Swan Ornament Display
by Bernard Collin

Collections of ornaments add charm, personality, and sparkle to your home. Cleverly displayed in unexpected locations, they can also make entertaining conversation pieces.

For example, you can decorate your staircase with garland hung with ornaments of similar colors or themes.

Or, create a magical focal point in your dining room by using colorful ribbons to hang ornaments at alternating heights from your chandelier—the light from the chandelier will make the ornaments glow.

When used at each place setting, special ornaments can become gifts for your dinner guests after the meal.

Ornaments can also be tied to the top of wrapped gifts and placed on a table or under the tree for a special, festive touch.

You can tuck ornaments into empty nooks in your china cabinet or on your bookshelves to add an unexpected sparkle.

Or, nestle your ornaments in among your favorite art objects, using their colors as inspiration to make a bold statement.

You can even turn an everyday mirror into a dramatic display for your ornaments by hanging them from alternating lengths of ribbon affixed to the mirror’s back. The result will reflect the uniqueness of your artist-made ornaments in a whole new way.

And beautiful art glass ornaments don’t have to be put away after the holidays. Ornament stands, such as the "Single Ornament Display" and "3 Ornament Display" by Julie and Ken Girardini, can be used to showcase your ornaments year round.

Ed Byers

It must be something about the cooler weather and the autumn leaves. Everyone seems to be talking about ceramics. From wheel thrown porcelain bowls to hand-built sculpture. Sgraffito carving, slip casting, raku, wood firing…. it all has a warmth to it that keeps us cozy as the days get cooler. The mug I drink my tea from and the bowl I use for my soup – both carefully made by the hands of a ceramics artist.

And to keep that conversation going, I’ve added interviews with two ceramics artists to the website. Get a little behind the scenes look at Ed Byers, whose hand-built sculptures each have their own story, and Heather Van Horn and Eric Hendrick; who create art, write poetry, and spend time with children.

And to help you bring the joy of ceramics into your home, take 10% off every ceramic work of art at Artful Home by using the code CERAMICS9 at check out.

Boat in hand by Cathy Broski

Every year the Madison Museum of Contemporary Art (MMoCA) and the Madison Symphony Orchestra (MSO) join forces and put on the Arts Ball. The Arts Ball raises much needed funds for these great organizations. This year it lands directly on Halloween. It will probably have the best costumes of any Halloween party in the city.

The museum is a great asset that "exists to exhibit, collect, preserve, and interpret modern and contemporary art." Almost all of the exhibits at the museum are free and they are always presenting new works and educational series.

The symphony presents amazing musical works and brings in some of the best musicians in the world to perform with them.

If you happen to be attending the Arts Ball this weekend, make sure you take a good look at the silent auction. And I recommend bidding on “Boat in hand” by Cathy Broski which was donated by Artful Home.

Ember Rose Scarf by Jenne Giles

If you’ve seen the Rose Scarves by Jenne Giles, you’ve seen how stunning the rose affect is. Recently we’ve had quite a few people ask us how to get that beautiful rose affect when wearing the scarf. Well, Jenne came to the rescue and created a great how-to video to show you how to tie your scarf to achieve the rose styling and several other creative ways for wearing the scarf. Take a peek at the video below.

Jenne herself is a San Francisco-based artist whose work ranges from traditional fine arts and crafts to innovative performance and installation art. She is dedicated to creating unique pieces of wearable art which combine her love for painterly color, sculptural form, folk art, and costume.

Besides her rose scarves in colors that range from winter white to “nocturne” (which is a combination of deep blue an grey), she also makes beautiful felted wraps. I love the luxurious fiber combinations that she uses. Her works contain Merino wool which is the reason the fibers felt, but she also includes various types of silk fibers to give the piece a luxurious look and feel.