Illustration Friday: Empty

My Illustration Friday Post for the week~ Topic: Empty. This is a collage and drawing that came out of some subconcious part of my mind. Hard to explain it...better not to try. Titled, "Is Her Cup Empty or Full?"

Christmas in July

I recently participated in a fun Christmas in July swap through The Switchboards. My secret pal was Tricia of sevensixdesigns . She sent me some really cool cards. I like these circle ones the best--she must've known I like circles! These cards look like they are handprinted, perhaps with a print Gocco? Maybe Tricia will see this post and enlighten us as to how she made these cool designs.

Open Studio a Success!

My boyfriend Philip and I had a very successful open studio this Sunday at his studio. I think we had about 150 visitors and sales were very good to excellent. Thanks to everyone who came-- I soappreciate the support of all who came to browse and shop! We had a wonderful, sunny day, too. Special thanks to my mom (aka Sweatshop Ursula), Aunt Ruth & Uncle Rolf, Phil Frey and his lovely parents Mickey and Jim for all their help. More pictures to come when I get my old-fashioned film developed.

August Card Winner!

Fern House Studio's August card winner is Momo of-- Hong Kong! (The internet is an amazing thing, isn't it?) She has a wonderful blog to visit, by the way.
Sign up here to enter our monthly card drawing and receive Fern House Studio's enewsletter. I also enter folks who purchase work from my website into the drawing.

Momo will receive a sample pack of 6 of my cards, as well as some neat things from other indie businesses.
This Fiddlehead Fern image is one of the card designs she'll find in her package.

Open Studio

Please Note: I will NOT be at the Schoodic Art Show on Saturday as planned, as I'm recovering from some medical stuff. Hope to see you at the Open Studio (pray for good weather!-- but we'll be there rain or shine and most of the event is indoors-- so come no matter the weather.)

Open Studio

Sunday, August 7 from 1 - 6 pm 

Featuring Recent Paintings by

Philip Frey
&
Christina Heiniger

at
Philip Frey Studio
Sullivan, Maine

Illustration Friday: Tranquility

My illustration for this week's Illustration Friday. Topic: tranquility. This piece is entitled "Peaceful Crane" and is done in watercolor and mixed media. I love the Daniel Smith watercolors , which I used for this. Like my contribution for last week, it was inspired by Tibetan Buddhist imagery.

Visiting Artist

I'll be the visiting artist at the Blue Hill Farmer's Market this Saturday, July 23, from 9am-11:30 am (on the Blue Hill fairgrounds, Blue Hill, Maine). It's a chance for me to get out and just have fun showing my work in a public setting.

I'm bringing all kinds of fun stuff...from most to least expensive:
Framed Still Lives • Framed Animal Paintings (including the "5 Friends" in the post below) • Handpuppets • Beaded Jewelry • Small Works on Paper • Fingerpuppets • Cards • Felted Ornaments • Felted Carrot Pens • Mini Paintings on a Clothesline

Illustration Friday: Karma

Here's my image for Illustration Friday...theme- Karma:



Perhaps this could use a little explanation? It's my spin on a traditional image from Tibetan Buddhism. "The Four Dharma Friends"(the elephant, monkey, rabbit and bird) symbolize harmony and cooperation. It's said by Lamas that hanging this image in one's home will bring harmony and peace to it. The karmic message: work together, cooperate and all will be harmonious and much good karma will arise for all.

This is my take on The Four Friends, done in my style of drawing animals and using dots and bright colors (the colors as reproduced here not so nice compared to the original). I call it "The Four Dharma Friends...Plus One" because I added an extra bird to round out the composition.

The very first thing I thought of when reading this topic was the wonderful Tibetan Buddhist Dharma teacher, Thrangu Rinpoche, who teaches all us unenlightened regular people at my Dharma Center. Here's a picture of him giving what we affectionately call "the sparkler transmission". So may you have a wonderful karmic connection with this teacher by seeing this photo:

Just Us Owls

As I cruise the internet and see more and more of what independent designers and craftspeople are making, I've found that there are themes that seem to overlap with things I'm doing, and have been doing for years.

