen and I had such a great time with all of you and we so, so enjoyed meeting all of our new friends and seeing familiar faces, as well.
Now, as we return and get back into the swing of things here in Saluda, we can look forward to Art and Soul Retreat in Hampton, VA. on May 5th. But, for this week it is back to work at the shop and to start preparing for Janet Lasher's workshop here this Saturday. On with the show!

This past weekend was jam packed with the excitement of Kristi Steiner's class here in Saluda and the shop was alive with enthusiastic participants as we started our new year of workshops.
Kristi led 21 high energy women through the art of journaling in your altered fabric books, painting & altering fabric, fusing fabric together and the continuity and elements of collage.
The outcome is an accordion style book entitled "I am a woman who....". It's up to you to explore the possibilities of that statement and move on toward the completion of your book.
Short writing exercises in discovering "the woman" were thought provoking and inspiring for everyone. Kristi will return to Saluda for more exciting workshops as we create our way through 2007. Look for her workshops around the country and the world by visiting her
web site.

Speaking of web sites, Random Arts is excitingly updated? Is that a word? Excitingly? Well, it is to me right now and that's what matters. Many of you have been sending in photos of your work and we have been adding some of our own. We love to see what you are doing and we love to publish it on our gallery page.

The biggest and best thing since sliced bread is our "wholey" paper and it is being used all over the country right now. If you don't have any yet, you can get it on our eBay Store or you can stop by the shop. We are fully stocked and it's selling like crazy. The possibilities are endless. You can paint it, sand it, distress it, sew it, stamp it, tear it, print it, rust it, stencil it and who knows what else. I have used it for altered book covers, in ATC's, book covers, and Atlanta artist and Cloth Paper Scissors Cover girl, Cheryl Prater has used it for lots of her micro mini tiles that she is doing every single day. You can see her tiles on her blog... and look for the ones with the wholey paper... It's a "hole" new way to create.

Good morning from Saluda,
I had an exciting email not too long ago from artist Katie Kendrick from Washington state asking if I would be interested in having her come to Saluda to teach Feminine Icons. Right away I remembered an article featuring her artwork in the Winter '06 issue of Cloth Paper Scissors(#9). I remember sitting down and trying out her technique of drawing the faces with my non-dominant hand on phone book pages. I loved the look and her instructions were easy to follow and totally stress free. The faces were added to muslin and became art dolls. Unlike the feminine icon these shown in the article are 3 dimensional, one of a kind reflections of self.
Check out her website and give me some feedback; positive would be nice. . .

It's still winter here in the mountains and there is still awesome icicles hanging over the mountain side on I 26. Florida was almost as cold last week for a few days before we left, however we had warm temps in St. Marys and Amelia Island. Yes! The Creative Palette convention was very, very busy for us. It was non-stop from 8am till 5:30pm. We did demos
with the Shiva Paint Sticks and did make and take with the photo transfers. Everyone got to try out this easy way of transferring photos onto fabric and got to take them with... Hurrah!!!!
After St. Mary's we spent a couple of restful days at Fernandina Beach in Amelia Island. Not long enough; then off to Orlando to visit friends and see Cirque du Soleil in downtown Disney.
The color, the lights, the music, the physical fitness of the actors just took my breath away.
This is my third Cirque performance and each of these gets better than the next. If you ever have a chance to see this, do so. Awesome!!!!

March 1st is getting closer and I am so excited about opening the store after seeing it in such a disarray for the last 2 months. We have moved a few things around and have lots and lots of new items coming in to inspire you and your creativity. Don't forget that the 1st 50 people will get a great gift from us throughout the weekend of March 1st - March 3rd.

March 23rd, 24th and 25th we will be taking Random Arts on the road to the Charlotte Quilt Guild Show at the Latin School on Providence Road in Charlotte, NC. On the 23rd we will be teaching a fabric Book workshop at the Marriott Hotel in South Park. Email us for details for this on-site workshop.

The days are passing quickly here in the middle of January as I continue to pack and prepare for the Myrtle Beach Quilting Party. I finally have the mini workshop schedule set while we are at the beach. On Thursday night we are going to do a photo transfer class starting at 9pm. Yes, I know it's late but... there are other activities that come first. Friday night we will do Artist Trading Cards and on Saturday, Fabric Postcards. Anyone who will be visiting Myrtle Beach for the show is welcome however the class size is limited as we will be doing the classes in our suite.
Nonetheless, if you are interested, email us.

While all this is going on, we are grateful for the excellent weather here. I am a weather freak so I can tell you what is going on all over the US. Yes, I am. Hard to believe but when I sit here doing work on my computer the weather channel is loud and clear. I may not be watching it but I hear most of it. So, with that said, we are pretty lucky here. No ice, so far.

