Rossdhu Gallery

Celebration of Craft 2007

December 7-23

Opening Reception - Friday, December 7 - 4-9PM
Gallery Hours: Noon - 5PM Tuesdays-Sundays

James Aarons began working with clay in 1974, dedicating himself to the task of capturing a sense of form and balance in traditional ceramics. His work has since evolved from wheel thrown vessels and pots to contemporary tableware and artpieces that he creates in his private studio, Natoma Ceramic Design. Mr. Aarons began his artistic career as a dancer and earned a B.F.A. from North Carolina School for the Arts in 1984. That same year he began a 10-year professional performing career that has included dancing and choreographing original works, while simultaneously developing his craft as a ceramic artist. This dual artistic career has inspired Mr. Aarons to create ceramics with a sense of movement and dynamism. His work is a balance of energy and visual design, a melding of movement and imagery. Mr. Aarons has exhibited his work nationally and has created commissions including a tableware design for San Francisco Museum of Modern Art Museum Store. He is represented by Whichcraft Gallery

Joanne Bast rediscovered stitchery as an art form after earning several scientific degrees. She began with beads first to weight down fiber adornments, then as a medium in their own right, and has since moved into knitting and felting. Whether working with beads or wool, her primary artistic focus is color and color transitions as well as shaping sculptural forms. Most of her work has a stitched construction, either worked onto a fabric backing or as a construction technique of its own. Color is a consistent focus of her work, particularly the graduation or shading of one color or pattern into another. Her scientific background and years of teaching anatomy, physiology and other assorted biologies has linked together the importance of structure and function. She teaches beadwork classes and has published numerous articles on beadwork techniques. Her work has appeared in juried shows all over the United States as well as internationally. www.jbast.com

Nanette Bevan has been exhibiting jewelry and wearable art since 1988. While constantly exploring the possibilities of new materials, her focus has always been on light, color and design. Working from her studio in Chevy Chase, Maryland, she continues to explore these ideas in jewelry, individual fused glass collage pendants and small mixed media pieces. Her work was exhibited in the 2005 Creative Crafts Council Biennial Exhibition and is carried by The Artisans gallery in McLean, Virginia. Her wearable art and objects have been featured in galleries and in juried shows nationally. www.nanettebevan.com

Ruth Blau's emphasis as an artist is to create beautiful objects for functional and seemingly mundane purposes: wearables, table linens, accessories, and other household and personal items. After a 20-year career as a writer/editor, she turned her focus to her passion for weaving. Starting from a 4-shaft table loom, she soon advanced to more sophisticated looms, more diverse fibers, and more complicated designs. She now weaves on a 40-shaft computer-aided loom and creates complex designs using Adobe Photoshop®. To achieve her background colors, she dyes her warps before putting them on the loom, providing a continuum of color the entire length of the warp. The design for each item is then brought to life by the use of black or navy weft fibers. Ruth's work is also shown in the Potomac Craftsmen Fiber Gallery in the Torpedo Factory Art Center in Alexandria, Virginia. She works from a studio in her home in Arlington.

Cindy Brandt creates silk wearables, fused glass objects and jewelry incorporating silk, glass, silver, copper and aluminum. Her studio, cbdesigns, is located in the Torpedo Factory Art Center in Alexandria, Virginia. Her "Scarf" silkscreen design was chosen to adorn an Surface Design Association banner at the Kansas City Art Institute and will continue to represent the association at venues throughout the US. Her newest work involves weaving glass, which may seem impossible but is done by using the kiln to first create waves of glass which become the warp. This technique was used recently in a commission of 16 pieces for a financial company’s new offices in Bethesda.www.cb-designs.com

Ann Byron has been an artist all her life exploring a wide variety of media. The unifying factor has always been color. In the last many years she has been concentrating on color as it is translated through the medium of fused glass. She creates fused glass jewelry and other objects which contain opaque, transparent, and dichroic glasses in her home studio in Silver Spring, MD. She has studied with a variety of teachers at The Studio at the Corning Museum of Glass in Corning, NY , Vitrum Studio, and Weisser Studio among others. She is a member of the National Capital Art Glass Guild.