It's bit uncanny. Like the Circle thing .

And then, there's...Owls. Come to find out, they are a popular character in lots of people's work.

I've been including owls for in my artwork years. As a matter of fact, my owl designs are inspired by this stuffed owl from England that my mom got before I was even born (in the 60's), and which was one of my first, and always most beloved, toys.



I think you can see the inspiration when you compare it to this owl puppet I just sold out of my studio:



Well there's lots of great owl things being created out there. One of my favorites is this nightlight by Happy Owl Glassworks (I hope to get one of these for my niece soon.)

And Faythe at Flying Fish Design makes the coolest owl messenger bags!

I love this owl notecard set by Boy Girl Party. She's got lots of great owl illustrations & things on her site!


Speaking of owl cards, I've got a new owl card on my site! (it's the image at the top of this post)

It's hard to stop here, because there are so many great owls out there, but, well, Happy owl shopping... And let me know if you've got any owl favorites out there..I'd love to see them!

Hancock • Sullivan • Sorrento Studio & Gallery Tour

My boyfriend, Philip Frey and I are organizing an Open Studio and Gallery Tour of Hancock, Sullivan and Sorrento. It's happening August 7th from 1:00-6:00pm.

Works will be shown by Ragna Bruno-Torkanowsky (in Hancock), Gifford Ewing (in Sorrento), and in Sullivan: Philip Frey, Christina Heiniger (I will have my work at Philip's studio), The Barter Family Gallery (Philip & Matthew Barter), Art & Old Things Gallery, Ann, Paul & Robert Breeden at Spring Woods Gallery, Wildfire Run Quilt Boutique - Peg McAloon & Obadiah Buell at Bourne Design Studio. Each of the artists show in various Maine galleries and are in private collections throughout the U.S.A

Please contact me for a tour map or more info.

Hope you can make it!

The Sampler

I'm sending off my things for the August edition of The Sampler today. In Marie's, the proprietor's words, "The Sampler is a promotional/distribution tool for indie businesses. Each month, indie crafters, shops, zines and record labels who run web-based businesses send samples and promotional materials to a contribution pool. I portion out the goodies, put them in little packages, then send them off to Sampler Subscribers and back to Contributors."

I sent her some mini paintings, and also some cards. One of the mini paintings:


They are neat because each is unique.

Crafty Stuff

Have you seen these cool hairties by momo of Candlelight fame ? They're at her Etsy Shop She has such a nice way of photographing her things, too. (if I had long hair, I'd jump at one of these --only $8.00)

There's so much cool crafty stuff out there on the web! One of my favorite sites is I'm Smitten. I love her quirky cards-- the seal one is shown here. She used to make these cool handfelted bags. I actually was lucky to get the last one she made. She had a rush over Christmas time and had to make so many bags she never wanted to see one again. I know how she feels, occupatioal hazard of the crafter!

Win a Painting

There's still an chance to win one of my paintings at MainelyKids.com magazine:
Sign up here. It's my "Three Friends" painting, all framed and everything (a $125 value). MainelyKids.com is a sweet online magazine for families that love, live in and visit Maine.

I love it when people say nice things to me

I just go this sweet email from Jackie, the winner of June's monthly card drawing-- It made my day:

Hi Christina -

I just wanted to let you know that I received the cards today and they are beautiful. Thank you, also, for including the extra "goodies." I've visited some of the sights and enjoyed browsing.

Thanks again for choosing me as your June winner. I'll be sure to recommend your site to friends.

Have a great weekend!

Jackie

You know, it's small kindnesses like this that make living in our unpredictable and sometimes scary world not only bearable, but happy. Think about it.

New small works on paper

I Hope you all had a happy and safe 4th of July. Welcome back!

• I'm pleased to announce there's a new "small works on paper" section at my website. See it on the art page of my site and scroll down the page to the bottom*.

These are small very affordable ($40 and less) gems of little paintings that give a glimpse into the creative process.

