Chris Starry

"My Grandmother gave me my first loom over twenty years ago. This opened up a whole new world of fiber, color and texture. Weaving became my passion. I have always wanted to make beautiful things and wanted to translate this passion into something wearable. What greater joy than to wrap oneself in something soft and colorful. I also became fascinated with dyeing and love to use my ever changing garden as inspiration. I have combined my weaving and dyeing by creating soft, elegant scarves and shawls using tencel, silk, bamboo and other fibers."

Chris Starry has been a fiber artist for over twenty years. She is a member of the Philadelphia Guild of Handweavers and the Pennsylvania Guild of Craftsmen. Her work has been exhibited at the annual Philadelphia Guild of Handweavers’ show where she received special Juror’s awards in both 2003 and 2005. In addition she received First and Third Place in fashion accessories in the same years. At the Mannings Handweaving School annual show she received 1^st Place in fashion accessories in 2004, 2^nd & 3^rd Place in 2005 and 2^nd Place and People’s Choice award in 2006. Chris hand-paints as well as dyes her yarns and works mainly with tencel and silk.

Chris’s passion for fiber art has also found expression in the making of Temari, an ancient Japanese craft in which intricate designs are both woven and stitched on the surface of a ball.

Bette R. McCarron

"Involved with weaving, basketry and other fiber arts for more than thirty years, I have attended many local and regional workshops and seminars to learn different disciplines and techniques. Focusing on basketry, particularly round rattan reed, challenges both my creative side as well as my analytical side.

Inspired by the color in nature, especially wilderness landscapes, I hand-dye the reed to produce my own color palette, creating unusual blends of different colors on the same reed and experimenting with the natural dye indigo. Before beginning the basket, the shape, size and use of color are planned. The colors will spiral or form color blocks on a basket depending on their placement and the number of “weavers” being used in proportion to the number of “spokes” on the base. This relationship is often altered during the weaving process to change the patterns and to add visual and textural variety.

While weaving in the round, the rhythm and concentration slows my pace of life and gives me focus, peace and relaxation. Showing and selling my baskets gives me pleasure to be able to share my enthusiasm for basketry.

A member of the Philadelphia Guild of Hand Weavers (PGHW) for over 30 years, Bette has participated in their annual exhibit and received a special Juror’s Award in 2000 and First Place Awards in 2000 & 2005. She was included in “Cultural Shock”, an invitational exhibit in Maplewood, N.J. in April, 2005 and was juried into “Fiber Artists: Philadelphia” at DaVinci Art Alliance, Philadelphia, PA in 2006 & 2008.

She has taught in the Philadelphia area for the Studios at Cannonhill, PGHW and the Sedgwick Cultural Center and teaches regularly at the Ocean City Arts Center and the Ocean City Community Education program in New Jersey. She enjoys sharing her enthusiasm for basketry through classes for children and adults. A former Peace Corps volunteer in Grenada and a certified Veterinary Technician, Bette’s work combines influences from travel, animals and fiber arts."

Meg Kennedy

Meg Kennedy is a calligrapher and book artist who lives in Wynnewood, Pennsylvania. In addition to doing commissioned documents and calligraphic broadsides, she sells hand-bound journals and albums and makes artist's books that incorporate lettering art, illustration, and collage. She is especially interested in historical book forms, medieval illumination, miniature books, and ceramic art tiles. She has taught for the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts, the Philadelphia Museum of Art, and has conducted 50 artist-in- residence programs at schools in Pennsylvania and New Jersey. In addition to receiving several regional awards, her work has been included in national exhibits with the Guild of Book Workers and the Maryland Federation of Art. She served two terms as president of the Philadelphia Calligraphers’ Society and now manages the gift shop at the Community Arts Center in Wallingford.

