EclecticDesignChoices at East Main Street Arts Festival May 5

Saturday, May 5 from noon until 8 pm you will find me and some of my creations at the East Main Street Arts Festival in Downtown Arlington.

My 817ArtsAlliance self has partnered with CenterSpace to bring a make and take craft opportunity to the festival. CenterSpace is a cool co-working space next to Maverick's Bar and Grill towards the east end of East Main Street. Pop in and try your hand at some paper tulips or yarn flowers. While you are inside, browse the creations by the artists whose work resides at CenterSpace on a regular basis.

My Photographic Art Contribution to DFW Artisans' Etsy Craft Party

What do you get when you cross a bluebonnet with an almond flower cluster? A bluemond? An albonnet? Join me, members of the DFW Artisans team and other local artisans at the DFW Artisans' Etsy Craft Party on June 6 and decide or make one for yourself. (Click on the prior link for more info.)

Etsy promotes a worldwide crafting event in June. This year organizers can choose June 5 or 6 to be part of this celebration of craft. This year's theme from Etsy is Kaleidoscope: Paper Taking Shape. These events can be a lot of fun but I was not inspired to organize one until I saw Etsy's paper weaving blog post last week. A light bulb went off and I could see creating a craft party that would be fun, let people participate in a make and take craft that they would enjoy keeping or possibly even giving as a gift and give 817ArtsAlliance and the Etsy team I am organizing, DFW Artisans, an opportunity to promote art related events in the area.

Several artisans will be creating images for participants to pick from and weave into a new creation. I will be providing my "Solitary" bluebonnet and my "Turquoise Centers" almond blossoms images. I may provide a couple more along with what the others are bringing for party goers to choose from. What would you name the flower cross shown below?

A Different Shopping Experience

So you’ve had a great visit with family and friends and hopefully you will survive the rush of Black Friday without tangling with someone over the last door buster item in store. However, if you yearn for a different type of shopping experience and especially if you want to find something truly unique for someone on your list or a special something for yourself, come out and meet me in person, along with lots of other artists and crafters from whom you can buy directly. I will be at two local Arlington craft shows on two different upcoming weekends.

First, you will find me at Olde Town Christmas at the Dottie Lynn Recreation Center on Friday, Nov. 30 – Saturday, Dec. 1. (Click on the image to enlarge it.)

The following weekend, I will be with over 50 artists, crafters and collectors and their wares at Happy Holidays Gift Market at the UTA Maverick Activities Center. There will also be live and recorded music and DIY crafts. In addition to providing a DIY craft, the Greater Arlington Lions Club will have a drop off box for you to donate your old, out of date prescription glasses. They will use them to provide free eye glasses to those in need.

Each of these shows provides you with a more personal shopping experience. Get to know the maker of the items that you purchase when you buy directly from the artist. Who knows, there might be an interesting story of the inspiration for that special creation that you find. These things make the finding more fun.