Anthology held our first ever Craft Lounge, in conjunction with the Downtown Holiday Open House, on Saturday, November 27th (Thanksgiving weekend) from 10 am to 3 pm. Our little store just isn't big enough to hold all the crafting goodness that we wanted to share with you for the holidays so we went across the street to the Overture Center.
We had expanded craft table activities as well as guest artist demonstrations & instruction to get a jump on your holiday crafting projects. Local artists sold their wares and provided inspiration, kits and supplies.
Anthology filled several boxes and bags with food for the food pantry, as well as enough donations to provide over 500 meals to people through the Second Harvest Foodbank of Southwestern Wisconsin. The Komai family is a big believer in the importance of food. We are grateful for the plenty in our own lives and think no one should be crafting on an empty stomach. With that in mind, we are so thankful that so many shoppers brought cans of non-perishable food or paid a $1 donation for the food pantry as admission to the Holiday Craft Lounge.
Projects and demonstrations included: decoupage ornaments, paper star ornaments, rust-stained scarves, stamped cards, enamel earrings, make your own button/magnet/pocket mirror, stamped bracelets, fleece neck rolls, fabric brooches, Zentangle art, freeform crochet, collage, crayon pendants and recycled pinwheels.
If you are an artist interested in being notified of the 2011 application process, please send an email to Anthology@tds.net with "holiday craft lounge" in the subject line or become a fan of Anthology on Facebook and watch for our announcement in late summer 2011.
Artterro is a local Madison company that makes creative kits for kids, including decoupage ornaments. This family-friendly activity involves decorating fun shapes with beautiful tissue paper, then glazing and embellishing with ribbon. The ornaments are not holiday-specific but they do make great Christmas ornaments. You can also use them to construct a mobile, fill a bowl for a centerpiece or decorate a gift.
Rosy Hawbaker of Recreative Crafts shared a brooch project incorporating scrap fabrics and vintage jewelry.
Andrea at Space Oddities gathered paper tidbits and cutting paper circles so that you can make your own buttons, magnets and pocket mirrors, oh my!
And Cynthia W. is gathered bits of yarns to share freeform crochet techniques. Freeform knitting and crochet uses scraps of yarn to create small motifs of different color and shape. These can be pieced together to form interesting and varied appliqués for sweaters or used to embellish purses or pillows. Learn to make crochet bullions such as shown on the purse and other freeform shapes.
Jane shared paper scraps and her enthusiasm, demonstrating how to make the ball paper ornaments, the star ornaments , paper wreaths, and paper garlands. Her paper stars make great decoration around the house, on the tree, or on brown paper packages tied up with string.
For our part, we lined up some people to share some Anthology projects. We had a table filled with our paper packs and craft kits, but we also stocked up on the lovely enamel pieces from Duluth which you can make into earrings. We also gathered paper to make paper pennants. These are very cheerful and simple decorations that use a mix of cardstock and transparencies, hand-cut into triangles.
Mindy K. is an Oshkosh artist who brought her own creations, as well as the tools and supplies for people to stamp their own ornaments, pendants and bracelets - a great opportunity to make some customized presents!
And the amazing and energetic Kim (hmm... what is it about that name? This isn't the only super Kim that I know) of Lapacek's Orchards - she's crafty AND she grows apples?! -- shared a number of kits and projects, including the recycled book page wreath project (with dyed book pages!).
And Diane gave mini lessons on the process of Zentangle. She had kits for sale and opportunities for people to try their hand at Zentangle art.