Renate Chernoff, trained as a microbiologist, returned to school to pursue a degree in art after her children were grown. Personal experiences, shaped by dramatic and traumatic events, have inspired much of the subject matter of her pieces. Her present work involves weaving with metal wire and with yarns, singly or together, thus combining her two media interests. She uses a four-harness loom to craft double weave structures for both jewelry and sculptural pieces. Wires, in conjunction with vitreous enamels on copper or brass, are used for wall hangings. Her work has been exhibited nationally and internationally and examples are to be found in public and private collections, including the White House. Her pieces appear in a number of books and journals. She has been a member of the Potomac Craftsmen Gallery since the early 1980s.

Ann Citron likes to make objects that have a "weathered" look. She likes to explore the use of electroforming on copper, enamels and beads. Electroforming is a process used on baby shoes and car bumpers. It coats a prepared item with metal. Usually, the surface is smooth, but if an object is left in the bath long enough, it begins to develop interesting additional crystalline forms. She electroforms and enamels baskets and vessel forms that are beaded or crocheted with wire. She also makes fiber sculptures, in which she incorporates knitted, enameled and beaded objects. Her work has been published in several books and is in collections around the country. She has a studio in the Torpedo Factory in Alexandria.

Eileen Doughty loves the concept of "place" and so her preferred subject matter is the landscape. Her background in cartography has been useful in designing quilts, since mapping also relies on understanding how people view and interpret colors and symbols. The tactile nature of fabric is explored and celebrated in Eileen's art. Currently her work focuses on exploring what makes textile art so unique from much other fine art media: texture, freedom of shape of the "canvas" and employing three rather than two dimensions. Eileen's quilts have been exhibited across the U.S. and several other countries. They are in private, government and corporate collections in the United States and Japan, including the John A. Wilson Building in Washington, DC. She is a member of the Potomac Craftsmen Gallery at the Torpedo Factory, and Studio Art Quilt Associates. www.DoughtyDesigns.com

Rona Eisner is a photographer and artist in Chevy Chase, Maryland. She draws her inspiration from nature and a strong sense of place and of color. In the DC area, Eisner's work has been shown at Results Gallery, Touchstone Gallery, Gallery West, Strathmore Hall, the National Press Club and Georgetown University Hospital Art Gallery, among others. She recently took first place in a show I'm Ready for My Close Up of the Capitol Arts Network and that image (Magic Puff) has been selected for inclusion in NANPA's 2007 journal, Expressions. Her photograph of Pablo's Poppy appears on the cover of City Lights' The Essential Neruda, edited by her son Mark. She is a member of the North American Nature Photography Association (NANPA), Washington Project for the Arts, National Association of Photoshop Professionals, and Second Sight DC.

Floris Flam discovered the world of art quilts in 1986, and fiber art quickly became her passion. Floris's art is inspired by the geometry of the world around her, both natural and man-made. Some of her work is realistic, based on her own photographs; other work is abstract and improvisational. She use fabrics she has dyed or painted as well as commercial fabrics, then adds stitching to create texture and detail. Floris has exhibited in juried shows since 1995 and has been a member of the Potomac Craftsmen Fiber Gallery since 2002. She has participated in workshops at the Quilt/Surface Design Symposium since 1991, studying design and technique with many noted artists. Her studies and experience give her a broad range of techniques on which she can draw to express the artistic demands of each work. www.florisflam.com

Bob and Willa Friedman have had photographs juried into the Meadowlark Photo Expo, and have exhibited at Hendry House in Arlington, VA and the Fairfax County Government Center. Willa has a photograph in the permanent collection of the Joseph Miller Center for the Photographic Arts. They have taken photography courses and several workshops, most recently in Kingston, New Brunswick with Freeman Patterson and Andre Gallant. They continue to study Photoshop with Eliot Cohen. Willa and Bob both shoot digitally using Nikon equipment, and do their own printing on an Epson Photographic printer. Bob shoots scenery, wildlife and their grandchildren, while Willa enjoys featuring architecture, city life and wild flowers. www.willaandbobphotography.com

Susan Gott creates sculptural glass that embodies an interest in mythological imagery, symbolism, and traditions from ancient cultures. Her artwork evolves from her research and drawings as she creates sculptures using one or more techniques of mold making, glass casting, or hot glass manipulation. She frequently works directly in a sand mold by carving cryptic symbols and 'painting' images with powdered glass colors. The casting process can be intense and often involves ladling the molten glass directly from the furnace. Planned images or inclusions may be placed in the interior of the sculpture, while intuitive decisions are made as she manipulates the molten material. The resulting glass reveals itself in layers by diffusing or transmitting light through the material; transparent or opaque, polished or rough, exposing or disguising the interior. The glass surfaces are further enhanced with enamels, copper, gold leaf, patinas, polishing, or sandblasting. She is represented by Whichcraft Gallery

