March 20th - Craft Tour

In the foothills of the Gila Mountains, just a few miles up the road, is a community where several artists live. 
Once a week they have a "Tour the Loop," where you visit their studios & shops.  This particular shop is in an old camping trailer that has been made into a craft shop.  It was the cutest space.

Eclectic "stuff" everywhere.

You see these hangers in the stores but this was hand painted and it sure
added a lot of personality to it.

How about beaded hangers?

This was the kitchen counter of the camper craft house.

The oven and kitchen drawers. Why not use them too?

There was even stuff in the little bathroom.

She even had "stuff" in the guest bedroom next to the camper.

She was so excited that I wanted to take her pic :-)
Her husband wanted to throw the old camper away but she said, NO WAY! 
So they had a crane move it to this spot.  Her place was on the edge of a "river" wash.

See the chairs and little display out in the wash.

We visited the miniature artists studio on the tour.

When I took the class to make the tiny copper wire tree, it was taught by a guy from Montana.  He winters in one of the trailers at the end of these pictures of miniatures.  He has large tattoos on his arms that are done with a lot of intricate lines.  I was asking him about them and he said when he was 17 and in the service, he had an anchor tattooed on his arm but as he got older, he wanted something else.  He found this incredible tattoo artist in his hometown of Missoula, MT and she created the pictures, free-hand, around the anchor so you can't even tell there was an anchor.  But the interesting thing he said about her was:  she tattooed her own face with many designs, using ink that only shows under a black light!  Can you imagine what she must look like walking into one of those bars/nightclubs that has black lights everywhere?  You learn something every day!

A display inside empty Readers Digests.

This was a class at our RV park one year.

All done in miniatures.  This was a class last year.

We will make cactus to display next to our trees (in the upcoming Tuesday class)
Made from clay and then baked.

The miniature studio.  These folks live in Montana and winter in Yuma.
 

A representation of an ocotillo done in copper wire.

Montana folks winter spots outside their studio.
This is where the tattoo guy (as mentioned above) resides in the winter.

This studio on the tour is porcelain painting.  The lady is from Medford, OR
but this is her winter home and studio.  She said one tiny bottle of gold paint
can cost as much as $250.

Can't get enough of those Arizona sunsets :-)

On our evening walk, we stopped by to watch the shuffleboard tournament.