Artist's Studio in Stonington, CT

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American Dream: An Artist's Studio in a Rampling Old Mill

By Norma Jaeger Hopcraft

In the Velvet Mill in Stonington, CT, a rabbit warren of studios and markets, I encountered the photography and textiles studio of Nancy Apthorp, and I thought you would enjoy seeing it.

Her work surface is scattered with tools, bits and pieces.

She has a luscious stash of fabric, and a sewing machine set up, ready to go.

Photographer and textile artist Nancy Apthorp. She made a handbag (on the right) with a man's tie for a handle.

Some of her photography exhibit.

I went back to her studio for a second visit, taking my father's ties. I'd like to make them into a quilt.

She "played" with the silk ties, showing me all kinds of ways they could be laid out into patterns.

One of her favorite types of fabric is men's suit fabric, especially wools, which you see behind the ties. How about you? Do you get the creative itch sometimes? Comment below!

American Dream: A Studio of One's Own

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My American Dream: Save Old Commercial Architecture for Creative Spaces

By Norma Jaeger Hopcraft

Stonington, CT, has put an old textile mill to excellent use. Artists of all sorts rent creative space within this rambling labyrinth, and people stroll by on Saturday market days and hopefully buy things :)  This is an excellent place for start-up businesses and collaboration spaces to thrive.

I would love to see all of America's old mills used in this creative way, to provide a space where innovation and creative work can carry our economy forward.

Here's the Velvet Mill in Stonington, CT, again, and it goes forever in both directions. Lots of room for hideaways and creative spaces!

Here's a potter's creative space within the mill, one of many studios.

She has room for several types of kilns and drying racks.

She's telling me just a bit about her creative process (sorry, I don't remember her name).

Here's a display of some of her lovely work.

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A few more items for sale. How about you? Do you crave to mash clay between your fingers? How about something simple, like fingerpaints? Comment below!

An Sculpture's Dream: A Studio in an Old Mill

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American Dream for an Artist: His or Her Own Studio

By Norma Jaeger Hopcraft

In Stonington, CT, there is a huge old velvet mill, one of many textile mills in New England that closed when the cheap labor of the South put them out of business. 

This historic commercial architecture somehow survived and is now used to host a Saturday market that draws thousands. It also is a rabbit-warren of studios: weaving, pottery, sculpture, photography, painting. This picture is 1/64th of the space available here. There are several indie coffee shops inside!

Here is a sculpture by this artist -- name unknown -- that caught my eye in one of the many labyrinthine hallways of the mill.

The sculpture is made up of hundreds of these little people-forms.

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Here's a bunch of people admiring the little people! Next week: More studios! How about you? Do you crave a space in which to be artistic? Comment below!

American Dream: An Artist's Studio or House in Noank, CT

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American Dream: I Think I'll Take the Studio

By Norma Jaeger Hopcraft

I promised a few shots of some great houses in Noank. You'll get them. But first, if you like my blog, sign up to follow it? And RT the link that brought you here? Thanks!

Great houses behind the lobster pots, a true sign of the Connecticut coast.

This one is on the water's edge.

Here's the view out its windows (almost).

I wouldn't call it a great house, but what a fantastic artist's or writer's studio it would make! Except it might smell of lobster...

Beyond the pier, some great houses, one with its own tower.

Another view of the same place. I like the covered gazebo overlooking the water, too.

American Dream: A Wooden Boat on the Coast of Connecticut

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American Dream: A Boat to Putter On

By Norma Jaeger Hopcraft

Hundreds of rocky promontories comprise the coast of CT.  The town of Noank clings to one of them. I explored it one day. It's full of glamorous houses (I'll show you a few in another post). But it's got its own seafaring tradition, and I homed in on it.

Now here's a wooden boat for you. 

It would take several years to scrape the peeling paint off.

A close-up of the elbow grease this job requires.

Here's a nearby boat shed, the shingles dry and curling in the intense sun and salt air.

What boats do in these waters: set lobster pots, with their markers floating on the surface.

Here's the lobster traps.

Here's a boat in better condition. What a relief!

The pilot house (missing two walls) of a working lobster boat in Noank. How about you? Do you want to have a seafaring tradition? Comment below!

Bits of Wood Boats in Old Mystic, CT

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American Dream: Working as a Ferry Pilot?

By Norma Jaeger Hopcraft

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As a lovely ferry boat approaches you on the dock on the Jersey side of the Hudson River, you wonder if it wouldn't be a far better life if you were a ferry boat captain...

I've thought it! How about you?

I found a place in Old Mystic, CT that repairs wooden boats. There are also parts of wooden boats scatter all over.

The Bobby D must have served Watch Hill, Rhode Island, or maybe Watch Hill, Fire Island, both waterside communities. It must have been a handsome boat.

Here's another pilot house from a grand old ferry that used to give people who couldn't own a boat the pleasure of being on the water.

The pilot house of the Anne.

There's a few other wooden structures around the place, this one a bath house...

And this one just for fun. Imagine a wooden gazebo in your own yard! How about you? Do you feel nostalgia for a grand time in American history, when wooden ferry boats plied the Long Island Sound? Maybe a time that never was? Comment below! 

American Dreams of a Wooden Boat -- or part of one?

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Bits of Boats Would Make Interesting Backyard Follies

By Norma Jaeger Hopcraft

At a boatyard in Old Mystic, CT that I stumbled upon purely by serendipity, I found not only interesting wooden boats but also interesting wooden structures, some made out of bits of boats (see previous posts). 

Wouldn't one of these be cool in your backyard?

What is it? Take a guess in the comments section!

This is the pilot house of a former ferry named the Anne.

The insides of another pilot house -- guarded by an owl.

Cute isn't it? But what's it for?

Here's another relic of the boatyard, though it's mostly metal.

Here it is, like an owl, guarding two wooden hulls.

How about you? Any serendipitous discoveries in your neck of the woods? Comment below!