Of our many member art organizations, the Southwest Florida Fine Craft Guild (SWFFCG) is unique.
It’s dedicated to creating highly delicate and intricate three-dimensional and mixed media pieces, utilizing metal, glass, wood, stone, plastic, fabric, fiber, clay, photos, jewelry, epoxy resin and found objects. A show of 70-plus member works is adorning the walls and in glass displays in the Cape Coral Library gallery section through Dec. 31.
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The exhibition, in coordination with the Friends of the Cape Coral Library, is “our kickoff for the season,” said SWFFCG President Christine Vogensen, who specializes in epoxy resin and contributed two pieces. “It’ll help our members come together even more.
“Each work represents an artist’s feelings, thoughts and imagination to manipulate an art medium or mediums to craft a handmade art piece.”
Dee Cooper’s two design jewelry works on display behind glass typify her highly time-consuming, painstaking craft as each consists of many tiny Japanese seed beads that are sewn into velvet and other cloth materials along with stones and pearls. A seamstress for nearly a half century, the native upstate New Yorker and Cape Coral resident says “art has always been a part of my life.”
“I started making table legs as a kid in shop class in Boulder, Colorado,” recalled Mike Ziegler, who now shapes, glues together and smooths (usually with 2,000-grit sandpaper) oak, purple heart, gaboon ebony and other types of hardwood into beautiful vases, bowls, trays and urns, even pens. Three splendid examples of his artistry are in the same display as Cooper’s pieces at the exhibition.
The guild, which currently sports 70-plus members and is celebrating its 50th anniversary in 2020, holds member and board meetings on the third Saturday of each month at the Cape Coral Arts Studio. Vogensen is striving to achieve “even more interaction at our meetings and having members share their art and life journeys to further inspire each other. The enthusiasm has been great.”
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Members also provide teaching demonstrations and donate funds for art scholarships to students at Cypress Lake High School and Florida Gulf Coast University, plus summer students at the Cape Coral Arts Studio.
“We want to do even more for children,” said Vogensen.
The guild will present its annual member art showcase throughout February at the Cape Coral Arts Studio. Members will offer classes at discounted prices on Feb. 8 and 9 through which participants “can ‘make and take’ what they do,” said Cooper.
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Works of members will also be displayed at the Arts for ACT Gallery in downtown Fort Myers throughout April and will be part of Art Walk on April 3.
“We’re working to elevate craft that has high artistic merit,” added Vogensen.
If you go
What: Southwest Florida Fine Craft Guild’s exhibition at Cape Coral Library
Where: 921 Southwest 39th Terrace
Information: swflfinecraftguild.org. Cape Coral Library: 239-533-4500. Guild: 239-565-4002.