Womancraft Gifts Member Artist's Statements

I have been interested in sewing since childhood when a neighbor taught me to sew doll clothes by hand. I expanded my interest over the years to include cross-stitch, crewel, knitting and needlepoint. I made many of my daughter's clothes until she reached "jean" age in Junior High. About that time, I was introduced to quilting when a Womancraft member demonstrated quilting to the Girl Scout Troop for which I was assistant leader. Quilting by machine and hand has held my interest ever since. I specialize in utilitarian items such as potholders, quilts, placemats, pincushions, pillows, and other small items. I use both 100% cotton and blends, make my own templates, choose my own color combinations, and use both traditional and contemporary ideas from books and magazines. I have been a member since 1982.

I started sewing at an early age – when I could reach the machine using chicken feed bags. In High School my daddy would buy all the fabric I wanted so I could make my own clothes. In college I made formal gowns for girls to wear at dances.

After college came marriage and teaching – so I sewed for the three little boys and some for my students. Later I opened a Hallmark Shop and made many things to sell – especially boxer shorts called Aveez Undeez.

Later came Quilting – what a pleasure – now I sew things to sell in Womancraft plus custom quilts for individuals.

I started out making heather belts and vests in the early seventies and gradually gravitated toward working with metals and gems. I like to spend time with stones themselves during the design stage.

Ann Dansby is a florist by profession who has been sewing most of her life. She started making toys and sold them at a church bazaar. Her toys were so popular she established Ann's Crafts.

In addition to her successful line of toys, she creates home accessories and Halloween costumes.

I have been knitting for 65 years. For 40 of those years I was just a regular, normal knitter. I'd knit a few things during the year for presents or for myself. Later when I had children I kept them in mittens and sweaters and started to do the same for my grandchildren. Then I gave up smoking and started knitting instead. I knitted while I was on the phone, I knitted while I was waiting for the bus, I knitted on the bus, I knitted while watching television. The only time I wasn't knitting was when I was showering or sleeping. Soon my friends and relatives were begging me not to knit them anything else and I started filling first boxes, then closets, and then entire rooms with knitted hats, mittens and sweater, blankets, etc. I was getting desperate and didn’t know where or how it would all end. Then someone suggested I join Womancraft Fine Handcrafted Gifts, and there was a happy ending after all!!

Ivana was born in Czech Republic, immigrated to Canada in 1969 and with her degree in chemistry worked as a laboratory technologist for University of Toronto. In 1984 she immigrated to USA and joined Womancraft at the recommendation of her mother, who was a member already. She has been a member ever since, working in her craft areas – silk painting, jewelry, and basket making, and holding a positions as a coordinator, review, supply and display. She has a real estate broker license since 1994, and sells residential real estate full time now.

Karen Graves has worked in clay since 1970. She was born in Lewiston Maine and went to College at UNC at Chapel Hill. Karen took classes in clay at UNC and taught at Forsyth Technical School in the mid 70's. She is married to William Griffin Graves and has two grown sons, Scott and Mark.

Karen has developed her clay style over the years and has become known in the area for her girls and boys with "spaghetti hair". She sells her work from the mountains to the coast of North Carolina. Karen also sells as far north as New York and as far south as Florida.

Over the years Karen has expanded her clay to include complete Nativity Scenes, to boys and girls playing golf or tennis, angels playing many different musical instruments and cats and dogs as ring holders.

I was a math major at Dickinson College and worked for several years at IBM as a computer programmer. Even though I enjoyed that, I gladly gave it up to start a family. As my son and daughter were growing up I stayed at home and was involved in PTA, nursery school Brownies, etc.

I have always loved crafts and quilting. However, it wasn't until I had chemotherapy that I became creative. Su-Di Designs was started in January 1993 thru a fluke. My friend made a mistake making her wall-hanging and had to rip the center 4 squares out. She then decided to use these squares to make individual miniature quilt pins. Thus we started making pins for our friends and Su-Di Designs was launched. Over the years I have expanded my products to include reversible vests and jackets, purses, totes, decorated sweatshirts, etc. I specialize in making wearable art that anyone would love and can afford. Even though I have no formal art training, I feel my color combinations and sewing skills are surpassed by few.

