Wallingford Arts for the Holiday

As the gift-giving season approaches, you are no doubt scoping out your options on Amazon, and at Walmart, Target and Best Buy.

Nah, fuggetaboutit. Shop, Wallingford! This here Wallingford sale by a Wallingford artist or craftsman is certainly not the last one we’ll post about, but it is a fine one:

Liz Gamberg will be holding a holiday sale December 6 – 8 at her home studio at 1513 N. 39th (three blocks west of Wallingford Ave), and will be selling her rugs, ceramics and other works. Says she of her work:

I am drawn to design and build piece

s that people use in their daily lives. I have created hand built pottery and collage for nearly thirty years. I work with low-fire clay, applying color with underglaze. Other techniques include wax-resist, printing/embossing, and sgraffiato (carving into unfired clay after color is applied). I construct my shapes by pressing slabs of clay, rolled by hand, into forms I have built or found.

I continue to be curious about what remains after carving into painted clay and the effect of the white space after almost covering an area with color. My work is informed by various factors, some of which are my mathematics background, a meditation and yoga practice, what I read, and the patterns and geometry of daily life.

Rug design is another significant part of my life as an artist. When I received the large jute bag containing my first shipment of rugs, I immediately lay down on them. Every step in their creation is done by hand. They are hand-knotted and made of hand spun, hand-dyed wool, which is woven by Tibetans in Nepal. These weavers are certified with GoodWeave, a global nonprofit organization working to end illegal child labor in the carpet industry and offer educational opportunities for children in South Asia (see www.goodweave.org).

Each rug is ‘sculpted’, hand-trimmed between every two colors/shapes. Because each is dyed and woven by hand, there are subtle differences between any two rugs of the same design. I truly value this aspect of the work — for the element of surprise and reminder of the labor-intensive handwork that completes this collaboration.

If you’re a Wallingford-based artist or craftsman holding a sale in Wallingford this season, please send me the info, I’m happy to run it. Shop local!