Handcrafted Alexandria
Buy Handmade for Valentine’s Day
Friday, February 10, 2012
Announcements | 2 Comments
Made with love and so much more, a handmade gift warms the heart. Buy handmade for Valentine's Day.
Zen Castle
The Accidental Artisan
Friday, January 27, 2012
Behind-the-Scenes
Francine Villaneuva hadn't set out to be an artisan; she was a graduate student, research assistant and U.S. Army veteran. But sometimes wars, love and necessity intervene. That's what happened back in 1991, when Francine's husband John returned from the first Gulf War. John, an Operations & Intelligence Advisor assigned to the Special Operations Community, had been on the ground when the retreating Iraqi forces set fire to 700 oil wells in Kuwait, exposing John and his fellow soldiers to its choking black smoke and thick residue. Within days of the exposure, John and others developed a variety of skin disorders that resisted and were made worse by conventional medical treatments. Francine, putting her research skills to play, learned that traditional treatments contained some type of refined petroleum oil, which probably made things worse!
Shortly thereafter, while visiting John’s family she came across his grandmother’s recipes for making soaps and compresses with herbal and plant extracts, which had been widely used in those days to treat everything from bug bites to sunburn. Using these recipes as the starting point, Francine began to make soaps and creams from plant-based carrier oils, essential oils and herbal extracts for her husband. To her amazement, the rashes on his head, face, neck and back started healing, his skin discoloration faded and his complexion took on a healthier tone and texture after only two weeks of use. She shared these handmade soaps and creams with other soldiers, friends and family and a handcrafted artisan was born.
Fast forward to January 2008, Francine, with John's assistance, launched ZENCASTLE®, the name and logo of which were inspired by a visit to the lavender fields of the Senanque Abbey in Provence, France in 2006. Today, Francine's products are still made by hand -- here in Alexandria -- using only the natural and organic ingredients and used by people around the world.
Handcrafted Alexandria
Before The Altar: Mexican Folk Art & American Interpretations
Thursday, October 27, 2011
Announcements | 119 Comments
El Dia de los Muertos or Day of the Dead, on November 2, is an important religious holiday in Mexico. Also called All Souls Day, it is an occasion marked by festive celebration to honor the dead. Cemeteries are cleaned and decorated, special food and candies cooked, picnics held graveside, and home altars are designed in homage to one's ancestors. It is a day of joyous remembrance, not of sadness. The special songs, poems, food, art and toys created for El Dia de los Muertos reflect this outlook.
Gossypia offers a sizeable collection of true Day of the Dead folk art, including retablos created by an artist workshop in San Miguel de Allende, pictured right, and pottery by the artists Ortega who create lively pieces in their home near Guadalajara as well as traditional items used to celebrate the holiday. And Gossypia will hosts its own Day of the Dead celebration from October 31 through November 2, serving traditional bread and welcomes all.
American artists are now lending their creative and inter-cultural interpretations to these Mexican folk art traditions. Locally, the Torpedo Factory's Target Gallery is hosting its 3rd Annual Altar Exhibition, exhibiting the works of numerous local and regional artists. One of the participating artists, painter Kathleen Kendall, created her altar, pictured left, in homage to her mother who died three years ago. In her statement, Kathleen explains that she worked in subtle and not-so subtle details into the altar of her memories of her mother. She ends saying "The experience of making this piece has helped me come to terms just slightly with how much I miss her." The Altar Exhibition runs through November 4th. The gallery has invited Shane Pomamjambo, owner of DC-area gallery, Art Whino, to select his top three altars. Awards will be announced at the Costume & Dance Party on October 29th.
Mindful Hands
Care for Kids! A Benefit for Children’s National Medical Center
Thursday, October 13, 2011
Lend-a-Hand
It's that time of year again when more than 300 shops and restaurants across the metro-DC area, including Mindful Hands, proudly support the Children's National Medical Center by sponsoring the "Care for Kids" Card campaign.
The program is simple:
- Buy a "Care for Kids" card for $50 here
- Get 20% off ALL purchases at more than 300 local shops and restaurants during the campaign period, from Oct. 21 through Oct. 30.
That's it! It's a great way to start your holiday gifts shopping while supporting a worthy non-profit. All proceeds from sales of the cards go directly to Children's National Medical Center, while the savings go directly to you!
