Amanda Ryznar

After graduating with a Bachelor of Fine Arts from Slippery Rock University, Amanda Ryznar spent several years working for production potteries in Vermont. In 2005 she made the leap, opening her own pottery studio.

Working in bright colors on white porcelain, Amanda's designs are clearly inspired by nature. More subtle are the influences of different eras, from the Arts and Craft movement to the Mod style. Recent additions include a selection of tropical motifs. The pieces are thrown on the wheel, either from white stoneware or porcelain. Any trimming is done, and attachments such as handles made, when the piece is "leather-hard". The colors are applied at this stage. When the color drys a little, Amanda carves away to reveal the clay underneath. The piece is fired to 1800 degrees Fahrenheit, then coated in a clear glaze and fired again to 2380 degrees.

"I believe that life is to be enjoyed and that the objects we bring into our homes and use everyday should reflect that joy in being."

Click here to see our selection of Amanda's work.

Living With Studio Furniture

The Collection of Robert & Carolyn Springborn
Naples Museum of Art through Sunday, June 28


For lovers of studio furniture, this exhibit, featuring cabinets, tables, chairs, lamps and more, should not be missed. Too often the Naples art community only focuses on traditional art. Paintings in traditional styles and fine antiques are the norm. Anything a little different or unusual is looked upon as "odd" and "not really art". Unless you have a name like Chihuly, fine crafts get little respect here. The Naples Museum of Art is breaking through some of those boundaries with this exhibit.


Robert & Carolyn Springborn's collection, one of the most eclectic collections of studio furniture in the country, contains pieces that are both beautiful & quirky. One of my favorite pieces, the chair pictured here by artist John Cederquist, seems to be saying, "Yes, this is a chair, and yes, it is art. See the paintbrush?" That may not be the artist intended point, but after years of explaining that studio furniture is art to people, that's how I relate to it.


If you love handcrafted things, if you love beauty with a sense of humor, if you love the unconventional, if you just want to see some great art, check out this exhibit before it is gone.

Naples Museum of Art

Discovering 2 Naples Artists

This past weekend was the Downtown Naples Art Festival on 5th Avenue. I attended on Sunday morning, which was gray and overcast. It rained off & on all day, which was good for me (I don't mind getting wet & no crowds to fight), but not so good for the artists. One big surprise for me was running into Avner Zabari there. Avner is an amazing furniture artists, and as a sign of the times, is doing retail shows for the first time in the approximately 12 years I've known him, because gallery sales are so down.

My other big surprise was finding 2 artist, both originally from Peru now living here in Naples, completely new to me, whose work I just loved. The first was Angeli Naveros. Originally from Peru, Angeli wraps brightly colored thread around PVC pipes that she then places into large brushed stainless steel frames. From a distance, the effect is a bit like a color block image. As you get closer the texture of the threads, some of which have been frayed, comes into play. The contemporary pieces require a larger space than I currently have, but I hope to see more of Angeli's work at future shows.

My second discovery of the day was the retablos of Nicario Jimenez. All I can say is, "Wow!" In fact, I think I stopped right in the middle of the street and said that out loud. Traditionally, retablos were carried by Spanish priest in Central America as portable religious shrines. The ones you to see now a days tend to be crafted in Mexico for the tourist trade, small and not very detailed. Most of the ones I've seen have Day of the Dead themes. Nicario's are in whole other category. The figures he creates out of boiled potato and gypsum powder are intricately detailed. And there are a lot of them packed into those little boxes. Speaking of the boxes, the painting on them is wonderful. While some of his pieces have traditional themes...biblical stories, saints, Day of the Dead...others are decidedly modern, depicting everyday life and political statements. Most of Nicario's work was outside of my budget, but I did manage to get a charming mermaid ornament.

While I was in Nicario's booth I couldn't help but eavesdrop on a conversation he was having with a woman who turned out to be a teacher at a local school. The school she teaches at is in one of the poorest parts of Collier County. Most of the students are the children of farm workers. They have no funding for field trips and almost none for art supplies. Nicario offered to come to her class and teach the students about this traditional art, bringing a supply of the potato & gypsum powder mixture so that they could make their own sculptures. That gesture alone made me wish I could afford one of his pieces.

Amy Peters Inspirational Jewelry

Eight years old is a little young to pick your career, but that's just what Amy Peters did. It all started with an after school program in jewelry enameling. In highschool, she worked an after school job as a pearl knotter. In college, she worked in a bead shop. After college she continued to perfect her craft but treated it more as a hobby than a career. Over the years she worked working various jobs, everything from retail sales and a kidney transplant coordinator at a hospital's blood center.

