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Open! Thursday – Sunday 10:00-5:00
Located in historic Hubbard Hall in Cambridge, NY, and amidst the rolling hills of Washington County in upstate New York, Valley Artisans Market is one of the oldest arts cooperatives in the country. Local fine artists and craftsmen work in a variety of hand-crafted media including glass, paper, cloth, photography, oil paintings, pastels, wood, mosaic, sculpture, metal, jewelry, ceramics and more. The Small Gallery features rotating shows by members and guest artists, and the market is always staffed by one of its artisan members.
Small Gallery
January 20, 2023 - February 14, 2023
Artist reception will be held Saturday, January 21st, 3-5:00. The public is welcome!
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Wood Collages and Fiber ArtsWood and Fiber All her life Brunhilde Miller has been designing with the use of fabric altered to fit the need of the design. A report on the news, personal events or accidental or purposely juxtaposed colors may inspire a theme or memory to be conveyed in an image. Her work shows a wide range of techniques from piecing to collage, thread drawing and machine embellishment. Her wood collages were inspired by Louise Nevelson who worked with discarded and scrapped wood as inspiration. Bowls, Sculpture and Creations from the Woods |
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About the Artists
Brunhilde Miller
Education: B.S. in Food Science, University of Maryland, M. S. In Food Technology, Iowa State University and an M.S in Management from RPI. I have taken college courses in aesthetics, ceramics and sculpture. I have taken classes in silver jewelry and fiber workshops.
My first sales of my original designs were at the PTA craft fair at my sons’ school in Troy. Eventually I entered local craft fairs and shows.
I was asked to give a presentation of my crafts to the RPI Women’s Club in 1975. Woman’s Day magazine had a quilt on the cover and I decided to head the design and construction of a Troy Bicentennial Quilt. This led me to experiment with fiber art.
I have participated in small and large shows. My work is in private collections here and abroad as well as in corporate collections in the USA.
Ken Miller
I was born in Chicago, Illinois in 1939. In grade school I was very excited about art, always drawing, participating in art projects, and wanted to be a commercial artist. In high school I took wood and metal shops intending to pursue an industrial career. The college prep program excited me, and I went on to get advanced degrees in Chemistry and a teaching and research career. However, I was always drawn to working with my hands and continued the family tradition of making things in a home shop. In it I restored and repaired antiques, made furniture, sculptures, breadboards, folk art, wine stoppers, bowls, vases and other objects. Much of my work takes advantage of the natural colors, shapes, grain patterns, wormy textures and defects in wood. In Hubbard Hall an example of my reproduction and restoration is the chestnut door and trim at the entrance to the second floor hall from the elevator, as well as much of the cabinetry in the Valley Artisan Market from recycled antique wood. I have sold my work at crafts fairs and VAM, and anticipate continuing to expand my horizons. You will see a spectrum of my creations in the exhibit.
Brunhilde’s Shows and Awards
2019 Troy Fence Show
2018 Craft Fest, Troy NY
2017 Craft Fest, Troy, NY
2008 Winter Solstice Show, Saratoga Council of Arts
2007 One Woman Show, Guilderland, NY
2006 One Woman Show, Vision II Gallery, Albany,NY
2005 Two Women Show, Small Gallery Cambridge, NY
2005 Visions and Revisions, Nott Memorial, Union College, NY
2004 Winter Solstice Show, Saratoga Council of Arts, NY
2003 Winter Solstice Show, Saratoga Council of Arts, NY
2003 Forms and Fiber, Small Gallery, Cambridge, NY
2002 NY Quilts, Troy,NY two second and one third prize
2000 Win Place Show, Saratoga Council of Arts, NY
2001 Shelnutt Gallery, Troy, NY
2000 Second prize in national Quilter’s Express to Japan “Hawks and Heroes Quilt Contest”
Quilt was displayed in Yokohama Quilt Show.
1999Two Women Show, Small Gallery, Cambridge, NY
1998 Visions Gallery, Albany, NY
1996 The Northeast Crafts Exhibit, Schenectady, NY
1995 Shelnutt Gallery, Troy, NY
Featured Artist
Welcome New Member, Susannah White
Felting is the oldest known manipulation of the natural world. It is older than stone work, basketry or claywork. That is because wool doesn’t require human intervention to felt; the wool of a sheep’s coat, for instance, is naturally felted.
Susannah White theorizes that early humans recognized this quality and were immediately drawn to felt’s versatility.
The natural process of turning frayed fibers into a solid piece of fabric is only a short leap to stunning artwork. Susannah herself has mastered that process.