Born in Czechoslovakia.
Education: Business Akademie.
Profession: Secretary.
Hobby: Always interested in hand crafted items.
1969 Immigration to Switzerland.
1973 Immigration to USA.

When my family moved from Switzerland to the United States I did not speak English language. For this reason I was not able to find any job I was educated for. Friend of mine told me about Womancraft, where, how she said, I can meet people, I can learn English, and at the same time I can sell my crafts. In 1975 I applied for the membership in Womancraft. I was accepted and from that time started my journey with Womancraft.
I am working with textiles and yarns. I am making baby toys, quilts, fabric kitchen items, textile based jewelry and also knitted scarves and hats.

I joined Womancraft in March 1981, making clothes, kitchen items, and baby gifts. I still make flannel receiving blankets for babies, edging with yarn the way my grandmother did many years ago.

I began weaving baskets in 1984, and have taught basket weaving since 1985. I am a co-founder of Chapel Hill Basketry Guild, and a member of the N.C. Basket Weavers Association and the Triangle Basket Weavers. My students and I have won a number of ribbons at the NC State Fair over the years, and we are still learning to work with new materials and new techniques.

I started sewing when I was around 5 years old. My mom made my clothes and took the scraps to make doll clothes. One of my mom's earliest recollections of this time was when she was making a complicated plaid blouse for me and looked around for the other puff sleeve to set in place. It had slipped to the floor and I had merrily cut it up for my dolly. Needless to say, after she took a long breath, she made me a sleeveless blouse.

I have always had a "substantial" figure and in the 1960's the only plus size patterns were suitable for my grandmother. So with the help of 6 years of Home Economics and a very encouraging 4-H sponsor I learned to draft patterns and adapt commercial ones. I even designed and made my prom dress and a tailored wool suit that took first place at the state fair. I had dreams of becoming a fashion designer and went to college with that in mind. Once in college I made a fast assessment of my talents and majored in nursing. It was a good fit. I continued to sew, earning extra money for college by making the popular "granny dresses". In April of 1974 I was recruited to Womancraft where I have since been a member. Over the years I have made and sold many things at Womancraft.

Although my background is in science (I have a B.S. degree in Biology), I have always loved art and have taken many art classes over the years. As a result, I take a very scientific approach to my artwork, as the studio has become the place where I combine my two seemingly disparate passions. To me, the jewelry studio is like my laboratory; I enjoy experimenting with how heat and chemicals affect metal. At the end of the experimentation, instead of having come up with a formula (as I would in the science lab), I have created a piece of art. I have found that the process of making jewelry and formulating works of art is much more satisfying than working in a traditional laboratory.

After I completed college I spent several years teaching elementary school children. Besides the standard curriculum, I also taught some art classes, and found that children respond better to art than to any other subject. Children don't seem to be as afraid to experiment as adults seem to be, so I try to create art with playful, adventurous spirit of a child, searching for inspiration from various sources, always seeking to try new ideas to see how they will work out. Particularly, I try various sources, always seeking to try new ideas to see how they will work out. I try to experiment frequently with different textures (roller printing, etching, hammering) and patinas. I also will use a mixed-media approach at times, using other materials in addition to metals, such as resins, paper, mica, glass, and even objects that I may happen to find in flea markets, antique places, or even by the side of the road as I'm driving down the highway.

When looking for inspiration for my art, I tend to search for items that have or hint at a sense of history. The mixed-media approach, for instance, adds to the look of age of a piece. I tend to take a historical approach to everything I do artistically. As an artist living in the modern world, I remain aware that history is happening all around us and affecting us, whether it be history from the past or present (current events). Consequently, I find that my work is heavily influenced by mythology and religions of all kinds. Many of my ideas for jewelry designs come from books I've read on Greek mythology, Celtic mythology, Egyptian mythology, Buddhism, Christianity, Voodoo, and religions of indigenous African and Native American cultures. I draw inspiration from how religions and culture affect history. Because of my historical influences, I tend to like an aged look to my work. Things do not look right to me unless they carry some hint of age and use, as if they may have belonged to another time and place.

