Rohling Studios

Primitive Folkart Trinkets and Treasures

I am thrilled to announce I have been invited to Join PFATT.  If you have never been to their site before be sure to visit today!  All the artists have their brand new postings listed for the month and it is a shopping delight!

This girl just gets better and better!  Check out her ebay sale of this pincushion!    http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=33797&item=180032310069   This is so cute Elona!  I have soooo much to post but I have to get some sleep!  I will busy with all the things I want to show you later this week.  Till then......

Ilustration Friday~Phobia

Illustration Friday's assignment this week is Phobia.  What do you think?  Just a quick mixed media Illustration.  It's a representation of a violation of someone's personal space....you know where they get right up to you and your eyes can't even focus because they are too close....you know that closed in feeling you get when someone you hardly know is breathing on you!  Tight, closed in, claustaphobic kind of Phobia!

Meet David, Lucas and Heather Frykman

Two of the nicest people you want to meet live Near the tip of the Door Peninsula in Ellison Bay,WI which is fast becoming known as Door County’s gallery town.  The amazing thing is that the two folks are members of a family that makes art their life together.  Meet David's son Lucas Frykman, photographer and painter and his wife, Heather Harle Frykman, photographer.  In 2005 David, his wife Carole, a native of nearby Baileys Harbor, Lucas and Heather bought the hundred-year-old building that, during the 80’s and 90’s, was called The Birch Tree. They set to work and created a beautiful gallery of David’s wood carved art, Heather’s Door County nature photography, as well as fine pottery and paintings.  This is one talented family! I so enjoy noodling around their gallery. 

David is a woodcarver.  He creates the most whimsical characters...each one seems to have a little bit of built in happiness....a twinkle to their smile.... or a bit of innocence.  They are all wood, mostly Eastern White Cedar, and most are painted with oil colors, while some are left natural with a finish of amber shellac.  On the day that I visited Heather and Lucas they were busy painting some of dad, David's carvings and stocking the shelves for the holidays. 

There is nothing's better than walking into a working gallery!!!!  I love the brushes and paints and the feeling of creativity and magic in the air. 

When I walk through the gallery there is not a single corner that isn't eye candy!

It's my personal observation that I found a big smile on my face as I visited the gallery! 

Heather's photographs can be viewed further on-line.  Her animal photos are  HERE....birds are captured beautifully HERE.... they are some of the most amazing I have ever seen!  If you are in the mood for nature look HERE.  Breathtaking sunsets are HERE. If you want to see a trillium in bloom anytime of the year look HERE.  Have some fun and treat yourself to a visit to their website Here.  Oh I can't resist...here are just a few more pictures....Enjoy!

Be sure that when you stop in to see them to tell them that Claudia says, "HI". 

Change~Illustration Friday

This is my pick for Illustration Friday's theme this week.  The topic was change.  I picked this from an illustration I did for We Can Get Along published by Free Spirit.  The boy decided to change his words and actions (and his sign).  The book based on making positive choices so I felt this illustration was really appropriate to the theme this week. 

Ding Dong School and Miss Frances

Even if you don't remember Miss Frances and Ding Dong School this little Apron pattern is a find that brought back memories.  A friend of mine is listing it on Ebay right now but I just had to reminisce about the friendly lady that taught school on Television when I was young.  Miss Frances had a bell that she would ring to start the program which was usually some kind of craft that I begged my mother to do.  She would ask me questions as I sat there...like, "What do you think of that?".  Then her eyes would widen and she would lean forward so I...of course had to answer her.  I believed she really heard me!  After I got older, my little sister would be seated in front of the television watching Miss Frances as I got ready to go to elementary school.  I remember her as being seated there in her little footie pajamas, answering the same questions I did.  We grew up with Ding Dong School Golden Books in the house.  I'd love to have one of those now!  If you are interested in the pattern it is available now on Ebay.

More Friends and Family/A Celebration in Chicago

 

After a day of fun we walked across the street for the ceremony and celebration to follow.  We had a fantastic time! 

If you are planning an event in Chicago be sure to check out A New Leaf.  What an unbelievable place it is...just a bit of magic in the middle of the city.  For one evening my past caught up to my present and the future began for new Mr. an Mrs. Eschmann.

After Brunch the next morning I had to duck back in.  I needed to see the retail area of A New Leaf and get permission to photograph and post what I found!

....dolls and flowers....

Fun and colorful parasols....

orchids....and old worn table tops....

succulents in clay pots....old silver

and new.....

Oil Cans....

Candles of every shape, color and size imaginable!

mixed with tiles and.......

Spools and Ribbons....

An old wooden cribbage board hangs nearby a drawer full of more spools and Trims....