I have added 2 class descriptions to my web site: Kristi Steiner - March 10th - "I am a woman who...". The first part of her workshop will focus on altering of fabric with dyes, paints, stamps and daubers for a distressed vintage look. Secondly, you will explore "I am a woman who..." and fill in the blanks to creative exercises to add to the pages of your accordion book. There is a complete description on the workshop page.

Not only is Kristi teaching here in the US, but she is offering A Creative Journaling Tour and a course entitled " A Model for Balanced Living" in Orvieto, Italy.
For more information click on her web site. For those of you who enjoy Kristi's method of teaching and her encouraging and nurturing style, this could be the perfect vacation.... Kristi AND Italy. It doesn't get better than this!

On March 31st, surface design artist, Janet Lasher will be here to conduct an Encaustic Collage workshop. She combines printmaking techniques with traditional fiber and beading practices to develop textural, abstract, narrative, and emotional art. Her work is found in private and corporate collections including the first piece in the Bernina International Collection in Switzerland. We are very fortunate to have her here to share some of those skills with us. Be sure to sign up for this extraordinary workshop while there is still space.I have added a complete description of her workshop to my website
Please check it out for more details.

I was just thinking this morning as I read my emails just how many talented, creative and inspiring people I meet on a daily basis. From photographers, to graphic artists, to poets, to mixed media artists, to quilters and jewelry artists and it continues into every possible imaginable area of art. Just think about it... every day I feel the energy of so many talented men and women. I love it.
So, in honor of this, I though I would mention a few that I may have forgotten over the past year.
First of all there is Janet Micek, a customer from Charlotte who had a story to tell in the latest Legacy publication from Somerset Publications.
She wrote about her love for her mother and sent along a project that she created, never expecting it to be featured in a full page article. It's a sincere & heartwarming tribute to her mother and to herself. Congratulations Janet for your work.

Over the holidays I received emails and links from other talented artists who shared their web sites with me. One of those is Fulvia Luciano
I met her through Jan Bode Smiley and Judy Sy when they visited her several weeks ago.
Fulvia is a mixed media artist who works mainly with fiber and photographs from her world travels. She explains her work quite elequantly and the galleries section is amazing. Please be sure to visit her website.
One of all all time favorite artists and friends, Martine House, forwarded us a link to some of her new work and we wanted to share that with you, too. We are fortunate enough that Martine lives in our area however with her busy, busy schedule she is not able to teach here as often as we would like. Please be sure to link onto her site to view her incredible work and see when she will be here teaching at Random Arts.

Now that the new year is almost upon us (less then 24 hours and counting) I can look forward to 2 months of "free time" when I can develop classes, work on new projects and get ready for Charlotte. One of the things that we are doing at both Myrtle Beach and Charlotte is teaching workshops at our hotel in the evenings. Stay in touch with us if you are in one of those two areas for the times, dates and descriptions of what we are doing.

For now, my very best wishes to you for a happy, healthy and prosperous new year.

The moment that we have all been waiting for...Cloth•Paper•Scissors - Jan/Feb 2007 is here and our dear friend and customer's premier art work is on the cover. We have been awaiting this moment ever since Cheryl Prater told us that they had chosen her project. Not only is it on the cover but there are 6 full cover pages devoted to the Sixtyopoly Game that she created for her mother in law's 60th birthday. We saw the game when she brought it to show us back in August and my first thought was " let's get this in Cloth Paper Scissors". The process began and here it is. We have plenty of copies available here at the shop... but wait! It's not all about Cheryl. This is the first of the every other month publication and there is an article on quilting with paper monoprints, and artist profile with ricki arno, textured valentine assesmblages, The wonder of lutradur, muse-ical exchange, the power of RED and "My egg book".

It was a day that I had been looking forward to and it always arrives just before Christmas. It's a special treat that is created with love, lots of sugar, and come straight from the heart... homemade toffee from Kristi Steiner! When I opened the box and saw this beautifully packaged toffee, presents, ribbons and bows all contained in a distressed tin pail, my heart skipped a beat. What a presentation, although it really was not a surprise that something so beautiful could be created by Kristi. Kristi has a way with color and the creative process, which is why we continue to have her come back to Saluda to teach. Now, on with the show.... here is the picture of her gift.

Unveiling #1 from Cheryl Prater is something that she created (of course) from her "sixtyopoly" game that will be featured on the cover of Cloth Paper Scissors Jan/Feb '07. But for right now you get to see the sweet gift that she gave me on Saturday.
You will learn about the entire process when you see the zine but in the meantime she took one of the pieces, her mother in law with wings, which is a game piece, and transformed it into an ornmament for me.
It's about 3" x 2" with beautiful ribbon. She has a wonderful source, Cafe Press, for turning her artwork into actual usable items such as cards, mugs,calendars, t-shirts and more.