Ruth Gowell apprenticed to a weaver in Denmark in 1970, and continued her studies after returning to the United States. Her work developed into an exploration of color through the use of shiny rayon dyed in color progessions, and woven in multiple layers. A workshop in fused glass in 1999 led to the purchase of a kiln and an exploration of the technique of fused glass. An immediate love of iridized glass and the possibilities of pattern and texture have resulted in the development of platters and bowls which continue her exploration of color interaction, color gradation, pattern and texture. Both her fiber and glass are shown in Studio #23 at the Torpedo Factory Art Center. www.ruthgowell.com

Barry and Rosaline Hage grew up on the beaches of Southern California and have since spent 36 years traveling extensively and enjoying various tropical landscapes and sea life surroundings. Their lifestyle has a direct influence upon their work. In addition to their colorful-functional pieces, they have created series of non-functional teapots, baskets, platters and jars. The varied vessel forms are decorated with color and surface designs reminiscent of their favorite exotic locales. The process originates with low-fired clay glazes and stains. Each piece combines wheel-throwing, hand- building and slab construction, metallic luster and 24-carat gold or platinum enhances the design and lends an "attitude" to each piece. Some sculptures are embellished with cast clay symbolic objects, either hand-carved or collected from the Hages' adventures. The Hages are represented by Whichcraft Gallery

Roz Houseknecht weaves, felts and dyes fibers to create wearable art. Her work includes accessories such as scarves, shawls, hats, jewelry and clothing such as ponchos, vests and jackets in vibrant colors using natural fibers including wool, silk, rayon, cotton and tencel. Roz has been a member of the Potomac Craftsmen Gallery at the Torpedo Factory for many years, as well as an active member of ArtSites, the guild for Judaic Arts. www.artsitesjudaicguild.org

Allan Jaworski creates abstract patterns in glass using woven glass, complex line mosaics and dynamic designs. He enjoys the surprising effects that come from changes in shape, color, and texture when glass is heated in the kiln, sometimes unexpectedly enhancing his intent. After the process of creating large works of glass, he relaxes by creating glass jewelry. Each piece of jewelry is a small, unique abstract work of art. Allan has studied at Glen Echo, Vitrum Studio, and Delphi. Although a relative newcomer to glass art, his work has been shown at multiple juried shows. His is a member of the National Capital Art Glass Guild. www.glassartists.org/Allan

Joyce Keister creates handwoven jackets and other garments and accessories. She uses natural fibers, and paints the warps to be woven on her 16 shaft loom. Weave structures are designed on the computer to complement the blending and over-lapping colors for a painterly look. Her jackets are further enhanced with buttons made of either polymer clay or natural stones. Joyce has been weaving and designing for over 25 years. Her work is currently exhibited at the Potomac Craftsmen Gallery, Torpedo Factory Art Center, Alexandria, VA.

Galina Kolosovsky's feather creations provide striking images, some abstract and some representational. Her compositions dance before the eyes, with the feather textures and patterns giving the illusion of brush strokes, while the dimensionality of the feathers adds a sense of depth. She was trained as an artist in Russia and moved to the Washington, DC area in 2003. Her talents were recognized at the fine Arts Faculty in Khabarovsk, where she studied and perfected her techniques during five years of training. The school is recognized for the technical excellence instilled in it students. During the last years of the Soviet period, she worked as a factory artist. Her travels from Khabarovsk to Washington have given her new perspectives on art and color, which have become incorporated in her style. She has visited the museums of Paris and Florence, as well as spending time in colorful and poverty-stricken areas of Indonesia. www.featherart.org

Charlotte Miller has been working with glass for over 15 years. Her current work is focused on patterns and textures - the relationships among individual elements that then become the whole. Patterns are sandblasted into the glass and filled in with glass enamels or pieces of glass stringer. After firing, she often carves the glass with diamond tools to create additional texture. Charlotte has studied kiln casting and glass fusing at the Pilchuck Glass School and the Studio at Corning. Her work has been exhibited in numerous galleries and shows. She is currently building a studio in Toas, NM where she plans to become a full-time glass artist.