Generally, the external modern world doesn't inspire me very much. Other than religion and culture, I'll get ideas for jewelry items while driving in the car, which is a time when my mind feels free to wander. Inspiration has also come to me in dreams on more than one occasion. Also, my husband writes poetry, and every now and then a line in one of his poems will give me a good visual concept for a piece of jewelry. On the whole, I feel that making jewelry is both a scientific and an artistic endeavor in which I, through my creativity, can bring the past alive again, as it lives in my mind.

My pottery education began at Haywood Community College in western North Carolina. It continued through national and regional workshops here in the United States and at international workshops in Japan and Switzerland. In 1993 I opened a studio in Durham where I have both a gas kiln, for reduction firing, and a Raku kiln. That same year, I started teaching pottery at the Durham Arts council, and a few years later at the Craft Center at N.C. State University, and at Claymakers (in Durham). My pottery, and my life, has been influenced by the simplicity and seeming artlessness of Japanese art and design.

Alice Mogle

My education and professional life were devoted to teaching elementary school. I grew up on a farm in northeastern Ohio. I received my undergraduate degree from Kent State University in 1963 and spent most of the next 32 years teaching. I did manage to interrupt that career for 2 years when my children were born. After retiring in 1995, I followed my children to this area. I have been working part time at the Chapel Hill Public Library for the past 9 years.

I have always loved sewing. For many years I made my own clothes and clothes for many other members of my family. I have also done a lot of home decorator sewing, making curtains, draperies, pillows, bedspreads, pillow shams, and etc. In recent years I have focused more on quilting. I joined Womancraft in February, 2006 where you can see and/or purchase my quilted wallhangings, quilted purses, wallets, and other items.

Douglas Odom

In the 1800's, the Seminole people were pressured into the swamps of southern Florida where they lived in almost total isolation. They did, however, obtain hand-cranked sewing machines and fabric from the traders as early as 1800. There are many theories about the development and symbolism of the patchwork, but the exact history has not been documented because of the Native Americans' seclusion. It is known that in the 1920's the Seminole women had begun to use horizontal bands of simple patchwork in their clothing. Gradually, as the Native Americans explored all the variations possible, Seminole Patchwork experienced an explosion n creativity. The Seminoles began to use their "own" designs in their clothing, and they continue to do so to this very day. Unlike other traditions in patchwork, Seminole Patchwork has always been a machine technique. It is, indeed, creative sewing, where even mistakes are fascinating and can lead to an original design.

I design and create both functional and decorative earthenware pottery. While striving to make unique eye catching pieces I've tried to bring other aspects of my life into my work. These include my love of gardening, flowers, birds, and maintaining my sense of humor while living in an 1860's log cabin.

Beginning in 1988 the surface treatments have been influenced by the majolica pottery traditions of the Italian Renaissance. Red earthenware clay is either wheel thrown or hand built, then glazed with an opaque white tin glaze. It is this interplay of the decoration, glaze and porous ceramic body that yields the attractive vibrant colors of the pigments when the piece is fired. Since starting in clay in the mid 1970's the pieces have evolved as I have -- from stoneware to earthenware, from a cobalt blue line to the palette of a rainbow. I personally do all the forms and hand painting in my studio which is behind my house in the rural piedmont of North Carolina. I love my work as much now as when I first began.

In 1971, the day before a business trip to the Gulf coast of Florida, my brother-in-law loaned me his SLR along with about 5 minutes instruction on it's use. Five days later I returned the camera to him, but I was also hooked on making pictures. Within weeks I became disenchanted with the ability of the local processing studio's limited ability to manipulate my images and bought myself an enlarger, some cyan, magenta and yellow acetates, and a lot of chemicals. From that point on, the manipulation of the images in the darkroom was almost as important to me as the original film exposure in the process of making art.