Good morning........I am on a roll, can't you tell? A blog a day? Well, I hope I can continue as it seems that so much is going on and I have so much to share. When I was reading some of my first blogs I began to think that maybe I should add a photo of my "table" where I work/play and where all these pieces of art are created. As always the table is in shambles but it is the one place where I allow "my mess" to overflow. Thank goodness for the drawers on this awesome table and the shelves which serve me well. My friend Cathy Knothe sold me this table in September and after looking at it for several weeks, it found a place in my dining room. It is so perfect; yeah!

Along with Cheryl's unbridled enthusiasm for life, she brought along a little gift for me. As you see it here... it is a beautiful, altered unopened package. Even the package is a gift personalized with my name on the silver pieces. Tune in tomorrow to see what's inside.

Yesterday, our book art group got together for our annual holiday celebration. Betsy Libbey got us started with a short journaling exercise using Christmas as the topic. "What was your favorite Christmas present?" and " What do you want for Christmas?" Two questions and an hour worth of discussion and sharing among friends. Along with our journal exercise we devoured wonderful foods brought in by each of us and exchanged handcrafted holiday gifts.
I was the excited recipient of a 2 foot tall hand made grapevine christmas tree bedecked with miniature books as ornaments, created by Betsy Libbey. Other gifts included a beautiful knitted suede shawl made by Linda Hartzig, an altered book candle holder made by Linda Campbell, a nature inspired mica bird twig sculpture hand crafted by Meg Fowler, beautifully done handmade marbled paper journal by Monita Mahoney, a handmade altered book using fabrics and paper lovingly made by Penny Baugh. Gabe Cyr exchanged a beautiful collage that she had framed and Meg received my journal that I covered with a fabric scrap journal made of batiks, chiffon, gold stitching and beads.

On Saturday, December 9th, Cheryl Prater, of Atlanta, came to share the holiday spirit with me for the day. We brainstormed about upcoming events, newest techniques and what is going on in the industry. Cheryl will be featured on the COVER of the January issue of Cloth Paper Scissors. She has a great website, zoegraphicdesigns, that showcases her altered art, her assemblage, her stuff and her store. Her enthusiasm and upbeat energy is really, really contagious. Paul said it would be great if her and Jen were both here working at the same time. Oh boy!!!!!!!!

I wanted to share some of my windchimes with you with a photo of my front porch. This picture was taken just a couple of days ago on a cold winter morning here in the mountains. One thing about these wind chimes is that they last forever. They have been outside when I lived in Chicago and now have been outside again for 14 years here in Saluda. I hope you enjoy looking at them as much as I have. Unfortunately, the sound of these lovely chimes isn't coming through your computer.

I have gotten some awesome inspiration recently and have put it to great use, as well. As you know, I am always getting new books in here at the shop and I try to look through each one of them and grasp onto something that "grabs" me. Last week, Bernie Berlin's new book, ARTIST TRADING CARD WORKSHOP really caught my attention. So, it has been by my side ever since. Bernie's dedication in the front of her book, says it all. She hopes this book inspires those who love art, to create art, to embrace every part of the process and to share a part of themselves with the world.
From the time I picked up the book I began to experiment with all of her fascinating techniques. She has organized each technique onto a 2 page spread with a step by step illustration and lots of samples. My first choice was to gesso magazine pages and then outline specific areas with my favorite tool, the black glaze pen. Very dramatic and just the right thing to do when you don't have to work with "rules". Just do it!
Thanks Bernie for getting me going and doing what I love. Visit Bernie's web site:
http://www.aplacetobark.com
I have been thinking that we will need to get a group together over the winter and try out some of these techniques and then plan to trade our ATC's with each other. Sounds like fun, huh?

On another topic, our warm fall days have ended as of today. Cold, cold 21 degrees here in the mountains with roaring winds that are blowing my 10 foot tall pampass grass round and round. I always know when the wind is strong because the chimes on the front porch bounce about happily chatting with each other and sometimes keeping me up at night. These windchimes have been collected over the years and some of my favorite ones have come from a place in Arizona. Arcosanti is an interesting commune type community that merges architecture and environment along with work and play. Paolo Soleri is the founder of the concept, arcology. Men and women come from all over the world to participate. In exchange for the learning experience they work in the gardens, maintain the grounds, cook meals, and make these awesome bronze wind chimes/bells and garden pots from caliche. It is definitely worth a trip north of Scottsdale, AZ to experience this amazing space. Visit them at: http://www.arcosanti.org