Every time I update this section (about every 2 weeks), I'll add one "steal"--a specially priced one... so there's one there now at only $15.00. First person to get it in their cart and checked out gets it. ***SORRY THIS PIECE HAS BEEN SOLD--CHECK BACK IN A COUPLE OF WEEKS FOR THE NEXT ONE*** It's kind of a shell game--you have to look around the small works section to find the steal. People reading this post get first dibs. I wanted to offer this as opportunity to own a "Christina Heiniger Original" at an affordable price because I don't yet offer less expensive prints.

Here's an example of one of the acrylic and oil pastel ones:


(* If you've been to my site before & don't see the updates when you go there, just "refresh" your browser or "reload the page" -- 2 terms for the same thing, which is getting your browser to reload the current page instead of using the cached version from the last time you visited.*)

• Have you seen the new section at Craftster.org where you can post ads for your site? It's a fun place to browse if you're in the market for some neat handmade stuff. Also an excellent place to post an ad (for free) if you have a website of art, craft or other handmade things.

Card Winner! & Puppet Stuff, too

Happy 4th of July holiday to everyone...I hope it's fun and safe for all.

• Congratulations to Jackie of New Jersey for winning our monthly card drawing for a free pack of Fern House Studio cards. Yay Jackie! Sign up for our card drawing here and you might be our next winner.

Just a couple of links you might find fun:

• My boyfriend Phil sent me this link to Store Wars , a very funny streaming movie that's a parody of Star Wars to promote organic foods. It's a riot and has a good message, too. Features some way cool veggie & food puppets like "Cuke Skywalker" "Darth 'Tater" and "Obi Wan Canoli". (You'll never look at a canoli the same way again!)

• I've got an owl puppet up at Luminant Studio's Creature Exchange . It's neat...check it out... a place to barter for handmade creatures.

• Speaking of puppets, my finger puppets are selling like crazy. The peacock and the squirrel are sold out and and will be marked so this week on my site. If you want a fingerpuppet, I suggest ordering soon, because I won't get to making more until mid-August or so (at best!).

Commissions

Despite the fact that I can barely spell the word, sometimes I do take commissions. Here's two that I just finished. The woman who ordered these had an acorn squash that I painted, and wanted a red onion and a tomato to go with it. Viola!

Illustration Friday: heroes

Here's my post for illustration Friday's theme of "Heroes".

This is a watercolor I did several years ago. At the time, I was watching Joseph Campbell's "Power of Myth" videos (from the Bill Moyer's PBS series). I guess some images from the "hero's quest" show got into my unconscious. This picture has the flavor of images of Hindu Deities that were shown in that series. But most of it is from my own quirky brain.

I love Paul Klee

I've been very influenced by Paul Klee. I got to see a lot of this Swiss artist's work over the years, as my family is from Switzerland. My parents lived in Bern, Switzerland for many years while I was in College. The KunstMuseum Bern had a wonderful, huge collection of Paul Klee's work that I used to visit often. His puppets, especially, inspired my own puppet-making ventures.

My aunt just brought me a bunch of postcards of Klee's puppets from the NEW Paul Klee Museum in Bern. Here's one entitled "Big Eared Clown" from about 1925:


He started making these for his son, Felix, when the boy was about 9 years old. Definately not your average 9-year-old's toys from a modern day perspective ( I wonder if Felix needed therapy later?)! As artwork, however, they're delightful-- funny, strange & fearless; some are kind of dark and many of them have the characteristic elongated Paul Klee eyes.

Ok, art history lesson is over. If you want to see more, you can visit the Klee Museum site. But unless you can read German, it'll be a feast for the eyes more than an informational visit.

Circle Circle Dot Dot

Here's to the the circle, the most playful of shapes.

I started working with circles in my artwork around 1987, when I was still in college. Robert Delaunay's lovely circle paintings really inspired me originally, as well as a show of outsider art & synchronicity I saw in 1987 or 88 (around then) at the Kunstmseum, Bern (Switzerland).

Well , since then, I've noticed that circles have become hugely popular in commercial design and graphic art, as well as in the craft community.

Target aside, here are some great "Circle (and dot) Inspired" sites: Superhero Designs Makes wonderful use of the circle in their colorful website design that really showcases their jewelry.

This circle tote from
One Good Bumblebee makes cheerful use of the circle.

