Dan has been an active potter since 2014. He teaches hand building techniques and working on the potters wheel in a retirement community in Florida during the winter and works out of his studio In Ashford from May through September.
Some of his work work can be seen at DanRackliffePottery.com or contact him by email.
I am entering into my fifth decade of weaving, playing with color and having fun
making practical items for the home and body.
The best way to contact me is email
Image 1. “Fields of Green” 28″x41″ handwoven, fiber is rayon chenille.
Steve Gerling has been doing relief woodcarving since the mid-1970’s. He has a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from UConn, with a major in sculpture. After school, he was drawn to the additional challenges of relief carving. Not only did an object have to be sculpted but it had to be skillfully distorted
in scale, perspective, and space to create an image convincing to the viewer.
Traditionally, most relief work was intended as decoration or embellishment to works of architecture or fine cabinetry. Steve chooses to make the carving the primary object. While much of the work were objects of fine woodworking, using them as a utilitarian frame, the main focus of attention has always been the carving.
After retiring from a Mechanical Engineering career in 2009, I began my art journey with drawing and painting classes with a number of local instructors. I dabbled in pastel, oil, and colored pencil, but my preferred medium is watercolor, and my works are usually in the traditional realistic style. I belong to a number of art groups and am grateful for the many friends and acquaintances that art has brought my way. Sometimes I do commissions, everything from fighter jets to homesteads to puppy portraits and anything in between. Currently I teach watercolor at the Windsor Locks Senior Center.
“The Vermonter,” traveling northbound over the Warehouse Point railroad bridge.
Medium: Watercolor
Size: 20 x 26
“Wave Watchers,” a scene on a Florida beach.
Medium: Watercolor
Size: 23 x 19
Price: $250
“Somethin’ Fishy,” a work boat returning with the day’s catch.
Medium: Watercolor
Size: 26 x 21
Price: $300
“Prime Time in Bellagio,” a scene in the Lake Como region of Italy, with some packages waiting to be retrieved.
Medium: Watercolor
Size: 16 x 20
Price: Currently not for sale, but matted art prints are available in any size.
“Old Dogs,” buddies on Crane Beach in Ipswich MA.
Medium: Colored Pencil & Watercolor
Size: 14 x 17
Price: $500
“Horses at Sunrise,” an early morning scene in Enfield CT.
Medium: Watercolor
Size: 22 x 17
Price: $300
“Glory Days,” a Lockheed Super Constellation in Lufthansa markings.
Medium: Watercolor
Size: 39 x 14
Price: $400
To purchase originals or prints, please contact Joe directly.
Click on a pic above to see slideshow.
Kathy Weigold has made a career of production weaving. Subcontracting work from designers of handwoven fabrics, she makes their designs become a reality. Spanning 40 years plus, many miles of fabrics have been produced.
Kathy learned production weaving skills at The Marshfield School of Weaving in VT. A lifetime of honing those skills, both in operating the loom and seeing how colors interact. Kathy also developed her own line of woven goods. First with rugs, having a practical bent and using things on hand. What better use for old worn out clothes, sheets, blankets and the like then to make them into something usable again. Dish towels that are 100% cotton and really work.
Scarves that have their own personality; no two alike. Wooly ponchos, soft, light and warm.
Color interactions that simply amaze. These are some of the things that comprise her work and life.
Kathy will be our Presenter at our July 13th meeting.
Fiber Artist Joan Blade Johnson of JBJ is a Hampton, CT-based fiber artist who exhibits nationally and internationally.
Joan’s journey took her from a traditional quilter to a contemporary fiber artist who employs several surface designs in her art quilting. She enjoys the creative process involved in composing fiber art pieces using non-traditional methods and materials to achieve her artistic vision, most often inspired by nature and her original nature photography.
The surface design materials that she regularly works with on fabric include paint, foraged natural plant dye, rust, fiber reactive dye, and photos printed onto fabric.
My name is Lisa Gantick and I am the owner and designer for QuietCornerDecorCT. I am fortunate that I am able to run my business from my home. I am a wife to a wonderful man, a mother to three precious grown children, and Gramma to a very special grandson.
Visit Lisa’s website for more designs!
Lisa’s Etsy store
I have enjoyed crafting for most of my adult life. I began by sewing clothing for my growing family and by creating matching outfits for the family for Christmas and Easter. I then branched out and started quilting. For many years, I enjoyed paper crafting through the creation of greeting cards and scrapbook albums. My venture into wreath making and floral décor began in October 2017, after watching a hometalk episode for creating a burlap wreath. The episode featured a young man by the name of Nick Kreticos of Nick’s Seasonal Décor. I enjoyed making the wreath so much, that I looked Nick up on facebook. I was soon hooked and realized that for all of the wreaths I was making, I couldn’t just continue to give them away, so I decided to start my small business.
In December of 2010, I suffered a compression fracture of my thoracic spine. My world turned upside down. I was diagnosed in February of 2011 with Multiple Myeloma, a blood cancer similar to Leukemia and Lymphoma. I am fortunate that I am a seven year cancer survivor. I have endured many cancer treatments over the years, including a stem cell transplant. I was an Executive Administrative Secretary for 24 years before I retired in 2016 due to complications from my cancer treatment. My cancer has slowed me down, but I just develop new ways to get things done. Creating wreaths and floral décor has given me much joy and a new focus.
Please join me in my journey and I hope to inspire you.
I wrote this poem about the arrival of Spring at my home in Westford upon being named Ashford’s Poet Laureate in March 2021 – Anthony Paticchio
Sometime in March or April,
The Mount Hope, near its headwaters
down below the house, turns river again;
grows loud each day; spills its winter stream
in a full-on cold clear silver river rush;
threads a new watercourse run
across a thick-grown marsh that once was a beaver pond;
pours out through a rock channel carved
in the ruin of an old button mill dam;
and finds its way.
©2021 Anthony Paticchio
For the past 6 years, pottery has been my passion. In addition to creating my own work in my home I share with my wife, Jane, in Ashford, I now teach pottery and stained glass in our winter residence in North Port, Florida. My inspiration comes from the calm lakes we are lucky enough to live on in both places and am currently experimenting with combining blue glazes to get some great effects. My traditional stoneware is oven safe, dishwasher safe and microwave safe as well as being lead free. I have many practical and functional pieces to offer.
Have a look at my website or come see my Pottery Shed display by appointment. I am in Ashford right off Rt. 89, under two miles from I-84.
This free self-guided tour features 11 artists’ gardens displaying the works of 17 area artists. Enjoy paintings, sculpture, ceramics, woodwork, photography and other works of art in gardens in Ashford, Coventry, Mansfield and Willington. The gardens, which vary in style, include a handmade greenhouse, a hydroponic greenhouse, ponds and pools, a stone arch, paths, terraces and an abundance of flowers, shrubs, vegetables, trees and herbs. Artwork will be available for purchase. All current Covid-19 protocols will be followed, including masks.
More information can be found on their Facebook Page or go to their website for a virtual tour.