Blog

We’ve known Cheryl Netter for many years in the context of her expertise in Roses (she grows about 500 of them in her home garden), and Morris Dancing (Cheryl, husband and kids have all danced with the Maroon Bells Morris Dancers at our May Day Festivals). She is also a multi-talented craftswoman!

We’re carrying Cheryl’s detailed native bird and toadstool needle-felted ornaments, all original designs, meticulously crafted. Because of the nature of the felting process, no two ornaments are ever exactly alike, which makes them all the more precious. They are destined to become treasured family heirlooms!

Jen Grant creates these cheerful and artful flags with her original designs.  Display your affection for wildflowers, bees, birds, bicycles, etc. by garlanding a doorway, deck, porch, window or wall.  Her original block-printed designs are made in Lafayette, CO.

Our friend Clark and his family have turned what used to be a hobby into a full-time business.In their Longmont studio, they make delightful cast beeswax candles that come in a variety of shapes and sizes, including several designs that are based on traditional European holiday season candle molds.

Amber Lights candles are highly decorative, wonderfully detailed, naturally endowed with a heavenly honey scent, and burn clean and smokeless.  

Amy Mundinger of Pine Tree Studios is truly a gifted craftswoman, with a keen eye for color and design, and well-honed skills in fiber arts from crochet to embroidery on upcycled felt, and free-motion quilting with hand-dyed 100% cotton fabrics. And now that her children are grown she is able to share some of her wonderful work with us!

Each of her original fabric applique art cards is an individually handmade small work of art.  Hand-dyed cotton fabrics often mixed with modern prints and batiks, give these cards a vibrant punch. Her lively ornaments, made with upcycled felt over antique spindles, feature charming foxes and owls.  Expect to be enchanted by Amy’s diverse creations! 

Blue Peacock’s vibrant indigo table linens, towels, bags and accessories are entirely handmade by my new friend, Susanne Kianicka, in her small artisan workshop in Boulder, CO, using a centuries-old fabric design technique called INDIGO BLUEPRINT to create timeless one-of-a-kind pieces of cloth. Carefully prepared white linen, cotton or silk fabric is hand-printed with a dye resist, using her own handmade printing blocks or silk screens, then dipped repeatedly in an organic indigo plant dye bath. After washing, the resist printed areas appear as crisp white patterns contrasting perfectly against rich indigo blue background. Finally, the fabric is cut and sewn into the final shapes.

Susanne’s work is influenced by the richness of European folk art and crafts. Growing up in Switzerland, her family’s Slovak heritage stimulated her study of the Central European technique of indigo dyeing and the region’s textile designs. Knowing that Indigo Blueprint has become very rare motivates Susanne to try to keep alive this crafting tradition, drawing on her training as Cultural Anthropologist and her diverse handwork skills.

Susanne uses only high-quality natural fabrics and organic plant dye. Her “Global Boho” style celebrates cultural heritage while blending ethnic patterns with modern trends to create fresh designs. Inspired by principles of the Slow Fiber movement, she makes each piece with great care and consideration.

Blue Peacock’s meticulously crafted fine indigo textiles creations are thus labors of love and exceptional quality!

Inspired by Colorado’s wildlife and the outdoors, Amanda Maldonado makes delightful drawings of local animals in pen and ink. This year, we’re selling postcard prints of these fun, hand-illustrated critters.  Amanda was raised in North Carolina, but has fallen in love with her adopted home here in the hills of Boulder.

She is passionate about the Boulder Public Library, writing snail mail, and her cat, Fiasco. Follow her on Instagram (@Coy.Ink) to keep up to date with her most recent drawings.

Our customer and friend Diane Patterson makes these wonderful ornaments, called Temari, which date back to ancient Japan, where Temari was originally a handcraft of upper class women. Intricate designs were embroidered on handmade balls using silk threads from kimonos. The balls were used as toys.

Temari are unique, beautiful, colorful gifts. Attractive hanging as a single ornament, grouped in a bowl, used in a centerpiece, given as a housewarming gift, or simply to hold and admire, they will be treasured for many years.