The Cute Little Dot has a dot story every week. Plain Mabel has a lot of circle and dot design...including these
All About Mod cards.

That's just the tippy tip of the iceberg for circles in craft cyberspace right now.

I'll leave you with my own circle-based fruit sticker paintings. These are watercolor paintings around those stickers you find on fruit and veggies. They'll be for sale on my site soon.

Illustration Friday: Black & White

Here's my second drawing for Illustration Friday. This week the subject is "Black & White". This is a special little drawing for me, because it's of my dog Zeke. He was such a wonderful friend and companion for 14 years, and just passed away this last April.

"Zeke on the Lion & Tiger Rug, Under the Couch"

This rug was one of Zeke's favorite places to hang out. Here's a photo of him on the Lion and Tiger Rug, (a beautiful Tibetan rug I am fortunate to own)


Zeke was the inspiration behind alot of my animal artwork. The dog in this painting was based on him, as well as the one in this painting. Every year I used to do a Holiday Zeke card around Christmastime, too.

Well, I'm getting choked up. Better stop here.

beads, trips and where to find my work

I've had many people ask me about my summer galleries and shows. Here's a couple of links to give you more information about those: My website and this entry on my blog should give you some good information. Also, there are other entries in May & April that preview a bit of the work I have out at galleries (so browse this blog).

Well, it was a busy weekend. Phil & I took a trip to Western Mass. for the wedding of a friend of mine, which was very lovely. It was a long trip, so we broke it up by staying with a friend in Portland overnight on the way. Fortunately, there was a cool bead store right nearby: Caravan Beads & Fibers . I had just enough time there to make another necklace and pick up some more neat beads. They also have yarn and knitting supplies. I didn't realize that some bead stores offer things like birthday parties. I thought that was pretty cool, to be able to have a birthday party at a bead store (hmmm... next year!).

Speaking of beads, here are pictures of the beaded necklaces and earrings I made at Aboca Beads the previous weekend, which may make it up on my website. This one is an orange/light blue color combo...very unique. I love these orange leaf shaped beads--they were new at the store.
The colors don't really come through here in all their true loveliness for this blue and green necklace and earrings: It has a real Asian sensibility with the flower beads. Again, I love these semi-transparent green leaf beads! I used a lot of their newest beads at Aboca, just because I was so drawn to them. This jewelry is for sale, so inquire if you are interested and I'll get back to you right away.

I've really been sidetracked with all this handmade stuff lately, and it's time to turn my attention back to painting. Which I will do this week. I have 2 commissions to complete, as well as several watercolor stillives and landscapes that I plan to get done by August for my open studio with Philip. So my plate is very full! But it's all very yummy.

Illustration Friday

Here's my illustration for Illustration Friday. The topic this week is "summer". Sorry for the slightly blurry picture. I did this piece several years ago (and this is the only photo I have). If this lady looks familiar, it's because she's a take-off on Botticelli's Venus, with a spotted bathing suit and flippers, however.


"Our Lady of the Ocean"

Somewhere Over the Rainbow...

Have you ever noticed that things look better lined up in rainbow order? Maybe it's the kid in me, but it's not just a childish thing, the artists of the Bauhaus school often used the spectrum to bring... well... order to their work. Here are all 12 handpuppets I brought over to Island Artisans in Northeast Harbor last Friday, in rainbow order:



And, here's a photo of the amazingly gorgeous rainbow fleece I got from Grafton Fibers at the Maine Fiber Frolic.


I think that's all the eye candy anyone can take for one day.

More stories about fiber and felt

Despite the melting heat and humidity (very unusual for Maine, especially this time of year), I had the most wonderful time at the Maine Fiber Frolic this weekend. I spent way too much money and bought some absolutely delicious-looking fleece for felting. I'll post a bunch of pictures on Wednesday or so, as I don't own a digital camera (shocking, isn't it!). So the film is off to be processed, and pictures are to come.

But in the meantime, here are some amazing vendors I met:
Grafton Fibers is in Grafton, Vermont. I cannot reccommend their website enough! The carded fibers are just stunning, and there's a great links page to all kinds of fiber artists. Here's a photo of some of Grafton Fiber's carded fleece is from their website.
I bought a stunning rainbow colored one, which isn't pictured on their site.

