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Category: Orange Tuesdays

Orange Nautilus Collaboration by Margaret Almon and Suzanne Halstead

Orange Nautilus by Margaret Almon and Suzanne Halstead
Orange Nautilus by Margaret Almon and Suzanne Halstead from their Marzanne Project.

 

Suzanne Halstead and I were sitting in the Collegeville Diner, as I interviewed her about her art.  Suddenly, Suzanne had the idea to collaborate with her pastels and my mosaic frames, and we christened it the Marzanne Project.  She came over to my studio with some artwork and we had fun playing with potential tesserae for frames inspired by the art, and chose some colors for mosaics that I would create to inspire her art.  Orange, of course, was one of the colors, because Suzanne is part of the sisterhood of orange!  I love how how her Orange Nautilus unwinds itself into the frame.

What we didn’t expect was that Suzanne would move to Ohio and Nutmeg Designs would be overflowing with commissions.  The commissions started a year ago as well, with Suzanne and her husband Gary’s Fruits of the Spirit project,* and have been rolling ever since!   So between the growth of Nutmeg Designs and the distance of Suzanne, we’re not sure where Marzanne will lead, but I treasure the work we have already collaborated on.

 

*Have no fear!  The Fruits of the Spirit mosaics went with Suzanne and Gary to Ohio, although they were sad to leave the labyrinth behind.

Interview with Suzanne Halstead Part 1:  Seining the Soul to Bring Vision into Being

Interview with Suzanne Halstead Part 2:  Release from Realism

Drawing Nearer: More Art by Suzanne Halstead

 

Matthew Scissorhands: Matt W. Moore’s Cut Paper Collage

Matthew W. Moore: MWM Graphics: Matthew Scissorhands Series
Matthew W. Moore: MWM Graphics, Matthew Scissorhands Series.

Before I made mosaics, I made collages, and sometimes a work like this one by Matt W. Moore gives me a hankering for cut paper.  I also have to dig a guy who calls this series Matthew Scissorhands.  He also does spray painted murals, skateboards, and Vectorfunk(another cool name).

 

More Orange love on my Orange Tuesdays Board on Pinterest.

John Dahlsen: An Artist’s Palette Picked From Ocean Debris

Orange Rope by John Dahlsen
Orange Rope by John Dahlsen. Contemporary environmental art wall work, made from found plastic objects, assembled behind perspex. Abstract recycled art created from plastics collected from Australian beaches.

John Dahlsen‘s environmental art came to my attention via Pinterest.  Originally he was a landscape painter in Australia, and as he began collecting driftwood on the coastline to make furniture, he discovered a staggering amount of debris, much of it plastic, washed up on the shore.  He collected 80 jumbo trash bags, and as he sorted the items by color, a painter’s palette emerged.  Dahlsen found intriguing hues and forms shaped by the wind and sun and water, and began making assemblages, totems and installations.  He sees it as alchemy:

My work is in a constant state of evolution. I see this largely as alchemical. It is the process of nature’s elements redefining the man-made that created the initial alchemy in working with these found objects, taking the objects beyond the mundane. The second step was achieved through the transportation of these plastics to my studio and the process of sorting and assembling. A further and more vital transformation took place as I assembled them. These found objects then started to tell their story and become transformed into artworks.

Dahlsen describes the contradictory feelings of being outraged by the magnitude of trash being dumped into the ocean, and at the same time going back repeatedly to collect more items for his palette, and eloquently says that as he sorted piles of objects in his studio they took on an “unspeakable, indefinable and quite a magical beauty.”  This is “found” art and yet finding the debris was only the first step toward finding the qualities and stories of these discards, and in making his art, Dahlsen also found a way to express his own passionate concern about the environment, and his creativity in recycling.

More Orange on my Orange Tuesdays Pinterest Board.

 

UnaOdd and Tangerine Tango-ing

 

UnaOdd: Pendants in Process
UnaOdd: Pendants in Process

 

UnaOdd: Cuff Bracelet Detail
UnaOdd: Cuff Bracelet Detail

UnaOdd (aka Lynn Lunger) has been in the sisterhood of orange for the time that I have known her, and 2012, the Pantone Year of the Tangerine Tango is made for her.  We had her and her husband and kids over for a pizza party, and it was great fun!  Shrimp was the only orange topping, and it went quickly. . .

More orange at my Pinterest Orange Tuesdays Board.