Nationally known fiber artist, Annette Kennedy from Longmont, has been creating her award-winning quilt art since 2003, with her award-winning pieces in the National Quilt Museum and in private collections around the country.

These artful magnets and coasters are images of her art quilts that will bring the spark of inspiration wherever they are placed. They are durable and easy to wipe clean when needed.  Nature is Annette’s focus, with flowers, plants and landscapes being the central theme in her work.

Erin Huybrechts Davis says she has been a painter for as long as she can remember. She grew up on the east coast, has her degree in painting and printmaking, and a masters degree in education. She now lives here in Longmont, CO, where she is a freelance illustrator and teaches art to young people.

We were struck by her flowing, stylized and poetic depictions of the natural world. She is inspired by patterns and imagery from Asia, where she has traveled, and this influence is evident in her work as well. We are delighted to offer Erin’s cards, prints, and original paintings again this year!

Years ago, Julie and I were classmates at the Boulder Potters Guild. Her passion for clay subsequently led her to create her own home studio in Longmont, where she applies her hand-building skills and sense of whimsy to making delightful decorative and functional pieces.

Now a Guild member and a teacher there, Julie says “I am drawn to texture and find my roots coming through in my work. I am inspired by nature and by the patterns of repetition: the simplicity of a house, the design formed by bicycle gears, the delicate texture in a leaf, the rolling rocks in a rambling stone wall, and the ridges on a sea turtle’s shell.”

Back by popular demand!  Notecards of vibrant paintings by renowned Boulder watercolor artist and muralist Kathleen Lanzoni feature local landscapes and floral subjects.  This year Kathleen will also offer some of her giclee prints and several original paintings.

Kathleen has been the recipient of numerous awards, especially for her plein air paintings (painted from life on-site, not in the studio). She is also a wonderful painting teacher and mentor.

We love using Khala cloths, the original Beeswax Wraps in the US. They are the creation of Asa and Tamar McKee, who now reside in Boulder, where they produce their environmentally responsible alternatives to plastic wrap and plastic bags. Khala Cloths can be used to cover and seal a bowl of left-overs, and make the best wrapping for keeping cheeses, breads and vegetables fresh longer.  Every Khala Cloth comes in zero waste packaging and the  cloth used is organic cotton and hemp grown in North America – no bleaching, no chemicals!  Khala Cloths will have a long life (several years) when properly cared for.

As a child, Tina Hoffer discovered a passion for woodworking by watching her dad in his own shop. After moving to Colorado in 1990, she started a family and turned her garage into a wood shop where she could escape and could explore the beauty of woodworking.

Using a variety of woods, domestic, exotic, and reclaimed, in her Lafayette workshop, Tina creates a wide range of functional works of art.  She has refined her craft and focuses now on smaller creations.  Natural-edge cutting boards and hand-carved kitchen utensils are among her specialties. They are functional, beautifully designed and crafted and a joy to use, to hold, and to behold.

Shari Moraga is practically our neighbor in Boulder. She calls her work ‘illustrations in thread’ and uses her sewing machine to ‘draw’ and ‘paint’ her light-hearted illustrations of vegetables, honeybees and hives, bicycles and more, on sturdy cotton tea towels, aprons for gardeners and cooks, napkin sets and zipper bags.

Lois Edgar is a longtime member of the Boulder Potters Guild. She has been exploring techniques with clay for many years and has developed a style that is both earthy and charming.

This year we feature her porcelain wares, fabulous planters, and other salt-fired pieces. We will also have her elegant hand-made embossed greeting cards and holiday tree ornaments.  

Our dear friend Lynn Mattingly is a renowned fiber artist, and has been practicing and teaching quilting for decades.  An exceptional sense of color-combining, a fabulous collection of fabrics and a mastery of design and craftsmanship combine to make Lynn’s work really special.  We love seeing her beautiful pot-holders hanging on our stove, and they have held up in our kitchen for a very long time. Sturdy and machine-washable, they are not only gorgeous but also practical.

This year we offer her Baby Quilts, Quilted Pot-holders and Table-Runners, and Peace Garlands. Lynn lives just over the hills in Paonia, CO.

