Recap of Handmade Paper Guild Holiday Sale

The Holiday Sale last Thursday, Friday and Saturday felt slow, it seemed empty and there were lots of lookers.  We were all quite discouraged.  However, on Saturday (usually our slowest day) we had a steady stream of people.  Lo and behold, things started moving for everyone.  When I completed my inventory after the sale I discovered, my to my surprise, that I had my best show in years.  Maybe things are looking up folks!  Maybe three years in the dumps is enough.  We can hope, can't we?

We have the sale with the Kalamazoo Valley Potters and an art group called Art Etc.  The Weavers' Guild also is there and brings in lots of people.  We are at the Kalamazoo Expo Center (fairgrounds).  The best thing about this space is that we have lots of space!  It also, however, contributes to that feeling of not much activity because it is so cavernous.

As you can see, I really concentrated on the paper mosaics this year.

While I did well, I still have lots left.  Let me know the color you need for that special someone and I'll see what I've got.  (I know, I know, get on Etsy!)

To those of you that attended:  many thanks.  To those that continue to support me in various ways:  many thanks.  And so I'll end with my attitude of gratitude.  Happy Thanksgiving all.

Lorrie

Handmade Paper Guild Holiday Sale this Weekend

After the Brick House opening I immediately switched gears to paper mosaics.  The Handmade Paper Guild Holiday Sale is this weekend and I have lots of fun gifty things to look at, as do many other handmade paper artists.  You'll find handmade paper stationery, artwork, journals, frames, mirrors, cards, ornaments, jewelry and lots of other cool things.  Additionally, The Kalamazoo Potters, Art Etc. and the Weaver's Guild will all be there.  So many things to choose from for the special people in your lives (including you!).

The sale is at the Kalamazoo County Expo Center (Kalamazoo Fairgrounds), 2900 Lake Street, Kalamazoo, MI  49048.  Hours are:

Thursday, November 17th, 5-8pm
Friday, November 18th, from 9am to 8pm
Saturday, November 19th, 9am to 4pm

Here's a sampling of what I will have available...

Four lined handmade paper cards, $10.  Nicely packaged so they don't even need to be wrapped!

Paper mosaic picture frames and mirrors,  $40 - $75.  Lots of colors and sizes available.

Fun side table.  $80.  Perfect  place to put that morning cup of tea.

Eight paste painted notecards per package, $12.  So many colors to choose from your mind will be boggled.

This picture is from last year's sale.

Hope you'll stop by.  I'm working Friday morning/afternoon and Saturday morning.  If you see me please be sure to say hello.

Lorrie

One World, One Heart

It's that time of year again. Welcome! Welcome! I'm Lorrie Grainger Abdo, paper artist, from Kalamazoo, Michigan.

Today, the fun, crazy chaos of the One World, One Heart blogging event begins. Sure, it's a great way to enter tons and tons of great handmade item giveaways. But it's really a way to visit lots of blogs and find some that really speak to you.  I hope you'll stay and take a look at what I'm up to, let me know that you're here, subscribe or at least come back as often as you can.

The Event:

Lisa Swifka, from A Whimsical Bohemian, is the creator and host of this event that started in 2007. She describes it best in her blog: "the original idea behind this giveaway event was to bring bloggers together from around the world who may never ordinarily meet. It closes the gap of the blog community and enables us to interact, discover new and wonderful people, and in the process possibly win a prize or many prizes along the way."

The Artist:

I am Lorrie Grainger Abdo.  I make paper from 100% cotton linters. I also use various surface design techniques, like pulp painting, paste painting, resists, acrylics, texturing mediums, etc., on commercial papers to create papers with color, depth and interest. Of course, all this paper begs to be used! My current artistic directions are paper mosaics, which is a very controlled artistic experience. And, painting highly textured handmade papers which then are included in paintings on canvas or used on home decor items. This is much more intuitive and free. Working with both sides of the brain seems to be working for me right now. Regardless of brain function (or brain dysfunction!), my work is almost always full of color, color and more color.

The Giveaway:

My giveaway is a paper mosaic heart on a wood pedestal.  It is about 8" tall and 5" wide.  It's a sample of some of my more intricate mosaic work.  This type of piece would usually sell for $20.  Leave a comment and it could be yours.



Side one:  could be front or back



Side two:  could be front or back



The Rules:

* You must leave a comment on this post in order to be entered into my giveaway drawing.

* You must be a blogger in order to participate.

* Your comment must provide a way for me to contact you in case you win.

* I will pick a winner (random number choice) at 9:00 pm EST on Monday, February 15, 2010. Anyone that posts after 9:00 pm EST will not be included in the drawing. The winner will be notified that evening or the following morning.

