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St. Lawrence County Arts Council

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Inside the Studio: Mary Harding

Each week one of our contributors gives you a sneak peek into their studio, creative process or inspirations. We ask a related question of our readers and hope you’ll leave comments! As an incentive, we offer a prize each week to bribe you to use that keyboard and tell us what you think. The following week a winner is chosen at random from all eligible entries.

Congratulations to Carolyn You’ve won a $20.00 Gift Certificate to Humblebeads.com Woot!  Email Heather  to claim your win!!
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Welcome to My Studio!!  It is a beautiful sunny summer day today!!  I have been working hard on three fronts lately and I will give you a brief peek into all of these doings.

Front Number 1
I have been doing a lot of glazing in the last few days.  I was having difficulty getting these toggle clasps to stay on the skewer sticks because the stringing holes are just a bit too big.  In desperation I came up with using my fingers to touch up the clear glaze!! 

            Not recommended unless you are in a pinch for something to hold your pieces!!!  LOL!!
Why so busy you ask???
I have been making work to take to a very special art festival in our area called The Mare’s Wares Art Fest.  It hashappened every year for the past  7  years on Canada Day!!  That means July 1.  This year that is a Wednesday.  Lots of folks cross the St. Lawrence River on one of several bridges, depending where they live in Canada and come on over.  It is a very fun event with many vendors, live bands, demonstrations and fun activities.  I will have an assortment of my ceramic pendants ready to turn into a simple necklace

Some of the ceramic pendants I will have for simple necklaces.

Continuing with the Leaf theme this month, I made these little leaves all with the same texture plate I made from a small Oak leaf.  I plan to turn them into earring.  Love how they came out.
It has been quite a while since I did a show, so I am a bit nervous.  Luckily I know many of the artists who will be there.  I am looking forward to a fun day.

Front Number 2

Tonight is the  opening of the St. Lawrence County Arts Council Members Exhibition at the Gibson Gallery on the  campus of Potsdam College.  I was so pleased that our arts council collaborated on this event.  It has been an opportunity for all members to have their art work exhibited. Each member was eligible to have one piece shown and then possibly a second or third one would be juried in.  I am pleased to have two of my necklaces on display.

Flamenco necklace by Mary Harding

 Necklace by Mary Harding      Mrs. Senn’s Fish  Inspired by a short story titled Mrs. Senn
                                                     written by Jumpa Lahiri

I credit our arts council with getting me going on selling my work.  They were so encouraging and best of all they gave all members a venue for selling by opening a store front.  They taught us about the business of selling.  Now that they no longer have  the shop,  they have found other ways of providing artists in this area with opportunities for being seen and for selling work.  Tonight being one of them.  I am so grateful for their work.

Front Number 3
I am taking an online class with Keith Lo Bue called Steeling Beauty through Artful Gathering
.We use  this humble annealed steel rebar wire for all of our lessons.( see picture below)

                                                             steel rebar wire

I just love this wire since it is soft and fairly easy to work. And the way it looks when it has been forged and polished is next to sublime!!

Keith is a wonderful teacher with a great sense of humor.  This is my second on line class with him.  I hope to share some of my creations in a post later in the summer.  So far I have watched all the videos and done some experimenting.  Nothing yet too enlightening.  But I really enjoy forging on my steel anvil.  So satisfying.

Well that is a quick look at what has been happening inside my studio so far this summer.  Now on to the question we ask each time:

When I was writing about our arts council, I thought I would like to know more about how other art councils work .  


So here is my question for today.   Are you involved in your local/state arts council?  How do they extend help and services to artists in your area?  I would really be interested to know.Your comment can also be about any kind of group that helps out artist since I don’t know if all states have arts councils.

All related comments will automatically be entered in a drawing to win a $20.00 gift certificate to my  Etsy shop.

Thanks so much for stopping by today.
Mary