(More) Washington Zibbeters

I'm so excited to what has happened to our Washington Zibbeters group that I had started on Zibbet. When I had written the original post, we started with 6 members, but when the post was published, we added two more. So I amended my original post to add those two new members. However, over the weekend, we grew to 18 members! Below are the new members that have joined our group. Please visit their shops to wish them a warm hello!

Bead Jewelry Supply is from Tacoma and sells beads, components, findings, and jewelry supplies that are a very good quality. I think that everyone can use a little peace in their life.


beadsandbotanicals is a husband and wife team that live in Olympia. And while they are still working on filling their botanical part of their Zibbet shop, the bead section is quite extensive and breathtaking.


Emerald Chandlery lives in Seattle and creates VegiSoy 18 hour votives, coconut wax travel tins and coconut wax tea lights from natural waxes.



GrannyMooseDesigns is from Newman Lake and makes these adorable felties and iPod cases. This one makes me want to run out and buy an iPod just so I can put it in this case!


Hempcraft lives in Olympia and makes hemp jewelry including hemp bracelets, hemp necklaces, and hemp earrings. She has a true passion for eco fashion and a fascination with knot work. It really shows in this hemp bracelet. It's wonderful that 100% of the proceeds go to the Japan Earthquake and Tsunami Relief Fund via GlobalGiving.org.



Jamfies Shop makes beautiful handmade paper crafts in Moses Lake. I love all the detail she puts in each card she makes. Each one has such unique embellisments.



lindsayslovelycandlesNcrafts is in the middle of Washington in the town of Yakima and started making candles about 4 years ago with her sister. Now she's opened up her own show and not only sells candles, but other crafts she makes. But there are still some great looking candles, like this one!



Matur Suksema is a supply shop from Bothell that brings in genuine handmade Bali sterling silver beads and findings plus handcarved cow bone cabochons and pendants. I love all the details in this bead.



Rosy Days Aprons makes handmade aprons in Bothell. Be sure to check out her shop often as she is always listing new items and the ones that are already in her shop are so bright and colourful!


Textilewonder is in Burlington and creates beautiful works for art out of fabric. It's wonderful to see how she uses fabric like a paintbrush to create these one of a kind artwork.

Washington Zibbeters

Zibbet is a global marketplace, connecting buyers and sellers of Handmade Goods, Fine Art, Vintage Items and Crafting Supplies. Recently I created a Washington Zibbeter group in the Community Hub. Now that we are up to 8 members, I thought it might be a good time to celebrate my fellow Washingtonian crafters!

Breathofthedragon, from Wenatchee, makes unique magnets, key chains, cell phone charms, boxes and hanging signs with wood burning designs. I fell in love with this Celestial Recipe box.



Firelight is in Seattle and handcrafts unique perfume oil, cologne oils, aquatic scents, body lotions and lip balms. I wish my computer had scent because I'd love to be able to smell this pumpkin streusel muffin perfume oil.



NicolesVisions lives in Wenatchee and creates calendars, notecards, bookmarks, prints, coasters and so much more from her beautiful photography. My favorite in her shop is this bookmark that has a quote about a journey.



No Mark At All takes breathtaking photos while living in Puyallup. This photo is very Northwest and reminds me of the snail that my daughters' brought back on their way home from school today!



Sassyprincess makes soaps, soy candles, body scrubs, sheabutter salve and bath salts in Rosalia. I think it's really great that she doesn't use any alcohol or animal products. Anyone would be trilled to get this lovely gift basket at their next bridal or baby shower!



Seattlechic lives in Bellevue and makes original treasures with metal, wire, beads, and stones. It's really amazing what she does with bent wire, and this Picasso bracelet would look so chic on anyone's wrist.



ScarfCity resides in Seattle and makes crochet scarves, head wraps, skirts, arm/wrist/leg warmers and hats. Her items are perfect for the Pacific cold winters and the patch of bright red on this scarf is sure to brighten up any rainy day.



Suhafuha lives in Woodinville and has a lovely shop full of hand dyed venise lace, trims, handmade flowers, appliqués, jacquard ribbons and other sewing and craft supplies. I recently purchased one of these lovely handmade poppies and they truly are beautiful.