Boulder clay artist Mary Lynn Schumacher makes almost mythical forms and figures that evoke stories, animated with delight and imagination. She is an acclaimed artist who has been making functional and sculptural objects in clay for over 30 years, and is a long-time member of the Boulder Potter’s Guild.

This year we are offering Mary Lynn’s wall-mounted pieces for home or garden, relief tiles and other small pieces.

We are thrilled and honored to be able to offer some of the remarkable body of plein-air watercolor paintings that our friend Molly Davis created as a project she calls Preserving a Vision of Open Space. Molly is a renowned and much awarded painter and painting teacher.  Growing up in North Carolina, her mother was a painter and nurtured and supported Molly’s talent since early childhood.
When the flood of 2013 devastated the Boulder and Lyons area, Molly’s house was seriously damaged, and she lost all of her decades of artwork.  Molly was a trustee for the City of Boulder Open Space and Mountain Parks system from 2013-2018, and her resilient character inspired her to document our Open Space treasures by painting, on site in every season, nearly every trail on the Open Space system!  Molly’s spirit was nurtured by spending these hours painting from life.

This remarkable body of ~300 works was exhibited in late 2018 at the Museum of Boulder, and documented in her book, ‘Preserving a Vision of Open Space’. The book is a compilation of interviews, stories and all the paintings in the show, designed to tell the story of the first 50 years of preserving open space in Boulder.

Molly also founded Preserving the Vision, a non-profit organization.

We met Nicole at an art festival this summer, where her work stood out as gems of elegant, practical, original design and superb crafting. Working on the wheel, she often alters her pieces by removing areas of clay to create forms with movement and flowing lines. Her shapes and surface decoration are contemporary and playful, and most of her current work is fired in the soda kiln that Nicole recently built herself. The soda ash and water solution sprayed into the kiln at high temperature creates a glaze sheen, directional markings from the spray, and at times, a slightly raised orange peel-like surface.

Nicole lives and works in the lovely mountain town of La Veta CO, where she also founded a gallery, and has taught art since 2006 at CO State University in Pueblo. For three years Nicole traveled with a team of ceramic artists to Port-au-Prince, Haiti to teach pottery-making skills to employees of an art-based, socially conscious business called Papillion Enterpises.  Her high-fired porcelain bowls, mugs, herb-strippers (pictured above), etc. are durable, dishwasher and microwave safe and a delight see and to use!

For decades, our friend Tom Theobald of Niwot Honey Farm has been nurturing bees, harvesting honey, and crafting the finest, most elegant, romantic, hand-dipped taper candles you’ll find anywhere. They are naturally dripless and smokeless, and infuse the room with the gentle, warm fragrance of honey. They go perfectly with our Traditional Majolica candle holders. Available in pairs, either clear-wrapped or gift boxed.

Our friend Fred Hall is a dedicated ‘rock hound’, with a special passion for meteorites and petrified wood. His expeditions in Utah have yielded some wonderful specimens from the Jurassic era, including segments of small branches in which the exterior bark texture has been preserved, and the interiors have been replaced with vividly multicolored agate. Fred has polished the top surfaces of many of the specimens to reveal the beauty of the agate.

Each piece comes with an identification tag and a text explaining the process by which petrified wood was formed. Sizes will probably range from 1” to 5” in height, varying widths.

It’s a snowy Christmas Eve and Santa has just finished delivering presents to the city of Boulder.  As he flies west over the Flatirons, a deer looks up, curious to see its cousins in the air.

Rebecca Waterhouse, formerly the office manager for Harlequin’s Gardens, is now leaving us to live in Sweden so this may be the last time we carry her cards.  Get ‘em while you still can!  The original artwork was done using watercolor on paper.

Artisan Renée McDougall of Longmont became interested in crafting with glass while working at the Stained Glass Supply Company.  She works mostly in fused glass, a process that can take up to 11 hours from start to finish. Renée uses her home studio for crafting many different glass pieces, from jewelry to bowls and hanging art.  We think her cast glass hanging Green Man faces will make a lovely addition to any gardener’s window or porch.  

