Sandy Coleman to appear on HGTV
8 Aug 2005
`Crafty' women
BY JANETTE SEARS/SUN CHRONICLE STAFF
Two local crafters are going to be featured on Home & Garden Television this fall.
Heather Wells of North Attleboro and Sandy Coleman of South Attleboro were each filmed in their homes for the New England segment of the HGTV crafting show `` That's Clever,' which for the past two years has gone by the name ``Crafters Coast to Coast.'
Wells will be featured in two episodes of the show, illustrating how she makes cylindrical lamps decorated with quilling paper and paper cocktail umbrellas.
Coleman will be featured in one segment, where she'll demonstrate how she creates two-dimensional greeting cards.
The fall season starts Sept. 26 but when the episodes with Wells and Coleman will air has yet to be determined.
``We look for crafters with a fun personality whose work is unique and different, or has an interesting quality that is appropriate for our show,' said Emily Yarborough, HGTV public relations manager.
In addition, HGTV production crew member Lorelei Plotczyk said the crafts featured on the show need to have a visually interesting process.
``If someone is just creating a painting, then the viewer would get bored watching six minutes of painting,' Plotczyk said. ``But, with Sandy's craft, for example, we're seeing not only the painting, but the creative way she cuts it up and reassembles it into a card, and then embellishes it.
``With Heather's craft, we'd never even heard of quilling paper, which is what she uses to weave into a pattern over a lamp shade. The process is unique, and the finished lamps look great. Heather also did a shorter second project in which she made another lamp using cocktail umbrellas. Who wouldn't want to see how that's done?'
Wells, a 2002 graduate of Rhode Island School of Design, with a bachelor's degree in textiles, says she began using the cocktail umbrellas when she created her senior art project at RISD.
For the project, she dipped the tips of about 150 cocktail umbrellas in glow-in-the-dark paint and covered an air filter with them, creating a colorful dome-like piece.
Having pleased both herself and the judges with her decorative creation, Wells began her own product line making a modified version of the dome piece using cylinders to create lamps covered with the umbrellas.
To create the lamps, she uses white plastic cylinders, which are UL approved and have a sticky surface. She then uses a drill to make a hole in the top for a light fixture and smaller holes all over the surface through which she pushes the ends of opened umbrellas. She then places the opened umbrellas flat against the cylinder, adds plastic tips to the toothpick ends of the umbrellas, inside the cylinder, and sprays a fire retardant finish inside and out.
Having added about six other similar artistic products to her line, Wells has created a home business she calls Bright Lights, Little City.
One of these products is the cylinders she covers with quilling paper, which will be featured in a longer segment of the show. Unlike the lamps, which are meant to be hung, the cylinders stand on tripods, and Wells adds colorful plastic tips to complement the designs with which she covers the cylinders.
Using the quilling paper, Wells creates the designs for the cylinders by cutting thin strips of various colors. She then glues a layer of horizontal strips, followed by a layer of glued vertical strips, to make a woven pattern.
Wells said she was reluctant at first to do the show and be exposed to a national audience, but now she urges other emerging artists to try to get on the show when the opportunity arises.
``I'm happy and excited that I'm going to be on a show that has helped launched people's careers,' she said. ``It's a show that's gotten a great name for itself, and a lot of people work really hard to make the show intimate and funny and to make all the crafts that the people do look attainable. It's showing people on a very small, intimate scale, sort of like inviting the viewing audience into their home. It's going to be great to have my name associated with a show like that.'
Coleman, a reporter for The Boston Globe, says she has been drawing and painting since she was a child, and recently began creating the greeting cards that will be featured on the show.
``I got inspired to do it because I was working on a public art piece with UMass and just playing around with different colors and tissue paper and things like that, and it sort of developed out of that,' she said.
The cards are blank inside, embellished with buttons, and can be framed as a piece of artwork. Coleman said the finished designs often look like patchwork quilts, inspired by the many childhood memories she has of watching her grandmother make quilts.
To create the cards, Coleman says she first creates an image, such as the one used to create the card that will be featured on the show. It features an outdoor scene with three figures walking along.
``I create an image, I draw it, I watercolor it, and then I cut it up in squares,' she said. ``Then, I actually go back with acrylic paint to accentuate some of the pieces. I play around with different things -- different elements, paintings, collaging, all kinds of things, and then I add the buttons.'
Coleman also creates jewelry, which along with most of her paintings has a strong African influence. She says being on the show is one of several things that have begun to help her artistic career take off this year.
``I love that show,' Coleman said. ``I watch it all the time, and I watch the crafting show. I try some of the things that they actually show, and to think that I'm going to be on it is just really amazing.'
Janette Sears can be reached by phone or fax at 508-222-2442 or by e-mail at janette(at)janettesears.com.
