Artist feature: Cecilia Labora

Cecilia Labora is an artist who creates glass beads, components and jewelry. Her fascination with the beauty of beads and the opportunity they offer in creative expression began when she was a child. Cecilia worked in other mediums including batik, ceramics, drawing and pastel painting before making glass beads.

She took a class about 10 years ago, learning to work with the molten glass to create beads (referred to as flameworked or lampworked beads), studying under masters to hone her craft.

Cecilia creates from her home, working with soda-lime and borosilicate glass. She also incorporates metal foils, enamels and other glass embellishments to her beads. She then uses the beads to create one of a kind jewelry pieces, pairing the glass with metal chain and natural stones.

Cecilia takes custom orders and this will be her first year at the BizBaz. More of her work can be found online on her website and her Facebook page.

Artist Feature: Sophia Compton

Sophia Compton is an artist who creates wearable art.  She does silk painting that can be hung as artwork or worn.  She enjoys the brilliant colors the painting lends to the silk items and the creative freedom of the medium.  She adds that the receptivity of the silk to the dyes and its luster never ceases to amaze her. 

This will be Sophia's second year at the Bizarre Bazaar and also as a Lawrencian.  She is involved with the Lawrence Art Guild and Lawrence Creates.  Sophia loves being in Lawrence because she feels as though she is continually surrounded by the creativity of others.

She will be participating in several shows in the area this year - more of her work can be viewed online in her Etsy shop.

Artist feature: Desiree Warren

Desiree Warren is an artist who works with repurposed street sign vinyl on aluminum to make clocks and vinyl on found and repurposed papers and wood to make wall art.  She also creates stickers, vinyl decorated candles and vases, and greeting cards.

 

Desiree started creating this way while finishing up her degree in sculpture at KU, morphing into the work she does today over the last seven years.  She's been a clock maker since 2006 and works out of her home in Midtown KCMO. She loves to work with clients to create custom clocks.

Desiree adds that all of her aluminum is American sourced as well as her clock mechanisms.  EVERY PIECE of vinyl she uses is kept out of the waste stream because she shuffles through some very generous companies' scrap bins. 

This will be Desiree's third year at the BizBaz and she also sells her creations online, at regional art shows, and at m.a.s.h. handmade in the Westport area of Kansas City.  You can find more of Desiree's work on her website, her Etsy shop, on Pinterest, on Twitter (@EightyAcresArt), or on her blog, where she writes about her adventures in the Heartland, making art, and starting out as a 'picker'.