Amusing Your Muse with a Meetup

Recently, I had the great pleasure of having two fellow INCrowd members to my home for an evening of fun and creative frolic. I have to say that spending time with other creative people is SUCH a great way to stimulate your own creativity! I spent an evening with Linda of Textured Turtle and Suzanne of Suzanne's Special Kids and was amazed at the diversity of creative ability we represented just between the three of us.

Linda was the first to arrive, and she was immediately enveloped with love and kisses from my crazy assortment of canines. She was in heaven though, as she admits to being a total dog person. She and I spent a little while chatting and getting to know each other, and I felt really comfortable with her from the very beginning. We had decided to go get her "show and tell" items from her car...and as we stood out there...Suzanne pulled up. Perfect timing!

Before long, we were all in my living room, chatting away and looking through each other’s wonderful creations. Suzanne’s hand sewn items for children with special needs were just beautiful! The superb craftsmanship and love that goes into each item is obvious…and for someone as completely sewing challenged as I am…it was VERY impressive! If you’ve never had an opportunity to check out Suzanne’s store, I highly recommend it!Suzanne's Etsy Shop She has the sweetest embroidered baby towels…perfect for a shower gift or that special darling of your own!

Linda brought her amazing fiber art and I was constantly surprised and delighted as she described the eclectic variety of items and unusual techniques she uses to create them. She’s definitely an experimental thinker, and I really enjoyed learning more about how she does her fiber work. She also shared her beautiful mosaics with us, and she and I bonded over our love of glass! Be sure to take a closer look at her offerings on Etsy...Linda's Etsy Shop...every single piece is a gorgeous work of art...full of color, vibrancy and life.

As for me, I had the opportunity to show both of the girls what lampworking is all about. We retired to my studio after our show and tell, and I made each of them their own focal. We talked shop some, with me discussing what I was doing along the way...but we also just chatted about other things and I really enjoyed having company as I worked. When I finished their focals and tucked them away in the kiln, Suzanne regretfully had to leave. So we walked her out to her car and said our good nights. Then Linda and I returned to the studio so that she could have a turn at the torch.

I warned her that it’s very much like rubbing your belly and patting your head at first...the motions don’t necessarily come naturally. She took a seat, and quickly understood what I meant. But regardless of that, I think she did wonderfully for her first time ever playing with hot glass and I look forward to seeing her try again!

We left our lovely evening in good spirits, and all of us hope to get together again soon! I can’t express just how wonderful it is to belong to such a talented group of artists...and such wonderful people as well. And to think, they all live in the same state as I do! There is absolutely no better way to amuse your muse! :)

Here are a few of the awesome items we shared in our show-n-tell:

Dana