Thanks so much for stopping by. I look forward to hearing from you today and, hopefully, in the future. To continue on your blogging journey you can click on the OWOH logo and find all kinds of other bloggers with great giveaway. Have fun and best of luck!

Lorrie

Merry Christmas

Dear Art Buddies and All Around Good Eggs,


Thank you for being in my life and making it richer.  I wish you a wonderful holiday season!

Lorrie

Signature Artists Cooperative Gallery Sale

In May I was thrilled to jury into an area artists' coop. The group, Signature, meets monthly, has an annual exhibition and also opens a wonderful Gallery each December. The Gallery features the artwork of about 20 different artists. Incredible handmade gifts and artwork is available: jewelry, photography, pastels, ceramics, wood, stained glass, fiber, steel, blown glass, handmade paper, and paintings. If you still need that special something and live in southwest Michigan, check us out.

The picture is of my space on opening day. The work of pastel artist Melody Allen is beyond mine. I didn't take any pictures of the entire space because I wasn't sure about "permissions". Next year I will show you the whole store.

Hours for the remainder of the "run":

Tuesday - Thursday: 10 - 7

Christmas Eve: 10 - 3

Christmas Day: closed

December 26: 12 - 5

December 27: 12 - 7

We're located at 4644 West Main, Kalamazoo, MI 49006. The store is in the Westwood Plaza next to Coney Island. 269-382-4134.

For those of you that have already been there. Many thanks for coming and encouraging local artists with your presence and support.

Lorrie

Handmade Paper Guild Holiday Sale

I would judge this year's Handmade Paper Guild Holiday a success! We joined with the Kalamazoo Valley Potters, the Weaver's Guild and Art Etc. to put on a really nice holiday gift show the weekend before Thanksgiving.

Some challenges:

* We were in a new venue so we had to organize ourselves a bit better than usual ahead of time. I wasn't one of these organizer people so I'm very grateful to our Holiday Chairperson, Barb Stewart and her committee. One big change was that members had to commit to a table or two (or three or four) way ahead of time and stick to the commitment: no dropping out at the last minute because it would leave a big hole in the table layout.

* We were in a new venue, way across town from our usual spot, so our customers had to find us. The Weaver's have a big following so that certainly helped but our postcard to our mailing list seemed to do the trick. More advertising would certainly be a plus, but how to do it economically?

* We were in a new, much bigger, venue so we had lots of room to spread out but how to make it a bit cozy too? Thirty customers in this cavernous place made it seem like no customers were there at all. But, thirty customers at our old space made it seem like we were crazy busy.

* We were in a new venue but it is still located in Michigan: my lovely, but suffering, State with regard to most economic news. Enough said about this as I'm quite tired of hearing about it and the experts' guesses as to when it will be getting better.

Getting the idea that the new venue was a problem and an opportunity? Mostly opportunity, IMO, and I hope the groups decide to remain there for next year. My sales were about even with last year. (I haven't heard a total for the group yet.) It's not what I had hoped for but it wasn't down and I met some new wonderful people along the way. One gal from my yoga class that I didn't know beyond a smile and nod before each class, even made the effort to call me after the sale and tell me how much she and her daughter liked my work. Now that's a nice phone call to get!

This is my little corner of the world. Notice some of the work of the Potters behind my work.

This gives you a view of the work of one the Handmade Paper Guild artists as well as a look at the entire space. Big, big, big.

The soft lighting from the handmade paper lamps made by Liz Faust helped to cozy up the space a bit.

Many thanks to all that stopped by...

Lorrie

Blue Sunshine

Look what's blooming in my garden today...

Of course, this fun side table is just on a flowery rug.  In reality, we are getting our first snow of the season and roads are quite icy.  Let's be careful out there!

The Handmade Paper Guild Show two weeks ago went well.  In my next post I'll show some pictures.  Then we immediately left for western New York for Thanksgiving.  And now I'm working hard to get ready for a month-long Gallery Show with the Signature Artists Cooperative.  I was thrilled to get juried into this 30-member group in May so this will be my first time participating in their annual Gallery Show.  I have no idea if I have too much work or not enough.  Plus there's always that whole thing about guessing what things will sell.  Oh my!

I wish you a wonderful month of December filled with family, good food and wonderful thoughts.  Something to strive for anyway...

Lorrie

Paper Mosaic Frenzy

In anticipation of the Handmade Paper Guild Holiday Sale this weekend as well as the month-long Signature Gallery Shop I've been in a paper mosaic frenzy...

Picture frames and 10" x 10" mirrors...

More picture frames and 10" x 10" mirrors...

Some holiday stuff...

Some fun stuff...

Most prices range from about $10 to $50.  I will have larger stuff available too but I don't have pictures of it all yet.

Back to the studio...