The other just amazing vendor was The Fiber Fetish from New Hampshire. She also has a great website. Her specialty is multi-colored blended fleece (and she makes handmade soap, too). I got the sage merino: and a dark green blend. The sage looks a little weird here...the colors are much nicer in the real thing. Anyway, she makes really special stuff.

This is just the tip of the iceberg for my fiber purchases! I've already begun making felted things with it. My next project is felted buttons, so if you sew, check back because I'll post pictures of them at some point.

I did manange to get 2 necklaces and 3 pairs of earrings made at Aboca Bead, as well this weekend. So those pictures will go up this week. I am planning to add another page to my website for jewelry, felted things, small paintings and other affordable, smaller things that I make. More later on this...

Until my next post, happy crafting, and keep enjoying art!

Trades and special orders--oh my!

Well, one of the neat things about getting a website & blog up is that you meet all kinds of like-minded artists and crafty people. So that leads to things like trading work and making special orders and such. So here are a couple of projects and trades I've been working on...

I just completed this special fingerpuppet order for
Cheryl . These are her 3 kitties (A mostly black cat and two orange tabbys).


And, I just got this cool necklace

in a trade with Designed by RJ Jewelry. I love it! The blues and greens and oranges are simply gorgeous together. She's doing a neat thing for her aunt...trading her jewlery for handmade and indie designed cards to give to her aunt as a gift. So if you make cards, might want to check out her site.

Interestingly, both these ladies are in Ontario, Canada. Go figure!

Also, I'm working on a trade for some handcolored roving (felting fleece) with Dharia at Skeintily Clad This is what she wrote in her email: "I will make some reds, greens, yellows in wintery/holiday tones just for you!" [for my felted ornaments]. It will be like Christmas in June opening that package (or July, depending when she gets it done. Please, June, make it June!).

the upside of teaching art

As some of you know, I have a part time "day job" teaching art in a local school system to kids in grades 1-5. It has it's ups and downs, but there are some neat things about it, for sure.

Here's the first:


This is a little picture that one of my third grade students made for me at home. I really think it's cool. What you can't see is that she wrote: I heart Mrs. H on the little heart. My students all call me "Mrs. Heiniger" even though I'm not married. I've tried, (but given up) getting them to say Ms. Heiniger. It was just after Valentine's Day when she gave me this, so I thanked her for the Valentine. She quickly set me straight that, no this wasn't a Valentine. I really can't figure out what goes on in those little heads sometimes.


Here 's the other cool thing about my job: people give me old things all the time. They clean out their houses or the other teachers clean out their classrooms and they give me all kinds of junk and also very cool stuff, asking "Can you use this?"

I got this book Copyrighted 1960 yesterday from one of the teachers at school. I love it. if I ever get my eBay page of vintage stuff up, though, it's going up for sale. The cover is vintage 50's...
Front cover:


Back cover:


There are some tips on manipulating hand puppets which are quite amusing, and some are actually interesting. Here's one on "Listening": "Puppets should have good listening manners. A puppet should not move while another is speaking, and he should face the one who is speaking."

Well, there!

A Busy Week Ahead...

It's a going to be a very busy and very fun week. I'm really looking forward to next weekend. I'm going to be traveling around Maine a bit... First going to The Maine Fiber Frolic on the Windsor Fairgrounds, in Windsor, Maine. I'm super excited to get some more felting fleece and see the vendors. There will be lots of animals, too, to see.

My boyfriend is an artist, as well. Here's his site PhilipFrey.com . He's having an opening at The Firehouse Gallery in Damariscotta, Maine on Saturday. So the plan is to stop by the fair on the way during the day, then go to the opening. But not without stopping at my favorite bead store, Aboca Bead which is also in Damariscotta. I'll post pictures of all the treasures I get on this fun spree next week. I hope to get some things actually made at the bead store (they have a great work area), like earrings & such, to get up for sale on my site.