Dominie Nash's latest series, "Big Leaf", explores her fascination with the shape and structure of leaves and the interactions between them when printed directly on fabric. She creates wall hangings with this fabric, adding overlays of more leaf prints, and large hand stitching. Some of the work consists of two layers of sheer silk organza, resulting in a mysterious view of both layers at the same time. Nash maintains a studio in Takoma DC and has exhibited widely, most recently in Japan, Denmark, Arlington Arts Center (solo exhibit), and Blue Spiral 1 Gallery, Asheville NC. Upcoming US exhibits include Art Quilt Elements in Philadelphia and the Columbus Museum of Art, OH. She will be featured in the December issue of Montgomery County InSight magazine and has work in the collections of the Renwick Gallery, International Monmetary Fund, and other private and corporate collections. www.dominienash.com

Marilyn Nugent has been working in glass for 25 years. During her 12 years as a resident artist at Glen Echo National Park, she received a $5000 grant from DC, taught several hundred students to fuse and cast glass and to make lamp worked beads. She has shown her work in numerous galleries and venues. Marilyn moved to Lewes, DE where she has concentrated on bead making and maintains a studio for fusing and casting. Her beautiful bead jewelry is often intricately patterned, some whimsically colorful, some elegantly sophisticated.

Jeffrey Oh draws upon more than 20 years of experience as a nationally recognized commercial artist to craft furniture that accentuates wood's natural features, such as gorgeous live edges, while realizing an overall artistic vision for each piece. His carefully honed artistic skill and his knowledge of traditional art and three dimensional design allow him to incorporate complex details and unify different elements into tastefully simple yet intricate heirloom-quality furniture. www.jeffreyoh.com

Siegbert Poritzky, an aviation engineer by training and much practice, has long been fascinated by the feel and workability of silver. Learning under well-known metal artist Susan Tamulevich and with Komelia Okim at Montgomery College, he has been working with sterling silver and gold-filled material for some years. For several years he was associated with the lamented Toast and Strawberries shop in Washington, which prominently featured the non-pierced, non-clip ear hoops known as 'Earloves'.

Christopher Rich trained at California College of Arts and Crafts and the International Glass Centre in Brierley Hill, England; and held apprenticeships in California and Murano, Italy. He built his own glass studio in Portland OR in 1994. His glassblowing style combines traditional skills with northwest flair and his own innovations. Challenging techniques are his trademark: swirls transposed to the vertical face of the vessel by changing the axis mid-stream; color-banded incalmo vessels and rondels; and metallic wraps executed with precision or free-form verve. His work is exhibited in shows throughout the United States and he has executed large-scale installations for Marriott and Westin hotels. www.richglassstudio.com

Robert Roselle is a self-taught ceramic sculptor, working with stoneware and porcelain clay. He builds his ceramic sculptures by hand, employing the coil method. His ceramic objects reward the curious with a stillness of the mind, and require the viewer to take a leap of faith to see beyond the obvious and discover the truth. For the past 23 years he has maintained a studio at the Torpedo Factory Art Center in Old Town Alexandria. He teaches ceramics at the Art League in in local high schools, and was invited to teach his unique coil building method at Beijing University, Guang Zhou Fine Art Accademy and Xiamen University in China.

Marla Rudnick has been incorporating fiber techniques into her metal work for the past 20 years. Her knitted metal work has evolved from a basic understanding of the craft to an investigation of how knitting techniques can be integrated into functional jewelry. She exhibits her work in the Potomac Craftsmen Gallery at the Torpedo Factory (Alexandria, VA), Wesleyan Potters (Middletown, CT) and craft shows on the east coast. Marla is a member of the Washington Guild of Goldsmiths and the Potomac Craftsmen Fiber Guild. www.marlasrudnick.com

Tommie Pratt Rush, married to well-known glass artist Richard Jolley, lives and works in Tennessee. She received her education at Arrowmont School of Crafts and the University of Tennessee, as well as through work experience in West Germany. She has taught and been a board member of the Pennland School of Crafts in North Carolina. Her work is included in the collections of the Mobile Museum of Art in Mobile, Alabama; the Sheldon Art Museum and Sculpture Garden in Lincoln, Nebraska; and the Renwick Gallery in Washington, D.C., among others. She has recently shown at Blue Spiral in Asheville, North Carolina, Lighthouse Center for the Arts in Tequesta, Florida and the Mint Museum of Craft and Design in Charlotte, North Carolina. She is represented by Whichcraft Gallery

