Featured Artist: Fran Spaeder

The third gallery member earning a juror's recognition for our current show, "The Child Within", is Fran Spaeder. She made a collection of colorful bags for children. Not only is the fabric colorful, the outside of each bag has built-in pockets just the right size for those all-important crayons!

"Among my favorite childhood memories," Fran says, "was getting a new box of crayons with those perfectly shaped points and a new coloring book. I loved the time spent coloring as a child and then with my 2 sons and now with my 3.5 grandsons. So my patchwork bags hold not just crayons but many fond memories. "

Fran definitely loves color, and her playful personality shines through in everything she creates. Here's a quilt from one of our shows earlier this year. Makes me want to go color!

Featured Artist: Zita Simutis

One of the pieces earning a juror's recognition for our current show, "The Child Within", is "Pooh's Honey Pot" by Zita Simutis.  Have you read "Winnie the Pooh" stories to a child, or remember having one read to you?

Here's what Zita has to say about her inspiration for making this "sweet" felted vessel:

"While on vacation this summer I found some really beautiful hand-spun, hand-dyed locks at my favorite knitting store in Lewes, Delaware (Ginger Moon).  I couldn’t resist buying some for my stash.  I am a wet felter and love to make three-dimensional objects out of sheeps’ wool, hot water, and soap.  Making felt is like making magic.  While thinking about this month’s theme in my brand new studio I saw my natural brown sheeps’ wool in a cubby and nearby, the hand spun locks and was inspired to make a huge vessel with the locks wound around the vessel.  It was a lot more work than I anticipated – those locks just did not want to felt into the wool! Persistence and extra soap paid off, and Pooh’s Honey Pot was born.  I loved reading Pooh stories to my son when he was little, and making the Honey Pot brought back many happy memories.  I was honored to have it selected by my co-juror as a work to be highlighted in this show. "

You can see another view of the Honey Pot on our Sept 20 post.

 

Featured artist: Elida de Souza Moore

The jurors for each of our shows may choose to award recognition for outstanding theme pieces.  For "The Child Within", Elida de Souza Moore was recognized for the entire body of work she submitted.  Elida is known for her art dolls, in addition to her other fiber media such as jewelry.

Elida says, "I am very pleased to be part of the show 'The Child Within.' I had the opportunity to bring back precious memories of my early age. And I am very excited that some of my pieces were recognized. I tried to recreate them as close as possible to the way I used to do when I was a kid: very modest, ordinary fabric, basic colors and unsophisticated techniques. I also tried to recreate the moments I had with my neighbor friends at the end of the day, playing “Ring-a-ring-a-roses.”

"Simone," "Xandoca," and  “Ring-a-ring-a-roses” are shown below.

We'll feature the other two juror recognition awards in future posts.