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. 

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. 

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!

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.

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.

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.

New Bird Nest Lapel Pins

Karma Grotelueschen has been making copper and copper wire sculpture since before Prairie Oak Artisans was even a gallery.  Copper wire birdnests have been a staple at the gallery since the beginning, with customers using them for table centerpieces, window sill art, and even outdoors as garden art.  They have been given as housewarming gifts, gifts to celebrate a new baby, as part of a wedding gift package, and are a favorite as a birthday gift to a friend.  In recent years, Grotelueschen has expanded the line with silver-color nests made of aluminum wire and black nests made of stove pipe and electric fence wire.
Grotelueschen's latest additions to the line of wire nests are lapel pins.  These are made of copper, brass, or black wire, and feature 'eggs' of fresh water pearls or other beads.  These little lapel pins have a tie tack style post back with a winged backing clasp.  As with the nest sculptures, these little pins make great gifts.

Sterling Silver Leaf Jewelry

Sterling silver with botanically influenced designs are the specialty of silversmith, Karma Grotelueschen.  Leaf shapes of sterling silver are shaped and set with stone cabochons to create wearable are in the form of pendants, earrings, rings, cuff bracelets and other interesting and beautiful jewelry.  Buy it at our gallery or at www.Etsy.com/shop/PrairieOakSilver.

Tiny Felted Landscapes and Florals as Lapel Pins

Karma Grotelueschen demonstrates the process of making her felted landscapes at Fall Art Tour and other times throughout the year. In response to customer demand (literally, a customer who felt she could not yet afford the full size versions said "You need to make little ones as pins so we can take home a sample while we save up for one for our wall."), Grotelueschen has made teeny tiny versions as lapel pins.  These little gems are made just like their larger cousins, with wet felted backgrounds and needle felted details.  Sometimes, to make up for their diminutive size, they are embellished with a few sparkly beads.  They are a little under 2" x 1 1/2" and they have a tie tack style pin back.  Some are mini landscapes, some feature trees, others flowers or bird nests with little eggs in them.  Another great gift item for a friend! Or for yourself!

Karma Grotelueschen's Beaded Semiprecious Stone Earrings