Owl Print

Just picked this print up from the framers, Bottleworks Gallery in Mineral Point.  It's lovely owl block print by new young artists from Madison, Alice Kim.  We had it custom framed for a client.  Isn't it just perfect!  I know both the gift giver and the gift recipient will be well pleased!

Unconventional Combination

New earrings by Karma Grotelueschen combine fiber and sterling silver to give a tiny pop of color to sterling silver leafy earrings.  Available by mail now or in the gallery at the candlelight holiday weekend or in May of 2016. 

The Cutest Little Things

Nathan Gieseke, our glassblower, had also been making groovy rings of old silverware spoon handles and even groovier swirly wall hooks of forks and now we have these adorable little vases from the knife handles.  They have magnets so they can be stuck to the front of your fridge or the metal in your office partitions.  They do indeed hold water for flowers but in between flowers, I keep a stem of a succulent in mine for green all the time!

Fresh From The Workshop: Lampwork Bead and Sterling Silver Bracelets

 As much fun as it is to make art, it is also fun to purchase are from other makers.  These dangly jangly bracelets with their matching earrings all silversmith Karma Grotelueschen to do both.  She collects handmade lampwork beads from glass artists around the world and then selects coordinating sets, using them to adorn silver jewelry.  For these pieces every part is handmade.  The bracelet links are of heavy sterling silver wire, with each link individually soldered and given a hammered texture for shine and sparkle.  Even the clasps and ear wires are hand made in Grotelueschen's silversmithing studio.
This set features beads in shades of amber and soft yellows by many different glass bead artists.

 This bracelet and earring set has blue beads with a swirl of white from a single artist and sterling silver miniature leaves that add movement and shine to the pieces.

 Our third set has beads of a creamy pomegranate red that dangle from large oval bracelet links with an occasional small silver leaf.  Each earring has a single leaf and bead. 

I Love Wooden Boxes!

 At Prairie Oak Artisans, we are delighted to be able to carry these beautiful hand made wood boxes by Lane Bacon of Maple Grove Woods. Lane crafts these gorgeous vessels from fine hardwoods such as maple, cherry, walnut, and exotic woods.   Lane is a Wisconsin artist so these are truly local products.

 We have several sizes of boxes with contrasting lids, some with hinged tabbed lids, a long narrow box that makes a handsome desk accessory, and some large one of a kind boxes that are special works of art.

In addition to this interesting assortment of boxes, we offer wooden trays, vases, and a select number of other hand made wooden items by Lane, which are all available at very fair prices that I think you will find to be a great value for any gift occasion.

Wooden Bird Houses

Todd Hubler makes these pretty and functional birdhouses in nearby Madison, Wisconsin. 

He uses reclaimed, scrap, and new materials.

 The tops are surplus ceramic tile that sheds rain.

Todd finishes the birdhouses so that they will last through many seasons of use.




 



 
Where will you put one in your yard?

Opening Day, Tenth Anniversary Year

 We are ready ready ready for the 2015 season!  We opened on July 22 of 2005, so this is Prairie Oak Artisan's 10th Anniversary year!















Karma Grotelueschen's  fiber art has its own corner here, with both framed and unframed works available.  She will be demonstrating her fiber art again at Fall Art Tour on the third weekend in October.

We have a fresh supply of roving for felting or spinning and knitting needles and crochet hooks of bamboo.  As usual, we offer felting classes on Friday evenings at 5 and Saturday mornings at 9.  A class for 2 or more is $25 per student or $30 for a private lesson.  You can choose to learn to felt a scarf, a vase, or flowers.
 

 We have pottery in blues and by Ellen Judson and glass by Nathan Gieseke.

 Up front of the gallery, we have gathered all the garden related things, such bird houses, vases, garden ornaments.  These sorts of things make great Mother's Day and Father's Day gifts!

 We have had pottery by Cindy Wilkins every year since opening in 2005 and are proud to be getting even more in soon. Now though, we have bowls and platters and chip and dip sets with the oak branch edging that she developed just for us!

Frames and lanterns and miniature greenhouses display sterling silver  and copper earrings, bracelets, pendants, brooches, and necklace assemblages, all handmade in a studio in nearby La Valle, WI and finished right here in the gallery.  Matching and coordinating pieces are available for special occasions and gifts.

 Randy Pfeifer is a wood strip canoe builder with a workshop in La Valle, Wisconsin, on Lake Redstone, and he also hand crafts beautiful wooden canoe paddles.

 Brooms are by Bob McCann and the mercats are by Sheri Lee Butler.

 Lane Bacon of Verona, WI makes some really fine wood boxes.  We will have trays and vases soon!

Block prints by Karma Grotelueschen include some that are hand colored with pastels.

2015 is the year of the basket. We have baskets by Jamie Lee Weber, Sandra Andreesen, and Joy Luckhardt Klehm.  This is the finest selection of really well made baskets we have ever had!

Jewelry and Make Up Bags by Laura from Fargo!

New for 2015!  Handmade lined fabric zippered bags.

Use them for jewelry, make up, or as a little clutch purse with your cell phone and a few essentials.  These adorable little marvels are made by Laura in Fargo, North Dakota.





I met her when I was visiting my sister last winter, and ordered up a bunch.  If you love them, I will get more.  Long narrow ones for make up and jewelry and maybe longer ones even still for knitting needles!



