The featured studio this week

from the Artfire ShopswithLessthan10(sales) Guild is On Pens and Needles http://www.artfire.com/users/onpensandneedles This is a truly wonderful studio with many surprising things in it and each and every one is handmade.





Jan and Don are a married, retired couple. Jan is a retired nurse and Don is retired from the Navy. Now they are free to spend time on their hobbies. Don makes pens and things from wood and other things-like Corian-and Jan creates wonderful embroidered baby blankets.





I am deeply impressed that Don received the 1st Place Blue Ribbon and Judges Award of Merit at the 2009 Los Angeles County Fair for his entry of the Rose window of Notre Dame scrolled (that's done with a saw) out of Corian the countertop stuff. Now that's artistry for sure!!


Here's a picture of it . Isn't that GRAND?!

Don creates the wooden pens and toys they sell.

Jan creates one of a kind, custom baby blankets that are adorable and other one of a kind things.
I love this little Hooded Bath Towel with the yellow duck ribbon trim. How much cuter can you get for bathtime than yellow ducks?

So click on their studio link and go see their studio on Artfire. It will be worth it.

Have you ever seen a magenta sock moneky?

If you haven't you should-they are cool. You can see one on the Artfire ShopswithLessthan10sales guild featured studio this week. It's CuriosityPiqued http://www.artfire.com/users/CuriositysPiqued .

Lori is the owner and creator of the fun items in this studio. She has an incredible variety of stuff-like a magenta sock monkey-and a lavender one, too. I love sock monkeys especially when they are marching to the beat of their own drummer.

Lori also has some other neat stuff in her studio. Among those things is a belt I just love. She has had a life long love of creating things in the fiber art category and it shows. Her work is wonderful.

So here are a couple of pictures, then you really should go see the magenta sock monkey-I mean her studio-for yourself.

The featured guild studio this week is

PositivelyCharmingThings. You can find this studio here http://www.artfire.com/users/PositivelyCharmingThings



Nikki, from Phoenix is the creator, curator and owner of this great studio. She works with a lot of polymer clay and does it very well, too. (I tried it once and it isn't as easy as it looks.) She love to create-anything and is always working on something besides holding down what I call a "paycheck" job. One day, she hopes to be able to make a living off of her creations. (I know that feeling.). As wonderful as her creations are, I just wouldn't be surprised if she does just that.



My absolute favorite piece in her studio is this Pink and White Swirly Heart Necklace on an organza ribbon. It's so delicate, feminine, and wonderful-perfect if you have a girly-girl on any kind of gift list. The rivoli crystal in the center is going to reflect the light and add lots of dazzle.

Ok, I"ll stop gushing and post the picture now.

I know it isn't close to Christmas right now, even though the weather across the country seems to disagree, but I wanted to post this picture so you can see just how talented Nikki is with polymer clay sculpting.

The featured guild shop this week is

Spotlight on Va Beach Quilter

The Spotlight studio this week is Va Beach Quilter. You can find her here. http://www.artfire.com/users/vabeachquilter

Several relatives on my mom's side of the family were quilters, so I appreciate the art of quilting and it is an art. Kim's work is no exception to this statement. Not only does she have quilts, but a wonderful mix of quilted items from totes and backbacks to table runners and place mats. In fact, when I have the money, she's going to do a custom quilt for me.

I love the colors and style of these placemats.

As a reformed (trying to reform, anyhow) purse collector, I am in love with the selection of quilted purses she has in her studio. Loving the color blue and flowers, of course this is my favorite purse from her studio.

Tali's Creations

Tali's Creations is the Artfire Guild with Less Than 10 Sales studio of the week. This wonderful jewelry studio can be found here http://www.artfire.com/users/talicreations .

There are many beautiful pieces of jewelry in Tali's studio, but my favorites are the pieces she has designed for Breast Cancer Awarness in honor of her sister who lost her battle with this all too common form of cancer.

Tali also has some lovely necklace sets in her studio. These sets consist of earrings, a bracelet and a neckace. You don't often see this anymore and it's nice to get matching pieces in one set.

Here are a couple of pictures of her jewelry, then you can click the link and see her studio and maybe find a nice gift. After all, Mother's Day is coming up soon.

Ruth Nichols aka Hillside Gradens Art Studio

Ruth is another talented lampworker who was falsely accused on the fraud blog of being a tax evader, among other things. Let me assure you, she is not.

Ruth is a “Jill of all trades” in the glass field-at least in my opinion. When you are done reading this post, you will understand why I say that.

Ruth's dad was an artist and teacher and she found herself following in his footsteps and becoming an artist in her own right. After spending time creating with oils, acrylics, charcoal, acrylics and more, she discovered the world of polymer clay. She began making small things, like buttons and sculptures with poly clay. Then, “I soon started creating on a larger scale, making 18 inch to life size Santa's and old world inspired father Christmas's, angels, elves, political figures & fantasy figures. I found that creating almost all of the items that went with each Santa or Father Christmas was worth it in the time spent. Her polymer clay obsession lasted 18 years. Then, she discovered glass.

Glass was able to feed her addiction to color and being able to blend and fuse colors like she could with the polyclay. There was just one small hitch-she wasn't really happy with the tools available for shaping and working with glass. So, while she was torching, she was thinking about tools and what would work. After searching online and not being able to find what she was looking for, Ruth made a drawing and asked her husband to make it for her. Well, since it was made from graphite, it created a bit of a mess, so they decided to contact somebody who had experience with graphite. They found Leon Good at Weaver Industries and soon, The Perfect Tool system was born with Ruth doing the tool designing.

So, now you know why I called Ruth 'a Jill of all trades in the glass field”. If you look at her website, which can be found here, you will see just how talented this lady is http://www.hillsidegardensartstudio.com/