Susannah began working with fibers more than five decades ago. “Our family had a farm where we spent most of time when not in school. Our neighbors were sheep farmers and I started playing with their wool back in the 1960s.” Because she loved everything textile, she discovered felting on her own. When she saw a museum exhibit featuring felted wool from an ancient tomb in China, her life’s calling was realized. As a young felter, she absorbed everything she could about the process.
Susannah describes felting as a physical change in fiber. “Any protein has scales along the fiber. You aggravate the fiber with hot water and [then add] something annoying to the fiber – like soap – which causes the scales to open up. You use your hands by massaging, rubbing, and pounding the fiber, which makes the scales lock on to one another. Once in cold water, everything contracts and locks and makes a permanent change in the fiber,” she explains.
For Susannah, felting came by way of weaving (starting with her first loom at age 13) and textile design in college. With the birth of her children, however, Susannah didn’t have the luxury of time to warp a loom. She returned to felting by fashioning felted toys for her kids. “I believe strongly that children should have the most carefully made objects in their life,” she maintains, “and the objects most thoughtfully done should be for children.” “When I was young, my dad traveled all over the world and would bring back puppets. He built a puppet theater. There was one thing that frustrated me: he gave me Steiff hand puppets. They are fun to work with but when you removed your hand, all the life left them like a deflated balloon. I was always sure to make puppets so they retained some life force. I wanted my puppets to have a lively aspect whether or not they are in use,” she says.
To be sure, her passion for shepherding, feltmaking, quality craftmanship, and puppet artistry all intersected in her unique work.
Susannah’s puppets and performing objects are made from the wool of family or friends’ sheep. The vibrant colors, she says, come either from plants or from the natural color of the wool. “Because I work in textile design, I am aware of the carcinogenic and mutagenic qualities of commercial dyes. Plant dyes are relatively harmless, depending on the mordant used. I only use alum and cream of tartar. The colors are very beautiful— they can be very intense or very subtle — and have a distinctive living quality to them. They complement one another. Each year I grow or wild harvest more of the plants I need for color,” she says. Indeed, at this point, Susannah only purchases three plants for dyes: indigo, brazil wood and madder. And this year, experiments with growing indigo began in the Cambridge Community Garden. “We successfully grew and harvested fresh indigo and dyed both wool and silk, though only in small amounts. We’ll see if we can increase the amount of color we get next year.”
“If you are looking at old rugs or tapestries and see that beautiful rose/salmon color,” she says, “that’s madder.” (One time she accidentally fermented some madder. Not wanting to waste it, she threw some wool into the dye and was delighted to get a brilliant red from it!) It is the capricious unpredictability that makes dyeing with plants so fascinating and lively for her.
Currently, she is most delighted by making sweet and simple mouse and chicken finger puppets and never tires of these characters. “Part of being a craftsman is that you spend your life developing your skill and then you spend whatever remains of your life just doing it. It is not my goal to make anything different. My goal is to make everything well. I’m at the phase in my life when I know what I am doing,” she says. But even after 40 years of working with felt, she has still taught herself more. She has recently learned that the tighter a puppet is on one’s hand, the more control one has.
Susannah is not just the artist behind the scenes. Three generations of her family, collectively known as Dancing Hands, give performances to audiences for free, though COVID has postponed most performances over the past 20 months. She takes pride in trying to preserve a heritage craft.
In summing up her craft she says, “There’s that saying that one person can’t change the world. But one person can make felt, which is a permanent change.”
Upcoming Shows
- Small Works Show – Open to All Artists
February 17, 2023 10:00 am - March 14, 2023 5:00 pm
- Corry Buckwalter – How the Light Gets In: Landscape Paintings and Botanical Studies.
March 17, 2023 - April 4, 2023
- Lauren Kabis – Macrame
April 7, 2023 - May 2, 2023
- Maude Maynard – Quilter
May 5, 2023 - May 30, 2023
See past shows →
News
Valley Artisans Market – Open Art Show – Small Works!
Calling all artists! Valley Artisans Market is hosting an open show to all artists who would like to participate. The theme is "Small Works" and will be presented in the Small Gallery from February 17 - March 14, 2023. This is an open call for entries; the applicants...
Virginia McNeice’s work to be sold
Virginia McNeice, known to us as Jini, was a cherished member at VAM for decades. After her death in 2019, many people were dismayed to know her beautiful art would cease to be created. Her family is now selling her remaining artwork. If you would like to know more,...