Lorrie

The Life of a Sheet of Paste Painted Paper

A good deal of my time lately has been painting sheets of 18" x 24" sheets of paper using the paste painting techniques that I love so. 

The fall weather here in Michigan has been glorious (instead of the usual cold, rainy days that we frequently get in late October) so I can work in the garage, not freeze, and then clean up with the hose and not freeze.  I do believe, however, that those days are behind me and I will soon be stuck in the basement using the table under the stairs and the stained utility tub that is next to the sump pump.  Not the most inspiring environment.

Here's a sampling of the 50+ sheets that were painted.

Trim edges.  Cut down to 5" x 8 1/2" inches.  Fold.  Count out envelopes.  Package up with raffia.  Label and price each package.  Doesn't seem like too much until you try to do 50 sheets, then it's a back breaker.  I think I'm going to look into having a printer do the cutting.  Each package of 8 cards is $12.  Now that you know what love and effort goes into each little package, it's quite a bargain, don't you think?  :)

Here are some of the trimmed off bits.  I used to throw most of these away.  The stuff in our recycling bin was the prettiest in the neighborhood!  It just about killed me to throw all these away.   But I could only make so many bookmarks and the piles of scraps continued to grow into a mountain!  Then, I started working with paper mosaics and the rest (as they say) "is history". 

 

Here are some paper mosaic composite sheets made with the scraps from the larger paste painted sheets.  Almost every little piece of the large sheet is used, each and every time. 

With the holiday season just around the corner, these will probably be made into picture or mirror frames.

Lorrie

Current Exhibition - Better Homes and Gardens

I was asked to exhibit my work at the Unitarian Universalist Community Church, Portage, MI.  I was pleased with the offer and gladly accepted.

Here is the Artist Statement for the show titled Better Homes and Gardens:

Lorrie Grainger Abdo is a local paper artist. One July weekend in 1995 she took a papermaking workshop in northern Wisconsin and it changed her life. Inspired by the textural possibilities of the medium she began exploring different ways to push paper pulp to its structural limits yet maintaining a 2D format. Adding bright paint highlights the hills and valleys of the paper texture. Recently she has begun to use various painting techniques and canvas to progress further with handmade paper.

Additionally, she works extensively with paste paint. This is a surface design technique that she uses on commercial papers. These papers have movement and infinite possibilities. The papers are turned into paper mosaic art pieces as well as for home decor accents.


The show Better Homes and Gardens combines her handmade paper artwork and paper mosaic home decor pieces. She often uses the graphic shape of a house in her work as well as simplistic flower forms. These basic forms, while childlike, inspire powerful memories for those living in the adult world.

From left to right:  Heavy House, Hopeful House, Hell House, Healthy House and Harmony House.  Each is 100% cotton fiber and acrylic paints.  Each measures about 2' x 4'.

The house form on these is handmade paper, the background on each is a paste painted sheet of commercial paper.  The one second from the left sold during the show.  Others are awaiting a good home:  maybe yours?

These are paper mosaic pieces, each measuring about 9" x 12".  It's hard to take decent  pictures of artwork when it has a high gloss finish coat.

The mosaic wall.

These are small, about 9" x  12".  I'm showing you these because they incorporate handmade paper (the flowers) on a textured canvas.

I took more pictures but they are too terrible (glare, blurry, etc.) to show you.  Instead, I'd like to share with you something that they have on the alter of the church.  It is a large, multi-panel screen that is decorated with...

tiny paper pieces.  What are the odds of that?  Apparently this was done by church members.  Various commerical papers (mostly magazines and scrap) were used.  I think it's lovely.

The show has already been up for about a month and comes down on Monday, October 25.  If you'd like to see it before then, let me know.

Lorrie

Flower Paper Mosaic Mirror

This mirror was fun to make and I'm very pleased to say that it sold to a local art friend:  Angela Hoffman.  Angela is one of the Altered Sisters here in Kalamazoo.  We meet monthly and share our work, our ideas and techniques.  I took this to a recent meeting to show everyone and she decided that she had to have it.  Nice to have friends like that!

It is pretty big, measuring almost three feet from petal tip to petal tip.  The actual mirror is about 10 inches across.  There are at least 7 different mosaic patterns in this piece and more than 12 different paste painted patterns were used.



A close up of one of the petals.


I hope Angela and her family will enjoy it for many years to come.

Lorrie

Paper Mosaic Mirror Frame - Matt and Rachelle

Our nephew, Matt Monroe, got married this summer in Huntington, West Virginia.  That's a new pin on the US map for us.  The weekend was lovely because family came from all over the eastern half of the country to enjoy one another's company and wish the bridal couple well.