In past years, the Care for Kids Campaign has contributed more than $1.5 million towards:
- a clinical simulation training laboratory
- a portable ultrasound machine
- summer camp for sickle cell patients
- a bright and cheerful playroom for patients in the respiratory care unit
Your purchase of the Care for Kids Card includes a catalog detailing the more than 300 shops and restaurants throughout the DC-area that are participating in the program. Purchase yours today!
Ten Thousand Villages
Building Peace by Showing Rug Artisans Respect
Friday, September 16, 2011
Lend-a-Hand
As the ever-changing relationship between the United States and Pakistan continues to headline the news daily, Ten Thousand Villages in Alexandria realizes that these tensions are between governments, not between the people of these countries who do not choose them but whose lives are affected forever by them. To help build a positive peace in Pakistan, Ten Thousand Villages is holding its First Fair Trade Oriental Rug Event from September 29-October 2 in Old Town, 915 King Street in Alexandria.
Approximately 300 rugs, each handmade in Pakistani homes by fairly paid adult artisans, will be available for sale in a variety of unique designs and sizes ranging from 2' x 3' to 10' x 14' and runners. An Introduction to Oriental Rugs Seminar will be held at the store on Thursday, September 29 at 7 p.m.
The rugs all come from an artisan group in Pakistan known as Bunyaad. The name meaning "foundation" in Urdu, Bunyaad works to create strong foundations that create peace in the villages of Pakistan by paying a fair wage to its artisan families. Bunyaad has grown to include over 850 families in roughly 100 villages throughout Pakistan and is gradually building a positive peace.
A positive peace, not just the absence of violence, happens only when people earn a living wage, have access to education, have their human needs met, have social and political equality, are respected and involved with their community and can see opportunities for a brighter future. These conditions help build trust between people who begin cooperating with each other and working toward common goals that will improve their lives.
Bunyaad builds peace by breaking the cycle of poverty for the artisans. Bunyaad artisans, male and female, receive the same living wage for their work, allowing them to build better homes and living conditions and create educational opportunities for their children. If not paid a living wage, artisans need to borrow money from high-interest local lenders to afford family necessities and begin a downward spiral of debt. Bunyaad offers a no-interest loan to the artisans to pay off other creditors, a loan that is repaid at a rate that their family finances best allow. Money from loan repayment is invested in improving the infrastructure of the village.
"Bunyaad builds peace by showing rug artisans respect," explains Yousaf Chaman, director of Bunyaad. "Bunyaad artisans choose the color and design of each rug they produce. They allow nature, tradition and inspiration to guide their creativity. By respecting each artisan's creative ingenuity, our rug events and year-round rug galleries showcase a collection of handknotted rugs in which each rug is a unique piece of functional art crafted to last for generations."
"When asked what they like about working for fair trade, artisans will always say that it is the respect that they receive from Bunyaad," said Chaman.
Bun
yaad's attitude of respect was shown most recently when they paid the artisans lost wages from the devastating floods of August 2010.
Bunyaad builds peace by giving women an equal opportunity as men. With looms located inside artisans' village homes, this project gives equal opportunity for women to work, earning the same wage for their work as their male counterparts. In the villages, there is very little opportunity for employment, especially for women. Work on the looms gives women year-round, stable employment over which they have control. With this income, women are finding increased financial independence and can financially contribute to the success of their family. They are able to send their children to school and plan for the future. Having a wage-earning skill gives these women a sense of pride as well as an avenue to true social change for themselves and their family.
"By working with women in their village homes, we are not only empowering women and their families but their entire communities," said Kate McMahon, Ten Thousand Villages store manager. "There is a great transformative power that women with a living-wage income possess."
Bunyaad builds peace by welcoming Christians and Muslims into their program. Working side by side toward a goal of a good living for their families, commonalities are realized rather than differences.
Bunyaad builds peace by supporting 10 schools throughout Pakistan, helping many children, especially young girls, have easier access to education. Sometimes the distance to the school is so great that parents do not feel comfortable letting their young girls walk to school. Bunyaad both builds and supports schools to reach such students. One example is the Darianwala Girls High School, located in the village of Darianwala in northeast Pakistan. This school educates over 650 girls from grades K through 12. These girls dream of becoming teachers, doctors and other professionals, dreams that are now possible to achieve. Both Muslim and Christian students attend these schools, learning their commonalities in spite of religious differences.
"It may sound simplistic but it works. Every Bunyaad rug that we sell means that an artisan in Pakistan has a fair paying job that supports their family - Kids go to school - People can plan for their future - Artisans feel good about those who are purchasing their product because they have been treated fairly. A peace is created. It's that simple," said McMahon . "The ripple effects of fair trade are truly transformative. Being intentional about how you shop can truly change the world!"
