Lambertville artist Sally Stang creates pressed flower collages, which she calls “Fleurage.”  She also calls them “floral mosaics” because that is what they truly are – an arrangement of floral bits and pieces with the addition of some butterflies, feathers and the occasional cicada wing. Sally has been making pressed flower pictures for about 35 years.  She was inspired by a cover of “Horticulture” magazine which featured the work of Harry White who did portraits and other unusual designs using pressed flowers. She had always loved floral arranging, so the idea of arranging “flat flowers” was attractive.  Her first pressed flower entry in the Philadelphia Flower Show won a 2nd prize, which propelled her to do more work.

The biggest hurdle with pressed flower art is that the flowers fade. If she piled flowers on top of each other, as Harry White did, they would eventually fade into mass of beige and dull greens, losing most of that beautiful color. So, Sally has spent much time experimenting with how to preserve color. None of the books on flower pressing had good ideas, but one British woman (the Brits love pressed flowers) said that she used a Q-tip and applied tempera paint powder (the kind we had in elementary school) and that gave Sally the idea of using pastels, which are pure pigment. Each petal and leaf is rubbed with pastel “dust” – she uses the softest pastels, so there are no hard bits to tear the petals.  The colors hold fast for decades. After she applies the pastel, each bit and piece of flower is then glued on acid-free matboard, then framed up under glass.

Sally Stang has an eye for making the spaces in between the materials as beautiful as the flowers themselves, and I love her undulating shapes. Transformations 40th Annual Art and Craft Show, November 8-10, 2013, Hopewell Train Station, Hopewell, NJ.

Transformations Featured Artists:

Connie Bracci-McIndoe(pottery)

Susan Nadelson(hand dyed and handspun yarn)

Bernard Hohlfeld(artistic woodturner)

Amy Turner(weaving)

Ron Dombrowski(wood carving)

Ron Dombrowski starts out with blocks of wood using Jersey white cedar, pine and basswood and after much cutting, grinding and sanding he then paints the piece using acrylic paints and applying protective finishes.

Ron has won numerous awards, including best in show in both the shorebird and fish decoy contests held at the Tuckerton Decoy Show in September each year.

Ron carves old style gunning decoys, duck decoys, ice spearing fish decoys and decorative fish. He also carves folk art owls and fish.  Who could resist this wide eyed owl?

Transformations 40th Annual Art and Craft Show, November 8-10, 2013, Hopewell Train Station, Hopewell, NJ.

Transformations Featured Artists:

Connie Bracci-McIndoe(pottery)

Susan Nadelson(hand dyed and handspun yarn)

Bernard Hohlfeld(artistic woodturner)

Amy Turner(weaving)

Sally Stang(pressed flower mosaic)

Susan Nadelson loves texture and color, and she plays with their unlimited possibilities to create one-of-a-kind handspun yarn. To begin, she finds the softest fleeces from special breeds of sheep. She cleans them by hand, removing bits of twigs and hay, then washes the wool in hot water with gentle natural soap. While the fleece air dries, Susan selects mohair, silk, bamboo, and other luxurious fibers to combine with the sheep’s wool. She then chooses her color palette  and dyes each component separately. As she cards the wool and other fibers together the textures blend and the colors come alive.

Once she has found the perfect blend, she spins the fibers into yarn by hand. Each bundle of her yarn represents a unique exploration of texture and color inspired by the feel and hue of the natural world.

One of the pleasures of doing shows  is meeting talented makers of craft, and as a knitter, I am glad to be at close proximity to Susan’s vibrant yarn.

Transformations 40th Annual Art and Craft Show, November 8-10, 2013, Hopewell Train Station, Hopewell, NJ.

Opening Reception Friday November 8th, 6-8 pm.

Transformations Featured Artists:

Connie Bracci-McIndoe(pottery)

Bernard Hohlfeld(artistic woodturning)

Amy Turner(weaving)

Ron Dombrowski(wood carving)

Sally Stang(pressed flower mosaic)

Stratoz and I are pleased to be participating in the 40th Annual Transformations Art and Craft Show November 8-10th, 2013.  The sale ran for 25 years at the Princeton University bookstore and has been in the Historic Hopewell Train Station since 2002.  Artist Connie Bracci-McIndoe has been there since the beginning.  She and her husband Ken live in a converted wood storage and workshop building, and we got to see this amazing place at the organizational meeting for 2013.  We were enveloped in art on all the walls, and looked out the window to the brick kiln, a raku kiln, and pit firing equipment in the backyard.

Her stoneware leaf plates use real leaves of different sizes and kinds for impressions. They are one of her most popular items, even appearing on television as part of the set for Cristina Cooks,” the PBS show from Philadelphia.

Connie Bracci-McIndoe creates bowls ,vases, vessels and sculpted pieces which are well known for their warm and subtle earth tones.

Transformations 40th Annual Art and Craft Show, November 8-10, 2013, Hopewell Train Station, Hopewell, NJ.

She also has an eye for the whimsical, as in this expressive clay birdhouse, complete with a feathered roof.

I will be featuring an artist from the Transformations Show each Thursday:

Susan Nadelson(hand dyed and handspun yarn)

Bernard Hohlfeld(artistic woodturning)

Amy Turner(weaving)

Ron Dombrowski(wood carving)

Sally Stang(pressed flower mosaic)