Packing up my crafts, thinking of mom and dad

My mom loved painting flowers. This is one of her paintings.

My mom was incredibly talented. She was an artist, a potter and a talented curator of all things. She knew how to hang just the right painting in just the right spot and arrange beautiful combinations of artifacts on every shelf or table. She was so good at it, that friends and family asked her to come over when they moved into a new home to help arrange their art and beautiful things. She was always happy to oblige as it gave her great pleasure to see every piece of art perfectly situated.

Unfortunately for her, she was not born in a time of handmade marketplaces like etsy, where all of her talents could have been transformed into multiple careers. Or in a time of great opportunities to sell art and crafts in inspired surroundings at holiday craft shows.

Instead, she packed up her paintings and sat in very drab and boring shopping mall art shows, which she hated. But still, due to her amazing marketing skills (and my dad’s amazing calligraphy skills) she sold her paintings and brought joy to everyone that bought them.

Did I mention that my mother was very organized? And that my dad was very handy? Getting packed up for each mall art show was organized to the last detail. My dad built and painted the stands and rigged up a dolly to keep them tightly fastened to each other during transport. He added velcro tabs to his hand lettered signs: “Artwork by Florence Fruman”, so that they could be easily attached and detached at each show. Mom had a “satchel” that had all of the hardware she needed to hang the artwork on the stands: her business cards, receipt book (so she could keep track of where her painting would be living), signage, masking tape etc. which was always packed and ready to go for each show.

Before packing up the car, the paintings, which mom and dad framed themselves, were first wrapped in plastic and then carefully swaddled in an assortment of fluffy towels, and stacked in a big cardboard box on another dolly for that purpose. The stands, the paintings, the satchel, the box and the dollies all fit perfectly into the car.

They had a system.

At the end of each show, as if the film was being rewound, the paintings that had not sold were taken down, wrapped in plastic and then towels, stacked in the box, carted in the dolly, into the car, out of the car, unwrapped, and into storage until the next time.

Fast forward to Winter 2012. Florence Fruman’s daughters, Naomi (in Brooklyn) and Leslie (in Toronto) are busy stressing about how to pack up their crafts and set up a booth at their first craft shows!

I know that each of us, separately, thought of mom and dad every minute of the process. I thought about all the advice and encouragement they both would have given their girls if they were still alive. Dad would have hand painted signs for both of us and mom would have come to all of our shows and talked to all of the potential customers, encouraging them to buy our wares. Although we both did well at our first craft shows, I know we both would have sold more if mom were there. She was a “closer” when it came to sales. No one would have walked away empty handed!

It is hard to believe (and our dad would have been very proud), but Leslie managed to get all of her wares, her “satchel”, numerous folding tables, dollies and other booth infrastructure and decor into her tiny Volkswagen Beatle. The eggshell blue bug was packed and unpacked through November and December attending holiday craft shows in the Toronto area.

As for me, I packed up my “satchel”, ketubah prints, pillows and framed prints into a car service (Brooklyn style) and headed for Williamsburg for the finale weekend of the Brooklyn Night Bazaar.

And wouldn’t mom and dad be doubly pleased to know it was their grandson who dreamed up and produced the incredible Brooklyn Night Bazaar, so that his mom could have a table at her first ever craft show?

Thanks mom and dad for a life full of creativity and support, in this life and the next (and to our aunties, who have taken over supporting our creative endeavors where mom and dad left off).

Pottery by Leslie Fruman

My sister Leslie is a self taught potter, crafting nature-inspired functional art for your table and home. She is based in Toronto, but sells worldwide through her online etsy shop.

My booth at the Brooklyn Night Bazaar

I am a ketubah artist, digital painter and wanna be textile/surface designer. You can find my wedding related and judaica products at my etsy shop and my website, my pillows at envelop, my textiles at spoonflower, and my stock images at imagezoo.

My first “Guest Blogger”: Leslie Fruman

I am always bragging about my talented sister Leslie. I thought it would be great to have her on-board as a guest blogger — so I asked her — and she agreed! We haven't figured out the actual details of if it will be every Tuesday or what, but let's get started and see where this goes.

Take it away Leslie!

For the last 12 months the oven has almost always been on at my house.

It started when I decided to take a year off from my globetrotting career as a journalist-turned- television-producer, and stay put for a while. The plan was to lazily pursue my interest in cooking.

I spent the first few months on the couch with my laptop, cruising Internet food sites and exploring the exploding world cooking blogs. Then I hit the farmers markets and made all kinds of delicious meals from the gorgeous fresh produce I snapped up there. This naturally led to a fascination with pickling and preserving.

My electricity bill soared, and I gained 15 pounds.

Then last fall, when the farmers markets were shutting down for the season, I signed up for a pottery class at the Gardiner Museum. I’d wanted to try pottery for years – and finally dragged myself out of the kitchen and into the pottery studio once a week.

Which brings me to another kind of cooking – and a new oven in my house (and an even higher electricity bill).

Within minutes of digging my hands into the clay, I was smitten. First I made a set of 6 plates… then some bowls shaped like squashes (inspiration from the farmers markets!)…And then I had to buy my own kiln - which is really just another oven, only much hotter.

Now I am happily spending my days cooking up my pots and then cooking up my food, (sometimes in my pots…).

But this “cooking” theme got me thinking about how easily we transfer skills from one pursuit to another.  Whether I’m cooking up a television show, a meal, or a piece of pottery – the process is surprisingly similar, and exercises the same creative muscle. It’s really all about learning to tell a good story, well.

