UUCC WinterMart Dec. 14-15 offers local handmade wares for the holidays

Gifts made by artists, crafts people and other vendors of handmade wares can be found at the annual Unitarian Universalist Church of Cheyenne WinterMart, 3005 Thomes Avenue, December 14-15, Friday 4:30-6:30 pm, Saturday 9:00 am-4:00 pm. Lunch and baked goods will be available. Proceeds benefit programs supported by UUCC. For information, call Terry at (307) 214-3932, UUCC at (307) 638-4554 or go to www.uucheyenne.org.

Nov. 16 Casper meeting to focus on forming a "Wyoming First" cooperative

A Touch of Home by Wyoming is looking for Wyoming First members interested in selling their products as part of a cooperative store in Casper. This cooperative would be the first of its kind in the state in which Wyoming-made product businesses, local business owners and the community would work together to build, run and support a store front to showcase the talents of the people here in our great state. It will be a membership-driven, locally sponsored and privately-marketed-and-advertised cooperative. With the assistance of the Wyoming Business Council, Wyoming Small Business Development Center, and others, the cooperative will provide an economically feasible way for all the Wyoming-made product businesses to have a store front, centrally located within the state.

It is anticipated a yearly membership fee and a 20% consignment fee on individual company sales, sponsorships from locally owned businesses will help with the overhead costs of the store, provide for individual trade shows, events, building the store front, marketing and advertising of the Cooperative.

Members receive:
• full access in the running of the Cooperative
• opportunity to sit on the board of directors
• design own displays
• set up individual shows
• create group shows and events
• work your own schedule

As a cooperative members would own a store front without having to spend 8+ hours a day away from creating art and products and the running of their own store.

The opportunity exists for this type of cooperative to be developed in communities across the state who could work together to bring more awareness to “Buy Wyoming” within the state. You are invited to an event on Friday, November 16, at the Eastridge Mall in Casper to see the location and network with other interested Wyoming First members. The meeting will be from 11 a.m.-2 p.m.

If you would like more information on this opportunity or are interested in attending contact Perry White at ipwhite1008@gmail.com or 307-287-4534.

WOW offers workshops for the holidays

 Click on image for larger, readable version. Get more info here.

Call for entries: Habitat for Humanity's "Salvage Art Show & Auction"

Habitat for Humanity of Laramie County will be hosting a Salvage Art Show & Auction in conjunction with Habitat’s ReStore Annex grand opening in late spring and you are invited to participate! The Salvage Art Show & Sale will focus on pieces made primarily of recycled, salvaged and found objects. If chosen to participate, artists will receive a $15 voucher to use to buy items from the ReStore. If you would like to be a part of the show or have any questions, contact Elizabeth Williams at elizabeth@cheyennehfh.org or 307.637.8067 by Wednesday, February 29.

"Arctic Lace" author at Ewe Count in Cheyenne Aug. 27

Ewe Count, 819 Randall in Cheyenne, will be featuring knitting teacher and writer Donna Druchunas on Saturday, August 27, 1 p.m., for a Q & A discussion and book signing about "Arctic Lace" knitting and musk-ox down in Alaska. FMI: 307-638-1148. 

Haitian artists featured at Clay Paper Scissors Gallery

From Clay Paper Scissors Gallery in Cheyenne:

Art Design and Dine is tomorrow night, April 14, from 5-8 p.m. This month Clay Paper Scissors has a wonderfully ethnic and eclectic show for you. The artwork here was done by Haitian artists in Port-au-Prince. The bright colors and busy scenes reflect the hustle and bustle of daily life in this poor Caribbean nation. Market life is central to Haiti, and everyone has something to barter. There will also be Haitian food to sample and wonderful Haitian music. Paula Egan-Wright will also be doing portraits for donations to Camp Taptap. Make sure you drop by to learn a little about Haitian culture, art and fun!

All money for works sold goes to financing “Camp Taptap”, a camp for approximately 200 orphaned children in the southern port of Les Cayes. The camp was modeled after Casper College’s KEY program (Knowledge Enrichment for Youth). In the summer of 2010, the first camp TAPTAP held two sessions, with 400 children participating. The second, in December 2010, offered a teacher training workshop in the early mornings, followed by a camp where children, mostly 5-10 years old, learned theater, music, writing, drawing, and watercolor.

Costs of running a camp include salaries for cooks ( who gather supplies, build fires, and cook lunch for 200+ people), stipend for counselors, who spend 24 hours a day with the children, supervising their bathing, sleeping, learning, and meal times, cost for food for three meals a day X 2 weeks X 200+ people, supplies for camp, medicines for sick kids at camp, transportation of cooks and other personnel to the camp site to and from the country. Paula Egan-Wright's goal for camp TAPTAP for the summer of 2011 is $6,000, She is also looking for an additional $2000 to provide supplies (textbooks, software, computers) for the teacher training Institute. Donations are welcome! Fundraising ideas are welcome!

