After retiring a few years ago, I looked around for interesting things to do to occupy my time. Besides the regular chores around the house and the honey-do list, I wanted to try something different from the work that I did for 40 years. Although I enjoyed a challenging career in public school teaching and administration, it was time to explore other interests.
After trying a few different hobbies, I tried my hand with decorative painting. The local AC Moore store offered some lessons in Acrylic Painting that you might have seen on PBS Educational TV with artist Donna Dewberry. She has the painting technique called One Stroke Painting, where one loads a paint brush with two colors of paint and in one stroke with the brush, a two color line is painted. With one stroke you blend, shade and highlight the image you are painting. This is quite different from regular painting where you paint one color and then wait for it to dry before you paint the next color to highlight and shade and blend. You can see some of her painting ideas at the link …..
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hyi-Y2ATjoA
With a few lessons I was painting flowers and leaves and fancy bows on art paper. The class then graduated to projects where you painted on decorative home items which were made of wood, glass or slate like a wall plaque, bird house or wine glass. Some of my friends and family liked the items that I painted well enough to even buy some.
With a little encouragement from my family, I tried my first craft fair held at the local church. At a church fair, you paid a small fee for a table in the church hall and displayed your items. Surprisingly, I sold many items and even took some orders.
I have been doing craft fairs now for about six years and enjoy meeting people and talking about my art work. Some people even want custom work done with special colors or designs. I have painted custom designs on furniture, custom mailboxes and custom wine glasses for a wedding. You can see some of my decorative art items which I displayed at a recent craft fair at the link ….
http://picasaweb.google.com/markryan312/ApplefestFair11108?authkey=qy-P4Ta6Kxs
The fall is the busiest time for craft fairs where people buy gifts items for the Christmas holidays. At most craft fairs vendors will sell items cheaper than at department stores or antique shops. However, it is hard to beat the prices you find at the Christmas Tree Shop where all of their items come from China where a million gizmos are made and they sell for pennies on the dollar. On the other hand, items sold at craft fairs are reasonably priced, are special, one of a kind, are unique, made by local craftsmen and normally signed for authenticity.
When people would ask me about the things that I painted, I first showed them a few photos and later decided to make a catalog and eventually a web site that you can view anytime from home. You can see my web site at the link …. http://markscrafts.com/
Comments are always welcome. Do you have a craft hobby?
Send me an email at …… markryan82@comcast.net
After trying a few different hobbies, I tried my hand with decorative painting. The local AC Moore store offered some lessons in Acrylic Painting that you might have seen on PBS Educational TV with artist Donna Dewberry. She has the painting technique called One Stroke Painting, where one loads a paint brush with two colors of paint and in one stroke with the brush, a two color line is painted. With one stroke you blend, shade and highlight the image you are painting. This is quite different from regular painting where you paint one color and then wait for it to dry before you paint the next color to highlight and shade and blend. You can see some of her painting ideas at the link …..
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hyi-Y2ATjoA
With a few lessons I was painting flowers and leaves and fancy bows on art paper. The class then graduated to projects where you painted on decorative home items which were made of wood, glass or slate like a wall plaque, bird house or wine glass. Some of my friends and family liked the items that I painted well enough to even buy some.
With a little encouragement from my family, I tried my first craft fair held at the local church. At a church fair, you paid a small fee for a table in the church hall and displayed your items. Surprisingly, I sold many items and even took some orders.
I have been doing craft fairs now for about six years and enjoy meeting people and talking about my art work. Some people even want custom work done with special colors or designs. I have painted custom designs on furniture, custom mailboxes and custom wine glasses for a wedding. You can see some of my decorative art items which I displayed at a recent craft fair at the link ….
http://picasaweb.google.com/markryan312/ApplefestFair11108?authkey=qy-P4Ta6Kxs
The fall is the busiest time for craft fairs where people buy gifts items for the Christmas holidays. At most craft fairs vendors will sell items cheaper than at department stores or antique shops. However, it is hard to beat the prices you find at the Christmas Tree Shop where all of their items come from China where a million gizmos are made and they sell for pennies on the dollar. On the other hand, items sold at craft fairs are reasonably priced, are special, one of a kind, are unique, made by local craftsmen and normally signed for authenticity.
When people would ask me about the things that I painted, I first showed them a few photos and later decided to make a catalog and eventually a web site that you can view anytime from home. You can see my web site at the link …. http://markscrafts.com/
Comments are always welcome. Do you have a craft hobby?
Send me an email at …… markryan82@comcast.net
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