CLC Holiday Art Show opens Saturday
The College of Lake County Foundation will hold its holiday art sale this weekend, featuring the original work of 40 Illinois and Wisconsin artists.
The juried sale will include handmade jewelry, wearable art, decorative and functional ceramics, wood and metal sculpture, gourds, fused and blown glass, mosaics, and handmade soaps and candles.
One of the artists is Beth Parrock of Lake Villa, who for the past 10 years has created jewelry by bead weaving and then learned to incorporate a new material she discovered called precious metal clay that creates a silver jewelry.
Parrock explained the clay contains fine articles of silver serve as an organic binder. When they are fired in a kiln, the binder burns away and the silver molds together to form a solid piece. While the clay, which resembles a potter's clay, can be used in many ways such as to make decorative handles for knives, card holders or vases, Parrock combines it with beads to make earrings and necklaces.
Parrock said a lot of her work incorporates colors and natural elements. She uses items taken from her garden to help create pendants or makes an impression from antique buttons onto clay to make earrings. She said the clay can be versatile and now teaches classes how to use the precious metal clay in Mundelein, Lake Forest and Green Oaks. She believes everyone is creative and can try something new.
"They just have not discovered the medium they need to work in. I really believe that," she said.
At the college's art sale, Parrock said the items she makes range in cost from $12 to $500 depending on the material she uses.
"I try to make something affordable for everyone," she said.
Parrock said many people who make jewelry create what she calls fancy pieces. She wants her pieces to be comfortable and wearable.
"I try to make things you can wear to the grocery store. You wear it everyday and you don't want to take it off," she said.
The holiday art sale is sponsored by the college foundation. Proceeds help fund student scholarships.
<p class="factboxheadblack">If you go</p> <p class="News"><b>What:</b> The College of Lake County Foundation's annual holiday art show</p> <p class="News"><b>When:</b> 9 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Saturday, Nov. 22; 1 to 5 p.m. Sunday, Nov. 23; 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. Monday Nov. 24 and Tuesday, Nov 25. </p> <p class="News"><b>Where:</b> The sale will take place in the atrium outside the Robert T. Wright Community Gallery of Art at CLC's Grayslake Campus, 19351 W. Washington St. </p>