Gardening in the Rain
Pigment Print by Brian Kershisnik

You would never guess that we are in the middle of the lazy days of summer here at Artful Home. There are summer art fairs, our 10th Anniversary, the Hearts for Anna event, and so much more.

Let’s start with our 10th Anniversary. Today and tomorrow you can register for a chance to win “Gardening in the Rain” by Brian Kershisnik. Brian’s work has been a huge favorite with our customers. People are drawn to the emotion in his work. As Brian states, “Humor is healthy. God laughs. I believe that. To avoid a good, human, affectionate sense of humor in art that is depicting human beings is nonsense.” If you love Brian’s work, make sure you see his newest additions to the Artful Home collection – “Reading a Very Small Book” and “She Reads“. Remember to take advantage of our 10th Anniversary 10% off event.

Hearts for Anna Event
We’re also in the middle of the Hearts for Anna event. Right now we are collecting donated works from artists. If you haven’t heard, fiber artists Anna Millea has cancer and is unable to get health insurance. Artists are donating works that will go on sale August 12 with 100% of the proceeds going to help Anna with medical expenses. Any artist can donate work. We encourage artists who are affiliate with Artful Home and artists who are not to donate a piece to this cause. You can get a sneak peek at the works that will be available to purchase on our website and you can stay up to date on the event with our custom Twitter feed.

Favorite Fortune Ornament Contest Winner

We have a winner in the ornament Favorite Fortune contest. Sandi B. submitted her fortune, “The most beautiful thing we can experience is the mysterious”, via this blog and it came out on top when all of the votes were counted. Sandi’s fortune will be included in one of the artist-made ornaments in this years collection. Sandi will receive both of the fortune ornaments in this year’s collection for submitting the winning fortune.

Artful Home Staff Picks

Have you ever wondered what the staff at Artful Home would choose as their favorite works of art? We asked around and now you can see our favorite pieces. Visit the Artful Home Staff Picks page and see why we like what we do.


Niche Award Nomination
Artful Home is thrilled to have been nominated for a Niche award. Professional fine craft artists throughout the U.S. and Canada nominated nearly 600 craft galleries, retail stores, arts nonprofits, museum shops and guilds for this year’s awards. The winners will be announced the first weekend in August at the Buyers Market of American Craft show in Philadelphia.

Chocolate by Cathy Kleeman

All week long I’ve been putting stuff in boxes, getting ready for the Quilt Surface Design Symposium. We’re leaving tomorrow and I’m taking a 7 day class with Elizabeth Busch. Today it’s time to really get serious, finalize my packing, move stuff up out of the studio and into the car. This class I’m taking is called a “Master Class”. It’s more of a mentored studio where we have the benefit of input from both the instructor and all our classmates. We bring our own projects and pretty much do work of our own choosing. There are usually group critiques and one-on-one critiques plus other art-inspiring activities. We’re also going to be doing some painting on cotton duck, something I don’t usually do.

I been thinking about my years of attendance at QSDS. My first class was in 1993, when it was still run at the Josephinium Seminary, a college for priests in Columbus. The facilities were primitive, to put it mildly. Our rooms were the cells in the dormitory, no air conditioning, big enough for a single bed and a dresser. The showers were down the hall, and two rooms shared a toilet and a sink. One quickly became acquainted with one’s “sink-mate”. The class I took was titled “A Problem-Solving Approach to Design” and it was a series of small projects that taught us how to boost creativity. The best lesson I took away from that class was to not be afraid to experiment and to not let the work become so dear that you’re afraid to try something for fear of wrecking it.

It was my first exposure to Quilt National and I was gobsmacked. These “quilts” were like nothing I had ever seen and I wasn’t even sure I liked them. At that point, I wasn’t even ready to call myself an artist. If someone had told me that my work would one day be hanging in Quilt National I would have laughed and laughed. Now I feel very comfortable calling myself an artist.

I didn’t attend QSDS again until 1997, but I have been there every year since. For a long time I took different technique classes: low water dyeing, stamping, machine quilting, screen printing – lots of surface design techniques to add to my repertoire. After a while I realized that I also needed education in design principles and how to think like an artist. Luckily, QSDS began their Master Classes, just what I was looking for. At some point you have to really start doing your own work – take all those different techniques and make them work for you.

To digress a bit… I don’t remember what quilts were the first ones I entered into Quilt National but I’m sure they were deserving of rejection considering the competition. Here is one of my entries from QN 2001. It’s titled Rx: Chocolate. It’s a self-portrait of sorts. I stamped words that come into one’s vocabulary as one reaches a “certain age”: menopause, bone density, mammogram, yadda, yadda. Quilted into the background is my own prescription for these facts of life: chocolate. Doesn’t solve the problems, but it makes them more bearable.

I’ve always thought this would be a great piece of art for an OB/GYN’s office, but so far there haven’t been any takers.

Visit Cathy’s blog.

A guest post from Artful Home CEO Lisa Bayne

This week in New York there is a show of “Calder Jewelry” at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. It is the first museum exhibition highlight Alexander Calder’s inventive art jewelry. During his lifetime Calder produced approximately 1,800 pieces of brass, silver, and gold body ornaments, often embellished with found objects such as beach glass, ceramic shards, and wood. Calder Jewelry will feature approximately 90 works – bracelets, necklaces, earrings, brooches, and tiaras – many of which were made as personal gifts for the artist’s family and friends, including Georgia O’Keefe and Peggy Guggenheim.

This should be a fabulous exhibit. Art jewelry gives both the artist and the wearer the most wonderful outlet for self-expression. Most of us will never have a chance to wear a piece of Calder jewelry, but there are so many artists creating exciting pieces.