Festival for the Eno

We just returned from a wonderful weekend at the Festival for the Eno in Durham, NC. We debuted some new garden pieces including small ladybugs, spiders, and crabs. Some recent press about our shop was also released this week. Click here to read the article in the Raleigh News and Observer and see the cover of Alamance Magazine.

We are busy beginning new big projects in the shop. Soon I will post our new dragonfly sculpture and tree frog! Keep reading...

New Work

This past weekend we participated in Willow Walk, a sculpture show in Burlington, NC. We debuted a couple of new pieces such as a snail named Marley, Sherman the inchworm, and our new body style for our ladybug. We are also using a new paint that is an automotive grade, UV resistant, Urethane Epoxy. It is the best protection we can buy and we are having fun experimenting with sparkles and color combos. If you want to see some new work in person, mark your calendar for July 4th weekend during Festival for the Eno in Durham, NC.

New Installation

Last week we installed four 8ft tall metal flowers in City Park, Burlington NC. The flowers are all placed around the park rides. The sculptures were a gift to the Parks and Recreation Department from the Alamance Arts Council. So go take a ride on the carousel for a mere $0.75 and check out the flowers!

Upcoming Events for June and July

We are entering our busy season (although we’ve been running full tilt since October!!) and we have a few shows that we regularly attend. Our wonderful arts council is hosting their Willow Walk art show in Willowbrook Park, Burlington, NC on June 7th and 8th. The event is free and open to the public. There are always many interesting sculptures displayed throughout the park and in the trees. It’s a great show to take the family and a picnic. We hope to display a 10ft tall Grandaddy Long Legs! As always, we will have butterfly garden stakes for sale as well.
Our July event will be the Festival of the Eno in Durham, NC July 4th, 5th,and 6th. This is a fantastically fun event with tons of live bands and over 100 artists. The event is geared to be environmentally conscious with solar powered stages and eco friendly trash sorting system that so efficient only 8% ends up in the landfill (and that’s with 30,000 people attending!). We will be there with large sculptures in tow and garden art to sell. You can find us right at the shuttle drop off. Tickets are $13 at the gate or purchase in advance for $10 a day or $25 for a 3 day pass. Kids 12 and under FREE as well as seniors over 64. Come eat some good local food, play in the water, dance, and get some great art.
Speaking of the Eno, on July 5th the News & Observer will be running a story on our shop called Who and Ware by Diane Daniels (Home and Garden section). We will also be featured in Alamance Magazine hopefully in June or July.
I hope you are enjoying our new website beautifully created by the staff at Allpro Media in Burlington, NC. They were able to give us a professional website that showcases our shop and it’s capabilities. We enjoyed working with them and I’m so glad I didn’t have to figure it out on my own anymore!
Please keep reading for updates! We are installing at UNC Children’s Hospital in the next 2 weeks and I will post pictures of the results.
Em

In Search of the Perfect Frog

Usually when we make a new animal, insect, or flower, we try to find the real thing in nature to study. We pluck a flower, dissect it, scan it, and draw it. We capture an insect in a jar and measure it's thorax, abdomen, and little legs. It's a goal of ours to really know our subject matter. Of course we take some artistic license with the features we include in the final piece, but we start with the real deal. Now comes the problem with our latest sculpture- the poison dart frog. They aren't just hanging out on the porch on a warm spring night. Sure, I've got my pick of bullfrogs and toads by our pond- they sing sweet melodies at night and have inspired great stories to tell my kids at bedtime. But they're music pales in comparison to the beautiful markings on the poison dart frog.
Last night, I found myself rummaging through my kid's toy box in an unfruitful search for a small bag of toy frogs from our local science center. No luck. I even searched for the 3D bookmark of a frog that perches on the top of your page but it was also M.I.A.. So now it's my quest to find a good replica of the dart frog to study. This may involve a field trip or two...

New Stuff and new presentation

I have been blogging on Myspace for the last year and have come to this realization:
A: I'm 30 not 16
B: I'm blogging about our business and a banner of "Secret Crushes Waiting To Meet Me! Click Here!!" is not very professional.
So here I am among the civilized and well spoken- I'm not sure I'll fit in!. I will, however, continue to write about our shop Beechwood Metalworks in Burlington, NC. Here is an update on the events:

It's been super, mondo busy this year! We completed a 27 piece sculpture garden for St. Francis Children’s Hospital in Tulsa, OK in January. We are on the final phase of the UNC-CH Children’s Hospital sculpture garden- adding bees, 125ft of steel grass, and a sign. There is a chance that we may do another sculpture garden at the hospital if our proposal is accepted.

Our employee count is now at 5 which is crazy considering it was me and Casey for 5 years and we added the other 3 in 6 months. Speaking of adding, we are also doubling the size of our new shop in the next few months to accomodate more equipment and more workspace. We continue to add new critters to the lineup. An inchworm, snail, tree frog, and the bees are all new items.

Lastly, to wrap up this "toot your own horn" rant that seems to have spilled forth- we will be on Fox 8 WGHP today for a short clip about the shop. Also, check out next month's Alamance Magazine for an article about us.

Thank you for reading my first "Blogger" post! I hope you will read more...