Its happened every year for the last 18 years ... Hundreds of Vermont artists welcome their friends, neighbors and strangers into their studios for two days of show and tell. Its about education and community ... Its about cleaning your studio a little more than the usual ... Its an opportunity to maybe put some prototypes and experimental pieces out and see what happens and what people might say about them ... Its like going to a craft fair without the travel ... In short, though I sometimes resist and carp when its time to actually get it together, but now, at 9:00 Friday night, Im ready, and Im sure by the end of Sunday, I will have had another enjoyable and stimulating weekend .... And, Mondays a holiday ..... Click the pictures to enlarge them .... The building above looks like it might be a big outhouse, but its really my sawdust shed .... The post immediately below is from last year ... We have a new custom hat artist, Denise Tilley showing her hats here at our shop .... more on all this later ...
Birds Eye View from the front step
Wills working on banjo #2 and carving some maple leaves on some table legs, and were going to make a slab top table out of the English elm thats leaning up there...
Sam finished up a nice lily that has been lurking outside the metal shop unfinished since last fall
Visitors willing to walk 600 feet to the house can see the 26 x 9 table with the first five pieces of granite in it ...
In the shop, we have the 20r, but we had to disassemble it for the weekend ..
One of those good deal, experimental pieces, I mentioned earlier
Penny organized her colorings and will hang them in the morning ...
Chris Bowlen stopped by to show us the bench Sam made the metal work for ... very cool ...
A group of us, along with some high school art students made a sculpture at the Northshire Bookstore to raise awareness of artists in the community ....
Looks like its going to be a perfect weekend weatherwise ...
weve got a new event in town this weekend called discover dorset ... its an attempt by the chamber of commerce and some of the businesses in town to enlighten the public as to what dorset has to offer ... there are many events, speakers, and open studios, and there is a full schedule here at the towns website. will and i and maybe sam at some point will be in the studio from 10-4 to welcome the public for tours of the shop and past and present projects. click the photos to enlarge them ...
our claro walnut and rebar table and ladderback chairs will be on sale this weekend with a special price ... there are other examples of these large slabs of wood, both finished an unfinished available for viewing.
and sam will have a couple of his recent california balconies on display. they will be heading for grafton to be installed in a new house next week.
and will will be on hand, working on seeders banjo #12. walnut ebony and gold mother of pearl. he may even be doing a little engraving on the inlays ... a very cool process.
stop by and check it out and you can hear about his recent visit from WCAX in burlington ... he will be featured either this monday or next on the CAX segment made in vermont .. i cant wait to check it out ...
and ill be working on my drawings and model for an upcoming steel and claro walnut pool table (below), that will go in the same room as the 12 foot claro walnut table we sent to chicago back in july.
and we should have the custom curly maple kitchen weve been working on (see the previous post) all together in the shop, ready to deliver on monday morning ...
lots to see... come on by ...
We shipped out the two big tables Friday afternoon, which called for a round of rum for my men and a little banjo music by Will. He was showing off his new (to him, but older than him, 1981) Stelling banjo ... It sounded
summer afternoons ... is there anything better?
Kit stopped by on her choice home from work ...
Well post a little audio clip one of these days ...
