This past weekend, we went to the American Artisan Festival in Nashville. This was the first time we had ever been, and some of the artists there were completely new to us – like these pieces by Linda and Rick Bachman from Aurora, Colorado:
This one above is called “High Noon” and his eyes shift from left to right as well as the target at his tummy.
“Grandfather” clock:
“Mark Twang”:
This *gorgeous* pottery is by Amelia Stamps:
If she exhibits at this festival again next year, I’ll have to get at least a couple of pieces.
These are all bottle/wine stoppers made from vintage doorknobs, pool balls, faucet handles (and more) by Knobstoppers:
This vintage flatware chandelier was made by their ‘sister’ company, Cake Vintage Table & Home:
When I saw that chandelier, I was thinking “wait – I’ve seen something vaguely similar in my Wisteria catalog…”.
If you go to the Cake website, take a look at the really pretty linens. I have some burlap that I’ve been planning to print with a chandelier stencil that I have, and what they do is hand-screened with kitchen designs. I’ve also been planning to make a banner with my burlap and use some really ornate lettering – I’ll probably post that project next week.
Next is
Holden McCurry‘s art. This is one of the prayer towers I have of his – I got it because it reminded me of First Presbyterian in Port Gibson with the hand at the top of the steeple:
Inside each of the towers is a little slip of paper, which is meant for the owner to write his/her prayer or wishes:
Here’s the church:
The hand in more detail:
…and after I bought the prayer tower from Holden a couple of years ago, we found a church in Alabama that also has a hand at the top of a steeple – the 1839 Mooresville Brick Church:
Closer view:
So anyway – Holden had a great selection with him at the festival:
They’re just fantastic. I’d love to have 20 of them and put them everywhere.
One of his new projects is making these ‘journey boats’:
He has a selection of them here.
We took pictures with the boys at
Dale Rogers’ metal sculptures (his work is *amazing* – there are pieces at his website that he didn’t bring and are just crazy-good). Love the giant dog with the bone cutout:
Right now, Dale is doing ‘
The Big Dog Show‘ which is the largest solo sculpture exhibition in New England.
Loved this festival and can’t wait to talk with some of my artistic friends about showing next year!
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