Sea Glass Accessories
Here you go, in case you missed my newsletter, here's the latest on shows! Hope to see you soon to share new work. Having sold out of all the blue & green combination earrings…I have a new batch plus more bracelets, lariats, and shorter earrings. And of course the ever-so-fun caged sea marbles. Many elegant necklaces to show & hope one is for you! And please stop into Peggy's amazing Pop Gallery at the end of Main Street at any time! Very cool clothing & stunning jewelry, fun gifts for all!
“We were delighted when, over and over again, a studio that we dropped by simply because it was on the route we were taking turned out to be a little jewel. We were so impressed by the quality of the block printing, ceramic work and painting. It was also a special privilege to be welcomed so warmly into the artists' studios,” a Spring 2014 visitor
With the Fall upon us, the Cape Ann Artisans invite neighbors and visitors to harvest their creative spirit! As our landscape changes, so do the colors that inspire the artwork itself – ocher marshes, winter squash, concord grapes, crisp apples, and new angles of sunlight are teasing everyone’s palate. For the second time this year, 23 studios around Gloucester and Rockport will be open to the public for a self-guided tour during the three days covering the Columbus Day weekend October 11-13. I am so looking forward to welcoming friends old and new to the studio. For returning visitors, there are new pieces in the collection to explore – my personal new favorites, so smaller earrings, Sea marbles, and sweater guards. In the meantime, stop into the Pop Gallery on the west end of Main Street where I now have a nice sampling of work for sale!
Many thanks to the editor of North Shore Magazine, Kiley Jacques and writer Amanda Brown for their coverage of the Cape Ann Artisans Tour. I was thrilled and honored to be part of the story!
Gloucester-based artist Jacqueline Ganim-DeFalco—one of 23 artists who participated in the recent Cape Ann Artisans Open Studio Tour—specializes in wearable art made of sea glass. During tour hours, Ganim-DeFalco saw approximately 200 people come through her doors to delight in the gigantic sea glass collection she has amassed over the last 15 years. The majority of that glass was culled from beaches throughout Cape Ann, where she searches during the quiet off-season. “It is not about where [you look],” says Ganim-DeFalco, “but when.”
Using an organic approach to her art, she says the glass leads her through a process that is much like putting together a big puzzle. Employing a method similar to the one used by famed sculptor Alexander Calder, Ganim-DeFalco creates her pieces using “cold connections” made with wire, epoxy, and drills, rather than soldering techniques. By adding pearls, beads, and wires, she attempts to “maximize the beauty of the natural material.”
Ganim-DeFalco began her career as an artist following a hunt for a high-quality barrette and coming up short. Believing necessity is the mother of invention, she set about crafting and selling what she couldn’t find. Nowadays, her work includes necklaces, bracelets, brooches, and all manner of artful accessories. With works so intricately tied to the area, Ganim-DeFalco’s pieces are small reminders of the North Shore’s allure.
Another Cape Ann artisan, Rockport-based mosaic artist Pam Stratton, also welcomed close to 200 tour goers into her studio. They were met with a multitude of fine art mosaics, which are not all that commonly found in this region. Visitors had many questions about her technique, and carefully examined the details of her work. So interested were they that a few signed up for Stratton’s upcoming daylong workshops.
Eight years ago, during a visit to Italy, she fell in love with the mosaics covering the walls of so many cathedrals. Upon her return, she embarked on her first piece: a patio mosaic made of slate and brick. After completing that work, she signed up for a course at MassArt, and has been learning about the art form ever since.
Particularly inspired by the mosaics of the Byzantine era, Stratton works with a steel hammer and a hardy, both of which were tools used to break glass and stone in Roman times. The process is time consuming, and follows what she calls the “flow of the pattern.” She says that creating a mosaic can take days, weeks, or months, depending on the intricacy of the pattern and the materials used. Stratton is greatly inspired by her environs, looking to nearby locales like Halibut Point, which influenced a recent piece titled “Impressions”—a work that reflects the tidal lines of Cape Ann beaches and incorporates granite pebbles found along the shoreline.
To learn more about the artists who comprise Cape Ann Artisans, join the fall tour, which will run from October 11 through 13. For more information visit, capeanndesigns.com
Yesterday I had the privilege of sharing with my fellow Cape Ann Artisans30+ years of marketing experience wrapped up into a customized marketing workshop. I developed the workshop to help a diverse group of creatives wayfind through the maze of marketing lingo, tactics, and best practices needed to prosper (or even survive) in today’s hyper-digital environment. Gone are the days of just throwing stuff out there and hoping it sticks. The tastes and expectations of consumers of everything have been raised based on the instant feedback we now get (like it or not) from social media. There’s no going back, but there are plenty of lessons to be learned and opportunities to try things for free today that were inaccessible to the last generation of marketers. However, my learning and observation as a traditional marketing professional that has stayed the course is that one still needs a “framework” for approaching the new tools. For they are simply tools. Strategy and content still drive everything.
Having set this up as a “workshop” also made sense because “presentations” with no feedback are just like blog posts with no share this button! It’s ever so important to learn from our audiences – whether it be beforehand through preparatory, warm up questions, or ongoing research. I am a big fan of research to dive into almost any project. Artists in particular can truly benefit from research. There is a ton of best practices research out there to gobble up and digest. Kudo to some great new sources that I found when preparing – NYFA/Artspire The Profitable Artist; CopyBlogger; and ArtsBusiness.com.
As I would expect, I learned from my colleagues through their responses provided in the prep work. Common challenges and fears included the need to balance pure creativity and commercial aspects of being an artist; discomfort with selling oneself; understanding what really works among all the choices of marketing tools, etc.. But the one thing that I found interesting is the lack of understanding of our audiences and the huge untapped world of “segments” that could drive an artist’s future direction. Just in one small discussion we had the talent in the room to run a business-arts partnership between and artist that works with “trash”and a local waste management company; an artist that is a subject matter expert on marinas and local boat history(painting many of the most loved vessels in the area) and a local yacht club; a block printmakerpreserving and paying forward the beloved history of the Folly Cove Designers and all that is linked to that historical milestone.
Despite the immense gratitude shared at the end of the session, likely the group left a bit overwhelmed. My hope, however, is that each person will digest and morph the intake to work within their own personal marketing framework (a term I made up for the workshop). If there is only one takeaway that should make this incredibly talented group feel good, it’s that today’s marketing environment is driven by CONTENT. Content is driven by authentic, expert, thoughtful, and experiential musings. Artists are natural subject matter experts with incredible stories to tell. Combined with all the free channels out there to help us get the word out, the opportunities are limitless. And best of all, you don’t have to talk about yourself. The social network world allows for others to do it for you! Thanks for sharing……
Thanks to my mom, I have a brand new sign on the Barn! It was so well done, it fits right in. See you either at Art in the Barn (June 14-16) or the Cape Ann Artisans Tour which stops RIGHT HERE!!!
Many thanks to the wonderful fellow Cape Ann Artisans who visited my studio several weekends ago. I am honored to be included among this fabulous group that has inspired me for many years for the 30th Annual Tour in 2013! Don't forget that the Barn is open this weekend and next at 10AM! Come and visit us at 44 Thurston Pt. Rd.