Remember to also bring the Art Design and Dine flyer for stamping in order to get a coupon to Ruby Juice or Library Cafe. We also have them at the gallery if you are going to start your art walk with us that evening. The gallery is also open Fridays and Saturdays 1-5pm or by serendipity. We also have exciting new works being made by our resident artists, so stop on by for snacks and good conversation.

Hope to see you there!

Follow us on Facebook! Become a fan at: http://www.facebook.com/claypaperscissors

Billings Gazette: Cody saddle maker "preserves the cowboy way -- with bling"

Cody saddle maker Gordon Andrus was featured in an article in today's Billings Gazette entitled "Saddle maker preserves the cowboy way -- with bling." Gordon's saddles were among those exhibited last year at the Buffalo Bill Historical Center's "Art of the Horse." Read the Gazette article at http://billingsgazette.com/news/state-and-regional/wyoming/article_d62af18d-5e3c-598e-b6fb-fccb369d5481.html

Handmade for Japan fund-raiser changed to March 24-27

Posted yesterday about Connie Norman's participation in Handmade for Japan fund-raiser for Japan earthquake and tsunami relief at http://wyomingarts.blogspot.com/2011/03/cheyenne-artist-donates-to-handmade-for.html

Connie e-mailed us that dates have been changed. Here's update:

Date change for the fundraiser for Handmade for Japan. The Auction is now March 24-27.


Handmade For Japan's mission is to raise money through an online auction on March 24- 27 for relief efforts to assist the victims of Japan's catastrophic earthquake, tsunami, and nuclear emissions. Here is the link to the eBay store for the auction, but at this point no artwork is loaded on to the site: http://stores.ebay.com/handmade-for-japan

To all donated artwork go the Handmade for Japan Facebook page. 

http://www.facebook.com/home.php?#!/handmadeforjapanauction?sk=wall

Cheyenne artist donates to Handmade for Japan for earthquake and tsunami relief

Cheyenne artist and teacher Connie Norman sends this:

I’ve been asked to donate to Handmade for Japan at http://connienorman.com/blog/  I have more  info on my blog with images. It is a international fund raiser. The sale of donated items will go on sale March 18 – 20, on eBay. 

I will send you the link when the site is live, but in the meantime items up for auction can be seen at

http://www.facebook.com/home.php?#!/handmadeforjapanauction?sk=wall .

This is their Facebook site announcing updates and donated artworks. 

I copied and pasted Handmade For Japan’s mission statement below. 

Handmade For Japan

eBay auction March 18-20 to help the victims of the Japanese earthquake and tsunami

Description Mission:
Handmade For Japan's mission is to raise money through an online auction on March 18-20 for relief efforts to assist the victims of Japan's catastrophic earthquake, tsunami, and nuclear emissions.

Handmade for Japan is an online auction of unique, handmade art donated by concerned, invited artists. One hundred percent of all net proceeds collected via the auction will be donated to the relief efforts in Japan.

Because of the urgency of the situation, the auction will begin on eBay on Friday, March 18th and end on Sunday, March 20th. The auction items will be listed under the "Handmade for Japan" seller ID.

Previews of the auction items will be available in English and Japanese through Facebook pages and Twitter updates. All inquiries in either language should be sent to handmadeforjapan@gmail.com.

Who We Are:
Handmade For Japan was borne out of concern for Japan's residents by Japanese-American ceramic artist Ayumi Horie http://www.ayumihorie.com. She, Ai Kanazawa Cheung, and Kathryn Pombriant Manzella have mobilized to solicit, promote, and auction handmade pieces of art generously donated by talented artists throughout North America and Japan.

FMI: http://www.connienorman.com

Wyoming entrepreneurs invited to tell their stories on Christmas ornaments

From Wyoming Entrepreneur:

Wyoming is honored to provide the 2010 Capitol Christmas tree for the U.S. Capitol! Wyoming Entrepreneur is sponsoring a "companion tree" that will accompany the official tree to Washington D.C.

You are invited to submit an ornament that tells your story and take part in a social media training and networking event as our tree takes a road trip across the nation to its final destination.

The fee to participate is $50, payable by credit card. The deadline to register is September 10. All submitted ornaments will be featured on our Facebook page.

To register for this exciting project, visit http://www.wyomingentrepreneur.biz/ and click on "An Entrepreneurial Christmas Story." Questions? Call 1-800-348-5194 or email wyenbiz@uwyo.edu

Handmade/homemade arts & crafts at State Museum Volunteers' show and sale on Saturday

Wyoming State Museum Volunteers, Inc., 33rd Annual Arts and Crafts Show and Sale will be held on Saturday August 14, 9 a.m.-3 p.m.., on the Barrett Building grounds, 2301 Central Ave., Cheyenne.

Homemade crafts, only. For more information, please contact Carolyn at 307-632-8244

One of the exhibitors is Pinecone Furniture, co-owned by Jeff Tish, a member of the Wyoming Arts Council's artist roster. Read more about Pinecone Furniture on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100001053042731