Hope your 2010 is the best!  In getting ready for the New Year, I made a new notions bag for myself in the same the Cathedral Window pattern.  Designing and making new dolls for the spring market season – see you when it gets warm!

The Bazaar at the Central Chesterfield Library was a fun time.  This was the first bazaar the library has hosted. It was a benefit for the  Chesterfield Center for the Arts Foundation and there were 40+ vendors scattered around the well appointed facility.  I made many rice bags with the 1895 children-powered handcrank Singer and enjoyed talking with everyone. 

This was the last event of the year for Dan Springs Collection – watch for us next Spring at South of the James Market!  As other events are scheduled, I’ll post them on the calendar tab of this blog.  Have a good winter!

Yesterday at South of the James got off to a chilly start, but the sun came out bright and warm and the crowd came with it!  As always, I enjoyed visiting with children of all ages.  We went thru a tin of rice for rice bags, talked with regular customers and vendors, and  even sold a respectable number of dolls and gifts. 

I will not be at the market again until the first Saturday in December, if the weather cooperates.  However, I do plan to participate in the Winter Artisan’s Bazaar at the Chesterfield Central Library in Chester on Saturday, December 12th from 10 am – 4 pm.  This will be a benefit for the Chesterfield Center for the Arts Foundation.

Dan Springs will be at South of the James for Halloween!  That’s a week from this Saturday (10/24).  And I’ll have a new flight of fairies – this group has fabric skirts and wool hair.  I running out of silk flowers, and decided I like the fabric skirts and ribbon waistbands better anyway – they’re sturdier.  This flight also has loops of gold thread so that they may be hung, just as if they were flying! 

Also have two new gourd houses!  These are probably the last for 2009 as its getting to chilly to work in my unheated gourd studio (also known as the screened porch!)  The tops attach with buttons, and can be easily disassembled for storing away.  Fun to play with, and excellent holiday centerpieces as well.

See you on Halloween!  I’ll be the witch with the stripped stockings!

This was the new crop of fairies that I took to market last weekend.  And all of them sold!  So now I’m working on another flight.  I like the faces better than the acorn fairies – skin tone acrylic with pigma pen details, but would like to figure out a way to include the acorn caps. 

Also working on a couple of gourd fairy houses, as the one from last week went to a new home.  I was very pleased with the pinecone petal shingles I added after the photos I took.

Next time at South of the James – October 3rd.

Dan Springs will be back at the South of the James Market (http://themarketumbrella.com/Home_Page.php)  tomorrow from 8am til 1pm, after a month’s absence!  And we have new dolls and gifts – flip dolls, pin cushions and more…

It’s gourd time – cool enough to work outdoors and seasoned gourds ready to saw and sand!  Check out the fairy (or frog, or toad, or bird!) house above.  And to enjoy the little cottage, new fabric faries, one of which you see in the photo.

On the art retreat earlier this month, a friend had taken an old quilt block and made a handy purse.  I had several similar orphan blocks on hand, which are now pocketbooks!

The 43rd Street Festival will also be going on tomorrow, from 10am til 5pm, so plan your day accordingly.  For more info on the festival, see http://www.virginia.org/site/description.asp?attrID=35861

From August 31 – September 5 Donna and I hosted our first Smoky Mountain Art Retreat!  As prudence would suggest, we started small with just four of us.  That turned out to be a good number for the Mountain House, which is rustic at best.  It was a blessing to be away from radio, television and the internet, close to nature and fellow artists.  We had a wonderful time! 

We each came with thoughts on what we wanted to do, and Fran provided our theme artist for the week – Andy Goldsworthy.  For more info on this British scupltor, see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andy_Goldsworthy .  I brought supplies for blank journals for those who wanted to do one, and we all worked on a collaborative journal.  I’ve included several contributions from that one in mine, which is shown above. 

I came back refreshed and inspired – ready for the Autumn markets and whatever treasures the harvest may bring.  Hope to see you at South of the James this Saturday, September 19th.

Here’s some updated inventory for the September 19th South of the James Market – the next time Dan Springs Collection will be there.  My resident marketing advisor suggested we add turtles to the Collection, to keep the frogs company – so these are an original design. 

The quilted journals have sold well, and these most recent versions have matching drawstring bags.  Probably won’t last long!

Now I’m off to the Smoky Mountains for TAPP’s first art retreat – Have a Good Labor Day weekend!

New Inventory

Dan Springs Collection will be at South of the James Market in Forest Hills Park this coming Saturday, August 15.  And we’ll have plenty of frogs and dolls – here’s the newest additions to the Collection.  Hope to see you this weekend!

The Market Phenomena is alive and well in western North Carolina.  I took some of the Collection with me on vacation, thinking to do the Bryson City Saturday morning tailgate market.  Then I read in a local paper that there was one even closer to our Mountain House on Friday’s from 3-7 PM – at the old Rickman Store.  So I did that one as well!  I enjoyed meeting the vendors from the area, and had reasonable sales. 

Rickman’s Store was run by the same family for years, until the original proprietor was in his 90’s.  He finally sold out five or so years ago and the building went thru two owners.  In 2007 it was purchased by the Tennesee Valley Land Trust to enthusiastic community acclaim and has become a center of Cowee Creek activities.  Everything about the building and the market has a welcome mountain feel to it. Here’s a link to a short video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3N7W61Rgyzc If you’re in the area, check it out.

Bryson City Market on Saturday morning was very casual with maybe 10 vendors – mostly produce.  When I got there around 8 am there was only one vendor set up in the generous shade of an old oak tree, and it was a woman I’d met last year!  Joan Glover of Sleep Hollow Farm – fresh brown eggs “laid with pride”, handcrafted gourds, homemade luffa soap, and much more!  Joan turned me on to the Appalacian Grown Local, part of the Appalacian Sustainable Agriculture Project: appalachiangrown.org.  They have an excellent map of local growers and tailgate markets as well as an informative free booklet with more details.

A bit later a photographer set up, who’s day job is working the Marianna Black Library.  I’d met her when getting my library card last summer.  And turns out a fully stocked produce stand across from me with a constant stream of customers was a family related to a decon at Dan Springs Church, just up from our House. 

Life in the Mountains!