Destination Art!

This "shop hop" of Sacramento-area art and fabric shops was held yesterday and today. In its 6th year, this is the first year I've heard about it!

My first stop was JR Flamingo, on Fulton Avenue. This is a quilt/fabric shop with a strong emphasis on Asian fabric. They were doing a wet felting demo and had a display of "art dolls." They also loaded me up with water and snacks!

Next was Art Ellis, on J Street in Midtown. I'd never been in there, though I've often stopped at University Art across the street! Art Ellis is a traditional art supply store and sells sketchbooks, pencils, etc.

Then I headed up I-5 to Piece of Mind Bead & Jewelry Studio on Northgate Blvd; this shop was hard to find, so if you're into beads, don't give up -- you'll love it! They were hosting a show and sale of lampworked glass beads by about 8 local? artists. One of the artists, Kim Osibin, was one of the first 30 lampwork bead artists in the country (world?). Another of the bead artists (Suzanne?) provided a demonstration of lampworking (turns out she's an RDH -- dental hygienist -- and knows my boss!).

By this time it was rush hour, and I had NO interest in sitting in traffic on the freeways, so I took Northgate south until I saw a familiar street. El Camino took me through the 'hood, but since it was daylight I wasn't tooooo scared! I eventually ended up at Babetta's Yarn & Gift Shop on San Juan @ Winding Way. This store is the yarn equivalent of Piece of Mind! Among the more unusual fibers were yarns made from 100% bamboo and also some alpaca yarns.

And because it was on the way home, I stopped at Cje's Art & Fiber Gallery in Fair Oaks Village. Although this shop's address is Fair Oaks Blvd, it was a very hard shop to find, as they were tucked around the corner and fronted a parking lot rather than Fair Oaks. I'm not real sure what they do here (sort of looked like a working studio); they had an odd assortment of paintings and unusual and ethnic crafts.

Then this morning, I met Julia at The Stamp Art Shoppe on Sunrise @ Cirby. If you like stamping, scrapbooking, or altered art, you NEED to check this shop out! They were giving a demo of different inks. This was the only shop that had a sale or shop hop special -- 10% off pretty much everything, and we both spent a few dollars.

I'm a little confused about the gift basket drawings. There's one HUGE basket (valued at $900!), the winner of which will be drawn from all of the tickets received -- so I guess for those who went to all 6 shops, they may have 6 entries?? I thought the smaller baskets would be awarded shop by shop, but I heard somewhere along the way that there will be 6 names drawn from ALL of the tickets received -- so the odds are a bit more challenging.

WHEW!!! I can't believe this is the 6th year for this event, but just the first time I've heard of it. I'm already looking forward to next year's Destination Art!