The Catskill Mountain Artisans Guild will be presenting artist craft demonstration and free kids workshops at gardenFest2013 on Sat. May 11, from 10am – 3pm on Main Street, Margaretville N.Y. Gallery artist Martha Bremer and Carlyle Bradford will demonstrating Basketry, Caning and Concrete Botanicals for your garden and home. In the Guild’s Community ArtSpace there will be free kids work...shops all... day long which include great gifts for Mother’s Day including, Posey Basket Weaving, Card Making and Recycled Birdhouses. These events are sponsored by the Catskill Mountain Artisans Guild with funding from the Small Business Development Fund administered by the MARK Project, the O’Connor Foundation and Kids in the Kaatskills.
SHEDULE:
Artist Demonstrations: 10am – 12pm - Martha Bremer – “Caning and Basketry”
12pm – 2pm - Carlyle Bradford – “Concrete Botanicals”
Kids in the Kaatskills: Free Craft Workshops for Kids in the “Community ArtSpace”
10:30 – 12pm – Recycled Birdhouses with Gerda van Leeuwen
1pm – 2:30pm – Mother’s Day Posey Basket Making with Martha Bremer
10am – 3pm – All Day Mother’s Day Card Making with Guild artists.
Martha Bremer will demonstrate chair caning techniques and some traditional basket weaving. Bremer, a master basket weaver, studied at the Brookfield Craft Institute in Connecticut but has been mostly self- taught for the past 25 years. Her present focus is on traditional and functional styles. She has exhibited in many galleries, exhibitions and stores in New York City and has been teaching basket weaving in schools and community classes for the past two decades. At her business, Briar Creek Studio, she also does furniture restoration, specializing in cane and rush seat weaving work. Martha lives in Otego, N.Y. with her husband Charlie.
Carlyle Bradford works with her hands employing one of nature's oldest forms of ceramics –concrete. Her demonstration will feature how she is inspired by nature and molds this organically mixed stony material into functional pieces of home and garden sculpture. Carlyle is a potter and mixed media sculptor who has been selling and exhibiting her working with clay for over two decades throughout the country. She turned her attention to concrete ten years ago. Her unusual techniques in combination with her understanding of construction form and knowledge of the medium, creates a striking beauty that is original to her work.
