Have yourself an arts and crafts weekend in Allentown

In July I started up a conversation with Paul Gretian whose amazing photos happened to be at the same show as our craft. Later in the weekend he invited us to apply to the show his chapter of the PA Guild of Craftsmen puts together and so we will once again be honored to have our craft in the same space as his.

What is art what is craft? No matter. I am inviting you to have an Arts and Crafts Weekend in Allentown, PA.

The Craft show is happening Novemeber 6 and 7 at the Swain School. details

What I suggest is that you make a day of it and head to the Allentown Art Museum while you are in town for the craft show. It is great to hear that the museum is expanding, but sad to report the big connection is falling flat. You see the museum purchased a room that was owned and designed by Frank Lloyd Wright. It was at this moment in the blog post where I was to connect arts and crafts, but the museum's expansion has closed the room from the public view.

And here I was to point out the specific painting by Arthur Dove which Mosaic Woman loves so much, but apparently not everything is easy to find on the internet. But here is a cool Arthur Dove painting of a sunrise:


by Micah MacAllen

The painting we saw at the museum reminded Mosaic Woman of mandalas, which she just happened to blog about.

and let me end with this: as I was writing this post, I was chatting with a member of the Swingle Singers on Twitter. I may just meet her and hear them when they tour the US. They take on many a genre and you can explore that, but this one caught my eye and ear. Have a glorious day and see you in Allentown

Wordless Wednesday--- Mensch in October

Jazz on Tuesdays... needing a Mercer break

A few years back I was noticing that I was loving Johnny Mercer tunes.

Things have been busy here... teaching , retreats, teaching, strudel, Phillies, teaching, studio time, teaching. My flickr 365 has been fun but demanding and my growing tribe of supporters has led to lots of time looking at photos and less time reading and writing blogs. ebb and flow.

so I need a Mercer break. I hope you enjoy his lyrics to the music by...


... Jimmy Van Huessen




... Joseph Kosma






... Lionel Hampton and Sonny Burke




... Henry Mancini




Have a great night my friends.

Crafting on Thursdays--- friends invite us into new frontiers

After venturing into outside shows this summer and into September, we are taking October off from setting up booths because as soon as November hits we are off and running (show schedule).

With Mosaic Woman being laid off, I wondered how wise it was to take October off, but we have learned something. We need to venture into new frontiers.

Today we drove to Lancaster and back to find out that 6 weeks in a store which was only selling crafts led to no sales. Fortunately we had lunch with a new friend and did not mope about the lack of sales. We took a scenic route home and thought about what else had happened this month.

The night at the Ambler Theater was great. No booth fee. Free movie tickets. In half an hour before and a half an hour after the movie, Mosaic Woman sold many a mosaic. This all happened because of one of Mosaic Woman's best friends organized the event, inspired Mosaic Woman, and then invited her to bring mosaics.

Last weekend I went on a spiritual retreat. Last October when I was at the same retreat center I was coming off an 8 day retreat where I was fueled to create art. I spoke of this with a dear friend, who told the other retreatants that unless they asked to be opted out, she was giving me permission to put them on our mailing list. Since then several of these folk, who I have spent many an October weekends with, have come to shows and bought our craft. My dear friend invited me to bring stained glass and on the huge windows that form a wall at the Kline Center at Mensch Mill; my art never looked so good.


In 24 hours I sold ten pieces. But what really made my day was two very special pieces which I was beginning to give up on, headed into the homes of folk who I know. One my very dear friend.

I have never sold so much stained glass before in one weekend.

We need to explore new opportunities and celebrate the friends who invite us into them.

By the way, our ETSY shop is open and Mosaic Woman has been very busy.

Wordless Wednesday--- Dahlia heaven

Science Mondays-- change of plans

Sunday afternoon I got home from being away from home since early Friday morning, hung out with Mosaic Woman then made a pizza for a friend who came over to do some plumbing. I was bit tired when I began to plan out the week plan for teaching but had a plan written out when I hit the school this morning. I changed it before my second class showed up. Realizing I was leaving a few students behind, I made a list of 21 vocab words and started a review. We will review some more before testing them this Friday

I also saw it as an opportunity to show some cool videos which my students have been finding and placing on the wikispace page we are creating as a class.

Here are a few. Enjoy.

as for the photo at the top of the page, I searched my flickr site for "plan" and that is what came up.

Crafting on Thursdays- Stratozpheric suncatcher from scraps

There are folk, who work with stained glass, who make mosaics from their scraps. Well in a way, I just made this:



from scraps of a mosaic project.

I decided to make a second Stratozpheric mosaic mandala (first one). So I cut out nearly 100 pieces of glass:


Then I designed a border and cut out some Youghiogheny glass and started the mosaic:


The mosaic is nearly finished. I grouted it over the weekend and it is flawed. Not ugly, but flawed to the point that I would feel uncomfortable selling it. So I will eventually hang it in our house and I will make another one to sell. But when the grouting was over, I still had a pile of "scraps" so I just took them and made a starflower much as I would doodle a design; knowing what I wanted to make, but a bit unsure of where exactly I was headed. I then soldered it into a whole and this afternoon I placed it into our ETSY shop.

What do you think? I hope to make more scrappy starflowers.