These Vendors Sure Have Hearts!

Meet the Supported Employment Team from all R friends...

All R friends is a Supported Employment division that provides services to adults with disabilities who are looking for meaningful employment. We work with individuals to discover their wants, talents and abilities, and provide job skills training along with a plan to help them reach their career goals.  We have a team of individuals with various artistic talents who have been hired to produce handmade items to sell in the aRf gift shop.  This experience will teach them the aspects of business; including (but not limited to) production, sales, marketing and entrepreneurship. 

all R friends was founded in 2008 by Kathy Cook. We have been providing adult day support services since early 2009. We now serve over 100 individuals throughout Central Ohio with locations in Dublin, Delaware, Gahanna, and Westerville.  In Summer 2013, we added our Supported Employment and Supported Living divisions. This will be our first attendance at the Avant-Garde Art & Craft Show. 

Each project and design is carefully selected and inspired by the talents, abilities, and interests of our individuals. 

Sam: "The colors of the flowers and nature are pretty. I enjoy seeing the colors of a rainbow."

Katie: "I like different colors and when I feel material."

Lindsey: "Shapes are cool."

Our individuals each expressed interest in showcasing their abilities and talents.

Sam: “I liked the craft ideas that staff came up with to help us make.”

Katie: “I like to paint; pots and posters are my favorite things to paint.”

Lindsey: “I liked painting at all R friends Day Support.”

The creative process is step by step…

Sam:    “When I make candleholders: I use glue, I connect the sides and let dry very carefully.”

Katie: “I pick my colors, I work slowly and I am careful because I don’t want to mess up.”

Lindsey: “I enjoy it, so I want to make it good and do my best.”

Individuals with disabilities have the right to improve their circumstances by gaining meaningful employment.  In many cases, they are capable of much more than the public realizes. 

Sam: “Pretty things make people feel better.”

Katie: “I care and I want to makes something people can use.”

Lindsey: “Look what I can do!”

Meet Asha from Vibrant Collections...

Hi my name is Asha and I am a homemaker with a lot of interest in arts and crafts. My love for jewelry making started about a year ago. Many of my pieces are made with beads sourced from India.

This will be my first Avant-Garde Arts & Crafts Show and I am excited to share my love for beads and jewelry.

I get this urge to create something when I want to try something new especially with new colors. I discovered my talent while I was experimenting and gifting for family members and friends. Their massive appreciation made me think I could go forward. 

In five years I would like to see myself with my own signature jewelry line. 

Meet Deb from Winey Girl, llc. and Miati Embroidery.. 

I am a married (33 years) Mom of three kids, and an empty nester since August.  Since the kids are gone my focus has shifted to our 3 Portuguese Water dogs,  Dax-15, Tess-10, and Chewbacca-4. I would much rather talk about my kids or my dogs than myself.  I have been very blessed to have been able to stay at home and raise my kids.

This will be my first Avant-Garde Arts & Crafts Show and I am so excited. I have always loved creating things.....I have done everything from tole painting to wood working to knitting to sewing and more.  I believe it is a form of ADD that keeps me moving from one thing to another. I like to play what I call "mental ping pong," where I see a project and then bounce from that to how can it be changed to create something different.... always looking for a new idea based on an old one.

As a stay at home Mom, I was always involved in my kids schools.  I led many classroom projects where kids created wonderful keepsakes for their family.  From there, I branched out into local craft shows for many years.  I usually had a child assistant helping me at each show. Now that my kids are all out of the house, I decided it was time to create a "real" business.  For the past six years I have owned and operated Miati Embroidery.  I do all kinds of custom embroidery for schools, Fire Depts., sports teams, private businesses, etc.  Although my business is run from my home, it is continuing to grow through customer referrals.  Provide a good product at a fair price and word spreads quickly.  From Miati Embroidery I then started  Winey Girl, llc. 

Through  Winey Girl, llc.  I decorate wine and beer glasses using commercial grade sign vinyl.  I design, cut , and apply the vinyl directly to each glass individually.  These glasses are sometimes witty, whimsical, sarcastic, and most of all unique.  I am constantly looking for new sayings to add to the collection of 200+ that I have.

In five years I see myself probably having to move from my home into a facility to accommodate my growing businesses, potentially hiring other creative types to help with the process.  Winey Girl, llc has begun branching out into the wholesale market.  My glasses are sold in several gift shops throughout the state.  I would love to take them nationwide as a sort of  lower priced alternative to the "Lolita" brand.  There are so many endless possibilities!

My "message" is one of happiness and smiles. It is wonderful to sit at a show and watch as people read the various sayings and break out into giggles or laughter. I wish I could do that every day. Check out my websites MiatiEmbroidery.com and Winey-Girl.com! 

Meet Rachel from The Pretty Possum & Aurora's Jewelry Box...

I am a wife and mother of two and a former CEO of my own Resource Management & Change Development Co. for nearly a decade who presently moonlights as a writer and recruiter. When I'm not in my studio creating one of a kind or very limited edition jewelry and accessories from often vintage treasures I find everywhere to repurpose, upcycle and rescue from going to waste.  I'm a former volunteer screener for Greyhound Rescue. We still rescue animals religiously. Our family has more pets than people.