Friday I'll be bringing puppets to Island Artisans in Northeast Harbor. They are opening June 15th for the season. Here's one of the guys who will be going there. He's a Panda with a silky body, very elegant! And velvet trim and a cute velvet bear tail:

Here's a back view so you can see his cute blanket-stitched bear tail:


Lastly, I'll leave you laughing ( I hope). This blog threadbared was pointed out on The Switchboards this weekend. In my humble opinion, the Star Wars entry is hilarious. (P.S. if you are a woman business owner, and don't know about the Switchboards, check it out!)

felt felt felt

My most recent obsession has been felting. I think because I'm a kinestetic learner, and very tactile, I took to wet felting like a fish to water. I'm just learning, but have made some fun things so far, which I plan to sell at some of the shows I'm doing this summer. Firstly, I got some beautiful fleece from Peace Fleece . They are a wonderful & compassionate Maine-based company that sells great fleece and other wool products. Here's some of the fleece (I guess it's also called "roving") I got from them. The colors are so luscious... it Looks like some kind of extra fruity cotton candy!



I made these felted ornaments out of it, but still have tons left, so will work on more projects. I made felted balls about 1 1/2 inches in diameter, and strung a length of embroidery floss for the hanging loop. Added silver colored beads and a wool felt leaf on top, and a silver colored cap bead on the bottom. They look good enough to eat. I don't know what I'll charge for them yet, but they will be very affordable.


Any post on felting should mention Lili La Malice , a talented felter from France (that's a tongue twister!). She makes awesome felted flower pins. I love felted things and have been collecting felted objects from other artists for awhile. I'll show them here soon. Any felty links would be apprieciated.

Fiddleheads

As promised, here's a picture of Fiddleheads. They are, essentially, unfurled ferns which we pick the tops of and eat in the spring. They only grow wild--aren't cultivated. I usually steam them, and add some lemon and butter. Taste kind of like a cross between asparagus and artichoke. I used to have to buy them from people set up on the side of the road...but now you can get them at the local health food store, and even in the grocery store. Many Mainers consider them a seasonal treat. This photo looks nice enough to do a painting from (Hmmm....)

We Have a Winner!

Congratulations to Jennifer of Louisiana, who won this month's drawing for a free pack of cards. Yay Jennifer!

Jennifer choose the Fiddlehead cards, which I think was a great choice, since they are such a springtime phenomenon around here. I have some pictures of Fiddleheads that I bought and ate (yum!) a week or so ago that I'll post soon... to give those of you who are wondering what all this talk of Fiddleheads is about a chance to see what they look like.

In Studio News, there's been lots of puppet activity lately.

I've made these and about 15 more puppet heads this past month. These have been painted since this photo was taken, and now are at Avis and Hugh Williams', the nice folks who spray varnish all my puppet heads and fingerpuppets for me. So LOTS of new puppets are on the way...to local galleries and to the shows I'll be doing this summer. Maybe some will even make it to my website.

Evolution of a Fingerpuppet

It's time for...EVOLUTION OF A FINGERPUPPET (cue music from 2010: A Space Odyssey: da...da...da. dada...bombombombombombombombom):

Posted by: fernhouse

Evolution of a Fingerpuppet
This photo shows the 3 stages in making a Fern House Studio fingerpuppet. 1. I start with a plain wooden base, which is hollow. 2. I sculpt the puppet over the base using Creative PaperClay, and 3. I paint and varnish the puppet..and viola!-- a toy, figurine & objet d'art is created.


**And now a word from our sponsor (that's actually just Me)**

This blog is updated every Monday with news about Fern House Studio . You'll also find random updates about things I like and crafty and artsy projects I'm up to. This Wednesday I'll be posting the winner of this month's Fern House Studio giveaway. The lucky winner can choose between a Fern House Studio fingerpuppet or pack of my cards -AND- he or she will also get some other treats from online crafty indie businesses.
If you'd like to be entered in the random monthly drawing, sign up for Fern House Studio's bi-monthly enewsletter. In the newsletter you'll get special access to deals I make available only for enewsletter subscribers, studio news and information about upcoming shows & events (for those of you with slow dialup, you'll be happy to know my enewsletter is non-html). I'll never share your email address.
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A Strange Tale of Synchronicity

It all started with this Robin that was building a nest in my garage. Not a good place for The Robin's to raise a family, as they freaked out and flew away every time I entered the garage to get wood or take out the trash.

