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A POTPOURRI OF ART

August 2 - September 9, 2005

Jewelry Artists:  
Natalie Canfield,  Tim Caviness,   Gail Eldred,
Lisa Mosser,   Virginia Nance
Silk Artist:  Traute Leeman


Natalie Canfield, Jewelry Artist
Natalie Canfield, Dragonfly Necklace Anyone who knows me will tell you I'm an inveterate "craftaholic". Countless hobbies and experimentations have come and gone over the years, many of which still lurk unfinished in corners and closets. With this in mind, it is somewhat remarkable to me that beads and jewelry have become a mainstay in the creative side of my life. I am mostly self-taught, learning techniques through books and magazine articles. I started out by copying others' designs and using paterns. Though I still look to other works for inspiration and to see what's trendy, my craft is drawing closer to what I consider art. My preferred palette is an earthy one, tending to browns, greens and purples. Nature is also a heavy influence, and has drawn me to shells, bone and semi-precious gems. And in the response to my never-ending quest for something new to try , I have taken up the torch to present my efforts with vitreous enamel heads. Many thanks to friends and colleagues who have given me encouragement, advice and opportunities in this endeavor, and especially to my dear husband John, who just rolls his eyes and does the laundry and cooking while I play in beadland.
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Tim & Linda Caviness, Jewelry Artists
Kingfisher Jewelry
Tim Caviness, Pin
Southwest art and colors inspired Linda and Tim Caviness to begin designing and fabricating contemporary jewelry.

Tim apprenticed in Santa Fe, New Mexico for several months in 2000. Linda began making necklaces in 2002 utilizing pendants and center-pieces made by Tim. Encouraged by friends and future customers, they established Kingfisher Jewelry.

This Century Gallery in Williamsburg was the choice for Tim's first show in November, 2001. Linda and Tim showed jointly in 2002 at Two in a Zoo Art & Antiques in Williamsburg. They have participated in Stockley Gardens Art Show in Norfolk and Williamsburg's Occasion for the Arts. Their work has shown at Kinks, Quirks & Caffeine Gallery in Williamsburg and at the Sanderling Inn Resort in Duck, North Carolina. They have also shown at Gallery 38 in Richmond and at The Hand Workshop Art Center's Holiday Gift Gallery in Richmond.

Kingfisher Jewelry works in sterling silver and semi-precious stones to produce pins, pendants, necklaces and bracelets. The pins and pendants are fabricated with semi-precious stones using sterling silver and are designed to enhance the color and matrix of the stones for one-of -a-kind pieces. The bracelets use a sterling silver clasp with sterling silver beads and semi-precious stones on a double black rope to give the customer a wide range of selection in creating their own unique look. The necklaces are a variety of semi-precious stones, glass, and resin beads from all over the world combining various textures, colors and shapes to produce a new look for the contemporary woman.
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Gail S. Eldred, Jewelry Artist
Gail Eldred, Necklace An award-winning jeweler, Gail has been interested in gemstones since childhood explorations of the Smithsonian's Gem & Mineral Exhibition in DC. While partially self-taught, she has also taken classes at The Wildacres Gem, Jewelry, and Mineral Workshop and The William Holland School of Lapidary Arts, and done a one-year internship with a local silversmith (now deceased). She has also picked up tips from experts at the local Gem & Mineral Society of the Virginia Peninsula.

Her interests in making jewelry began with beading necklaces, earrings and bracelets after a skiing accident put her in a wheelchair for a year. After she recovered she began to facet gemstones, and make cabochons using lapidary equipment in her home workshop in Yorktown. Silver settings are individually made for each pendant or ring. For gemstones that look better in gold, she can wire wrap these stones or put them in commercially purchased gold settings. Currently she enjoys creating intarsia pendants using several different gemstones in various patterns.

Gail continues to make beaded jewelry as well as one of a kind pendants and rings. She enjoys working with the beautiful colors of natural gemstones in combinations with crystal and pearls in creating unique wearable art.
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Traute Leeman, Hand-Painted Silk Wall-Hanging
Traute Leemann, Silk Artist
I create each piece as I go along, starting out with only a rough idea in mind and follow my intuition and the inspiration that comes from materials, colors, textures, the particular techniques used, the mood of the moment, and the evolving associations. Extensive trial and error with ever new methods provide me with the prerequisites and resources to achieve often surprising and novel results. There are clearly distinguishable types and classes of techniques and formal motifs in my work, but no two pieces are identical. Rather, each is a fresh, new invention.