She has a gorgeous stash of fabrics in nature prints that will be so pretty in the gallery that I will hate to let them go, but for you, I will!! 

Winter Is For Making Jewelry

 These new earrings are fresh with flowers.  The backing plate is a rectangle that is curved forward to shelter the domed and petaled flowers.  The flowers are attached to the backing with silver wires that have their ends melted into tiny balls, so that the flowers move as the wearer does.  This style is available and in stock with two widths of backing plates and in many lengths.  There can be one, two, three, or five flowers on each earring. 
Just one of many new jewelry styles by silversmith Karma Grotelueschen.

Canoe in Spatterdock Woodcut

 Karma Grotelueschen's most recent woodcut features a canoe / kayak on water among spatterdock.  The limited edition print will be available at the gallery.

A few of the prints have been hand colored with oil pastels.

Art is Messy!

On a recent Tuesday, Karma Grotelueschen of Prairie Oak Artisans was sending woodchips flying to carve a woodcut of a canoe among spatterdock leaves and flowers.

 Just a couple doors down on Commerce Street, Bruce Howdle was working on a clay wall mural featuring a child on a tree swing with a rolling Wisconsin valley landscape beyond.  Out back of the Howdle studio, Howdle's student, Henry Graser, was splattering paint onto huge vases that he sculpted recently.  Henry was painting and glazing to finishing up the pots in order to fire them prior to his departure for education at the Art Institute in Chicago.

It was a busy, but typical, day in Mineral Point's art district that encompasses galleries and studios along High Street, Commerce Street, and Fountain Street, and others a little outside the downtown area such as Brewery Pottery on Shake Rag Street and some actually a little out of town, like Windy Ridge Pottery on Route 39.

Custom Sets Available

All of Karma Grotelueschen's sterling silver jewelry styles can be custom made to adjust the size, shape, or the stone to your desires.  Earrings can be made longer, shorter, narrower, wider, bracelets and cuffs can be made to fit your wrist, rings can be sized to your finger.  Many stones are stocked in standard sizes and any of the styles can be made for you in your choice of stone.  Or a set can be made with matching or coordinating stones.


This set is made with carnelian, a translucent red orannge.  Red jasper is an opaque red orange that also coordinates well with carnelian.  Lapis lazuli, a deep bright blue and demin lapis, the same stone in a lighter bright blue, make beautiful sets.  Black onyx is available in many size stones, as well as ivory-colored river stone and tiger eye.  A beautiful green stone, aventurine, and an olive stone with pink flecks are others that are available in standard sizes and easy to keep in stock for custom order.

Bloodroot Woodcut

Working in wood exclusively now, this new woodcut print is of bloodroot, a spring ephemeral native to woodlands across the country.

More Silver Jewelry

 Cuff bracelets are made up thicker sterling silver, shaped and stamped with botanical designs.  Matching dangle earrings with handmade earwires complete a set.







Rings with stones and stamped bands are new, as well as bracelets with many separate links that each have their own stone cabochon.  An extra link attached at the clasp gives more weight so that the clasp stays down when worn.

Hoop Earrings

These new hoop earring are hammered hoops with shaped and stamped leaves or flowers.  The leaves or flowers can be removed and the hoops worn alone for a simple statement, or the dangly ornaments can be attached.

New Jewelry by Karma Grotelueschen

 These sterling silver brooches are entirely hand forged and crafted in Grotelueschen's silversmithing studio in La Valle, WI.  Made of sterling silver sheet that is punched and formed, these brooches have a sturdy pin back that is also hand made. Each brooch is one inch high and between 1 3/4 and 2 1/2 inch wide. Imagine wearing one on your coat lapel, on a wrapped scarf, or on a dapper hat! They can be purchased in the gallery spring thru fall, or at www.Etsy.com/shop/prairieoaksilver year around.

How To Shop With Prairie Oak Artisans

Prairie Oak Artisans is located in beautiful Mineral Point, Wisconsin, a lovely historic town between Galena, IL and Madison, WI on Highway 151.  Mineral Point is home to a number or artists and artist galleries and artist studios, so you will find more like us up and down the streets and in interesting locations just our of town.
Prairie Oak Artisans is at 207 Commerce Street.  It is a small building with only 20 feet of storefront, so we can be easy to miss, but worth looking for.
In season, approximately May through October, we are open on Fridays and Saturdays from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. and also at other times when shop owner, Karma Grotelueschen, is there working on art.
There are friendly helpers in town willing to let you in to shop by appointment at other times, so just call Karma's cellphone at 630-728-9998 and she'll round someone up to help you out.
Or we can ship something to you. If you saw it while in the gallery last time you were in town, or you see it here, or you saw something a friend obtained from us, describe it and we can send it.  Email a description to plannedscapes @ aol.com (take out the spaces) and we'll try to  help.
Karma also has an Etsy shop at www.Etsy.com/shop/PrairieOakArt where many of her things are listed.
Or if you don't see them there, if you call or email, she can put them there in a listing for you so that you can use it to order.
Karma also has her sterling silver jewelry at www.Etsy.com/shop/PrairieOakSilver so you can shop for earrings, pendants, rings, cuff bracelets, and other lovelies year around.
Thanks for showing an interest in our artwork and do let us help you find the right lovely thing for your home or for you to wear or as a gift.