Every where you look there is pattern, color, texture and foliage. 

I will stop now.

Trust me!  It's worth the trip!

Friends and Family/A Celebration in Chicago

 

Some friends are family!  Do you know what I mean?  I hope you do!  Last weekend was a wonderful blend of both!  If you are lucky you will have people who support you, laugh with you, cry with you and pull you up when you are down.   I hope you have a core of people that is always there...a group of people that are woven together with love and time.  This weekend I felt truly blessed!  It started when I received an interesting dark brown envelope in my mailbox.  It was an invitation to a wedding.  Brian was getting married!  "Oh...", I had to take a long breath and stopped what I was doing.  How can it be?  How can time have made that little boy into a man?  I had to physically stop what I was doing and sit with the invitation in my lap.  Memories of our two families flooded in .  We lived just a few houses apart.  There a was a space in time that belonged just to our two families.  Our boys shared their first days of school together...preschool even!  They were good days!  We were ALL Best Friends....our sons like brothers.  So the phone lines began to buzz.  Airplane tickets were bought by my son and daughter-in-law to come home to celebrate Brian's wedding.  A trip to Chicago was planned. Friday found me weaving through traffic with a suitcase in the back of my truck.  I love to be with the people I love.  It was a wonderful weekend!  We came together in the city.  It was good to be in Chicago again.

You've met these two before.....well here they are again....Paul and Laura in Chicago.   

Joined by Ben and Sibylle who flew in from San Diego.   

We walked the streets and took in the sites...the thing about Chicago is there are things to see everywhere you look. 

 

Author, Elizabeth Berg wrote in one of her books that after you have seen art, art is all you  can see.  Chicago holds some of the world's greatest art.  Honestly, I see it everywhere I look when I visit the city.

Next we shopped the markets. 

We bought peaches and raspberries from the vendors.

We peeked into the windows of the shops.

We stopped at Starbucks, got some coffee and wished we could eat one of every thing in the bakery case..... 

Stay tuned for the rest of the story!

Illustration Friday ~ Safe

For this week's posting for Illustration Friday I selected a page from my children's book, Just Because I Am published by Free Spirit Publishing.  The page talked about the need for children to feel safe when they were scared.  When it came time to illustrate this picture I thought about my brother and I when we were little. We protected each other when we were scared of the dark, of dreams and of sounds in the night.  It made me think of my own kids sneaking into our bedroom in the middle of the night to feel safe.  I knew I needed to capture that for the page on children and needing to feel protected by someone they trust. 

Labor Day Weekend

  In my childhood, this was the saddest day of the year.  Summers were spent with our families at two nearby lakes.  My father's family stayed at Elkhart Lake and my mother's family (including us) stayed nearby at Crystal Lake.  Both places belonged to my respective Grandparents. Traditionally, this was the day that the boats were brought out of the water, the piers taken in, the cottages closed up and we shuffled up the hill never to return again until Memorial Day.  Tonight was the night I began the countdown until I could return again to my summer friends and to the water!  Every year on this night I fell asleep sniffling and snuffling because I was beginning school again on Tuesday.  There was a part of me that shut down with the beginning of fall because it meant the end of all that was dear to me and the start of horribly long days of school with the nuns of St. Clements.  My best friends were the ones I spent time with out at the lake.  I am SO happy to say that I am NOT putting MY BOAT away just yet!  It's MY BOAT and I am a GROWN ASS WOMAN and I GET TO CHOOSE WHEN IT'S TIME TO PUT IT AWAY.  That being said, we went out in it today.  The Lake was calm so we drove from Racine to Kenosha...never thinking we would really go that far...but it was so warm and the water was SO beautiful...I am amazed at how many colors of blue Lake Michigan can be.  It is such a wonderful body of water!  And....It is always a special day when we take Jimmie with us!  He takes his post, right up front.  He is quite the funny guy...

Here he is...our little mascot...Jimmie Jamm!

And if the ride starts to get a bit rough he heads back to see if the Captain needs any help...And after a hug or two he heads to the back with his Mom for a while because she will make a bed for him on the floor out of life jackets and he can curl up for a rest and leave it all in someone else's hands for a bit....

And all these years later,  I don't hate Labor Day anymore. I even enjoy fall a bit although I have to admit it still makes me sad to see the days of summer drawing to an end.

 

I find that I look forward to the years that I will be able to take my grandchildren out in a boat and teach them about the lake and to  have them sit on my lap and enjoy the spray and the wind and the waves with me.  I have enjoyed all the time I have spent with friends and family this summer and look forward to the years to come.  And.....still....everytime I go out on the water I marvel at yet another perfect wake!!!

oooooooooooooo I absolutely love the bubbles!