An Artisan's View of Attaining Peace
Liaqat, a village supervisor, lives in the village of Lengha, Pakistan and began working for Bunyaad eighteen years ago. The economy of Liaqat's village is struggling because of its proximity to the Indian border. The possibility of unrest deters businesses from locating there. Working for Bunyaad has enabled Liaqat to give his four daughters an education through high school. Liaqat expresses how education holds the key to peace in Pakistan.
"All the children should be educated. Once they are educated, I don't care if they become farmers or employees or start their own businesses, but they need to have an education. An educated person won't get into disputes, won't start arguing about anything. (With) a lack of education you don't know how to communicate and a lot of misunderstanding goes on," said Liaqat. "With education, a person knows right from wrong. Education is like jewelry, you wear it and it transforms you as a person."
The Art League
The Art League Easel Is Here!
Friday, September 09, 2011
Behind-the-Scenes
Originally posted The Art League's blog (September 7, 2011)
Written and photos by Lauren Hodges.
For the past few years, the number one complaint from students and teachers alike at The Art League School has been the easels. The old holsters really were a wonder. Somehow, they managed to be too flimsy and too heavy at the same time. The hardware was constantly falling off and disappearing, and they took forever to set up and break down. In short, they were notorious for cutting into both class time...and people's patience.
"We had a full-time volunteer just to maintain the easels," says Suzanne Bethel, The Art League's deputy director of operations. "It was a never-ending job, like painting the Golden Gate Bridge. Just when you thought you were done painting at the end, it was already time to start painting the beginning again."
Staff decided to take action. Buying a new fleet of easels, however, was going to be expensive and complicated. Despite having tried four different models in the school before, none of the designs was popular. "There was something to not like about each one," says Bethel. "So what we decided to do was design our own."
From there, "Franken-Easel" started to form. Working with facilities manager, Chuck Mills, the school office began to piece together the best parts from all the designs, leaving out the faulty ones. They built five and placed their experiments in various classrooms around the school. "We wanted to get feedback from the teachers and students about our design," says Bethel. "Once they were used a couple of times, we were able to go back to the drawing board, perfect the design and start production."
A few vital improvements were made based on past complaints and difficulties with the old easels. Franken-Easel was made to "telescope," or adjust inward, in order to reduce glare on the paintings. The footprint was also reduced to make the classrooms less hazardous. "So many people were tripping on the legs of the old easels," says Bethel. "And they were crowding each other. The smaller base solved those problems." They also used poplar wood, which is both sturdy and lightweight, and the chosen hardware was much bigger to prevent loss.
The easels, which are patented and branded with The Art League logo, are now for sale at a bargain price: $175 each. All proceeds made from the easel sales will go straight into growing the school's personal fleet. "This project was done with the students and teachers in mind," says Bethel. "It was designed to meet their needs specifically...and also so we never have to hear someone say their easel is broken again!"
Arts Afire
The Therapeutic Effects of Kaleidoscopes
Thursday, August 11, 2011
Behind-the-Scenes
Did you know that kaleidoscopes have therapeutic effects?
Healthy emotions are as important as a healthy body perhaps even more so. The kaleidoscope’s ability to soothe and stimulate at the same time makes it a perfect balancer. Dr. Clifford Kuhn, a psychiatrist in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at the University of Kentucky, loves kaleidoscopes. He did not know when he started collecting them that they were an appropriate tool for his profession. He writes:
The essence of health is wholeness, an integration of body, mind, and spirit in equilibrium. Medical research has revealed that many of our current illnesses are the result of the effect of stress which seems ubiquitous in our modern society. Stress is destructive to our body, disorganizing to our mind, and disabling to our spirit. It has been demonstrated that a regular habit of quietly drawing aside from one’s usual responsibilities for reflection and relaxation significantly repairs or prevents the potentially destructive effects of daily stress.Kaleidoscope viewing is one such activity of repair. It is restorative to the body in that it requires physical stillness and stimulates pleasant visual sensations. At the same time it has a beneficial effect on the mind by presenting an endless variety of form and color combinations that stir the imagination and stimulate the intellect. Kaleidoscopes are, likewise, good medicine to the spirit as they reflect the constant emergence of order out of disorder and provide a sense of participation in the creative process. In this way, regular viewing of kaleidoscopes can be a significant contributor to a person’s overall health.