Janette Sears
`Crafty' women
BY JANETTE SEARS/SUN CHRONICLE STAFF
Two local crafters are going to be featured on Home & Garden Television this fall.
Heather Wells of North Attleboro and Sandy Coleman of South Attleboro were each filmed in their homes for the New England segment of the HGTV crafting show `` That's Clever,' which for the past two years has gone by the name ``Crafters Coast to Coast.'
Wells will be featured in two episodes of the show, illustrating how she makes cylindrical lamps decorated with quilling paper and paper cocktail umbrellas.
Coleman will be featured in one segment, where she'll demonstrate how she creates two-dimensional greeting cards.
The fall season starts Sept. 26 but when the episodes with Wells and Coleman will air has yet to be determined.
``We look for crafters with a fun personality whose work is unique and different, or has an interesting quality that is appropriate for our show,' said Emily Yarborough, HGTV public relations manager.
In addition, HGTV production crew member Lorelei Plotczyk said the crafts featured on the show need to have a visually interesting process.
``If someone is just creating a painting, then the viewer would get bored watching six minutes of painting,' Plotczyk said. ``But, with Sandy's craft, for example, we're seeing not only the painting, but the creative way she cuts it up and reassembles it into a card, and then embellishes it.
``With Heather's craft, we'd never even heard of quilling paper, which is what she uses to weave into a pattern over a lamp shade. The process is unique, and the finished lamps look great. Heather also did a shorter second project in which she made another lamp using cocktail umbrellas. Who wouldn't want to see how that's done?'
Wells, a 2002 graduate of Rhode Island School of Design, with a bachelor's degree in textiles, says she began using the cocktail umbrellas when she created her senior art project at RISD.
For the project, she dipped the tips of about 150 cocktail umbrellas in glow-in-the-dark paint and covered an air filter with them, creating a colorful dome-like piece.
Having pleased both herself and the judges with her decorative creation, Wells began her own product line making a modified version of the dome piece using cylinders to create lamps covered with the umbrellas.
To create the lamps, she uses white plastic cylinders, which are UL approved and have a sticky surface. She then uses a drill to make a hole in the top for a light fixture and smaller holes all over the surface through which she pushes the ends of opened umbrellas. She then places the opened umbrellas flat against the cylinder, adds plastic tips to the toothpick ends of the umbrellas, inside the cylinder, and sprays a fire retardant finish inside and out.
Having added about six other similar artistic products to her line, Wells has created a home business she calls Bright Lights, Little City.
One of these products is the cylinders she covers with quilling paper, which will be featured in a longer segment of the show. Unlike the lamps, which are meant to be hung, the cylinders stand on tripods, and Wells adds colorful plastic tips to complement the designs with which she covers the cylinders.
Using the quilling paper, Wells creates the designs for the cylinders by cutting thin strips of various colors. She then glues a layer of horizontal strips, followed by a layer of glued vertical strips, to make a woven pattern.
Wells said she was reluctant at first to do the show and be exposed to a national audience, but now she urges other emerging artists to try to get on the show when the opportunity arises.
``I'm happy and excited that I'm going to be on a show that has helped launched people's careers,' she said. ``It's a show that's gotten a great name for itself, and a lot of people work really hard to make the show intimate and funny and to make all the crafts that the people do look attainable. It's showing people on a very small, intimate scale, sort of like inviting the viewing audience into their home. It's going to be great to have my name associated with a show like that.'
Coleman, a reporter for The Boston Globe, says she has been drawing and painting since she was a child, and recently began creating the greeting cards that will be featured on the show.
``I got inspired to do it because I was working on a public art piece with UMass and just playing around with different colors and tissue paper and things like that, and it sort of developed out of that,' she said.
The cards are blank inside, embellished with buttons, and can be framed as a piece of artwork. Coleman said the finished designs often look like patchwork quilts, inspired by the many childhood memories she has of watching her grandmother make quilts.
To create the cards, Coleman says she first creates an image, such as the one used to create the card that will be featured on the show. It features an outdoor scene with three figures walking along.
``I create an image, I draw it, I watercolor it, and then I cut it up in squares,' she said. ``Then, I actually go back with acrylic paint to accentuate some of the pieces. I play around with different things -- different elements, paintings, collaging, all kinds of things, and then I add the buttons.'
Coleman also creates jewelry, which along with most of her paintings has a strong African influence. She says being on the show is one of several things that have begun to help her artistic career take off this year.
``I love that show,' Coleman said. ``I watch it all the time, and I watch the crafting show. I try some of the things that they actually show, and to think that I'm going to be on it is just really amazing.'
Janette Sears can be reached by phone or fax at 508-222-2442 or by e-mail at janette(at)janettesears.com.
Janette Sears