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Lisa Mosser, Jewelry Artist
Mosser Studio - Handmade glass bead jewelry & gift items;
Wearable Art Glass

TCAG Exhibits:
     A Potpouri of Art – August 2 - September 9, 2005
     Guest Artisan – July 31 - September 7, 2007

Artist Statement:   Making lamp-worked glass beads combines my childhood appreciation for glass miniatures with a lifelong love of marbling, sparkling inclusions, patterns, and color. Using a flame to take glass from rock hard to clay malleable to honey soft brings me great joy as I work. The ultimate challenge of shaping molten glass in a 1500 degree F torch flame fires my interest. As I remove it from the kiln, I celebrate each bead as a gift that offers its unique beauty and inspires ideas for my next creation. Lisa Mosser - Necklace

Artist Bio:   The beauty of light shining through art glass has always captivated me. My favorite memories include marveling at art, art glass, and stained glass windows in museums and cathedrals throughout the U.S. and Europe. As a kid I collected glass animals and was mesmerized by glass blowing during our family's visit to Jamestown. Torch work at the small studios in Venice wove its magic in my heart.

As a teen, I joined the hippie craze for love beads, beaded wire flowers, and craft loom-work. I started exploring various art forms as stress relief from the working world in 1992. But two dimensional work in the traditional art mediums didn't spark the excitement for me. Classes in jewelry fabrication and beadwork introduced me to ways to use and wear my growing bead collection. After 19 years, I left the corporate world in 1998 and discovered the excitement of glass bead-making in Kimberly Adams' class at John C. Campbell Folk School. I have since learned new techniques in classes with Kate Fowle Meleney, James Smircich, Caitlin Hyde, Marilyn Jobe, Beth Metts, and Deanna Griffin Dove.

Combining my hand crafted beads with seed beadwork, Art Clay Silver, or kumihimo braids expands my palette and gives new depth to the jewelry. My husband, Chuck, pursued wood turning after his retirement and we make collaborative pieces melding wood with glass. One of my stone series beads was featured in lark Books '1000 Glass Beads.' My glass bead sculpture won second place in the 3D category at the Splash of Color show at Gallery One-O- Seven in 2004. I am a charter member of the Bead Society of Southeast Virginia and served as Vice President in 2003 and 2004. I taught beadwork and Art Clay Silver classes at Bead Haven, The D' Art Center, The Rawls Museum, and Cristallo Gallery. I participated in the Greater Lanexa Studio Tour in October 2003 & 2004 (please check www.glst.org for details of this year's artist studio tour). My solo show at Charles Taylor Gallery in 2002 was as a result of winning best in show at The Peninsula Glass Guild show in 2001. You can see my work at Blue Skies Gallery, Gallery on the York, The Gallery at York Hall, Portlock Gallery, Miss D's Framery, Studio Foray, and Bay School Cultural Arts Center.
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Virginia Nance, Jewelry Artist
Virginia Nance - Necklace Fused Dichroic Glass & Headwork Artist
Fort Wayne, Indiana

Virginia Nance is not new to artistic design, having been a published needlework designer as "Ginny's Stitchin's" for over 15 years. Fifteen years ago she discovered the wonderful world of glass beads and jewelry making.

Now retired from her profession as an educator, she is enjoying the freedom to develop her creative spirit through glass fusing and off loom bead weaving. While she sometimes dips into her private collection of beads by world class bead artists to use in her designs, she prefers to concentrate on incorporating her own fused dichroic glass cabochons into unique classic one-of-a-kind jewelry. She is branching out now designing framed wall pieces using fused glass, and to some extent, even beadwork.

Virginia has just moved from Newport News to Fort Wayne, Indiana, so is planning only to be in Virginia for shows, gallery exhibits, and perhaps for teaching assignments. She has been in demand as a fusing and bead-weaving teacher in several bead stores in Virginia and for bead societies in Virginia and North Carolina. Her work can be seen also on her web site, www.beadsnglassbyginny.com.

While in Virginia, she was a participating artist in Blue Skies Gallery in Hampton, VA for ten years. Juried art shows include An Occasion for the Arts, Williamsburg, V A (1999, 2002,2004), and the Junior Woman's Club of Williamsburg, "Art on the Square" (2000, 2003,2004,2005) where she received Honorable Mention in the 3-D Art category, in 2000. Greenleaf Gallery, Duck, NC, showed her work as part of their Glass Invitational, May-June,2000. In addition to Blue Skies Gallery, Ginny's work has been seen in Yates House Gallery and Jerry's Gallery in Deltaville. Other juried shows include the Virginia Beach Christmas Market, Cricket on the Hearth (Virginia Beach). the Virginia Beach Jr.
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