Cape Ann Designs

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Celebrate Wearable Art

Celebrating Silk Artists at Montserrat| Four Voices in Silk

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Please join me in congratulating my friends at Ten Pound Studio as they embark on a special show and event.  Here are the details.

FOUR VOICES IN SILK (Ten Pound Studio Artists)

August 20 – September 24, 2026
Montserrat College of Art, Hardie (Main) Building Beverly, MA

Four Voices in Silk showcases a vibrant collection of hand-painted silk works by four expert silk artists from Ten Pound Studio, Gloucester, dedicated to preserving traditional serti steam-set technique in the United States. Using resist and dyes applied directly to silk, the artists create luminous wall displays, sumptuous wearable art, and home décor that celebrate color, craftsmanship, and original design.

This rare artist collective offers a unique opportunity to experience a living silk-painting tradition while discovering four distinct artistic voices, dedicated to preserving this unique art form. (Artists: Allyson Christopher, Christine Gauthier-Kelley, Sue Niemi, Leslie Pearlman)

  • OPENING CELEBRATION SEPTEMBER 8, 6-8 PM
  • PUBLIC ART TALK • SEPTEMBER 11, 12 NOON
  • SALE of WEARABLE ART During Events
  • OPPORTUNITIES & HANDS-ON EXPERIENCES
    Classes and workshops TBA

Come experience the radiant world of Four Voices in Silk—where tradition meets contemporary expression, one brushstroke at a time. Four artists. Four distinct voices. One extraordinary medium.  For information call:  781-799-9205 or email to tenpoundstudiogloucester.com

 

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Formations – Paving the way for 2025

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Formations:  Paving the Way for 2025!

I love sculpture. So, it’s natural that sculptural elements enter into my sea glass art. Over the past year, I have leaned into working with highly unusual sea glass formations – pieces that are so interestingly molded by the environment, it’s almost hard to see what they were before. Then, working with these pieces on their own or in conjunction with other oddly shaped pieces, something truly wonderful emerges!

This focus on using the most unusual pieces in my collection applies to both wearable art and my newfound direction of garden steppingstones and sculptures. In the realm of wearable art, I made about half dozen new pieces that look significantly different from the existing collections. In the garden décor realm, I have the opportunity to work with the rarest finds in my collection – bottlenecks. Many were too big or heavy to use in jewelry, but are perfect to form sculptural pieces. Now my sea glass treasure hunt begins anew! This gives me an incentive for digging back into my forgotten pieces to see which ones have been neglected in previous design intervals.

Some of the wearable art pieces that evolved out of this new direction include:

Formations also makes me think of other concepts. Formations of new ideas. Formations of opinions. Formations of a point of view. Evolution into a place that has been formed over time. Re-formation. Formulas. Forming new relationships. All of these forms of formations are what I will look forward to in 2025!

Sculptural pieces are emerging as fabulous formations in their own rite!

 

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My Interview with MSONEWSports by Rick Moore

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Rick Moore is a pro!  A beloved, retired Math teacher, Rick has found another calling, interviewing athletes and artists (among others) for his amazing internet radio venture.  Go Rick!  Here’s my recent interview with him.  I am humbled by his generous spirit.

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A Creative Challenge: Preparing for two amazing events!

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There’s nothing like an artistic challenge from a fellow artist to get the creative juices flowing.   With a fall full of tying up loose ends for the seARTS event, Celebrate Wearable Art III (of which I am chair), it was imperative that I found some time to wear my artist hat and create something new over the summer.  Thanks to the collaboration with Camilla MacFadyen for her “summer” look for the runway show, I stared out the window of my studio into my garden, looked at my tray of small pieces of glass, and thought long and hard about what might possibly show up on a runway?  This by far is the biggest challenge for the Celebrate Wearable Art show – to make a statement piece that can be seen from far away.

The result is a theme piece called “The Rains of Summer; Tears of Joy.”  This thought directly aligned with the first “rain” that hit my garden and the shape of a raindrop and a tear-drop – both of which are soothing in their own special way!  The piece is actually a series of five tear-drop shaped pendants uniquely tied together in one piece to fully cover the neckline of the model below the neckline.   After the show, this piece can be taken apart with each piece of it, its own pendant unless of course, it sells as one piece.    Along with this, earrings that mimic the pair I made for the 2011 runway show that often get significant attention when I wear them – long and slender with one large bead or pear at the end – inspiring a “runway collection” of similarly constructed earrings!  Since I cannot reveal the pieces until after September 27th, I can only tease you with the pieces that I mention here that were the precedents to the final product and of course, the garden that I look at from my studio!   Here's a "Summer Sail" piece in the teardrop shape.   

Then I look forward to showing you ALL the new work on October 10-12 at the Fall Cape Ann Artisans' Studio Tour!

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Cape Ann Designs & seARTS in the art news!

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It's been truly amazing to see the interest in the "Celebrate Wearable Art II" runway show that we/seARTS and the Wearable Arts group held last September.    Speaking as an artist, it's very satisfying to share locally made art in new ways that engages such a wide range of creative minds.   The editors of Art New England took a unique point of view on Wearable Art outside the Urban Center – played out in two parts, the first of which showcasing work from my collection as well as a dress made of pasta.  Yes, seaglass and pasta both indigenous to Gloucester!   Cape Ann Magazine tied our show to revenue – a great idea to make money while doing all this hard work in the creative sector.    And finally, the Gloucester Times published my entire "thank you" letter to the behind the scenes team.  

I was also thrilled to have one of my favorite pieces shown in Art New England – so here it is again!

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