A Merry Christmas

mother and child: BC jade carving by artist, Tom Reid

The Blackberry Artist's Society would like to wish you all a very merry Christmas.
Peace on earth and goodwill to all men.

Wordless Wednesday: We Close Tomorrow

Just a hint but we're closing tomorrow afternoon .....

Tree Gifts and Stocking Stuffers

 

For tree gifts and stocking stuffers don't forget to check the tree in the main gallery. 

It's loaded with all sorts of delightful handcrafted goodies for decorating your own tree or as tiny little stocking stuffers. 

Some of the items, all handmade by our members, are also suitable to adding to gift wrap for a hostess or girlfriend gift to boost the festive impact. 

All items decorating the branches are for sale (but I think we'll hang on to the lights and ribbon garland).

Festive Adopt-a-thon: For The Kids

This one is especially for the children and young-at-heart. We have a chirpy little cricket needing a loving home. Made by wood artist, Del Holbrook, this gorgeous pull-along-invertebrate will bring joy and entertainment to its adopted family for many years.

Also At City Hall

With all the excitement of our Christmas Marketplace underway at the Arts Centre, it's easy to forget about one of our other showcase spectaculars. Year round, the Blackberry Artists are on display at the Port Moody City Hall (up the steps on the half landing in front of the reception desk). Mostly, the display case is populated by individual or groups of artists but sometimes our coordinator puts on a "Best Of Shop" display ... and that's what we have for your viewing pleasure this Christmas.

All items on display are for sale, and there is a contact number for you if you see something you desire (and let's face it, they are all objects of desire).

Yet another shop local, shop handmade moment brought to you by the Blackberry Artist's Society :)

PS: Don't forget - we're open for late night shopping Friday 17th to Sunday 19th ie. this weekend, coinciding with live theatre performances in and around the Arts Centre.

Festive Adopt-a-Thon: Shy and Retiring

Bold and brash not your style? Bouncy slobbering party animal not on your wish list?
Don't worry - at the Blackberry Gift Shop we have 'pets' for all tastes.
How about a calm, zen-like panda from paper artist, Yolanda Cheung, or a wee creature to lurk in your eaves from wood artist, Pat de Couto?

Wordless Wednesday: Further Adventures in Adopt-a-thon

Raining Cats and Dogs?
As if we need a reminder?

beautiful iris folding paper art by Valerie Gilbert
also available as cards

Away From Your Cosy Fireside

Can we tempt you away from your cosy fireside this weekend?
On this weekend before Christmas (yes, the last one ... you're nearly there!) Port Moody and the Arts Centre gets really festive. For one thing, the CP Holiday train will be pulling in to Queen's Street, Port Moody on Friday, December 17th so why not call in to visit the gift shop since you're in the area (we're open till 8pm)?

As an added incentive (and to tempt you out over the rest of the weekend), a theatre troup will be putting on performances of The Little Match Girl each night, at 7.30 and 8pm (17th to 19th December inclusive) in the grounds of the Arts Centre. To stave off the chills, hot chocolate and hot apple cider will be available.

Might I suggest that a visit inside the Arts Centre to the Marketplace, Instructors' Exhibition and Silent Auction would also help warm you up? We'll be open each night for late night shopping.

PS: the performance is a fund raiser for local charities - suggested donation of $5 per person.

For The Kids

The Blackberry Gift Shop is not just breakables, smashables, daubables, or destructables - we are very lucky to have an excellent toymaker in out midst, and at Christmas our market place is enhanced with its very own Toys Corner.

I'm not sure if Del Holbrook's amazing wooden toys have achieved cult status yet ... but here's what we have on offer this year. Why not come check them out yourself and decide?

Festive Adopt-a-thon

The latest batch of anipals needing a festive good home is ready and waiting for you at the Blackberry Gift Shop Christmas Marketplace (yes, it's Christmas - sooner than you think). It's not quite lions and tigers and bears (oh my) but we're not far off. I'll get you started with this beseeching bear from carver, Tom Reid.

... and don't forget the real fur people; Coquitlam Animal Shelter is running a campaign this year to find homes for their adorable kitties :)

Just In Case ....

Christmas is coming, originally uploaded by Blackberry Artists.

.... you didn't know, our Marketplace is open ....

For a sneak peek check out this slide set on our flickr portfolio, and start making that list.

Wordless Wednesday: the festive edition

snowy scene art card (Gay Torlay)

Christmas is coming soon! our Christmas Marketplace is now open ;)

Spread The Word!

by artist, Cathy Rycroft

Our Christmas Marketplace is open as a one-stop shopping venue for local handmade in and around Port Moody. The gift shop is open seven days a week in the run up to Christmas Eve, with late night shopping Wednesday through to Friday.

On the last weekend before Christmas we will also extend our shopping hours into the evening on both Saturday and Sunday, 18th and 19th December.

Christmas Marketplace Opens Tonight

wood intarsia decoration (Del Holbrook)

The Blackberry Artist's Society proudly announces the grand opening of its Christmas marketplace this evening. In conjunction with the opening of new gallery exhibitions at the Arts Centre in Port Moody, we would like to invite you to this free event held between 6pm and 8pm this evening.
Cash bar, and appetisers served.

Wordless Wednesday: Christmas Shopping

candle paper art card (Valerie Gilbert)

Christmas shopping now available - Christmas Marketplace ;)

An Invitation

Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls!
Christmas is only so many sleeps away, and the shopping days are numbered!