For additional information:
Meg Kennedy
1408 Greywall Lane
Wynnewood, PA 19096
(610)896-8327
email: meg@book-arts.com

Elaine White

"I’ve been making functional wheel-thrown pottery for about 20 years. I use stoneware clay and high-fire my pieces in an electric kiln so the pieces are dishwasher-safe. I’ve taken many classes at the Community Arts Center in Wallingford over the years, and am currently in the Advanced Potters Workshop. I recently won an honorable mention in their Members’ Show and also have some of my pieces in a gallery in Kennett Square. I’ve been a member of the Hometown Collective for 8 years.

I enjoy making wheel-thrown pots because I like the feel of the soft clay as it moves through my hands, and the symmetry of the forms that result. I strive for simple and classical shapes. My favorite form is the bowl and I enjoy making variations of the shape and size.

One of my recent interests is using clay stamps to press designs into my forms, and in finding just the right glazes that will highlight those impressions. I’ve also been utilizing unglazed lines on some of my bowls to create sharp geometric designs on the otherwise smooth surfaces. Most recently, I find myself intrigued by the form of the pitcher, and have been devoting more time to that silhouette.

I consider that my most successful pieces are those that I have an irresistible urge to touch as I walk by. I hope you find that irresistible urge, too."

Ed Hille

Ed Hille is a Philadelphia based photojournalist and staff photographer for the Philadelphia Inquirer. Hille has spent the past three decades striving to capture the moments and events that have helped to shape our lives. He has produced award winning photographs in our region and he has criss-crossed America and the globe, completing assignments on five continents, and covering a spectrum of news, feature and sporting events. Major political conventions, two World Series, and the Winter Olympics have been some of the highlights. Hille documented insurrections in El Salvador, Guatemala, Nicaragua, Afghanistan, Sudan and Liberia, the struggle for independence in Namibia, the first free elections in Haiti, and the lifting of the iron curtain in Romania. He photographed Presidents Nixon, Ford, Carter, Reagan, Bush and Clinton; Mikhail Gorbachev, Boris Yeltsin, Margaret Thatcher, the Dali Lama and Pope John Paul II. From the little leagues to the majors, from local politics to the world stage, his career has afforded him an education like no other.

Ed Hille is the recipient of numerous awards including honors from the Philadelphia and Dallas Press Clubs, The National Headliners Association, World Press, The Texas Headliners Association, The Society For Professional Journalists (SDX) and The National Football League. In 1995 Hille was awarded the Richard Burke Fellowship by the Philadelphia Inquirer and subsequently attended Swarthmore College as a visiting fellow. Hille was also nominated for the Pulitzer Prize.

Ed Hille resides in Moylan, Pennsylvania, with his wife Kathi and daughter Alexandra.

Melissa D. Bittinger

Valmortha Leathercraft - Melissa D. Bittinger

Artist Statement

Melissa Bittinger, known to friends and colleagues as just "D", studied to become an anthropologist, earning an MA degree in the process. Thereafter, she walked many a corn field and overgrown ridge top with survey archeologists. Somewhere along the way, she discovered an aptitude for computers, and she taught herself the fundamentals of database design and administration. Now she spends her weekdays as a data analyst, but that's only half the story, the mundane half. When not at "work", D is most likely making masks or seeking their inspiration - inspiration found more often than not on long woodland walks, in folk and fairy tales, during medieval weekend retreats, in daydreams and even at the movies. If you ask her who she is, she'll direct you to her website, the virtual home of Valmortha Leathercraft, http://www.valmortha.com.

Doug Starry

"I didnʼt know that I wanted to be a chair maker. Certainly, as a twelve year old, I was more interested in playing than working in the woodshop with my father. However I found myself as an apprentice working with my Dad, a master craftsman, starting with the simple tasks in chair making. I took over the business of chair making from my Father in 1985 and although I stayed with the original design I have done some tweaking throughout the years both in the design as well as the woods that I use. With forty acres, much of it wooded, I am able to use many of the trees from my own property. I have found myself drawn to the beauty of walnut, cherry and ash woods in particular.

