The Bard Owl Collection

Paducah, my hometown, is truly an art community; we are fortunate to have the Paducah School of Art, and Design, about 20 studios in the LowerTown Art District, an Artist in Residence program, the National Quilt Museum, the Art Guild of Paducah and the Wastelanders Exhibiting Group.  With a wealth of local artists, one can attend a local art show at least once a week. This past weekend was no exception. As part of the Oktoberfest to support Maiden Alley Cinema (theater for foreign, independent and documentary films,) local and regional artists lined the quaint cobblestone 2^nd Street in Historic Paducah. I am excited to have discovered a textile artist showing in Paducah for the first time.

Meet Teresa Stanton of ½ Street Studio in Southern Illinois (just across the river from Paducah.)

Teresa selectively salvages gently used clothing of natural fiber, mostly cotton, silk and linen. She uses the natural dyes of Prunus, Purple Leaf, Staghorn Sumac, Locust, Sassafras, Pecan, Black Walnut, Hickory, Mimosa, Sweet Gum, Willow, Maple and Cotimn to “echo print” leaves on the clothing. Her natural dye approach echoes the work of Australian artist, India Flint. The name of her clothing line is The Bard Owl Collection. Her work is stunning; the photos do not do justice.

Her work has been published in Cloth, Paper, Scissors magazine and E Mag. In addition to The Bard Owl Collection, Teresa also is also a mixed media and Steam Punk jewelry artist. Connect with her on Facebook to see her amazing wearable art.

I am certain a road trip to visit her shop will happen in the near future!

Not Such a Crafty Week

It has been one of those weeks when it seems like nothing is turning out as I had planned.

I played a little with some polymer clay and thought I was really creating something special. Nope, the earrings ended up looking like a middle school craft project. But I do think I see some possibilities; maybe I should view the basic polymer clay tutorial I bought from Cindy Lietz before I continue.

I do a lot of stenciling and I think I am pretty good; however I was helping Kristin at Ephemera Paducah stencil some aprons and bleed, bleed, bleed! I know, I am spoiled with my Silhouette freezer paper stencils. Okay, I decided this would be a good opportunity to try the Silhouette PixScan mat I bought a few weeks ago. So I snapped a photo of the stencil with my iPhone, emailed it to myself. I should be able to print the photo, place it within the registrations marks, photograph it again and send it to through my Portrait to cut a freezer paper stencil, right?  No not exactly, apparently I have to calibrate the phone camera first. Cheez, this is more complicated than I thought………I’ll do it later.

And that Silhouette Chalk Board Vinyl I was sure I would win from Craft Storage Ideas with HR’s beautiful stamp cabinet………..didn’t.

But the week was not a total bust; I used a tutorial on Crafsy.com to use some scrap paper to make this pretty little card.

I also made this Thank You card.



It is acually prettier than it looks. I must take time to watch the video about blogging I purchased from Alisa Burke! Hopefully I will learn more about taking photos for the blog.



I find myself with a rare Friday night at home alone. I think I will pour a glass of wine, put on some jazz and work on the projects that have been on my work table for a while. Maybe I will create something worth posting!