So, sadly, my mom & I had to remove the nest today, which turned out to have 4 beautiful blue Robin's eggs in it. We relocated it to a nearby tree, hoping the couple would find it, but I fear the worst for those eggs.

I was still feeling sad about the Robin Incident, when later that night, I saw a dead little bird on my deck. A victim of flying into my big paneles windows. Intent on not being the perpetrator of more bird deaths, I dug out my lastest issue of Organic Style Magazine to look up the web address of this company that makes decals to put on your windows so birds don't fly into them (according to the blurb in Organic Style, maybe as many as 100 million migrating birds die each year flying into windows..so take note!)

Success, I found the article and web address for Blik , the company that makes these decals.

So, I get to the site, and it turns out to be not just for decals to put on windows and save birds, but these cool design-inspired removable decals that you can decorate your walls with. Just up my alley, right? So then, I'm looking around the site, and I see that they are advertising these:
new decals designed by this artist based in Portland, Oregon named Matthew Haggett . OK...here's the synchronicity part... I WENT TO HIGH SCHOOL WITH THIS GUY! It's too wierd! Ok, so it's not that wierd, but kinda wierd.

Furthermore, I go to the same Buddhist group that this Matthew's parents do (they still live around here), and we were just talking about him the other day, and I asked about his website, because I wanted to check it out.

It's my first big case of internet synchronicity. Internet synchronicity is fun!

Giving Back

It's part of the artists's life that we give back to our communities. I think that's one of the reasons for art, to convey or give something to others.

In a very tangible way, most artists do this by donating work to auctions or other fundraisers for nonprofits. You would be amazed at the number of requests for donations to such events I get each year (sometimes I get a little grumpy about it, actually, just because we are artists doesn't mean we can afford to give our work away for free all the time!). However, when I do give, it does make me feel good...

I tend to focus my giving to local nonprofits, and often ones associated with children or the arts. Here are some nonprofits I've donated artwork or time to over the past few years: The Children's Museum of Maine(Portland, Maine), The Maine Discovery Museum (Bangor, Maine), the Grand Theatre (Ellsworth, Maine), The Doweast Aids Network ("DEAN", Ellsworth, Maine), Habitat for Humanity (Local Chapter), A Kid's Place (Trenton, Maine), Schoodic Arts for All (Prospect Harbor, Maine), The Bay School (Blue Hill, Maine).

Posted by: fernhouse

Rocking chair
I painted this rocking chair a couple of years ago for the Maine Discovery Museum, a children's museum in Bangor, Maine. This chair was painted for an auction they had of artist painted chairs.

Galleries galore- Local shopping

It's been a busy week getting my work out to galleries for the summer. Here in Maine, the phrase, "make hay while the sun shines" really does apply. It's a short summer season, so for artists here, a lot of effort goes into creating work for sale in the summer.

Just this weekend, I delivered cards and a couple of my Mexican Lottery Ticket paintings to Monroe Saltworks in Ellsworth, Maine. They have really neat stuff... kind of a surprisingly funky sensibility. If you are in the local area and have never been there, stop in.

Last weekend, I dropped off work at the Naskeag Antiques & Artisans (In Brooklin, Maine) and The Blossom Studio & Gallery (In Deer Isle, Maine). Firstly, the drive out there alone is just amazing! Go on a sunny day just for the scenery. Crossing the Deer Isle Bridge is a unique thrill all of its own. (unbelievably, I once rode my bike over that bridge!)

The Blossom Studio & Gallery is such a wonderful place...the owner Sihaya Hopkins, makes lovely lampwork glass beads. She's carrying Marimekko work, things by Portland Maine designer Angela Adams and lots of beautiful jewlery, and of course, puppets, cards and artwork by yours truly. It's a shopping treat. Naskeag Antiques & Artisans is a cute little shop with lots of treasures and one-of-a-kind finds. I always say its in Brooklin, Maine, because it is pronounced like Brooklyn, New York. But couldn't be more different.

