My name is Jean Holstein and I am The Holstein Candle Shop! I work with my sister, Katie Kirkland aka the CracKed Nut, at local craft shows. About a year ago I decided I needed a new project. As a candle lover and a craft dabbler I set my ambitions on candles I began making soy candles at home as an experiment in candle making. As a result, I needed a partner to help promote and sell my candles/melts. As any good older sister would do I conned my sister into helping me, thus beginning the CracKned Nut division of The Holstein Candle Shop.
We wanted to create and sell homemade items that were earth friendly.Our products reflect our individual personalities and style. Candles and melts are made of pure soy wax and candles use cotton wicks. The CracKed Nut specializes in unique air plant arrangements made from recycled material. Our ambition for the next couple years is to continue to perfect and expand our product lines and see where our venture takes us.
We recently participated in the Strongsville show and had a great time. We were very impressed with Avant- Garde and look forward to working with Becki and her staff again!
Meet Robyn Martins from Homegrown Shadow Box Art...
I am a semi-retired graphic designer doing volunteer designing for friends and non-profits. I am also an amateur musician, a reader, a writer, a cook, a wife, a mother of grown children, and a walking companion for my big golden doodle, Baxter. And amid my interests and activities, I also create shadowbox scenes with vintage paper and elements from nature.
I made my first boxes a couple of years ago using pages from my mother’s school books from the 1920s and 30s. I created the boxes for me and for my sisters as a way to preserve some family history. The process was so enjoyable, and the results were so well received that I evolved my interest and skill to other books and subjects.
My main interests are literature, poetry, music and history, and those subjects are reflected in my work. While I am not very out-doorsy, I also try to include nature elements, such as dried flowers, bark, and bird feathers because I think those elements tie in well to the earthiness of the paper and the subjects of the poetry I choose.
Reading and writing were some of my earliest interests as a child, and I have collected books since my teenage years, using baby-sitting money to pick up odd copies here and there. But it wasn’t until just a few years ago while strolling through a home-design store that I encountered a large shadow box filled with folded pages from an old book. The artist must have used the entire book, and the effect was mesmerizing. I tucked that away until I was able to modify the idea to suit my own style.
Learning by doing has always been my approach to just about everything, and I have gone through quite a few old book pages, folding and rolling and ripping—and even throwing away—and I continue to learn the dos and don’ts of working with vintage paper.
My creative process... I scour antique stores for old books and magazines that will yield great written material to work with—a quote, a poem, a snippet of something inspiring to build from. Then I use that thought and match it with paper and objects to create what I feel is a complete scene that tells a story or relays a relevant message. Sometimes, though, I’ll start with an object, like a boutonniere fashioned from loon feathers or a dried rose from my sister’s garden, and then search for text that would be fitting.
My five year plan.. As I continue to learn the craft and new and different ways to work with paper, I see my work developing into an even more unique art, always evolving as it finds its audience.
If I have a message behind my work it's something I hope my work conveys, it would be to say we do well to be in touch with our organic nature, and our finest truths can be found in wisdom from our history—from our most insightful poets and our highest thinkers—as well as in the simplest feather left behind by a solitary bird.
Meet Mary Willets from the Paper Garden by Min...
I am a Hospice Nurse full time and found creating beauty as a necessary balance in my life. Prior to my Nursing career, I was in design, but needed a change ... a stronger sense of purpose. So now, I have a blend of both sides of myself!
How I got started.. The flower design began out of necessity. I was given a nominal budge for centerpieces for a formal event. Knowing that the budget would not be sufficient, my intent was to use spring wild flowers. Mother Nature did not cooperate and I was for to use Plan B ... to MAKE the flowers. It was a huge success and everyone got to take home a centerpiece as a momento.
This is my FIRST Avant-Garde event and even more important, my first show EVER! I applied to Avant-Garde because, as much as my friend ooooooo and aaaahhh over my flowers, I wanted an impartial group to say that my designs were good. So here we go ....
The typical process for me to create an arrangement is to start by asking my client what their "happy" color is. We then discuss venue, style, ect and I go to my archive of designs and pick and choose which flowers to put in the arrangements. That takes most of the time .... the actual fabrication goes quickly once I have a plan.
Within the next few years, I would like The Paper Garden by Min to have grown to where I have steady following, and enough retail outlets to keep me creating on a full time basis.
The message behind my work... There is beauty and joy in flowers ... forever flowers are the perfect blend of that and timelessness.
2015 Canton Fall Avant-Garde Art & Craft Show
