thePULSEArtisan Women of Worcester
These Ten Females Artists Believe in “Art in Action”
August 2005 – “We all are established craft people on our own,” says Sarah Brueck Stallings of her nine newest friends. “This is just a way to bring us out together on a different medium.”
It seems that Stallings has finally found her perfect artsy niche. While she has always loved art, she could never seem to find a group that fit her just right. “I didn’t feel like there were any that represent me,” she explains. This slight problem was nothing a few phone calls couldn’t fix, however.
After assembling some of her female acquaintances and additional women whom she knew from other art organizations, Stallings founded the Artisan Women of Worcester a few months ago. The goal of the ten-member group, essentially, is to host shows in the Worcester area, oftentimes complete with live craft demonstrations. “It’s a very ‘art in action’ type of thing,” she explains.
All ten Artisan Women hail from the Central Massachusetts area. At the events, each woman has her own table for her skilled craft, with prices ranging from single digits into the hundreds of dollars.
So what, exactly, is a skilled craft? “That’s part of our problem right now,” laughs Stallings about the ambiguity attached to the group’s style of art, right before explaining the root of the Artisan Women. “A skilled craft is something that you’ve been doing for years that has taken some kind of educational process for you to learn how to do.”
Basically, each woman in the group prides herself on bringing to the table a craft that is truly unique and inspired. Stallings herself is a jeweler, but she does much more involved work than simply picking up beads and stringing them. “I do things like weaving and felting beads from raw wool,” she explains. Clearly, this is where the skill comes in, with woven glass seed beads serving as Stallings’ signature medium. The skilled crafts of the other Artisan Women include hand-thrown and hand-fired stoneware pottery pieces, stained glass items, handmade books, hand-knitted clothing, hand-dyed and hand-spun yarn, original paintings, and much, much more.
As for the months ahead? A show at Tower Hill Botanic Garden is currently in the works for October. Meanwhile, the Artisan Women will be participating in the Salisbury Sampler, hosted by Arts N’ Things, on September 17. There, approximately 75 vendors will set up and show off their artistic crafts at Worcester’s beautiful Institute Park.
In the end, it’s really all about a love and passion for their art. “The group itself will not be a profit organization,” says Stallings. “In the future, we want to work with teenage girls, have four shows a year, and get into seminar teaching. We want to give a little back to the community.”