I'm busily making more puppets for Island Artisans in Northeast Harbor, Maine. They will be opening on June 15th. Their Bar Harbor store is already open and looks lovely. They are carrying my hand and fingerpuppets.

You can get news on where to find my work and other shows I'm doing this summer on the galleries and shows page of my website.

This blog is updated every Monday, so visit again!

Fairy Godmother: Behind the scenes at Fern House Studio

I think every artistic person has to have special supporters who help them out along the way. In honor of Mother's Day, I want to write a bit about my mom, and her behind the scene's role in my creative endevour known as Fern House Studio. First of all, despite being 30 years older than me, my mom is probably in better shape than I am. She's also a real trooper. She has probably sewn over 500 basic puppet bodies for me on her sewing machine. So I call her "Sweatshop Ursula" whenever I drop off another load of fabric. She helps me carry all my stuff into shows, and set everything up. If I were making jewelry, this would be no big deal, but framed artwork can be a handful -- box after box after box. It was my mom who had the idea of the lion handpuppet, which has been my best seller from day one. So when she recently suggested making polar bears out of a certain fabric I'd picked out, of course, I listened (polar bear puppets coming soon!). Girl Friday, sweatshop puppet body seamstress, business workshop co-attendee and financial backer...my mom has played all these roles and more in support of my art business. So here's to my mom, the Fairy Godmother of Fern House Studio.

Win one of my paintings at MainelyKids.com

Oh...so many things are going on here at Fern House Studio. My boyfriend says I have to get some elves to help me out! it's a nice image, at any rate.

CONGRATULATIONS to Cheryl of Canada for winning April's drawing for a pack of Fern House Studio cards & some other goodies from online indie businesses. Do you want a chance to win? Well, sign up for our enewlsetter and you are permanently entered into our monthly drawing.

Speaking of winning, you can win one of my animal watercolors at MainelyKids.com online magazine (their tagline is: "for families who love, live and visit Maine"). It's a great magazine (I like the Lifestyles page), and by signing up for their newsletter, you can be entered to win my "3 Friends" painting. You can sign up here:
MainelyKids.com

I have been making handpuppets like crazy. The most recent ones have been: a cute blue bear, a sweet orange kitty with an Asian print body, a rooster with a body of vintage cloth, and a very cool alligator with a turquiose retro print body. Most of them are going over to The Blossom Studio and Gallery in Deer Isle, which is opening for the season in May. I'm going to have hand and finger puppets there, as well as many of my NEWEST still life paintings.

Come back next Monday when I update this blog with more news.

Enjoy the sun!
Christina

Violet Jelly!

I just found this website that shows how to make Violet Jelly! Yes... jelly from violets. Sounds wonderful and I think I'll try it. You can use the same recipe to make lavendar jelly, dandelion jelly and more. See it at:
prairieland herbs

Spring in Maine

It's spring in Maine. This is something of a miracle. Anyone who has lived through a winter in Maine knows this. So the crocuses are blooming and it's warm enough to walk outside with a jacket, not 15 layers of clothing so you can't bend your arms.

I get inspired by lots of spring Maine things...mostly ferns and spring peepers and flowers. One year I did several paintings with spring peepers in them. That's how I got into the frog characters that are in a lot of my watercolors. I ended up donating one of those paintings to our local chapter of Habitat for Humanity for an auction to help fund a Habitat House here in my town. Now every time I hear the spring peepers I think of that Habitat House as well as enjoying the sound... I hope the folks living in the house have some spring peepers nearby to listen to, too.

Some news on my animal paintings

I've recently updated my website by adding several paintings from my animal series. These paintings are wonderful for baby gifts, decorating children's rooms and gifts for moms. As a matter of fact, this series is currently featured on Lifestyledaily.com as one of their "Fresh Ideas for Nursery Decor". Read the article at:

LifeStyle Daily

Monthly card drawing

Congratulations to Kathy of Florida for winning a free packof Fern House Studio cards in our monthly drawing. If you'd like to be entered into April's drawing, go to the contact page on fernhousestudio.com and sign up for our enewsletter.