Longhedges Fiber Studio

On Christmas Eve my husband and I celebrated 5 years of marriage and his gift to me in honor of this occasion was Angora goats!! He said to me in the card, ‘last year diamonds this year goats’, and believe me these goats are better than the stones. With fiber that is extraordinarily beautiful and unique, the addition of them to our Estate makes us a true Fiber Farm producing not just luxurious alpaca but now red, white and dark gray Mohair as well. I have had 3 skeins of 100% mohair hand spun and it is stunning; simply beautiful to look at and amazing to work with. Mohair takes dye superbly and I look forward hand dying the white at shearing time in March.

Our mission at LongHedges Fiber Studio is simply to enjoy creativity in ancient hand skills in association with natural fibers.
The art of spinning wool into yarn developed about 4000BC and encouraged the trade among the nations in the region of the Mediterranean Sea.
In the first four or five hundred years of knitting’s history, only the most common materials were used: Cotton, Silk and later Wool. Today’s knitter has a plethora of unique and fascinating natural fibers to choose from enabling the artist to lend specific character to the item he or she will create.

I am passionate about Fiber Arts and I know that working creatively with one’s hands adds balance to our high tech and often fast paced lifestyles. Fiber Art has a calming effect on you the artist as well as those around you.

Enjoy the Arts…Enjoy Fiber Art!

Advent Art 'Open Hands'

This is the final installment of my 5 week long Advent Art Visual Art Display at Kidron Mennonite Church. I will post the complete display this following week. To see more of my art go to http://www.suesteiner.com/

Thanks for stopping by!

Flying Pig Clayworks

Flying Pig Clayworks

Pottery by Nicole Myers

Contact: theclayqueen@hotmail.com


I have been doing art of some sort since I can remember being alive. My earliest drawings were of horses with more than four legs (for extra speed, of course!). Though I have a background in painting and drawing, my true love is clay. I attended The College of Wooster and majored in Studio Art with a focus in ceramics. After a master’s degree in art education from The Ohio State University, I currently teach art. However, I am currently working on expanding Flying Pig Clayworks, with possibilities for a store in the works and hopefully a website much sooner.
Although most of the work you will see currently is made with impression of real leaves, my first love is animal sculpture, hence the namesake of my studio. However, I truly love the connection between clay and leaves, both being natural materials. I collect leaves mainly from my home, which is a farm, with quite a few leaves to choose from. However, I have done orders for people who wanted the impression of the leaves from the trees in their yards. I offer a variety of pieces from bowls, pitchers, platters, candleholders, and purely decorative items. In addition to the leaf ware, I am working on expanding my offering of wheel-thrown pieces and animal sculpture. I am currently working in stoneware and all lead-free glazes, making my work microwave, oven, dishwasher, and food safe.
I hope to be posting an announcement of my website within the next couple of months. Feel free to email me with any questions or comments.

-Nicole Myers

Alpaca Art

I just finished this alpaca and her cria tonight. This is a 12 x 9 watercolor and pastel. The alpaca are from the Seymour's Farm of Longhedges Fiber Art Studio in Kidron, Ohio. To see more of Sue's art go to http://www.suesteiner.com/

New Exhibit for Sue Steiner

I know many of you are familar with my Barnyard Murals and Amish Buggy Barn Murals at Lehman's here in Kidron. Horses and animals are my favorite subjects which has led into doing Equine and Pet Portraits like the one I sold above above. This particular one is of a Thoroughbred in graphite but I work also in watercolor, pastels, acrylics and oils. I very much enjoy portraits of all kinds-- people also. I'll post some of my people portraits at another time but if you are interested in a portrait my web site at http://www.suesteiner.com/ explains how to commission a portrait.