We are fortunate that Theresa Haberkorn, woodcut printmaker, has made Boulder her home for two decades.  Her masterful woodcut prints are found in exhibits and collections nation-wide, and she teaches her artform as well.  Theresa brings her art to household items as well, hand-crafting a collection of beautiful block-printed cotton tea towels, a charming wall calendar and an assortment of cards.

To find out more about the process of woodcut printing, visit Theresa Haberkorn Artist | Printmaker | Designer.

Our friends Thea Tenenbaum and Raffaele Malferrari have for many years been well known around Boulder and beyond for their charming tradition-based Italian majolica pottery. Since Thea’s sad passing, Raffaele and their daughter Gelsie have been working together in the studio to continue the family’s tradition.

Majolica is a process requiring multiple firings and great skill with the paintbrush. Their exquisitely detailed mugs depicting local animals, birds and insects will be treasured by anyone lucky enough to receive them, as will their pairs of bee-motif candleholders (made to fit the hand-dipped Niwot Honey Farm beeswax tapers). And we still have a few of Thea’s whimsical dessert bowls.

Working in her home studio north of Boulder County, Amy Ellis uses hand-building techniques to form her delightful ceramic tableware. This makes each piece one-of-a-kind, with its own personality and quirky charm. She enjoys incorporating found objects into her work or embossing her pieces with them. Her current body of work is inspired by vintage patinas and textures found in nature. Look for her assortment of mugs and soap dishes at our holiday market this year!

Having admired Vanessa’s work at botanical illustration shows, I was delighted to finally meet the artist this summer. She has taken the very labor and time-intensive art of botanical illustration in a contemporary direction, using the printmaking medium of solar plate etching, with the addition of handmade paper and hand-coloring. This enables her to create hand-printed editions of her drawings that are individualized with unique coloring and composition. Ultimately, this makes her original work very affordable.

Living on the plains in Aurora Colorado, Vanessa says she gets much of her inspiration and material on her daily walks. “Fusing art and science in the well-established tradition of botanical illustration while adding a pinch of contemporary style feeds my passion to express myself artistically but remain dedicated to the science of botanical illustration. I want to inspire art lovers to appreciate the beauty of a dried fallen autumn leaf or a yucca pod that has spilled its seeds.”

Vanessa received her formal training and certificate from the School of Botanical Art & Illustration at Denver Botanical Gardens, and has headed the Rocky Mountain Society of Botanical Artists.

Some of you might know WeeBee Farms for the beautiful, organically grown garlic they produce right here in Boulder.  The owner, Karen Beeman, is also a great photographer!  Karen loves to share the beauty she sees at her farm and around Boulder County.  She carries her camera everywhere and focuses on pollinators and their favorite colorful flowers.  We are carrying her stunning photo cards and notebooks.

We’d been looking for some finely handcrafted small wood products for the home, at affordable prices, and finally found Wooden Images. Located in Missoula MT, the workshop was founded in 1980 in John Bakula’s garage. In 1981 his brother Mark joined him, and they’ve been designing and creating intricately patterned items that are original, functional and beautiful since then. “We pride ourselves on meticulous craftsmanship and attention to detail and feel it shows in the beauty and durability of each piece we make. There are no computers doing any of the work, just two guys, with imagination and decades of experience, and some power tools.”

The pieces we will feature this year include some great gift items – magnetic knife-racks, cutting boards, business card holders (pictured above), hair barrettes, and feather-light earrings.

These beautiful dark green wreaths with silver color on the underside are made in Aurora. We decorate them ourselves, using decorative plants, pine cones and compostable ribbon. You can also get a plain one and decorate it yourself!   We are offering wreaths in 14” and 16” sizes.

Zink Metal Art is the collaborative effort of Charlotte and Ben Zink, who have made their whimsical and flowing designs of metal for home and garden for the past 15 years in Berthoud, CO.

Their steel garden sculptures are graceful, original, very easy to install, and affordable, and similar designs are available as smaller garden ornaments, indoor wall-pieces and as pendants on necklaces. Charlotte also makes wonderful cards with similar free-flowing designs. All make great gifts!