Reviews- Atlanta Dogwood Festival

On Sunday, Apil 9,2006 I spent 3 exciting hours at the Atlanta Dogwood Festival, held annually in Piedmont Park. Ranked in Sunshine Art Magazine as the 16th top arts festival in the country, this festival features a whole array of different mediums from sculpture, to jewelry, to fiber, ceramic, to woodwork, to all types of painting/drawing/mixed media.

One of my favorites there was Sandy Atkins-Moran (Genesis Designs) of Carrollton, Texas whose hand-sewn one-of-a-kind art jackets set her apart from other clothing designers in that she uses a unique combination of fabrics in quilted freeform style such as silk, ultrasuede, cotton, and heavier patterned cloth. Some of her jackets had wisps of colorful threads dangling from certain sections of cloth like fringe. The colors tended towards purples, greens, and golds, but she is able to do custom work as well using colors chosen by the customer.

I definitely have one of these on my "to buy" list, and after I told a friend of mine about these so does she!

She does not currently have a website but she can be contacted by e-mail at sandyamoran@earthlink.net if you are interested in purchasing or would like to see her at a show and check out her work in-person.

There was lots of beautiful jewelry there including some lovely bone hearts a little bigger than a silver dollar in circumference and about a 1/2 inch thick (I wish I'd gotten the contact info for those but was hard-pressed to see everything in 3 hours) with sterling silver balls set in them and nice bezel settings with tiny, luminous cabachons of ruby, chrome diopside, (and what looked to be fire opal in one of the pendants).

One man who made giclee prints from his watercolor paintings of cats, fish, and other animals in warm, rich colors, stated that this was an excellent show each time he'd gotten accepted and that one year he'd made enough for one year and into the next!

At a ceramics booth whose trademark look was pieces which had bright pinkish purple matt glaze, there were at least 6 people waiting with money in-hand to pay for items priced at least $30.00 apiece.

It was definitely a buying crowd, and I wish I had beed able to come up with the $350.00 entry fee. For those of you who might be interested in doing this show next year, go to http://www.dogwood.org
to get on the mailing list and obtain an application. They're asking that people inquire in August to get an application for the 2007 show.