Incredible Line-up--Featured Artists: Christina Flowers, Victoria Horner, Lotta Helleberg and Ken Nagakui

Everyone, there are going to be some majorly talented people at this year's Holiday Craftacular! This is such a varied and creative group of people! You need to feast your eyes on the array of color, texture and shape that will be on display--and then take some home to enjoy at your length and leisure!

Christina Flowers

Magnolia Moonlight

OhSoSmitten

www.magnoliamoonlight.com

http://www.etsy.com/shop/OhSoSmitten

Christina Flowers is an award winning Graphic Designer who created Magnolia Moonlight in the fall of 2007. Trained first as an Architect and Industrial Designer, she approaches her work from many directions. A passion for making, a natural penchant for color and a love of all things design, are just a few of the ingredients that inspired her to create Magnolia Moonlight.

In the shop you'll find calendars, cards, illustrated prints, invitations and most recently Whisper mobiles!

In addition to all that you will find here at Magnolia Moonlight, Christina has also opened a sister shop, Oh So Smitten. It is full of cute robots, silly woodland creatures and other goodies for the young and young at heart. You can see for yourself at the Oh So Smitten shop.

Victoria Horner

http://www.victoriahorner.com/home.html

I'm a handbag designer based in Charlottesville, VA. My bag business began in 1997, but I've been sewing since I was 13. Before bags, I was a dress designer in New York. *****I have another shop on Etsy, where I feature my vintage inspired swim cap bags. Please visit it at www.SplashBag.etsy.com*****

Lotta Helleberg--Contemporary Textile Artist

http://www.lottahelleberg.com/

lotta helleberg is a textile artist with a background in graphic design and print making. She works primarily with linen and utilizes a technique in which leaves and other plant material are coated with paint and pressed onto fabric. She is also exploring natural dyes and eco-printing, where the plants themselves release color pigments which bond with the fabric. The resulting impressions are incorporated into quilts, fabric collages, and a variety of functional and decorative objects. Lotta was born in Sweden and now lives in Charlottesville, Virginia. Her work has been exhibited at several regional galleries.

Ken Nagakui

Pottery Studio Karematsu

For more information, visit: http://advancinggreenchemistry.org/?p=1681

Hand-built and wood-fired stoneware is the shortest description of my work. I do not use an electrically powered wheel, but roll pieces of clay to make coils and build the body. In a way, this is very much traditional technique. Next, I smoothen out the texture with my tools, some of which I fashion out of bamboo. Stoneware,compared to earthenware, is vitrified to dense and hard rock-like quality. Vitrification happens somewhere below or above 2,000 F, depending on contents of flux in the clay body. When vitrified, the clay becomes dense or actual rock. After it hardens, I add layers of glaze to the body and fire within my hand-built kiln.

Martha Keith & Tavia Brown, Metalsmiths Extraordinaire

Holy Schnikes, November is almost over!! The holiday season has begun--hope everyone is enjoying themselves; it's hard not to when it's a balmy 65 degrees and sunny all weekend!

This is the work of metalsmith Martha Keith. Martha is a genious. Actually, everyone who is part of the Craftacular is a genious, but I feel particularly qualified to say this of Martha because she recently created an engagement ring and wedding bands for myself and my husband and they are stunning and unique, and she is quite possibly the nicest person I've ever worked with on a custom job.

Martha Keith

www.marthakeith.com

"personal adornment in metals"

martha@marthakeith.com
(434) 242-7147

I urge you to visit Martha's website: www.marthakeith.com, where you can extensively view her work and

read about her numerous show inclusions, awards, and inspirations. Even better, come out to the Holiday

Craftacular on Dec. 10th and 11th to see her fantastic work in person;

Martha shares a studio with the artist featured below: Tavia Brown of TaviaMetal.

The studios are located in The Linen Building on East Market St., just past the intersection of Meade Ave.

Tavia Brown

taviametal

www.taviametal.com

"elegance with an edge"

Visit Tavia's website: taviametal.com for a complete bio, gallery pics, and links to her extensive credentials and awards, as well as her blog, her event calendar, and more.

Tavia and Martha have both been part of the C-ville Craft Attack since its inception and are accomplished artists and entreprenuers.

Come meet them and get to know their amazing work on Dec. 10th and 11th at CitySpace on the downtown mall!

Featured Artist: Cary Oliva

Another of our featured artists is Cary Oliva.

"Where the spirit does not work with the hand there is no art". - Leonardo Da Vinci

Cary Oliva is an artist who loves dabbling in lots of different media. She loves polaroids, paper, watercolors, waste not paper colors, good design, cards, and textiles. She has always loved creating things, and after studying art in Pennsylvania, Italy and New York, Cary moved to Charlottesville where she has been living and creating various media for a little over eight years. Her love of doodling turned into creating a line of whimsical, hand-drawn and embellished greeting cards, which has since evolved into other types of floral and other fun designs that take the form of cards, invitations, custom stationery, coasters, journals and prints. A love of photography inspired her to learn some alternative techniques, specifically with Polaroid photography. Cary enjoys working with clients to create custom creations whether it is in the form of a hand-made invitation, a special coaster or a vintage looking photograph.

You can contact Cary at:

cary@bycary.com

www.facebook.com/caryoliva

www.etsy.com/people/caryoliva

www.linkedin.com/pub/cary-oliva/13/6a3/401