The entire month of September is kaleidoscope month at Arts Afire Glass Gallery, and our featured artist is Award-winning and Internationally-acclaimed local scope artist: Charles Karadimos, whose studio is in Damascus, Maryland.
Charles works alone in his studio in Damascus, Maryland making each part of every kaleidoscope by hand. There are no machined parts. Every piece — down to the smallest shard of glass in the object chamber — is hand worked and individually selected by the artist himself. This thoughtful attention to every detail enables Charles to create beautifully intricate and detailed images that capture and hold the viewer’s attention.
His work is featured in many books and publications and is the recipient of many awards, including the Brewster Award for Creative Ingenuity. In November 2003 Charles became one of the Directors of the Brewster Kaleidoscope Society, the international organization of kaleidoscope enthusiasts.
The Art League
The Art League’s Monthly Plein Air Painting Event
Monday, July 25, 2011
Once a month on second Sunday mornings this summer, a group of painters can be seen setting up shop by the Alexandria waterfront. They pull out their easels, arrange the canvases, spread out their paints and brushes, and get to work immortalizing the beautiful scenery.
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| Jack Dyer |
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| Vicki Blum |
This group of artists is known as The Art League Plein Air Painters. They came together for the first time this month with a common purpose: to share their talents, not only by documenting the breathtaking views, but also by letting the public experience their creative process as it unfolds. Patrons are welcome to stand by and watch the paintings come to life or to come back periodically and check in on the works-in-progress. So far, the event has drawn crowds from all over the area as people watch the masters at work, with some hoping to snag a few tricks of the trade.
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| Jill Banks |
The idea started with a meeting held by the Alexandria Waterfront Planning Committee. The Art League's executive director, Linda Hafer, was asked to help liven up the water view spread in front of The Torpedo Factory Art Center by getting a few painters to start working outside.
"The idea to breathe a little life into the neighborhood was going to be the undertaking of four different Alexandria groups," says The Art League Gallery director Rose O'Donnell.
Those four groups included the Alexandria Archaeology and The Seaport Foundation, along with The Art League and The Torpedo Factory Art Center. The Art League's contribution was the plein air display.
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| Artists Sketching in the White Mountains by Winslow Homer |
"Plein air" is French for "open air," a practice which found a huge following among the impressionist artists of the 1870s. With the invention of tube paints and the box easel, which were easily portable, painters took their operations outside to capture nature on their canvases. Legends like Claude Monet and Pierre-Auguste Renoir were the most famous advocates of the practice, as several of their famed works were created outside, usually under a large white umbrella.
Yet with Monet and Renoir unavailable to lead The Art League's outdoor movement, painter Jean Schwartz took over planning the monthly event. Last Thursday, she updated her official blog with a post about July's plein air party, even showing off her work from the day.
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| Jean Schwartz |
"Last Sunday was the very first paint out of the Art League Plein Air painters. There were four of us, Jill Banks, Vicki Blum, Jack Dyer and me. We met on the dock behind the Torpedo Factory around 9:00 (Vicki wisely started earlier) and painted until noon. It was HOT! Thank goodness for my umbrella because the scene that interested me required I be in full sun and looking right into it. The brollie did its job and without it I would have fried. Lots of sunblock and water also helped."
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| From the Torpedo Factory Dock by Jean Schwartz |
August's event is scheduled for the 14th from 9am-noon on the waterfront in Old Town Alexandria. The Torpedo Factory Art Center is located at 155 North Union Street.
Re-posted with permission of The Art League
Torpedo Factory Art Center
Sculptor Ehle recycles trash into works of art
Thursday, July 14, 2011
Behind-the-Scenes
Jacqueline "Jackie" Ehle, a Torpedo Factory artist, spins trash into treasure. "I enjoy creating from things discarded, experimenting with trash, and traditional materials, to create sculpture that delights all who see it," Ehle explains. Her whimsical sculptures have been featured on television, displayed in public spaces, museums and hotels and are in the private collections of Wynton Marsalis, Mary Tyler Moore and more.
Ehle finds inspiration everywhere: "Strolling along a street, a rusty washer winks at me from the sidewalk, and later, I bring it to life as the eye of a hound, perhaps by sewing a broken light socket at its center." New Orleans, where she was born, plays into several of her pieces: Les Bon Temps Lion (left), Jazzman and Katrina Skull (below).
She's recently started to increase the size of her sculptures and enjoys working on them in public spaces, giving her the chance to talk with people and answer their questions. To view more of Ehle's work, go to her website jackieehle.com.
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