But - I'm here now and my latest news is that I am moving my studio from our spare bedroom and garage to a collective studio/showroom space in the NOTO district in Topeka. If you are not familiar with NOTO, it is an older neighborhood in north Topeka that is getting a face lift as an arts district. Check out the NOTO website at www.notoartsdistrict.com. The building is located at 900 N Kansas Ave and is undergoing some renovations. We are lucky to have a building in fairly good condition considering it's age. Our name will be The Eclective: Eclectic Art Showroom & Studios. The other artists include Renee Johnson, Pat Abellon, Cora Spencer and Pam Renovato.
I am very excited about the move and the ability to have everything so easily accessible and to not be running up and down the stairs, or sweating/freezing to death in our garage. And if I'm honest, it will be nice to have an "office" to go to. Although NOTO is a good 10-15 minutes from my house, it will be nice to have somewhere to go away from home and have interactions with people. Other news is that I have recently purchased a jewelry kiln to make silver clay jewelry and I very excited about starting this new adventure. I will still be doing gourds, and the occasional painting, but my love of jewelry has started to split my time with the gourds lately. I also plan on making some of the beads and elements that I will add to my gourds, which is also something new and different. So keep watching for my sporadic blog updates (I'm much better about Facebook updates), because I will have pictures and announcements and hopefully all kinds of excitement in the upcoming months.
