Another Flagstaff Open Studios Tour in the can!

 Hard to believe we've wrapped up another Open Studios Tour, my 13th and the 12th that my friend Cinde and I have done together!  When we started back in 2009. it was just the 2 of us at her house, and it's over 6 miles east of the highway.... hard to attract shoppers when they have to go that far for just 2 artists, so a couple years later we started putting out feelers for other Artists' Coalition members to join us.  This year we had a total of 5, and while traffic still wasn't up as high as we have had in past years, we still had good sales and a fun weekend!

This was my friend Amy's first Open Studios Tour - actually, the first art event outside Arts Connection Gallery for her, and she did great!  Sold from the wall and print rack, and took some commission orders for pet portraits!  Go Amy!  And she was one of the only artists who sold an item at our annual Prelude Exhibit where artists participating in Open Studios show examples of their work so visitors can decide which studio locations to visit during Open Studios.

My friend Cinde who was our host, with her lovely beaded jewelry, badge holders and Tree Spirits, along with some wall art.  Cinde was the other artist who sold at Prelude!

Here I am in my space - sold some bowls, a Spirit Doll and of course some tie-dye.

This was photographer Mike Russell's first time with us - he has hosted his own studio in the past with his mother Linda, but she decided not to do the event this year so Mike came in with us.

And this is Phil Goldblatt, a very talented photographer who has been part of our group for 2 years now.

All of us are also regulars at the Arts Connection gallery in Flagstaff Mall so if anyone didn't get to come by this weekend, you can see and buy our work daily from 11am - 7pm Mon-Sat, and 11am - 6pm Sun.  

Now that it's over, I need a nap!  But I'm happy that we were able to resume our annual event!  

Good grief! It's August already!

 July was another busy month and here we are in August already!  It's been a month of monsoon storms, some bad flooding around us, our periodic river has resumed... no pix of it yet, but it was robust enough to need sand bags around the back and side of the garage!

Meanwhile, I've been very industrious, working on adding to my inventory and preparing for Prelude Exhibit at Arts Connection and our upcoming annual Flagstaff Open Studios tour Aug. 27 & 28.

Friday was the Opening reception for the Prelude Exhibit, and I got a few pix:

Shot from the entrance to Arts Connection, Aug. 5 Opening reception.

My display - tie-dye dress, coiled rope bowl and freestanding Spirit doll.

The artists who will be at location # 14: Phil Goldblatt, photography; Cinde Dalhover, bead artist and our host for the event;  Moi, in my fave tie-dye shirt; Amy Sheets, painter; Mike Russel, Iphoneographer.

As always, if you happen to be in the Flagstaff area, we would love to have you stop by either at Arts Connection during August, or at the Open Studios event!  Brochures are available at Arts Connection so that you can decide which studios to visit.

Other activities during July: lots of incline ice dyes!

This shirt is suspended over a sawhorse which sits in a bid.  I applied the dye powders to a shirt soaked in soda ash, then added ice cubes on top.  Several hours later, the ice had melted and the dyes slowly migrated towards the sides of the shirt.

A freestanding Spirit Doll in progress.  Awhile ago, I created the fabric I'm using here for the tunic, but had no idea what to do with it.  It languished on my cutting table for quite awhile before I looked at it one day and knew what to use it for!  I still need to do some embellishing, but she will be ready for Open Studios tour.

My latest bowl - a great representation of what it's like to live in our area - folks out here in the "boonies" frequently post pix of our local fauna, and I fell in love with this scene, had to use it for one of my bowls.  This shot shows that the bowl can be hung as wall decor in addition to being used for normal bowl uses, and I will be utilizing this method of displaying soon in my booth at Sedona Artists' Market. 

On another note, our monsoon season blesses us frequently with amazing cloud formations!  I captured this shot several years ago, and it represents the amazing skies we enjoy here this time of year!

I hope you all have a great August, and I'll post an update after Open Studios Tour, so stay tuned!