Arts Across Ellsworth July

My next upcoming show will be the Arts Across Ellsworth Arts Festival upstairs at the Maine Grind building in Downtown Ellsworth. There will be 17 Artists and Craftspeople at the show. They'll be all kinds of neat things there like handbags, aprons, totes, wooden cutting boards, lamps and lampshades, jewelry, watercolors, accessories, children's goods, art dolls, lampwork glass, beads and more.

Please join us for this fabulous show! Details are below.

July 24 + 25
Arts Across Ellsworth Arts Festival
Arts + Crafts Show + Sale
Fri. 10am – 6pm; Sat. 10am – 4pm
Maine Grind Building (upstairs)
192 Main Street
Downtown Ellsworth

Creature Feature II: The Sequel

As I write this, it's a glorious Spring day. Yay! Go Spring!

As you may know, I am always looking for ways as an artist to contribute to my Community through the Arts. My latest project is a fun art show called Creature Feature II. Artists Sarah Brandon, Linden O'Ryan and myself are currently showing 10-12 animal paintings each in The Grand Theatre Lobby in Downtown Ellsworth. At the end of the month, we'll be selling these Awesome paintings for a very affordable $75-$50 each in a special sale. We'll be donating 10% of our art sale proceeds to The Grand Theatre. Here are the details — please join us and support The GRAND...
Creature Feature II
Special Art Show + Sale
Friday May 29th, 4pm-7pm +
Saturday May 30th, 10am-4pm
Grand Theatre Lobby
Downtown Ellsworth, Maine

Show currently on view during Grand lobby hours, 10am-4pm M-F + 1 hour before the events.

I'm debuting a few really cool new Fern House Studio items during the sale:
- New Fern House Studio STICKERS! Yes! STICKERS!
- 2 New Fern House Studio card designs: "Munch! (rabbit)" and "Flower Garden." You can also get these here on my website Fern House Studio Website
- NEW PUPPET SHADOWBOXES. The Peacock Shadowbox is pictured above. These are ultra fun wall pieces featuring my finger puppets. Currently on view in The GRAND Theatre ticket kiosk. Check them out!

If you can't make the Creature Feature Sale, or want to reserve your favorite piece before the sale, you can see and purchase Creature Feature paintings at my website www.fernhousestudio.com

Websites + Contact Information of Participating Artists:
Sarah Brandon - www.sarahbrandonart.com - 546.2998
Christina Heiniger - www.fernhousestudio.com - 664.2404
Linden O’Ryan - www.lindenoryan.com - 244.0463

Hope to see you there!

Give Away & More

• First of all, thanks so much for all of you who turned out for The Gifted Hand Show that I organize. It was a great success! Over 1000 people attended the show, and we raised about $2,000 for the Grand Theatre in Ellsworth. Rock On! Save the date for next year's Gifted Hand Show November 13 + 14, 2009 in Ellsworth.

• Love those Fern House Studio cards(like the one pictured above)? Well, you have a chance to get some FREE. Kristen Andresen, The Bangor Daily News' ShopGirl, is giving away a sample pack of Fern House Studio cards at her fun blog. You can enter to win here.

• I'll be the visiting artist for December at Seven Arts Gallery in Downtown Ellsworth (192 Main Street, in the Maine Grind Building). Featuring a special line of Fern House Studio limited edition fairy finger puppets incorporating fiber artist Julie Havener's hand dyed and handspun yarn for the hair, plus other Fern House Studio goodies... like cards, my felted ornaments and prints. SevenArts cordially invites you to their **Holiday Saturday on December 20th**, there will be an all day open house that day, 10:00am - 5:00pm
and I'll be there for the Visiting Artist's Reception 5 - 7:00pm

• You can sometimes find me at Ingrid's Holiday Market this time of year, Saturdays 9am-noon Buck Street, Downtown Bangor (Behind the Bangor Auditorium, across from Hollywood Slots). For information call Ingrid's German Market at 947.4234

• Looks like my last official show of the season will be December 13 Designing Women Show & Sale, Woodfords Church, Woodford Street, Portland, Maine, 9am - 4pm


Warm Wishes for the Holiday Season!

Success!

Thanks to all who turned out for the Gifted Hand Show this past weekend. It went very well. The artisans involved were fabulous. The space was transformed from dowdy tennis court to gorgeous gallery in the space of a few hours. It was so great to see old friends both selling and buying work, and meet new ones. Over 1000 people attended! Suzanne Nance, the wonderful host of Maine Public Broadcasting's classical music in the morning stepped up and helped so much by doing an interview with me about the show that aired as a Cultural Conversation on Thursday morning during her show. You can listen to it on the archives of MPBN's website. (I hope I don't sound too dorky-- I'm scared to listen to it.) Many thanks to EVERYONE who attended, either as a vendor or a customer. Sorry I have no pictures to post... You may not believe this, but I don't own a digital camera, and even forgot to bring my old "analog" camera.