When you tell a story in a newspaper article or on a television show, you first spend a lot of time researching your topic, and gathering information. Then the hard work begins…building the structure.  That is – figuring out how to tell the story. Once you’ve figured that out, it gets easy again, and fun, as you tweak to make it flow.

Cooking? Same thing. Search for just the right recipe – compare it to others – ask friends what they have had success with – then start cooking, and make it your own with tweaks and flourishes.

And making a pot? It’s the same process.

At most pottery classes, instructors offer the basics, and then encourage students to explore. You take a lump of clay into your own, unique, hand, and fool around to see what happens.

But there’s a lot more to pottery than fooling around with clay. You need to learn about (research!) the different clay bodies, learn about glaze chemistry, understand what heat at different temperatures does to the clay and glazes…and then you structure, test, tweak, and create. Just like cooking --only it takes much longer!

 A couple weeks ago I tried to combine all of these steps when it was my turn to host a supper club I belong to. Once a month a group of friends get together to cook an elaborate meal, based on a theme – or “story”. The story this week was Middle Eastern food. The research took me all over the place, looking through my own cookbooks, my favorite websites and a bit of old fashioned library browsing. I found a great selection of dishes from Iran, Morocco, Israel and Egypt. The tweaking happened as I curated which dishes I thought would combine to make a great meal… before sending a selection of recipes off to my friends, who would each choose a recipe to bring to our supper club dinner party.

But I have to admit, the best part – for me – was setting the table with my handmade dishes and bowls…waiting for my friends to fill them with their fantastic interpretations of all those recipes. Our meal was truly great and the table setting that night was part of the “story”.

My favorite dish from the meal was a delicious fennel and pistachio salad from Janna Gur’s fabulous website: http://www.jannagur.com/

Here’s the recipe link from that site:

(You can see Leslie's amazing pottery at her shop, or on her facebook fan page! Are you looking forward to her next post? I know I am!)

Is it Friday already?

Coffee Press by NaomiBroudo.etsy.com

I am sitting down with a cup of steaming coffee to reflect on the past 7 days. And what a week it has been.

••• On Saturday my talented sis Leslie opened her etsy shop called clayshapes.

Squash shaped bowl by Leslie Fruman

She has been in a gazillion treasuries already — and everyone is checking out her shop. I check everyday to see what new pieces she has added. It is so much fun to discover her work each day. Try it, you will see what I mean!

Organic shaped fruit/salad bowl by Leslie Fruman

 

••• On Monday our Son Aaron launched his kickstarter site to raise money for his new project the Brooklyn Night Bazaar. Check out the video! And pledge away. Or at least pass this on to everyone you know!

Aaron has been working non stop on this project and I have had the pleasure of working through branding and design ideas with him on a daily basis. It has been a great mother/son bonding experience. Very proud ema. Kol hakavod ben!

••• Last week after patiently waiting until after the holiday rush, I received news that I had been accepted into the coveted Etsy Chai team.

There are a lot of rules and I have been studying all of the emails I received from Linda who is the team "ema" (or — the Yahoo List Mom & Membership Maven) to be sure I am doing everything I need to be doing to remain a team member in good standing.

It was a busy week so I finally got around to making my first team treasury today. It gave me a chance to meet the team members and get to know them through their work. In honour of valentines day, I chose pink tones. Hope it puts you in the mood for love!

click to see the whole treasury

••• On the home front, I am working on a new series of Ketubah designs based on my pencil doodles. Here is a sneak preview of bits of artwork:

It has been a busy but fruitful week. Lots to think about and lots to be grateful for. Coffee cup is empty — but my wine glass is full!

Fresh ideas I can relate to — pots and shells to put things in by my sister Leslie

I just have to post about this! My sister is making the most amazing things.

The back story: Leslie and I come from an amazingly creative and artistically prolific family. As kids, we had endless exposure to all kinds of art making. We both remember fondly, attending a pottery night class with our mom and aunt where we learned to make pinch pots and hand build vases and bowls. Mom went on to do much more after both of us left home — but for us, that was the end of the story.

It must be at least 35 years since either of us had the feel of clay under our fingernails. That is why I am so blown away by what Leslie is up to now.

Can you just die from these beautiful shell bowls?  I can't stop looking at them!

Leslie signed up for a pottery class (that was designated for both hand building and wheel) and after the first week, was producing amazing results. Of course, following the rules or doing what the teacher asks, is not in her vocabulary (she comes by that very honestly by the way). While her classmates, were content learning to make pots on the wheel, Leslie was determined to do her own thing — wrapping clay around paper plates, gourds, and other organic objects. You can see from the number of pieces in this photo, that doing anything in a small way, was not an option. You may also be interested to know, that she got in big trouble with her teacher for buying clay on the side and working all week at home, rather than simply resigning herself to working during class time. When she showed up on week two with all of these shell bowls ready to glaze and fire, there were a few eye balls rolling.

Not surprisingly, after finishing the last session of her pottery class this week, she has already bought a kiln and we can expect there will be many more of these precious pieces in the works soon.

In addition to these small precious vessels (perfect for your earrings or sea salt), Leslie has made a series of deliciously beautiful pots “to put things in” —Ice cream, cereal, garlic... I am deriving a lot of pleasure just looking at them sitting on a table.

Oh and by the way, when her hands are not in lumps of clay, she is producing and directing documentaries for television — I am very proud indeed!

And did I mention that she is making art on her ipad? David Hockney watch out!

Kol Hakavod sis!