While I am on the subject of horses and paintings I wanted to share about a new traveling exhibit I will be a part of. I was choosen to be on The Creation Team of Equine Artists for 'The Glory of Horses' mural. The Creation Team is made up of artists from around the world so I am very ecitied to be a port of this group. The mural will be a mosaic consisiting of many 12 x 16 inch panels painted by the artists on the team that together will create a 16 ft. x 20 ft. large mural with one overall image. The artists don't know what the overall image is but work independently on their individual panels and at the unveiling will see what the pieces together create. The unvieling of this mural is scheduled for the spring of '08 and will be an ongoing art exhibit at large equine events all over the world. The traveling schedule may go on for a couple years and then the mural will find a final permanent home. I believe art prints from the mural will be for sale too at some point in time. The whole project is for equine rescue centers which all horse owners and breeders should be concerned about considering the sheer number of horses that wind up at feed lot auctions.

To read more about the project go to http://www.gloryofhorses.com/

Thanks for stopping by!

New Artist! Welcome Jen Shue!

Jennifer Shue of Shue Strings Fiber Art has joined the Kidron Arts Community Blog as a contributor and will be posting blog entries soon. In the meantime I have the pleasure of telling you a little about her. She is a fiber artist living in Kidron, Ohio. In the photo you can see an assortment of the beautiful, colorful scarves she knits. I own several myself and really enjoy how they dress up an outfit! In addition to the scarves in the photo, Jen makes a variety of knitted and felted wearable art such as hats, gloves, bags and sweaters. Jen joins the ranks with several other artists here in Kidron who enjoy using recycled materials in her art creations. She will post soon to describe the process in which she transforms out of style wool sweaters into classical, fashionable, durable, wearable art! These lovely, fuzzy pieces of art make great gifts just in time for winter weather and brighten up a dreary day! For more information please contact Jennifer of Shue Strings Fiber Art at jennifershue@zoominternet.net

We appreciate you stopping by! Feel free to pass this web site address on to others. We welcome new contributors and supporters of the arts. If anyone is interested in becoming a contributor you can e-mail Sue at artbysue@hotmail.com . The Kidron Arts Community Blog thanks you for your support and interest in the arts.

'Amish Farm Life' Paintings by Sue Steiner

A year or so ago I painted a series of farm animals for Happy Trails Farm Santuary in Portage Co. http://www.happytrailsfarm.org/ . These paintings, along with others were made into notecards. I've decided I want to take this same premise and give it an Amish flavor. So I am working on a series of Amish Farm Life watercolors since that will have elements of so many things I love to paint-- people, animals, gardens, flowers, horses. To see more go to www.amulti-coloredlife.blogspot.com/ or http://www.amish-art.com/

The pig by the way is a pot bellied pig named Zonkers. He lives at Happy Trails Farm as does a couple other 'models' on my Barnyard Murals at Lehman's in the outdoor cafe area. If you go to Happy Trails web site you can read about the rescue animals. I've taken in many rescues and it is so rewarding. If you go to Lehman's Country Life Blog http://countrylife.lehmans.com/murals/you can read about the murals.

Thanks for stopping by. I will be posting an update on the Advent Art after Sunday.

Advent Art II

This is the second installment of the Advent Visual Art display at Kidron Mennonite Church. This piece is being added to each Sunday during the Advent season. The art follows along with the Advent devotions from Goshen College http://www.goshen.edu/devotions/Home

The theme last week was the world is about to turn. The swirl represents the struggle between good and evil with the dove representing the spirit of God raising above. The mountain is God's plan of salvation with a cross at the top to represent Jesus. I put that in the painitng to remind us that God's plan has been in place since the beginning of time so as we look to Christmas to celebrate Jesus' birth we also look to His plan of salvation and purpose here on earth.

I added the bottom piece this week. As you can see some form and structure, in the form of a grid, begins to show thru the swirl and confusion to show God's plan and purpose for all creation.

Today's sermon had to do with holding on to hope and having steadfast faith in His plan even if we can't always see the big picture in our life or the world.