Save the date for next year: The Gifted Hand, November 13 + 14, 2009!

My next show is already this coming weekend. I'll be at Designing Women Freeport, at The Merriconeag Waldorf School, 57 Desert Rd., Freeport. While in Freeport, I plan to check out The Beadin' Path, a fab bead store that I buy stuff from all the time online, but have never actually stopped into. Can't wait!

I wil leave you with this picture. One of my litle fairies that I make...She seemed to have just dyed her hair in that pot of dye she's stting on. (something I need to do myself!)

Craft Show Countdown

The Gifted Hand Show, which has been my labor of love since February,
is on the homestretch. This weekend it all comes together for 2 days at
The Holiday Inn in Ellsworth. I'm excited and a bit nervous, hoping
everything will go as planned. But after this past week of historic triumphs in our country, I'm feeling very upbeat.

The show has been getting some great press lately. Kimberly Sherman, who writes for the Boston Globe.com's
travel blog, featured it as one of the top 10 craft shows to see in New
England this season. Thanks Kimberly!

Bangor Metro Magazine also pulled it out as a special feature in their November calendar section. I love Bangor Metro magazine-- it's got great arts articles, a
guest photographer each month and other cool stuff. They had
a great article on artist Robert Indiana, of LOVE stamp fame
this month. He lives on an island in Maine. Who knew?! He also did that
cool HOPE graphic for the Obama campaign.

I digress, back to the Gifted Hand Show, I was on WNSX and WERU
this week talking about the show, and The Bar Harbor Times (Bless you
Nan Lincoln!) did a great article on it this week. I hope you'll all
turn out for the show and make my vision & dream a successful
reality for all the vendors and for The Grand Theatre, which benefits
from admission and the silent auction.

Here's the when & where:
Friday November 14th Noon- 6pm
& Saturday November 15th 10am-4pm
The Gifted Hand: Fine Art Craft & Gift Show (3rd annual)
Holiday Inn, 215 High Street, ELLSWORTH

Arts Across Ellsworth

As if I didn't have enough to do, I'm organizing a new arts intiative in Ellsworth Called "Arts Across Ellsworth". We kick off the weekend of November 14 + 15 with lots of fun events to celebrate the arts! Here's the scoop... Join us!

•The Gifted Hand: Fine Art, Craft & Gift Show, Fri. November 14 noon-6pm + Sat. November 15 10am-4pm. 215 High Street, Holiday Inn.

•Comedian Steve Caouette at The Grand, Sat. Nov. 15, 7 pm and 9 pm. Tickets $10. 667.9500
•Terra Cotta 193 Main St.: 20% off on regularly priced merchandise storewide.
•Atlantic Art Glass, 25 Pine St., Ellsworth: Glassblowing Demonstrations, Open Studio + refreshments, Saturday November 15, 10am to 2pm.
•ShoeGazer 2 State St.: 15% off boots Nov. 14 & 15.
•Seaglass Infusion, 56 Franklin St., Open House + 15% off all seaglass jewelry.

In The Maine Grind Building 192 Main St.:
•Nov. 15 Customer Appreciation Day at The Maine Grind, Complimentary Treats + Gift Certificate Drawing.
•Grand Opening Splash at the Harlow Gallery…on Maine & Robin Farrin Photography.
•SevenArts Gallery, "Responses to Maine" Beth Lambert / Landscape Paintings
& Jan Whalen / Handknits Open House, Nov. 14, 5 - 7pm Win a $50 gift certificate, drawing Sat. 5pm

Upcoming Events

Here's some recent things I'm up to... come visit me!

•October 2008 Puppet Making Class, Ellsworth Adult Education. I'll be teaching a 3 week class Tuesdays beginning October 14th. For more information or to sign up contact Ellsworth Adult Ed. at 207.667.6499 or www.ellsworthadulted.org.

•October 25th & 26th 2008 Homecoming Craft Fair & Maine Marketplace, University of Maine Field House, Orono, Maine.
10am-5pm Saturday, 10am- 4pm Sunday.

•November 1 Designing Women Show & Sale, Husson College, Bangor, Maine. 9am – 4pm. www.designingwomen.org

•November 14 & 15 The Gifted Hand: Fine Art, Craft & Gift Show, Ellsworth's premier winter craft show. Over 50 juried artisans and a cafe area. Also features a HUGE silent auction as a benefit for the Grand Theatre. Holiday Inn, 215 High Street, Ellsworth, Maine. Friday noon-6pm and
Saturday 10am – 4pm. www.giftedhandshow.com

More to come or visit the galleries and shows page of my website