Each tree, individual in nature, offers its own surprises as I transform it into a chair. I am always amazed to watch the individual grain of a tree appear as I hand rub the finish into the wood. This gives each chair its own uniqueness. I have strived to stay true to the original design of the Starry rocker. I use no glue in constructing the chairs but instead pressures fit the chairs together and use only four nails. This is very like the Shaker technique of constructing a chair. I always hand rub the finish into the chair to protect it and to bring out the natural grain of the wood. My chairs have come a long way from the original porch rocker to one that enhances the beauty of the woods that I use."

Linda Billet

"I’ve always liked glass. It really is my favorite medium. There are just SO many things you can do with it. The first glass work I did was in mosaics. Back then, I used broken glass because I didn’t even know how to cut glass yet!

About twenty years after I graduated from high school, I decided to go to the local community college and take a night course or two each semester. The class that changed everything was a class in glass blowing. I loved working with hot glass but most of the work I really admired was kiln-formed. In Central Pennsylvania, the best way to learn those techniques is on-line. So I bought a tiny little kiln that I operated in my kitchen and did a ton of experimenting.

Before glass, I sewed a lot of quilts. If you think about it, that transition is not so big. Instead of fabric, I now cut up glass and reassemble it by fusing or grouting it. I pick up ideas from fabric prints, and architecture, especially modern. A lot of bowls are just a loose interpretation of a neat building or furniture that I saw somewhere. Nature inspires me, mostly water. I love the ocean. I am constantly trying to copy waves or ripples in water patterns.

My artist’s statement…….. “Matching is boring.” That’s what my Grandma always told me and I think she’s right.

Sonia Sherrod

“As an assemblage artist, I try to re-create beauty or relativity out of the discarded, broken, and abandoned found objects juxtaposed with my own original 2-d art, old photographs, and wordsThese constructions explore the relatedness of color, shadows, and shape as well as compartmentalizing thematic associations of still-life, portrait, and landscape....empty, full, crowded and sparse, revealing and withholding within a narrative context. The importance is an overall feeling that emerges from a particular piece with contradictory themes and associations woven into the crevices. Disassembling, modifying and altering are an intricate and intuitive process as is the actual collecting of the objects and materials. Creating art that reveals the beauty in something otherwise considered an eyesore or showing the ugliness in an image or thing that is considered desirable is a consistent pursuit in my study of contrasts.”

Lorri Primavera

Lorri Primavera creates original works inspired by architecture, sculpture, furniture, color and the human form. A trained fine artist with an education and background that includes painting, fibers, clay. concrete, wood, mosaic and metals, Lorri traces her passion for art to early childhood. “ My father was a furniture maker and I remember spending countless hours watching and working in his studio. However, even at a young age I knew I was drawn to smaller objects.”

She believes in “less is more” and her juxtaposition of color and forms give her work a quirky beauty and diversity. “I strive to create designs that rise above trends and have lasting beauty. I make jewelry that makes sense to real people. What I love most is when people tell me how good they feel wearing my pieces. It’s a very intimate process from start to finish.”

In 1997 Lorri, along with Mary Gordon and Marion Kassab, founded Heron Studios, a working artist community in a local old mill building. Today, more than fifteen artist have studios in the building.“ It is such an inspiring community for me where critique and camaraderie are always on hand. It keeps me centered and connected to the arts in a way that having an isolated studio couldn’t.”

Ta Da--- It's Dorothy Flanagan!

Dorothy Flanagan
painter
Media, PA
610-566-2029 dorothyflanagan@earthlink.net

The world is in great need of beauty and hope grounded in reality. My vision is to play with color and light and bring cheer, beauty or hope to people.

Hoo Hoo Hoo, it's the Hometown Collective!

It's a surprisingly nippy day in May, and this glorious chapeau from Heidi Hammel's Reclaimed Creations would be just the thing to wear...fetching and fashionable, it doesn't get much better than that!
You can contact Heidi Hammel right away at hhammel@comcast.net or you can delay your gratification until the Hometown Collective Show in Media. Mark it down: Saturday December 6th in Media, PA. Further details forthcoming!