UnaOdd’s Etsy Shop

 

@Dora Ficher Art 2010"Sun Heat" Encaustic 8x8

Dora Ficher and What the Bees Told Her: Vibrant Encaustic Art

Dora Ficher in her Studio
Dora Ficher in her Philadelphia Studio

 

It is serendipity to discover an artist online who turns out to live in my part of the world! The art of  Dora Ficher compels me with the color and texture and vibrant energy, almost buzzing with the bees that bring forth the medium of encaustic, beeswax.

 

@Dora Ficher Art 2010"Sun Heat" Encaustic 8x8
@Dora Ficher Art 2010 “Sun Heat” Encaustic 8×8

 

I checked a book out of the library, Encaustic Art by Lissa Rankin, and can see why I am attracted to encaustics like Dora Ficher’s. The colors have the same intensity as the glass I work with, and wax allows for an element of translucence, which again evokes what I love about glass.  Dora’s photo of a vendor table at The Encaustic Conference in Provincetown, MA, makes my mouth water.

 

Vendors at The Encaustic Conference, Provincetown, MA. Photo by Dora Ficher.
Vendor Table at The Encaustic Conference, Provincetown, MA. Photo by Dora Ficher.

I was happy to find Dora Ficher at Pinterest as well, because her eye for color makes for a treasure trove of images.

More orange on my Orange Tuesdays Pinterest Board.

 

 

 

 

Nutmeg Designs Wordle with Words from Our Fans

Nutmeg Designs in the Words of Our Fans: A Wordle

Nutmeg Designs Wordle with Words from Our Fans
Nutmeg Designs Wordle with Words from Our Wonderful Fans

 

Thank you to all who sent us words to describe Nutmeg Designs!  Stratoz came up with this cool idea to make the Nutmeg Designs wordle and chose the final form and colors, which of course includes orange.  I was awed by the words our friends and fans chose to describe our art and business, and thankful that we are able to add to joy in the world and delight others.

 

 

Otto and Gertrud Natzler: Volcanic Orange and a Life Together in the Ceramic Studio

Untitled Oval Bowl, c. 1940 Ceramic with Pompeian glaze; 3.75 x 5 x 1.5 inches; Collection of Carol and Seymour Haber Photo Dan Kvitka
Untitled Oval Bowl, c. 1940 Ceramic with Pompeian glaze; 3.75 x 5 x 1.5 inches; Collection of Carol and Seymour Haber Photo Dan Kvitka

 

Otto-Gertrud-Natzler
Gertrud and Otto Natzler. American Craft Council Archives.

Otto (1908-2007) and Gertrud Amon Natzler ( 1908-1971) worked together, with Gertrud making the pottery and Otto the glazes.  He feigned an interest in clay because he was smitten with Gertrud.  They set up a studio together in Austria, and Otto set about learning to glaze the lyrical forms created by Gertrud, and discovering he liked the imperfections, blisters and pockmarks even more than traditional glaze.  In 1938, the Nazi’s invaded Austria, and they married and  fled to LA.  The fact of Otto’s over 1,000 glazes and Gertrud’s 25,000 hand thrown pots surely qualifies them as a Dynamic Duo!   The evocation of Pompeii, and volcanic red-orange in the glazes, fitting seamlessly to the pottery, is a brilliant tribute to the fire of creativity.

 

Dynamic Duos on my Pinterest

Orange Tuesdays on my Pinterest

 

More Natzler Loveliness:

The Ceramics of Otto and Gertrud Natzler

Gertrud and Otto Natzler from mid2mod

Gertrud Amon Natzler from the Jewish Women’s Archive

Otto Natzler, Master Glazer

 

Taza Chocolate: In Orange!

Taza Chocolate Mexicano: Orange
Taza Chocolate Mexicano: Orange. Photo by Margaret Almon.

My magpie eye saw this immediately at Hennings Market in Harleysville, PA.  Taza Chocolate, orange, with the characteristic disc shape of Mexican stone ground chocolate, in a mandala like display of colors and flavors.  Stratoz and I had just been talking about a desire for a cup of Mexican hot chocolate, so I bought this tablet for his stocking. The border of the package is imprinted with images of the grinding stones Taza uses, which are lovely in themselves.  I grew up drinking Mexican chocolate, since my parents were from El Paso, TX.  We had a molinillo for beating the chocolate, twirled by the handle.  For a beautiful photo essay tour of Taza’s Chocolate factory, check out this post by Cake and Commerce: Taza Chocolate: Bean-to-Bar Revolution by Way of Tradition.