In the early 1980's I acquired an enlarger with a color head and began processing enlargements for other people as well as for myself. During that time I exhibited at three or four arts and crafts festivals a year in south central Connecticut. In 1985 photography went back to being a treasured hobby when I returned (yet again) to school.

In 2002, after several major and minor life changes, I purchased a pro-am digital camera that included a copy of Photoshop Elements, and the old obsession with playing with color and light kicked in again. With Elements, not only could I do the things that used to take hours of experimentation in the color darkroom, but I could now also do things to my images that I'd never dreamed of. A digital SLR and the full version of Photoshop soon became necessities.

I hope that you enjoy looking at my photographs, modified photographs, patchworks of pieces of photographs, and images that are constructed completely from tiny bits of red, green and blue.

I have been selling quilts and repairing them through Womancraft since 1978 when I joined. I have also at times done knitting and knitting repairs. I served as co-coordinator, secretary, scheduler and in various other roles I can't even remember.

I was born in 1939, otherwise not an auspicious year, in South Bend, IN., and lived there until I went to college at St. Louis University in 1956. I majored in English and won a Woodrow Wilson Fellowship in 1960 to do graduate work at the University of Pennsylvania. I finished my MA in 1961 and moved to Boston to teach English at Emmanuel College. In 1962 I married Thomas Stumpf, who was a graduate student at Harvard, but who had also been a classmate at St. Louis U. In the next three years we had two girls, Sophia and Juliet. I continued to work until we left Boston for Chapel Hill in 1965. When we got here, I was offered a part-time teaching position in the evening College, and taught English Composition and Literature until about 2000. I now serve as a part-time academic advisor for the Continuing Education division at the Friday Center. We also had a son, Joseph, in 1968.

I have always loved and collected stained glass sun-catchers and other pieces. So when I heard about a class 11 years ago, I talked a friend into going with me and I have been hooked ever since.

My work is evolving with new techniques and designs. I use a variety of glass to create an array of panels, hummingbird feeders, 3 dimensional pieces, and functional pieces for the home and garden art. Techniques include hand-cutting glass that is then either kiln formed or foiled and soldered.

What started out for me as a hobby that enabled me to make special gifts for friends and family has developed into a full time endeavor that is always presenting new opportunities to learn about and create with glass. As part of Winding Branch Crafts growth, I have moved my studio from my home to a larger space at the NC Arts Incubator in Siler City, NC. The possibilities for working with glass are practically endless.

My stained glass pieces are a celebration of my late daughter Liz. She died unexpectedly in 1997 while undergoing surgery at the age of 16 years. She was a Special Olympic athlete who had a unique zest for life, always wearing bright cheerful clothes with just the right accessories (necklace, earrings, etc.) to compliment her attire and accent her joyous smile.

In 2001 I took my first stained glass lesson. I was fascinated with glass and have since found glass to be symbolic of life. Each piece has its own imperfections and is fragile. Some glass is opaque while most have varying degrees of transparencies with an endless supply of colors and textures allowing light to shine through radiating with it's own unique beauty.

Inspired by Liz's Spirit I use glass along with other materials, solder and finishing compounds to create one-of-a-kind pieces that are "outside the lines" and defy the classic style of stained glass.

I am a native of Boone, NC, where I roamed the hills freely with my brother and my dog. I use to go to Spruce Pine with my father when he taught geology classes and get bags of clay from the factory there. I was about seven years old at the time and would then come home and "throw" pretend pots on my "pretend" potter's wheel (an old record player.) I recently discovered that two of my ancestors were Catawba Valley farmer/potters, so perhaps a love of touching the earth is "in my blood".

I attended UNC-G where I majored in recreation Administration and Sociology. I then attended Florida State University where I received a M.S. in Hospital Recreation. I worked for 17 years as a recreation Therapist before taking care of my own mental health and returning to my first love, clay. I live in the country in a handcrafted house with my partner and assorted dogs and cats. I was working in Butner at the State Psychiatric Hospital when I took my first clay class at Durham Allied Arts. I feel fortunate that Sid Oakley was the instructor at that time. I loved it!