And of course there is my shop, but you should all know about it by now. So I hope you get a chance to stop by my fellow WaZibb shop owners and extend a warm hello!

Custom Double Toggle Light Switches

I had someone ask me to make them some custom double light switches for the women's side of the mosque. This what I've come up with today, what do you think?

15 years of being a Docent at the Seattle Art Museum

I became a Docent Laureate today at the Seattle Art Museum, which means that I've been touring there for 15 years. I first started volunteering there in 1992, with my first tour in 1994, but it wasn't really official until 1996, when the African Art Interpreters (which is what I was) were brought into the Docent program at SAM. I had to give a little speech and I thought I would share it here, since it's kinda cool to be a part of so much history at SAM.

Here is an image of my new gold badge that I received, which is so much nicer then the white plastic one I had for 15 years.


At the very start of our AAI program, various members of the Seattle community were brought in to have a special role in SAM’scope: to teach our visitors about sub-Saharian African art. We were asked to show our visitors that the masks that hung on the walls were used for special occasions, harvest celebrations and remembrances of life cycles. We were given the daunting task of taking a part of the world that our visitors were not very familiar with and make it personal so they left with a better understanding of our fellow human brothers and sisters.

Our goals for theInterpreter Program given to us in the early 90s were simple:
• To learn about African art and culture
-as it relates to our collection
-as a means to contextualize and historicize the objects
-to de-mystify and reconstruct commonly-held images of Africa
• To learn effective ways of reaching and educating visitors
-by knowing the visitor (age, ability, interest, assumptions)
-by engaging the visitor
•in seeing
•in appreciating
•in dialoguing about the art and the issues/experiences it engenders

Easy, right? Well it took us 18 months to do this. Along the way, we had help with amazing knowledgeable scholars, artists, and writers such as Robert Farris Thomason, James Washington, Jacob Lawrence, Renee Braveman, WonLdy Paye, Gilda Sheppard, Dr. Joy Hardiman, Dr. Clarke Speed and Barbara Thomas. It truly was amazing the high level of caliber that museum staff brought to our meetings so that we can learn and share that knowledge with our visitors. I had specialized in African art in college, but to see these speakers in person made me star stuck and excited to be able to learn from them.

And what was the museum getting in return for this venture? An amazing eclectic array of griots, A griot is an African historian, who delivers history as a poet, praise singer and wandering musician. We were asked to take the oral traditions of objects that consisted of nothing more then wood, bones, nails and cloth and breath life into them so that our visitors can image what they looked like live on a person. I remember once taking a single cowry shell on a tour with me and letting my visitors touch it and pass it around, and you would have thought they were touching a miracle. Here was a single white object, no bigger then a nickel, that was being handled as if it was the Hope Diamond. They were amazed that such a tiny piece of shell was used as currency and that is why it covered the mask I was talking about that hung on the wall. I was opening for them the history of the cowry shell in a brand new way.

I would never have enjoyed the looks on the visitor’s faces if it wasn’t for the fact that I took all those months of learning about cross-cultural comparisons of roles, using both the visual and conceptual frame of references, investigating the mythical significance of a piece, participating in systematic activities and asking visitors to describe their perceptions of an object. I have since taken these goals with me to special tours and currently the Sculpture Park. I have the AAI program to thank for taking the time to really teach me such valuable lessons with our original goals and objectives.

Online Auction to Aid Libya

Libya Outreach has launched a collection of unique and beautiful pieces of art up for auction. 100% of sales of all original works will go to humanitarian aid in Libya. They will be adding new pieces to their event page on Facebook. Please support the cause and go bid!

This is the first piece up for sale: Eman Al-Obeidy by Mohamed Gula. White and black charcoal drawing with the flag in pastel.Mohamed Gula, a Libyan artist born in the US, pursued his passion for art in high school while attending Stivers School for the Arts in Dayton, OH. His inspirations come from the beauty of people around him and creating the every day life that he experiences in his world on a canvas. He is currently studying at Wright State University majoring in Political Science and Education. The recent events in Libya have motivated him to draw the historical heroes of the revolution to encourage a more positive view of the outside world’s perception of what is happening to his home country.