You are currently browsing the category archive for the 'Berkshire County' category.
I was so inspired by the painting we did in Marisa’s class at Squam on wood panels that I had to go ahead and order up some blank ones for myself. While I wait for my archival wood panels to arrive from Plywerk, I am working on painting on un-treated wood that I happened to have around. These are both mahogany, salvaged from one of my dad’s construction jobs, I believe.
These are both in acrylic, which I also pulled out as inspired by Marisa. I have been painting in watercolor mostly since my classes with the lovely and talented Pat Hogan a few years ago. I have really loved watercolor, but getting out the acrylics reminded me why I used to paint with them all the time! They can really go on any surface and they dry so quickly! This is a blessing and a curse, of course, but so far I’m really enjoying the change of pace. These little friends (about 3 and 4 inches tall) will be for sale at this Thursday’s “Third Thursday” street fair in Pittsfield, and if they don’t sell there I’ll be sure to pop them in my Etsy shop this weekend. I’m going to be sharing a booth with Stephanie of Atoms At Work at Third Thursday — and we are crossing our fingers that these thunderstorms are all done by then!
Things are growing! Tomato blossoms and even a few tiny green tomatoes, these plants were grown from seed by my green-thumb Mom!
Last week John moved the chicken coop in with the goats, so they can graze together safely within the fence. The only real predator we’ve seen around here lately (knock on wood!) happens to be our HappyDog. She looks innocent enough, but after a little, erm, “incident” we are keeping her a safe distance from the Chickens. Well, at least on this side of the fence. She loves watching them, though. And the goats are trying their best to get to the chicken food, which we seem to have managed to barricade from them, at least for the time being.
And look at this photo below! Seem familiar? Quite uncannily like my radish painting, I GREW this one from seed, along with a whole slew of others. And they are delicious! Amazing how those tiny tiny seeds can grow something that can nourish our bodies so well, eh?
I’m not broken, not torn, just pulled a muscle/tendon — a bad sprain and I’m actually up on my feet now and walking without a cane or crutches like I was for over a week. Amazing how a body can heal, eh? Thank you, body, you’re fantastic. I’m still gimping around like a peg-leg with an ace bandage and a bulky air cast on my ankle, but I’m doing ok. Phew.
I’m really hoping I’m about a jillion times better by this time next week, though, because that will be the first night of SQUAM Art Workshops!! Yippee! I’m so excited for this opportunity to check in with myself and my art, as well as connect with all those lovely like-minded individuals who have chosen to take this opportunity to live the arty dream for a few short days of art and trees and lake and fun. Living in the woods is fantastic, and visiting someone else’s woods and lake is sometimes even better. I’ll also be sharing my cabin and taking one workshop with my dear friend Sarah G., who will be meeting me there from Burlington, VT. How perfect?
No news on the DC trip. I am contemplating changing our trip to a later date, since I’m not so sure how well I’ll be able to walk around the city all day. My ankle tends to get all kinds of swollen and painful when I stand on it too long. But the good news is that I CAN stand on it, without excruciating pain.
The last weeks have also been jam-packed with crafty goodness, wherein I did my first outdoor craft fair at Sowa Open Market, (with amazing help from my friends and my wonderful husband!!) and my second at Pittsfield Third Thursday (with amazing help from the other BerkshireMade members!), and then a fun one in North Adams at the NoAMA Mill, where I was really able to get to know the members of BerkshireMade much better. What a great group of folks, who make amazing work. Have you seen the new website that I redesigned for BerkshireMade? You can click around and see all of their super shops. Buy local, buy handmade! See pics of these events on my flickr, here.
OH! Also, I just got myself a new lens for my camera! A 50mm portrait lens for my Nikon D40, great for low-light, but with a finicky manual focus that is super fun to take macro shots with. Most of those BerkshireMade pics were taken with it — some nice up close shots of the jewelry and art and bags and people. Here are a few of the pups, because, well, they are cute.
Top: Mickey, my mom’s Australian Shepherd, enjoys a chewy treat. Bottom: Our sweet (and somewhat alarmed?) HappyDog.
ok, well, the warm weather has officially begun today (80s here in South Lee today, possibly warmer around the greater Berkshires), but I had to share this blog feature; fellow BerkshireMade‘er Stephanie Gravalese has featured me and my work on her blog, Atomsatwork.blogspot.com in a post titled “Crafty Goodness to prepare for warm weather”! (Thanks for the wonderful feature, Steph!)
Stephanie is a fantastic artisan in her own right, putting together wonderful creations from vintage buttons, such as earrings, necklaces, barrettes and more that she sells at fairs and on Etsy at atomsatwork.etsy.com. She’s recently started making wall-art collages which I just love, being a wall-art junkie myself. She also made some wonderful glass ornaments for the holidays with buttons floating inside. Fantastico! (oh, and check out her avatar glamour shot by Deb, complete with laser background. Oh the 80s glory!)
