Strongsville Avant-Garde Art & Craft Shows: April 2018

Wednesday, April 11, 2018

Attention Strongsville, Who's Ready to Shop??

Meet Edy Seaman from Long Way Home Studios...
Hi there! My name is Edy Seaman and I am a native of Canton, Ohio. I am fortunate enough to call myself the proud parent of four incredible children ranging in age from 16 to 31. My handsome and sweet husband and I have been married for 33 amazing years.

I have been maker of things for as long as I can remember. From scrap paper pompoms in the back of my parents printing shop to the lovely glass and metal jewelry I create now. My hands have to always be making something. My creative journey has led me in many directions but I always seem to end up back at personal adornment. After owning Edybeady’s Bead Shoppe and Terra Potta Pottery Studio for seven years, I have returned to full time work in my studio, Long Way Home Studios. Not only am I producing new and exciting things there but am using it as a place to teach, share and inspire other creative souls.

My work is comprised of ideas, techniques and skills acquired over the past 35 years of creative exploration. My approach to jewelry at this point in my creative life is simple yet beautiful and easy to wear. Jewelry should not be high maintenance. The products shown in the photos are made using the techniques of lamp working enameling and metal-smithing. I combine different materials and techniques in much of my work.

This is my first Avant-Garde Arts and Crafts show and I am really excited to participate.

Meet Kelci Vance from KCustomz...

My name is Kelci Vance, I am 24 from Parma Heights, workingvn building my own business. I have been crafting for about five years and this will be my third Avant-Garde Art & Craft Show. I love creating my own designs, seeing my finished profits, and sharing my talents to make creative items for others. My mom got me started in my passion for creating. I discovered my actual talent while pursuing my photography degree in college.

I love to craft and get some “me” time (just had a baby in October). I play some music to get creative juices flowing and try to see what people are looking for or what item is popular (decals, mugs, wine glasses). I would love to have my small business up and running with a small store front in 5 years. I don’t have a message behind my work, I just strive to create the best items for customers in a timely fashion, with quality results.

Meet Cecky Ropelewski...

I have been drawing and painting since I could hold a pencil in my hand. I became a professional artist in 1979 when I quit my job as an architectural draftsman. Native American spirituality influences my work with the belief that the animals each have a power to share with the humans.

Starting with handmade paper, a picture shows itself and I paint what I see in the paper. I add beading, feathers, fur and stones in the picture for a natural element. I then wrap the frames in leather. This all, hopefully, speaks to customers who see my work. I like it when I hear “I need that picture.” That tells me that the piece spoke to my customer and it will help guide their life. This is my first Avant-Garde Art & Craft Show. Hopefully, it will be the first of many. In 5 years, I hope to still be painting and selling my work to those who love the Native American flair.

Meet Robin Howard from Starry Moon Studio...

I'm from Cleveland Ohio, and have been making art in one form or another for as long as I can remember. I attended Tri-C a few years ago and completed their program in Art Therapy, and found that expressing myself through art is not only healing, but one can often say things through a piece of art that is difficult to express verbally. Recently I discovered a different technique of working with acrylics, and transitioned it into creating jewelry. I got a really great reaction from friends and family, so I decided to come back to Avant-Garde shows! I did a show in the past, but it has been a couple of years, so I'm excited to be back!

2018 Strongsville Spring Avant-Garde Art & Craft Show

Saturday April 14th, 2018 - 10:00am - 5:00pm
Sunday April 15th, 2018 - 11:00am - 5:00pm

Strongsville Ehrnfelt Recreation Center

18100 Royalton Rd.

Strongsville, OH 44136

For more information, contact Becki Silverstein, Event Coordinator at Becki@ag-shows.com

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Wednesday, April 4, 2018

Meet some of the local artisians coming your way, Strongsville!

Meet Mary Juhasz from Burnin' Beads...

I have always been drawn to the beauty of glass and after my first flame working class I was hooked. My jewelry pieces all start with glass beads that I have individually crafted, one at a time. Using a specially designed torch, each bead is made by manipulating molten glass around clay covered wires, then slowly cooled in kilns to enhance the hardness of the bead.

I then design jewelry pieces using my beads, sometimes on their own, sometimes mixed with other elements such as pieces of vintage jewelry, fibers, feathers and yarns. As I continually study new flame working skills, my body of work is ever changing.

This is my first Avant-Garde show but I have been showing my work for 20 years. I have shown locally at the St John’s Westshore Festival of the Arts. I was People’s Choice Award winner at Clifton Arts in Lakewood and a long time participant in the Berea Artsfest. I have also shown nationally, from Cape Cod to Las Vegas and places in between.

Inspiration is everywhere: in the colors of a summer garden, the costume of a circus clown, a brightly patterned fabric.. I love color and whimsy which is the trademark of my work. Creating with glass has been a joyous journey and I don’t know where it will end. My hope is that people smile when they see my work, just as much as I smile while creating it.

Meet Tory Korecky from Rust2Roses...

I am a married Army wife. I started crafting to help pass the time while my husband was away. I met a lot of other military wives who also crafted to help pass the time and to get the community together. It was a way to make our house into a home even with all the moving. Fast forward to the present, my husband is out of the service and we share one three year old daughter together, Emersyn. My husband missed working with his hands so he got into carpentry, a hobby that he has always been passionate about but never had the time to do since he was in the service. We craft and work together as a team. I bounce ideas off of him, he builds the pieces, and I help stain, paint, and sand the projects. We also have another partner in our small business, a Marine Wife named Amber Ross who also attends these craft shows with us. We have been doing this together for 6 years and this will be our first show with Avant-Garde Art & Craft Show!

My husband and I are very passionate about creating something out of nothing. We love working with our hands and making beautiful things. Our family and friends push us and inspire us to create new projects together, they are our inspiration.

All of this crafting started as a hobby to help pass time while my husband was away in the Army. Then I started making pieces to help make our house into a home. My husband has always been into carpentry but really got into it once he got out of the service and when we bought our first family home. Once we bought our first home we became D.I.Y enthusiast; wood working and making beautiful one-of-a-kind pieces for our home. Our family and friends loved everything we built together and pushed us to start selling our pieces to the public. It's been an amazing journey and we challenge ourselves by creating new pieces for every craft show we attend.

Step by step is how I would describe our creative process. Both of us are constantly coming up with ideas and new designs. Every time we come up with something new we write the idea down, my husband will sketch out the idea, and it kind of goes from there. There isn't a day that goes by where we aren't trying new designs or coming up with new ideas. It's a hobby that I am glad that we share together. Being a husband and wife team, it's always great to have a partner to bounce ideas off of. Our business partner, Amber, also helps us in the creative process and we all are constantly bouncing ideas off of each other.

Our small business has grown so much in such little time. I hope that in five years we are still doing what we are doing now. I hope that we are still pushing each other to try new projects and to push our skills to the next level. I hope that my sewing skills improve over time and that my husband continues to strive to do his best and propel himself forward with his carpentry. I hope that we expand and attend more craft shows and that more of our pieces end up in more homes. It is always an honor to have any of our pieces in someone else's home.

We have multiple messages from team work, to our products being veteran made, to help encourage veterans and veteran wives to work with their hands and get involved in their community. In the service, the community is very strong and often times once a service member gets out they miss the strong sense of community. We hope to inspire veterans and wives to get involved in the crafting community. We have made pieces for family, friends, neighbors, and strangers and through that we really feel more connected with the city of Brunswick and our neighboring towns. We also hope to inspire other husband and wife DIY enthusiasts to work together as a team.