Strange Folk Festival

Daughter Juli with her loot in tow.

It's my favorite season. One of the highlights each year is the STRANGE FOLK FESTIVAL held in O'Fallon, IL (usually the third weekend of September.)  Once again, the most unusual and creative crafters are there to delight and inspire me. (And I even had a birthday stash to spend....yea!)  Here are a few photos to show you why I'm so giddy about this event.

Matt's cousin, Katy, a hardworking member of the O'Fallon Garden Club

Dennis Smith and his son's amazing assemblages. Contact Dennis at densmithart@yahoo.com

Laura Newsome's surprising upcycled sweater creations 
can be found at   www.handmade pretties.com

 

Pete and our friend, Beth Williams pose for the camera.
Beth's lovely jewelry can be found at eliwill.etsy.com

                                                                                                                                                          

Gail Richardson's wonderful cloth flower creations can be found at www.theginghamgarden.etsy.com

  
















Mary Hummert's whimsical up-cycled jewelry and small wall hangings included keys, charms and frozen charlotte dolls. Mary's website is www.pairabelles.com

 Don't know this vendor's name but her website is www.mythdemeanor.com. She was exhibiting silk screened designs on t-shirts and old ties. Such fun! (Yikes...link not working. No name on card.) How on earth will I order my Christmas gifts for all those unique people on my list?

 Joseph Papendick exhibited wonderful outdoor sculptures "for birds and other living things". Loved them. Here's a link to more of his work: www.joepapendick.com
and www.joepapendick.etsy.com

 These two wild and wonderful crafters are both also art teachers!
Whoot, whoot! Their work includes colorful high relief animal portraits and bright color birdhouses made of old boots. To contact Emily Sydow and her mom, Nina Cleveland go to
www.PurpleGinkoMudturtle.com  (Yikes, another failed link)  Try their email:
PurpleGinkoMudturtle@gmail.com

 Representing Mulberry Metalworks are Janan A. Turner and her sister. (Janan is a favorite friend of ours from Beyond Timbuktu in Edwardsville.) See her wonderful jewelry atwww.mulberrymetalworks.etsy.com

 Penny Zimmerman-Willis represents PEARL'S VINTAGE. With all sorts of upcycled garden goods.
See Penny's work at www.etsy.com/shop/pearlsvintagegoods

Sweet Square #30

Party Cat

Halloween Cat with pig nose and glasses.

It's the Andy Warhol thing again, with two identical cat cut outs. Amazing how different the images appear with just color and line differences. 
Hope to do other "Sweet Squares" in the future. This has been a very useful exercise.

Sweet Square #29

Day 29....I'm already beginning to miss this exercise which is scheduled to end tomorrow. Thinking I may continue for awhile. It gives me incentive to get to the studio and post on my blog. The influence has already begun to leak into my work.
      Public thanks to Diandra Mae from Houston, Tx. for coming up with this challenge!
      I love the spontaneous look of these ink-on-wet-paper monsters. The sticker eyes added just the right touch of personality.

Sweet Squares 22 - 28

Dad loved his new carrot tie.

As we left, Harry waved good-bye.

 The next few squares are the result of cutting more than one shape at a time, by accident not design. It was fun to use the same shape to convey different characters or settings for the same character. All are cut paper and a variety of markers. The whole experiment reminded me of Andy Warhol, repeating an image but making it new each time.

"Watch Out!" the dragon snarled.

"I'll be back soon," Mom said.

"Rain" Penny sighed. Rain meant mud.

"Ah, the sweet smell of poppies!"

Penny began to sing.

Sweet Squares 18 - 21

Black Glue/Watercolor and Salt

White Glue on Black Paper/Pastels

Tissue paper w  Ink & Paint details

 My next four squares in the "Sweet Squares"September Challendge  include:
A chameleon outlined in black glue with watercolor and a sprinkling of salt for texture, a snail outlined with black glue with chalk pastel blended for the background, a tissue paper collage of a girl reaching for a butterfly, with ink and paint details and a fish outlined in green fabric paint, then painted with watercolor. Off to the studio to experiment some more. Fun, fun....

Green fabric paint and watercolor

Sweet Square # 17

Brown Ink wash and pen details

Today's "Sweet Square" is a brown ink wash with pen and ink detailing. I found several bottles of colored ink in the cupboard. May have to use them up before they go bad. It's surprising how "stuck" in media ruts we all get when one material becomes our first pick. I'm discovering that I need to do this more often to maintain fluency in more than one media.

Sweet Square #16

Oil Pastel Etching on Colored Paper

Color Digitally Removed

I'm trying to focus on process and media. In this sample, I applied one color of thick oil pastel on top of a colored piece of tagboard, then etched the image through the top layer. I scanned the image and manipulated it in iphoto to remove the color. Very interesting. Not sure which version I prefer.