I like too that the dove is representative of peace. In our world peace is not a reality for many but Jesus is The Prince of Peace so this Christmas I am praying to let the peace of Christ rule in my heart and in the heart of our leaders.

Today's message was to 'Take Heart!' So I am taking heart, holding on to the hope I find in Jesus and praying that peace will rule in our hearts and homes as we celebrate Christ's birth.

The artwork seen here will be on display at Kidron Mennonite Church on Kidron Rd. For the month of Dec. and into January. You are welcome to stop by and take a look. I will post here again as I add the upcoming pieces. Thanks for stopping by. To see more of my work stop by www.suesteiner.com or www.amish-art.com

Merry Christmas!

Sue Steiner

Papermaking

This winter weather has chased us indoors and this week we were having fun with some papermaking again. Old math papers, envelopes, grocery bags and more end up in the blender to create "new" paper. It is a project easy enough for a 3 year old to participate in and the results turn trash into homemade treasures. Here are some
Christmas card collages I created and we plan to try using some thicker sheets to make some twig journals for gifts. Some other things that can be added to the paper batch are coffee grounds, seeds, flower petals, egg shells and we even added pumpkin goop and spices to our Thanksgiving card batch. I love seeing beauty come out of the trash can. I also was able to share this fun activity with a group of ladies in a class at Heartland Point in Orrville. It was fun to see their creativity come out as they added pressed flowers and other goodies to the cards they took home with them.
Karen

Two New Artists!

Nicole Myers is a Kidron artist who owns a pottery studio on Kidron Rd. In the photo to the right is one of her beautiful pottery creations. You will also see some ornamental plants from of Karen Geiser's garden ( http://www.karensgarden.net/) . A watercolor painting of mine ( http://www.suesteiner.com/ is in the background as well since this is all decorating my dining room table! See what a beautiful display this makes! The vibrant colors and nature theme fits right into what I enjoy so thank you Nicole and Karen for your creativity and inspiration! The lovely woven cloth is sold thru Kidron residents now living in Thailand running a special ministry called 'The Well'. I will be posting more photos of the colorful bags and wearable art created by the girls from 'The Well' www.servantworks.org/well in the next day or two so check back often.

Today I'd like to give you an announcement sent to me by Nicole Myers.

Flying Pig Clayworks 3rd Annual Open House

Sat. Dec. 8 from 10:00 a.m.-4:00p.m.

Sun. Dec. 9 from 11:00a.m.-3:00p.m.

Located at 952 Kidron Road 1/2 mile south of Rt. 30, left hand side, just past Flow Care across the street Coming from Kidron, the address is visible on the mailbox The studio is located at the end of a long driveway in the smaller house.

I specialize in leaf and nature imprinted hand-made pottery. Currently, I have many Christmas items available.

A Couple 'Firsts'

The days of summer and delicate roses seem far away this morning as I look out on the snowy fields that were covered thru the night with the first real snow fall of the season. I enjoy the hush as I plowed thru the fluffy snow to my barn to meet the farrier to get my horses' hooves trimmed. My dogs leap and bound in front of me eager to cause a raucous in the barn!

This is a busy time of year with holiday preparations as Christmas is fast approaching but this morning, before heading to the barn, I am setting up appointments and making calls to begin organizing what I hope will be The First Annual Kidron Art Festival in June. I believe I have a very good central location and I recieved the second offer in two weeks for some free publicity for this event but I need to hold off on details to release to the public until we gather support and interest within our community.

If you are an artist or have an interest in seeing something like this in our community please send me an e-mail so I can add you to our mailing list. This show of interest will be important as we begin to organize this event. I'd be glad to talk to anyone who would like more information or to talk about the vision for this project.

The rose above is a close up of an original watercolor painting of mine. To see more of my art go to http://www.suesteiner.com/ or http://www.amish-art.com/

To have your art featured on this blog or to exchange links contact me. I would love to hear what you are working on.

Thank you,

Sue

e-mail artbysue@hotmail.com

phone 330-957-0204