I made a mirror for them that I hope they'll enjoy.  They chose the colors and tell me that they have a place to hang it.  Blues are definitely my comfort colors so this came easy (but not necessarily quick) to me and I was happy with the result.

Close up of corner.  There are about eight to ten different patterns/shades of blue in the mosaics for this piece.

As far as the actually wedding and reception goes...

This is a close up of one of the contemporary stain glass windows in the church.  I like the seemingly random placement of the colors.  Of course, it isn't random at all.

Since we don't often dress up (we're more of a shorts and T-shirt kind of family), here's what we look like when we've cleaned up.

Aaron and Cousin Alex from Virginia made their own fun.

Lorrie

Paper Mosaic Mirror Frame - Julie and Marc's

Continuing on with stuff related to my friend's wedding, here is the wedding gift. This mirror may look familiar as it was done with the same colors as the mirror I just hung at the Haworth home. However, this mirror is a slightly different size and is actually a frame with a mirror in it so it hangs on a wire/nail rather than getting screwed into the wall.

Two weekends ago, while in the Detroit area for a soccer tournament, I showed this particular mirror to a gallery. It was a horribly wet and cold weekend and I walked in (with an appointment) wearing a winter coat, rain boots, wet straggly hair and basically looking a mess. I had just enough time to stop in between games and tried to make the most of it. Anyway, the gallery is in Brighton, is called The Artisan's Bench, and they want some of these babies! I'm now in the market for well built frames/mirrors with a 3" to 4" flat profile. I would have thought it would be easy but no. Any ideas/sources?

Lorrie

Paper Mosaics - Green Basketweave

While I was painting the book I showed you in the last post I did lots of extra sheets in shades of green for use in paper mosaics. There are so many steps when making paper mosaics that I'm truly afraid to count the hours in a completed piece!

Have a great holiday weekend. As with most of our April, May, June weekends, my family will be at the soccer fields with 10 games for sure (potentially 13) for our 3 kids. Craziness!

Lorrie

Paper Mosaic Mirror Frame - Haworth family

A friend and neighbor hosts an amazing art party each November.  She invites five to nine artists to invade her home, pound nails in her walls and show their work for one evening. Lots of people ready to drink wine, chat with friends and spend money attend this four-hour whirlwind event.  A portion of the sales goes to a charity that has been chosen ahead of time. It's a win-win for everyone.  And, what does the hostess get in return for her efforts?  She gets a piece of art from each of the participating artists.  You can bet that her home has lots of cool artwork!

Here's the journey of the half bath mirror frame that I made for the Haworth family of Kalamazoo, Michigan...

The existing mirror is glued to the wall with no frame around it so my dad and I bought wood at a Big Box and made the 2' x 3' frame ourselves.  Several trips to measure, to make sure it was right, ensued.  The frame was painted with a primer then black.

Claudia's home is tastefully done primarily in earth tones so my uber-bright colors don't always work well there.  I made lots of 18" x 24" sheets of brown, terra cotta, cream and tan sheets of paste papers.  Some have a bit of metallic shimmer too.  This reminded me that I can work in brown, even though I seldom do.

The sheets of paste paper got cut down into mosaics.  Here they are drying after being coated with Mod Podge.  The kitchen table didn't see any meals for several days throughout this whole thing.

Rather than just covering the mirror frame with one mosaic style, my intent was to use all the different mosaic styles and colors on the one frame.  Lots of scissor work, glue and time.  Oh, did I mention lots of time?

Here's a close up of one of the corners.  You might notice that the circle at the top has a hole in it.  I had to somehow allow a way to get the mirror frame attached to the wall.  These holes are where the screws will go.  They will be covered with half inch wooden plugs.  Pretty ingenious, huh?

When the frame was finished, I put three coats of a varnish on.  This is important for lots of reasons but mainly because it will be used in a bathroom with moisture around.

Ta Da!  Installed!

After it was screwed into the wall, I caulked around the mirror with a clear caulk to keep any moisture from getting between the frame and the mirror.

Wow, what a project!  The Haworth family is really happy with their new bathroom mirror.  I'm really happy with the results too and fully expect to be doing more of these in the future.  Claudia has offered that anyone in the Kalamzoo area interested in seeing it up close and personal is very welcome to do so.  Contact me at lorrieabdo@aol.com to set up an appointment and discuss fees.  Or, if you know her, you are welcome to go directly to her.

Lorrie

Basketweave Paper Mosaic Pattern #2

Here's try #2 on the basketweave pattern with paste paper strips.  Each square is one inch.  Once you get a rthymn going, it moves along pretty quickly.  Well, I guess "quickly" isn't quite the right word.  Let's just say it goes faster than "slowly".  I have a plan for all this pink...

You can see try #1, in shades of brown, in my March 21st post.

Lorrie