Buying Artwork from Local Artists

What do you hang on your walls? I've got family photos of course, but I've also hung some artwork I've picked up over the years. I like to find unique things made by local people in my town or places I visit.

I saw this quilt at a local art gallery and frame shop years ago, and fell in love with it. My family bought it for me for my birthday that year. It's by local artist joanE Lipinski. I think when you find a piece that you love, you can buy it with the confidence that it will bring you years of enjoyment, because it speaks to you. You can see on my mantle, I also have some of my kids' artwork.

This carving was made by Gina Gaudesi, an artist I found on Flickr. That's a wonderful place to see artwork from people all over the world. Gina's photostream is here.  Her Etsy shop is here.  I hang old maps as artwork too, and you can see one peeking out in the background of this photo. I find them at antique shops and sometimes even at garage sales!

I bought these pottery pieces at Chartreuse Art Co-op in St.Joseph, Michigan. The top pieces are by Margaret Hogeboom. If I remember correctly, the fish is by Christina Root. Art co-ops are great places to find the work of local artists.  We have a nice one here in downtown Pontiac on Madison Street.

Art fairs are also a good place to see the work of local artists. The big cities have them of course (and I like browsing those too), but plenty of smaller cities have wonderful festivals. Sugar Creek Arts Festival in Normal is a good one, and Krasl Art on the Bluff is another fun one where you can look at art all day, with beautiful Lake Michigan always in view. I've always wanted to go to ArtPrize in Grand Rapids, Michigan, but it's almost over again this year, so maybe I'll make it next year!

Route 66 Wristlets

 While I have my sewing machine out, I decided to make some wristlets out of Route 66 fabric. I've got several different prints, and tonight I started with this fun blue one. This fabric features the vintage signs I love. I boxed the bottom of these, for a little different shape.

The lining is cute. It has little Route 66 shields and also an occasional heart that says "I love Lucy." Sweet!

Sewing Wristlets

I made some bags for Colleen to give to her bride's maids. You can see those here. One of those bride's maids asked me to make some for her bride's maids as well. She is having a country wedding with lots of lace and burlap and sunflowers.

 I used some vintage lace, and some cute dotted  material to line the bags and make the handles.

Altogether I made 10 of them. Now another bride saw these and wants some for her wedding party, so I'll be making up some more!

Decorating the Porch

 Here's the porch when I moved in. I mostly just cleaned it up with a hose and broom, and then proceeded to make it home. I took off the triple track storm frame and found this, so I scraped and painted a bit of trim:

Then I moved some furniture in and hung some lights. The vintage glider was a birthday present from my parents years ago. My mom saw it at a garage sale and knew I'd love it. Someday I'd like to take it to the body shop and have it painted red. The rug is from Pier One. It's supposed to be for outdoors, and the instructions say to hose it off when it needs more than vacuuming.  That will be so much easier than having it cleaned, so I hope it lives up to those instructions! I love all the colors in it.

 Before cleaning and moving in and...

 after...that hammock is my favorite place to read. It's going to be getting cold soon, and I'll miss my porch.

Remember those little plants in an earlier post? They went haywire and got nice and big!