Book Arts Show Saturday

Today's Ojai Valley News includes a great article on our show this Saturday:



See you there!

Colored Mandala

Check out the fantastic mandala Shelby made using Roberta's mandala drawing from our exclusive mandala coloring book!



There are only a few copies of the coloring book left, so come in and get yours NOW!

Artisan Member Gaea Cannaday Published

Check out the new issue of Belle Armoire Jewelry, in which Ojai Artisans member Gaea Cannaday's Caged Heart Earrings are featured!



Congratulations, Gaea!

Grow a Felt Flower Garden!

Ojai Artisans Member Lori Zimmermann will teach a new class at Artful Living on September 19 from 3-5 p.m.

In just a couple of hours, you can begin your own garden of colorful embellished flowers made from recycled wool sweaters. Learn to needle felt layers cut from felted sweaters together, add some simple hand embroidery stitches, and top it off with a vintage button or purchased felt embellishment.

These little gems will add a touch of whimsy and spice to a hat, purse, clutch, headband, lapel, glasses case, scarf, pillow, or lampshade. Once you get started, you’ll dream up endless possibilities for adding these wilt-free beauties to your life.

Cost: $35
Optional $8 materials fee (for more felt and things to take home!)

Please bring to class:

Good fabric shears and pinking shears (if you have them)
Ruler
Black Fine Point Sharpie
Any favorite buttons or embellishments you want to use

To sign up, stop by Artful Living at 107 South Signal Street (across from the post office) or call them at 640-0080.

New Website for Artisan Peggie Williamson!

Made in Ojai artisan member Peggie Williamson would like to invite you to check out her new website! 


"I have a new website!  It's www.ojai-artist.com featuring some of my larger pieces that won't fit in the store."


Congratulations Peggie!

"Tree Of Life" from Peggies site.

Ojai Artisans Working to Establish Sister Co-op in Musoma, Tanzania

      

 Musoma, Tanzania is a city of over 100,000 and is wracked by ignorance, poverty, malnutrition and disease. Most people live on less than $2 a day and struggle to provide the next meal for their families.  Their  water comes from a contaminated lake as does the main industry, fish.  There are few paved roads and little electricity.  Women typically cook over a few pieces of charcoal if they can afford it.

       

     In March 2010, Ojai Artisan, Peggie Williamson visited Musoma and found  few working artists  and that many of the traditional arts are no longer practiced.  Williamson met  three basket makers  trying to support large extended families, and bought everything they had made.  There is no market for art in Musoma, due to the extreme poverty.   She presented their stories and baskets at the monthly meeting of Made in Ojai and the idea of a sister co-op was born.

     

    Ojai Artisans now support the basket makers by selling their work in the store.  If successful, the sister co-op will  include other artists in Musoma.  Not only will this make a transformative difference for  people who desperately need food, water and shelter,  but will help re-establish some lost arts.

   

      Stop by  Made in Ojai  at 323 E. Matilija  St. to see baskets from across the world and learn more about how you can participate in this new project.  Store hours are daily from 10:00 a.m.-6:00p.m.

Mom's Day Felted Flowers

I just finished some of these fun, funky, bright and happy cards and placed them in the store. The flowers are pins that can be removed and worn on a lapel, sweater, hat, or anywhere your mom needs a bit of funk and fun.









Also available are some felt flower magnets to create a spring garden in your kitchen:





Enjoy!

Lori Z

Happy Birthday To Us!

Made In Ojai Artisans and Mercantile turns ONE! We had an awesome party with photos to prove it! Thanks to everyone who planned and schemed and thanks to everyone who came and made it a great party!

Evergreen

Richard Brown Jr. signs books!

Jaymie

Party People!

Mary Ann and Evergreen

Andre

Lori and Evergreen

Roberta and Fluffy

See you at the next party!

Come And See Us...

At our second Sunday artisan fair! Join us in person at the shop to see some of our artists at work every second Sunday of the month! Our next artisan fair will be April 11th. Here are some photos of our March second Sunday event....

Kristen Droney. Guests making wish flags for our "Wishful Thinking" event.

Robert Lloyd at work

(photos by Shelby Harbison) 

Welcome!

We are both an artists' collective (Ojai Artisans) and a gift shop exclusively selling local products (Ojai Mercantile.) Everyone who works in our shop is one of our 36 member artists! This will be a place to let you know about us and our goings on!