Please accept our invitation to the grand opening of our Christmas Marketplace on the evening of December 2nd (6 - 8pm) at the Arts Centre of Port Moody.

Our artists have been busy preparing a cornucopia of gifts, great and small, for your delight. Consider the gift shop your one-stop holiday shop, with gifts, gift bags and cards galore. There is something for everyone!

Extended shopping hours throughout December (with late shopping nights Wednesday to Friday) until the 23rd mean there is not excuse not to visit (no, really!).

Season's greetings :)

A Reminder

As if you didn't already need an excuse to visit!!

Not only do we have a splendiferously festive gift shop right now (shop handmade, shop local)  but we also have a lovely "thank you" for one lucky visitor.

So next time you're in the gift shop don't forget to fill in a "where did you find out about us" slip for a chance to win this gorgeous 6" by 6" acrylic painting by Val Simons. The prize will be drawn in the new year.

Christmas Marketplace and more (oh my)

You are cordially invited to the opening of the Port Moody Arts Centre annual Instructor Show. The exhibition opens on December 2nd and runs until December 23rd.

The opening night (6-8pm on Thursday, December 2nd) is also a great opportunity to view and bid on the entries for the 6x6 art auction. Proceeds from this fun sale of art by members of the Arts Centre benefits future programming.

PS: It's also the night that our Christmas Marketplace expands into the 3D gallery :)
 

Wordless Wednesday: Christmas is coming

photographic christmas baubles (Tracy Riddell)

Christmas is coming soon! and so is our Christmas Marketplace ;)

Winter Warmers

handwoven scarf (Beryl Hickinbottom)

The nights are drawing in, the sun barely warms the land, frost decorates the eaves each morning .... brrr! chilly out.

What you need is a warming visit to the gift shop to banish those winter chills.
We have toasty and stylish scarves, handwoven by a local weaver, to accessorise your cold weather clothing.
We have warming glass votives for maing your living room snug in the dark evenings.
We have handthrown mugs for that steaming hot chocolate at the end of the day.

Do visit :)
PS: our full Christmas Marketplace will be open from the beginning of December with extra late night shopping times :)

glass votive (Margret Billings), blooms photo tile and print (Sarah Ronald), ceramic beaker (Dan Severance)

Wordless Wednesday: Christmas soon

intarsia picture (Del Holbrook)

Welcome to the Blackberry Gift Shop
Christmas is on its way! and so is our Christmas Marketplace ;)

Horses For Courses

......
and of course horses as gifts.

We are very lucky to have some amazing artists who can capture the essence of all things equine.
Artist Cathy Rycroft, who is one half of a race horse training duo at Hastings Park in her other life, captures the smooth physique of the equine athlete in her paintings on stone. Her work is also available as unframed prints so please check out the folders beneath the cards in the gift shop.

Another artist who captures the spirit of horses in her work is photographer Tracy Riddell. She was also our featured artist in September where she explained how her striking images have been used to promote animal welfare.

Moving on to 3D art, we have carver Tom Reid also exploring the equine form with this magnificent horse head carving. Tom works in a variety of stones; this carving is in serpentine.

Why not come in this evening to check them out in person? - new exhibitions are opening at the Arts Centre this evening so the gift shop will be open 6 - 8pm.

Lest We Forget

Bloom Poppy, Vicki Allesia

Move him into the sun -
Gently its touch awoke him once,
At home, whispering of fields unsown.
Always it woke him, even in France,
Until this morning and this snow.
If anything might rouse him now
The kind old sun will know.

Think how it wakes the seeds, -
Woke, once, the clays of a cold star.
Are limbs, so dear-achieved, are sides,
Full-nerved, - still warm, - too hard to stir?
Was it for this the clay grew tall?
- O what made fatuous sunbeams toil
To break earth's sleep at all?

(Futility by Wilfred Owen, 1893 - 1918)


The "Lacrymosa" from Britten's War Requiem. 
Soprano, Makvala Kasrashvili. Tenor, Anthony Rolfe Johnson
conducted by Mstislav Rostropovich, Royal Albert Hall 1993

For The Birds

driftwood sculpture (Pat de Couto)

stone carving (Tom Reid)

The gift shop is going to the birds IMO. It's like a flock of assorted avians descended on the shelves one night (in the cleanest possible way, I hasten to add).

So incredibly "tweet" ....

painting (Elizabeth Wallace)

rooster (Tracy Riddell)

But I'm sending in the cat ;)

stone carving (Tom Reid)

Wordless Wednesday: A Prickly Subject

spikey orange caterpillar photo tile from Sarah Ronald

 
pumpkin reminder, anyone?

Christmas is only so many sleeps away, and the shopping days are numbered! This year we'd really love you to shop local, shop handmade ..... and where better to start than the Blackberry Gift Shop in the Port Moody Arts Centre.

Please mark your calendars for our grand Christmas marketplace - opening the evening of December 2nd and continuing (with late shopping nights Wednesday to Friday) until the 23rd.

If you're either impatient to get festive or wanting to meet the overseas shipping deadlines take note; the gift shop will be getting seasonal from the beginning of November. Our artists are already delivering their new Christmas work to our vault and the Arts Centre tree, decorated with handmade trimmings for sale, will be in place November 15th.

Season's greetings :)