Artisan Studio Tour Trek

The Barn Swallow

This past Saturday during the annual Artisan Studio Tour held in the Charlottesville area, we visited six studios in Nelson County.

We started our tour near Crozet at The Barn Swallow, a retail store that features many unique artisans.  Decorated for the holidays, it is always charming this time of year. 

  Gerald Boggs at Wayfarer Forge

Next stop was Wayfarer Forge Ironworks where we were greeted by 44 chickens!   Inside the studio Gerald Boggs was showing a crowd how to heat and bend iron into lovely works of art and outside I was enjoying the variety of colorful chickens. 

During our trek we stopped at an antique store on Afton Mountain and at Basic Necessities eclectic eatery in Nellysford.

Tonya Tyree Sculpture

My favorite studio along the winding road from Afton to Nellysford was the gallery of 2 Art Studios featuring works of Melinko Katic' and Tanya Tyree.  I was amazed at Melinko's horse paintings and Tanya's ceramic objects were so detailed and unique.  Tanya's mom's Frosted Oatmeal Cookies were the icing on the cake - YUM!

Making our way to our final stop, Cindy spotted a poor little goat stuck in a fence!  His horns were so long he managed to get his head in and not back out (why does that happen?)  After some serious bending of fencing and many shots with my camera, the goat rescue was a success. 

Off to Nan Rothwell's Studio tucked away in an absolutely lovely wooded setting.  Nan teaches pottery classes and is an expert at throwing and baking salt-glazed and stoneware pottery.

Our last stop was at a relatively new vintage shop,  Bittersweet Branch Primitives off 29 S.  We really enjoyed her selection of wicker furniture and collectibles.



It was a perfect day to drive in the country enjoying great food, lovely scenery, and wonderful artisans!

-Rebecca

What's a Girl To Do

Deal of the Week - Target has a Netbook for sale, $197.00.  This was such a good price and my computer equipment must be 10 years old so I finally broke down and purchased one.  It is really convenient.  It is small and portable and I can check email and my Etsy store in a snap.  It is powerful, has a lot of storage space, is speedy, and has a cam built in.  The screen is very clear and just the right size.  This is not a "notebook" it can do anything a laptop can do, it's just smaller in size.  I'm creating today's blog with it right now!

Happening in Charlottesville this weekend ---

Whatcha waiting for ?

SATURDAY 

Friends of the Library Fall Book Sale - 10 am - 7 pm (Nov 12th - 20th) - This is an amazing sale, read my review from last Spring.  I'm volunteering right now, putting books on the shelves and boy are there a lot of books!

Artisans Studio Tour  - 10 am - 5 pm (Sat and Sun) - 17th annual area Art Tour.  Visit studios while enjoying free snacks.  Read my review from last year's tour.

-Rebecca

Stitch and Chat

Jane's cute finished bag.

What does one do when they have a knitting project that is 15 years old and still unfinished.  The obvious answer would be to throw it in the trash but I don't give up easily and this is another test of my "lack" of patience to see it through to the end, no matter what. 

Lovely finished quilt.

One of the many groups that one can join as part of the Newcomers Club of Greater Charlottesville is Stitch and Chat.  A few months ago I decided to resurrect my unfinished knitting project and trudge off to my first monthly meeting.  It can be a little daunting when you don't know the participants but the women in this group have been so kind and welcoming and you can always bury your head in your work (no matter how scary the situation is or your project).  The good thing about the Newcomers Club is that everyone there at one point was new to the Charlottesville area.

Knitters!

Stitch and Chat Group is comprised of about 15 women of varying ages stitching expertise.  There are some amazing, and I mean AMAZING stitchers in this group.  So far Lydia, Susan, and Jane have helped me with my "beginners" sweater project (which to me seems advanced) and I have only attended two meetings.


Lydia's handmade vintage dress & photos.

I was so impressed with the little beaded bag that Susan was knitting, it was incredible.  Lydia brought in a darling dress she handmade in the 60's for her daughter, that her granddaughter wore years later.  It is in pristine condition and made of lace that just isn't made like this these days.  A wonderful quilt was passed around for an examination and a crewel embroidery piece was being made for a future wedding.

I'm truly blown away at the creative talents in this group and if you are a newcomer and have an old craft project that you have yet to give up on (as I did) or just need inspiration, contact the club and check it out!

I don't give up easily and this sweater is not going to go unfinished -- no matter what the end result (ugli, backwards stitches, non-formfitting, saggy collar and all).  I'll have to wear it to a meeting when it's done and at least we can all get a good laugh out of it.

Crewel Embroidery

-Rebecca 

I must make mention of the dessert, coffee, and tea, which is a part of every Stitch and Chat session - guaranteed to be yummy!

Amazing Artisans

Mud Dauber Pottery - Earlysville

We really had a fun time this past Saturday touring eight different art studios in the Charlottesville area during the 16th Annual Artisans Studio Tour.  There were multiple artists work at each studio so we saw a variety of different styles of work - pottery, weavings, jewelry, and woodwork.   

We started out in Earlysville at Mud Dauber Pottery which is a very beautiful studio featuring lovely works of art.  We also encountered new pastry chef, Anissa Walker of Three Baked Goods.  The best nibbles found on the tour offering sweets made in three styles, classic, vegan, and gluten-free.  Anissa's commercial kitchen will be up and running in January.  I may seem to be diverting from the main thrust of my post, ARTISANS, but it's awfully hard not to mention the food we snagged while on this tour.  Each studio provides a finger food assortment and some even provide wine! 



Frederick Williamson Bowls - White Hall



The tour was in town as well as out in the far reaches of Albemarle, Greene, and Nelson counties.
It was a perfectly beautiful, bright and sunny day to meander through the rolling hills discovering  fascinating studios.

The most remote studio that we visited was the Frederick Williamson Art Studio in White Hall.  Driving down the gravel road into the vibrant forest with bold seasonal splashes of yellow and orange was gorgeous.  Dotted along the road were huge logs of wood awaiting their turn to be made into bowls. 



Mary Beth Bellah's quilting fabric viewed through an aquarium



We were blown away by the 3-dimensional quilting by Mary Beth Bellah.  She has been featured in MANY publications and her work is truly her love and passion.  As with many of the artist studios along the tour, the bottom floor of their home was transformed to studio space and featured her works of art.

Two other interesting studios were located in little neighborhood hideaways where normal "city" life goes on amid the business of making art.  Hawksbill Pottery in Key West is dedicated to half of the family home, produced by both artists in residence.  The Andrea Korotky Studio was also hidden away in a busy but peaceful downtown neighborhood nestled among the trees.

Jewelry artist Anita Whitney displayed pretty works of art.  Especially lovely was a Pelican necklace and little silver beaded earrings hoops.

Anita Whitney Pelican Necklace

All artists along the tour were friendly and eager to share explain how their works were crafted.  It was a fun and interesting day!      - Rebecca