A prominent artist once told her "if you haven't used your art to make a living within 5 years of graduating art school, you probably never will." It had been 4 1/2 years, so she lept. She set up a studio in a small (9' x 15') shed with a dirt floor & no running water and Amy Peters' Studio was born. Thirteen years later, and she's still going strong. Her sterling silver jewelry is stamped with wonderful inspirational messages...Follow Your Heart...Reach for the Stars...Take the Road Less Traveled. I give her necklaces as gifts a lot and they are always a hit.

On a side note, she's a great person to share a pitcher of margaritas with!

Click here to check out Amy's blog.

Click here to check out her jewelry at our store.

Dennis Elliot

Some people are born with more talent than seems fair to the rest of us. I think Dennis Elliott is one of those people.

Dennis became a professional musician at the age of 16 as the drummer for the British jazz-rock band IF. In 1976, Dennis became one of the founding members of the rock band Foreigner. From 1976 to 1991, when Dennis left the band, Foreigner recorded six multi-platinum selling albums. While still with the band, Elliott's wife Iona gave him a Black & Decker lathe attachment for his power drill and that started it all. He needed to get his mind off the anxiety of performance. But turning took over.

"In creating music, you're creating out of thin air. There's no material that you're working with when you begin," says Elliott. "When you're working with a solid object like a piece of a tree, you can only do it once. The responsibility is therefore greater than creating a new song which can be wiped out and started again."

Eventually Dennis gained recognition as a wood turner and his work is in several public collection, including the Renwick Gallery of the Smithsonian American Art Museum and the Museum of Arts & Design (formerly the American Craft Museum).

Platinum records and your art in the Smithsonian...it's just not fair to the rest of us, Dennis!

See more of Dennis' work here.

What is contemporary fine craft?

That is a question I frequently get asked, and it's a hard one to answer. When I say that I have a contemporary craft gallery people mostly ignore the word gallery and assume I have a store that sells scrap booking and knitting supplies. Don't get me wrong, I have nothing against scrap bookers and knitters (some of them are my best friends), but it's not what I do. I've searched the internet for a definition of contemporary crafts. Most of what I found was extremely limited or so esoteric as to not make any sense. Now, I'm not promising to make any sense, but I'll do my best.

The things I look for in contemporary crafts and craft artists are:
1.Utility---Not everything that is contemporary crafts is functional, but most can trace its roots back to something that was (or still is) a part of everyday life. A perfect example of this would be blown glass. The work of Dale Chihuly is in no way utilitarian. It was never meant to be anything other than beautiful and decorative. Yet, you can trace the roots of glassblowing back thousands of years in the making of drinking glasses, bowls, windows, and more.

2. Vision---The ability to see something in a common object that wasn't readily visible to others. When you see a piece of scrap wood, do you see fuel for a fireplace or do you see the figure of an angel with something to say? When you see an old muffler, do you see something to throw away or do you see the body of a dog?

3. Mark of the Hand---Contemporary craft should show that it was made by a person, with skill and care. Even when something is made with the most cutting edge machinery, it should still show something of the artist in it.

My description of contemporary craft is by no means definitive. Some people will disagree with it totally. Some will say it is too broad. Some will say it's to vague. I challenge them to come up with their own definition (it's not as easy as you think.) These are just the guidelines I use for choosing work for my gallery. After that, it just comes down to what I love. And even then I've been known to throw the rules out the window for something I truly love!

I'd love to hear you definition of Contemporary Fine Crafts.

So, this blog thing...

I've been getting the push to start a blog for some time now. I'm finally giving in & doing it. I plan on devoting most of the post to the art that I love (although I am known to get sidetracked). I attend a lot of art/craft shows, everything from tiny church craft shows to big national juried shows. You never know where you'll find that new amazing artist. Sometimes those I'll carry those artist in my gallery, sometimes I won't. Just because I love it, doesn't mean my customers will buy it.

I'm doing this in hopes of encouraging people to buy American crafts. Buy them from me (hey, I'd really like that), buy them from a local shop, buy them from an artist at a street fair, just BUY them!

I'm telling you, you will get so much more joy out of eating your cereal from a beautiful ceramic bowl, hand-made by some guy in Michigan, than you will from a bowl mass produced at some factory in China, sold at a big box store. And it won't cost you that much more, if it cost more at all. I promise!