I tried to resist for many months but finally fell prey to the time-gobbling, eye-candy fest that is Pinterest. In just a few weeks I’ve already established 24 boards and posted over 800 pins. I try to keep away from it when I am working but during the late evening while we are relaxing I tend to having it pulled up on the laptop pinning away. It’s addictive!
If you’re a pinner, leave me a message with your username, I’d love to see what you find fascinating! Here’s a link to me: http://pinterest.com/lynnemedsker/ If you haven’t yet indulged in a Pinterest account I’d be happy to send you an invite so you can explore. I find all kinds of images and thoughts to inspire me & my artwork there, but the sky is the limit – if you love fashion or food or travel or, honestly, just about anything – it’s there!
Yesterday my buddy Krista and I spent several hours browsing around and chatting with other artists at the first annual Indiana Artisan Marketplace. It was held over the weekend at the Indiana State Fairground in Indianapolis. What a cool show! All the participants have been juried into the Indiana Artisan program (there were some additional participants from the neighboring Kentucky Crafted/Kentucky Proud group too). Artisan may just bring to mind art related products but there was quite a variety of other items to be seen & sampled throughout the show. Musical instruments, soaps, bath & body products, handmade papers & yarns, several different Hoosier vineyards (with free samples!) and many, many food products (with even MORE free samples!). There were also arts organizations from around the state promoting the cultural venues in their areas. Future road trips perhaps?!
After we had wandered a while I thought it would be fun to take some photos of a few of the items we saw. Naturally I took photos of some artists I knew, in addition to a few whose wares I just admired. So here is a mini-tour for you, via photographs, in case you weren’t able to attend!
blown glass ornaments, Lisa-Pelo McNiece
A close-up image of some blown glass ornaments from artist Lisa Pelo-McNiece at Hot Blown Glass, located in Clayton, Indiana. Lisa makes some gorgeous creations with glass…I’m happy to have a few of her pieces in my personal collection of art!
woven scarves by Suzanne Halverson
I love the colors of her scarves! Suzanne designs/weaves apparel and home furnishings and also gives weaving instruction. She is from Bloomington, Indiana. If anyone wants to buy me a really early Christmas gift I love the white scarf with the turquoise design! 🙂 Suzanne’s website www.suzanneehalvorson.com if you want more info.
shoppers/samplers in the food aisle!marshmallows!!
Ahhh, the food/wine aisle! There were treats to be had of all varieties – and lot of people willing to sample them! This photo is from a shop that sold delicious flavored marshmallows, they even had a small burner that they would toast them over before you sampled them! Located in Columbus, Indiana you can read more about them at www.240sweet.com. This was the closest shop to photograph when I was taking pictures, so as not to play favorites I also enjoyed sampling “Simply Divine Bakery” cookies, baked in the monastery by the Sisters of St. Benedict in Ferdinand, Indiana, toffee by Brookes’ Candy Company in Dana, Indiana, beef & noodles made with hand-made style noodles by Coe’s Noodles in Lynn, Indiana, pretzels by Tell City Pretzel in (you guessed it!) Tell City, Indiana. We also sampled wines from a two wineries we hadn’t tried before (it’s kind of a become a hobby the last few years so a new winery is a a fun treat!) – French Link Winery from French Link, Indiana and also Winzerwald Winery from Bristow, Indiana. I know we also snuck in a bite of fudge, some hot salsa, and a couple of other treats but I wasn’t paying close enough attention to give credit to the right companies!
art by (pictured) artist Teri Barnett
Here’s my artist-friend Teri, in her booth with some of her awesome art! Teri lives in Indianapolis, Indiana. Want to see more? Visit her website at www.teribarnett.com for lots of other images and info. 🙂 Teri is also the co-owner of Broad Ripple Art & Design who represent Mark & I!
bright & beautiful ceramics by Kris Busch
Wow! Did these grab my attention! Let alone the lovely colors there were fountains too. These are made by Kris Busch of Bloomington, Indiana, check out her website at www.functionalceramics.com for more of her work.
artwork by Susan Kline
Last, but by no means least, was the fun, bright artwork of Susan Kline Designs from Peru, Indiana! Her Etsy shop sign says “funky art to make you smile” and it’s right! Check out the selection of fun things she makes by visiting www.sptddog.etsy.com
So that’s the end of your mini-tour…just think how long this post would be if I’d had my camera out from the beginning of the show!! You can find out more about the Indiana Artisan program by visiting their website at www.indianaartisan.org. You can also find listings for all the artisans that weren’t mentioned in today’s blog. Enjoy!
I enjoying creating in the kitchen as much as I do getting creative with paint on canvas, with pixels on my computer, by shaping metal or molding clay. I rarely stick to a recipe and love to add ingredients to make dishes my very own. Usually the experiments turn out wonderfully but, as with creating art, sometimes there are failures too.
For my daughter’s birthday last weekend she requested a fruit pizza for her dessert instead of the traditional birthday cake. (Honestly we rarely do cake!) I hadn’t made one for several years and, although it’s simple, it is a always so much fun choosing which fruits to use as toppings and how to arrange them. I thought this one turned out so well I even took a photo of it to share.
fruit "pizza"
It tasted just as good as it looked too! 🙂 If you’ve never had one of these they are delicious! The crust is a giant sugar cookie which you top with a mixture of cream cheese & powdered sugar. Add to that a layer of strawberry or cherry “gel” (in this case it was pie filling) and whatever fruits happen to suit you. Chill it for a bit and it’s ready to eat. Mmmmm.
A Randomly Creative Blog 