stART at the Station 2010

{scott boilard, speaking to a short customer, about her favorite}

{the short customer liking handmade polymer bracelets, handmade millefiori beads by molly shattuck thomas}

{zentangle inspired bracelets by molly shattuck thomas, my pick for best of show}

{spencerian calligraphy pens of maria thomas, pendragon}

{peas on earth, by maria thomas, pendragon}

{a personal inspiration of mine, maria thomas making magic}

{worcester cartoonist, brian nelson with laurel}

{live statue, a very fun addition to stART}

stART at the Station :: Worcester :: 2010

Worcester loves art and handmade! The traffic in Union Station today was heavy, festive and vendors were selling out! That is a wonderful thing. For as long as stART has been hitting our streets and now our station, people come in numbers, and they are scooping up wonderful gifts of handmade goodness. We purchased two super sweet crocheted hats from Willows Loft, new to stART this year, with incredibly cute knits. Willows Loft hats are available on etsy if you click the link. I should have taken a pic. The short customer is also wearing a fun kitty hat we bought. I hope the vendor catches this so we can find your name. We love the hat and we are planning on wearing it to bed!

A wonderful surprise was finding world renowned calligrapher Maria Thomas with her daughter Molly Shattuck Thomas at stART. If you would like to see her incredible skill in action, calligraphy and zentangle fans alike will love this video, called Betweed. There are alot of Zentangle videos on youtube about 150 as of today, but this one is by Maria herself. She and Rick Roberts are the founders of Zentangle. {Listen to the pen in the very beginning.}

A very successful day for art in Worcester. Big ups to the stART crew for all you do. If you went to stART and made a purchase, please comment here and post what you bought and who created it!

A visit from Maria

Maria stopped by today. Her charm just lights up the room. What a pleasure to stop what you are doing (working) and visit with her. These pictures are some that I took during a photoshoot at her home studio in Whitinsville. It was for our newest project with Maria, a collaborative collection of stationery, called "Escargot". Yes, Ted Turner, Catherine Zeta Jones and you too can have Maria's handlettering! To watch her in action is breathtaking. The sounds of the Spencerian pen nib on paper is hypnotic. If you have been to the National Stationery Show you might have caught her in our booth doing promo pieces for everyone...even our competitors came by to get them! Thanks for the little jolt of your energy today Maria!

Check out the collection online www.checkernet.com.

pecha kucha

A collage of handlettering with intricate and ethnic henna tattoo...

including work penned by Picasso to Gertrude Stein, Maria Thomas, Iris Chase & Paul Antonio. Penstrokes evoke the utmost emotion in me...always has. I have huge admiration for those with great skill for this art. I have the luxury of working closely with one of the best...Maria Thomas, also known worldwide for her invitation company Pendragon Ink.

Frida, the colorful life, the dramatic ups and downs and still she painted in her bed, with a mirror hanging from her ceiling. She followed her dreams and let them take her wherever she wanted to go. Too bad for Diego. Eclectic and full of passion, Frida Kahlo was an inspirational to female artists of her time.

One word......SHOES.

What lights your fire? What makes you inspired to create, to dress, to entertain or to celebrate? I am prepping for a pecha kucha and I am so rev'd up to get my slides together. Public speaking is another matter altogether, and since it is for work, there is no alcohol being served up. I begged to have it at the restaurant down the street, but not so much. I have to suck it up and keep my mind on the goal.

From Pecha Kucha.org:

What is Pecha Kucha Night?
Pecha Kucha Night, devised by Astrid Klein and Mark Dytham (Klein Dytham architecture), was
conceived in 2003 as a place for young designers to meet, network, and show their work in public.
But as we all know, give a mike to a designer (especially an architect) and you’ll be trapped for hours. The key to Pecha Kucha Night is its patented system for avoiding this fate. Each presenter is allowed 20 images, each shown for 20 seconds each – giving 6 minutes 40 seconds of fame before the next presenter is up. This keeps presentations concise, the interest level up, and gives more people the chance to show. Pecha Kucha (which is Japanese for the sound of conversation) has tapped into a demand for a forum in which creative work can be easily and informally shown, without having to rent a gallery or chat up a magazine editor. This is a† demand that seems to
be global – as Pecha Kucha Night, without any pushing, has spread virally to over 100 cities across the world. Find a location and join the conversation.

Inspired by the outrageous excitement of Payal Kripalani, who attended one at Mantra in Boston, I look forward to hearing back from Klein Dytham about having one in Worcester! So get your creative groove on!