Collecting Art From Our Friends
In our flipbook we included a photo of Adam hanging a beautiful weaving that a close friend made for us as a wedding gift. We have a number of wonderfully talented artistic friends and we love collecting pieces of their work to decorate our home. Since we didn’t have enough space to show off all their beautiful work elsewhere, we thought it might be a fun blog idea. Each of these friends is very close and important to us, so we greatly enjoy having these reminders of them on our walls. We also plan to have special pieces made for the baby’s room!
First up is the weaving. This was made by Jacob’s high school English teacher, Mrs. Watkins, who he has remained very close with over the nearly 10 years since he took her class! In fact, we just met her for lunch last week and had a wonderful time catching up. She is a very creative individual who is so skilled in many crafts. She’s a full-time grandma and teacher who also raises chickens, tends gorgeous vegetable gardens, handmakes soap, weaves wall-hangings, and so much more. Over the years we have received many bars of fragrant soap, often made with herbs she grows herself. The crown jewel is, of course, the weaving she made for our wedding. The colors were inspired by the spectrum of colors during a sunset: dark blues, twinges of bright yellow, and deep reds/oranges. Blue & orange were also some of the main decorative colors in our wedding! We also love how it produces a beautiful rainbow spectrum as well, which is meaningful as a symbol of Pride for the LGBT+ community. We’ve included some close-up photos to really show off the intricate design changes across each color. It’s such a wonderful, vibrant addition to our home and it hangs in the heart of activity for our home. We can’t wait to see what she will produce for the baby.
The next piece is from our friend Bailey. This friendship is unique because Bailey is actually the daughter of a couple we’re friends with. Adam worked with her stepfather, Ken, before changing jobs to move in with Jacob. During the time Adam & Ken worked together, Adam & Jacob would frequently spend Friday evenings with Ken, his wife Michelle, and their daughter Bailey. Ken & Michelle are a bit older than us, and Bailey was in high school when we first met them, so we were a bit in-between in terms of ages. Bailey often joined the 4 of us for board games and she was never “too cool” to spend time with us. She and Adam share a fondness for drawing, so they would often discuss her latest pieces. For Adam’s birthday last year, she surprised him with this beautiful painting of the two of us beneath an umbrella in the rain. We had seen this style on the internet before and fell in love with it, so we were so grateful that she made this for us.
Lastly are the many pieces (and counting) that we’ve collected from our friend Amy. Jacob’s oldest friend, Brady, met Amy a few years ago and they hit it off right away. Everyone around them could tell what a perfect fit they were for each other, and we’ve been so happy to see them grow together. In fact, Brady and Amy will be getting married in October and they asked Jacob to officiate the wedding! It’s an enormous honor and we can’t wait to celebrate with them. Amy is a very creative soul who expresses herself through just about every possible medium. She sings, plays instruments, writes, makes jewelry, and our favorite of her work: intricate, abstract hand-cut paper designs set in resin. We have 5 of these pieces now and, honestly, it’s a struggle to restrain ourselves every time we see the new pieces she puts out. We just love the color and character that shines from these pieces. Her most recent work has been with metallic paper and we really, really love those pieces. Since Jacob loves Halloween, instead of buying retail decorations last year he commissioned a Halloween-inspired piece of Amy’s work (see the moon & bats below). This was such a fun way to support a friend’s business through the pandemic while expanding our collection of Halloween decorations. We can’t wait to find the perfect piece(s) of Amy’s work to bring color, brightness, and warmth to the baby room someday.