Nadine Beth Schneider grew up in New york City and studied fine arts at the University of Bridgeport and the Pan America Art School. For over twenty-seven years she has been creating stained glass windows, mirrors and many other assorted decorating accents, including fused and slumped functional works. She has studied with Narcissu Quagliatta, Dan Fenton, Norm Dobbins, Michael Dupille, Avery Anderson and many other reknowned artists of the glass world. Her work has been exhibited at the Folk Art Museum in New York City, the First Cavalry Museum in Fort Hood, Texas, Washington Technology Park and Arts Afire. She has been featured on "Artscape" cable show and in the Loudoun Times, and her work is included in numerous private collections. She is currently president of the National Capital Art Glass Guild, secretary of the International Guild of Glass Artists, and a member of the Loudoun County Arts Council. www.nadinesfolly.com

Lisa Schumaier was born and raised in Alexandria, Virginia. She earned her BFA from Radford University in 1982. Since her first encounter with playdough in the early 60s she has been fascinated with sculpting. After graduation, a career in retail took her away from art but the sudden death of her first husband in 1996 brought her back to ceramics as a way of healing. At first she produced lots of small brown bowls but gradually she began to explore hope and strength as themes. Many of her works now deal with relationships and interdependence with a strong cord of humor running through all of it. You have to laugh even when it hurts. Laughter is very strong medicine. www.keenthings.com

Sherry G. Selevan has been a craftsperson all her life, working in a variety of media. She brings her experience from quilting, photography, wire and bead jewelry, screen printing, and stained glass into her designs. She started fusing glass in 2006 after a career as a health scientist for the federal government. She is a member of the National Capital Art Glass Guild and the Glass Art Society.

Genie Shuller believes that fine hand-made jewelry is a highly personal investment, to be treasured and enjoyed for life. It reflects the thought and care of both the artisan and the wearer. Her love of art objects, especially jewelry, has been a sustaining force which emerged as an active pursuit after retirement from a 35-year health care career. She received a diploma in jewelry fabrication and repair in Boston, MA, from North Bennet Street School (NBSS), a professional trade school known for traditional craftsmanship. Her work has been exhibited in: NBSS student shows; the NBSS exhibit at the Society of Arts & Crafts/CraftBoston 2003; and the Creative Crafts Council 2007 Biennial Show, North Bethesda, MD. She has worked in two established studios: Metalwerx in Waltham, MA; and Creative Metalworks in Kensington, MD; and is an active member of the Washington Guild of Goldsmiths. Contact her by email at g.shuller(at)verizon.net]

Estelle Vernon's jewelry designs are influenced by both the visual and the tactile. Whether it is the leaves on trees, the roughness of bark or the intricate visual patterns in antique textiles, she distills these images into jewelry designs with an elegant simplicity. Estelle has been a resident Torpedo Factory Artist in Alexandria VA since 2001 and a member of Studio Metallum since 2002. She is a past president of the Washington Guild of Goldsmiths, a member of the Society of North American Goldsmiths and the Precious Metal Clay Guild. She has been a Certified PMC Instructor since 1999. www.estellevernon.com

Whichcraft Gallery is an art accessorizing enterprise owned and operated by Kerry Iris of Chevy Chase, MD and Joanne Brody Spielman of N. Potomac, MD. Together with the artists they represent, Kerry and Joanne design, sell and install fine crafts and fine arts for both commercial and residential space. They work with individuals and designers to create a one-of-a-kind environment for their clients. Their recent projects include Arlington Westin Gateway, Marriott Crystal City and Gateway Hotels, Sheraton Reston, NY Times Renaissance, office buildings at Sunrise Boulevard and Boone Boulevard, and several homes in the Washington DC metro area. Whichcraft Gallery also hosts gallery-on-the-go events, presenting unique giftware and hand-crafted accessories in a variety of formats such as charity boutiques and home shows. Artists in Celebration of Craft 2007 represented by Whichcraft Gallery are: James Aarons, Susan Gott, Barry and Rosaline Hage, Christopher Rich and Tommie Pratt Rush. Contact them at Whichcraftgallery(at)comcast.net

Please note: Rossdhu Gallery and the Sculpture Zoo are open
only during scheduled show hours or by appointment.

Rossdhu Gallery is not handicapped accessible; there are stairs at the entrance and between galleries.
If you will need special assistance please call or email before your visit.

For more information, please email info"at"rossdhugallery.com