I have a Masters degree in Counseling..and love to have a positive impact on those around me. I broke my back in my oldest son's first year of life 13 years ago.  Work and my company took a back seat to recovering and being the best parent possible.  I phased out of my business and into the life of my child.  Six years later, even though the doctors said my back couldn't carry another, we won the family lottery and were blessed with a second son.  As my children get older, I have begun helping my husband, John DiMaggio, National Expert on HIPAA/HITECH Security in healthcare today, and CEO of his business, BlueOrange Compliance.  I write, revise and recruit for them when I am not supporting our children in their many endeavors and in between time in my studio where I create new jewelry and accessories from vintage, rescued, recycled and repurposed treasures.

I am a new designer on the show circuit, but have been working in our studio since last year.  My children play piano and guitar.  Their music room which stands in as our dining room opens up to my studio in our den. I love creating art to their music.

This will be my very first Avant-Garde show and I am both honored and excited to be involved. My pieces are all created from vintage, recycled or repurposed materials.  So every piece is an original in it's own right, and either a one and only or part of a very limited edition.  I can create custom pieces similar to one a client loves, but since I use all materials in their second life, each piece is ultimately unique. I enjoy creating custom pieces at the request of my customers.

Three things inspire me.  My clients reactions to my work, the materials I rescue to upcycle and repurpose into jewelry and accessories, and my children and the music they bring to my studio each day.  I will see something and immediately envision it as a treasure knowing right away what I want to do with it.  My materials are almost always either vintage, rescued, repurposed,and recycled, I am big on creating things from something that does not impact the environment.  I truly feel like my life has become this amazing treasure hunt.  I discover something I can incorporate into a piece of jewelry or an accessory I would love to wear or share with friends and family.  It means so much to me when someone cherishes something I have made.

I was inspired to create after a house fire.  Our electricial system somehow melted the insides of every appliance in our home. We had no furnace in 2 degree F weather at 3am and had to take the kids and pets to a hotel.

Six weeks before Christmas..with the daunting possibility of having to replace every electrical thing in our home, the boys and I decided to make Christmas gifts for family, teachers and friends.  Most of our relatives are women, so I suggested we make cool hair accessories. Things mushroomed from there. The night manager at the hotel, an artist and CCAD grad herself offered to buy a necklace I made from my Mom's vintage watch and persisted until I searched for similar findings and created a near copy for her. My fate was sealed.  I can't stop creating jewelry and accessories for men, women and children. 

Discovering this passion was the silver lining of our house fire tragedy and the nostalgia around my Mother's aging. Both opened up the world of creating jewelry to me. My Mother, who I cared for in our home for years,  moved unexpectedly to skilled care due to health needs we could not manage at home.  She gave me her watch from the 1950's.  I put it together with a second hand angel's wing that I found at a vintage store. I had a photo of it and showed it to the friendly night manager at our hotel who happened to be a graduate of Columbus School of Art and Design.  She gasped and said she would buy it from me in a second if I made it into a necklace for her.  So I did, then when I brought it to her, I realized I couldn't part with it, because my Mom 's watch had sentimental value to me of course.  No matter what she would pay, I couldn't let it go.  So I offered to search for the perfect old watch for her and the same or similar treasure to add to it and if she felt it was worth buying, she could.

She loved it, and while I searched for her treasure, I found so many more that I couldn't stop myself from adding to my treasure chest.  Once I began making her piece, the other treasures in my new collection began to take form into pieces of their own.  Soon I found I had over 175 new items that I learned to make as I went along. When I searched for her findings, I began to collect used things that I thought would make beautiful jewelry.  I am passionate about the environment and loved the idea of recycling and rescuing jewelry and finding unexpected items to add to my pieces.  I now gather my findings not only from second hand and vintage establishments, but also am  the very lucky recipient of the unsold beautiful designer and vintage findings of a prominent consignment store's artist owner's cast offs and unsold materials.

From there, I carried my new creations with me and everywhere I went someone offered to share them or buy them. I shyly asked opinions of shop owning friends, my close friends and family.  Their reaction was to offers to sell them or buy them and borrow them! I started to make money and pay for my new endeavor!

My creative process is rather spontaneous.  When I am drawn to something I can use, an idea develops the minute I see it.  It is like love at first sight each time.  I get so very excited and can't wait to get home and begin working with the finding to see where the vision takes me.  I find anything left over that I didn't use for that project lends itself to something else I am working on.  It is amazing me.  I have never had the opportunity in the past or ever been truly encouraged to be an artist. I have never been able to share a piece of myself this way before.  I can't get over how much I love it.

The message behind my work is Celebration and Reinvention. Peace, Love and Passion. We all need to celebrate ourselves.  It feels good inside to be creative and so important to express ourselves on the outside.  I love the feeling when I find a piece of jewelry or an accessory to wear that makes me feel like me. I hope that someone finds that for themselves in my line. I have reinvented myself so many times in this life, from CEO to crippled new Mother, to recovering rehabilitating parent, to Mom who could keep up again, and now to Mom who helps Dad live his dream, fosters her children to follow their passions and excel in their endeavors and who reinvents and customizes vintage and cast away findings to celebrate her clients with peace, love and passion.

2014 Columbus February Avant-Garde Art & Craft Show

Saturday, February 8, 2014, 10:00am-4:00pm

St. Agatha's Parish Hall

1860 Northam Rd

Columbus, OH 43221

For more information, contact Becki Cooper, Event Coordinator at info@avantgardeshows.com

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