Last weekend I went up to the Hope Street Block Party. There was fun and food galore, including Noble Knots. I decided to check them out.
It turns out the knots in the name comes from the fresh-baked pretzel bread they use on their sandwiches. They have a small but interesting selection.
I ordered the braised rib sandwich, but without the onions or tomato marmalade.
It was excellent. The bread was fresh, the meat tender and juicy, with just a little bit of char. Although it was a bit bland, that was my own fault for ordering it without the onions and tomato marmalade. Next time I'll try it with the tomato marmalade for just a tiny extra kick. And maybe a "Jane Dough," which is a grilled pretzel roll with cheese sauce.
This paean to the Rhode Island's signature shellfish dish in a shell, the stuffie, is a quick, entertaining read. A brief 46 pages, the book takes us through Stone's summer (probably in 2012), where he came to Rhode Island from New York every weekend to eat stuffies everywhere he could find them. Some of the stories are disjointed and roundabout, but it's still fun to read them, and share his enthusiasm.
While it seems like he never met a stuffie he didn't like, he does wax rhapsodic about a few. When his stuffie summer came to an end, he created two recipes, one spicy and one lemony, and shared them at the end. I'm going to try the lemony one, probably sometime this summer.
1. Tell us about your work
Off Soundings Design offers one-of-a-kind hooked creations that combine the fine-hooking materials and techniques of previous generations with up-to-date versions of primitive and traditional designs to create distinctive and classic items for my clients' homes. My maternal grandmother and great-grandmother hooked beautiful rugs; I hook everything BUT rugs! I offer a number of finished hooked items and collections: pillows, table runners, draft stoppers, tea cozies, trivet surrounds, holiday mittens and stockings. Each design is drawn by hand, without templates, so each is unique. The color palettes vary from item to item as well. Like fingerprints, my designs can look similar but no two are ever identical.
2. How did you come to be a professional artist/crafter?
I've always done fiber arts (cross-stitch, needlepoint, quilting, crochet) but settled into hooking when I inherited my grandmother's hooks and frames. The floors in my grandmother's home on Nantucket were covered with rugs she and her mother had hooked--from primitive maritime designs to complicated Victorian florals. I decided I'd give hooking a try and complete the last rug my grandmother started before her eyesight failed her in her 90s. I found that I really enjoyed the feel of the worn, wooden handle of the hook in my hand, the smoothness of the fine wool strips and the roughness of the burlap foundation cloth. I reveled in the creative possibilities of hooking, but I didn't need any more rugs! Then it hit me that I could create all KINDS of useful, decorative art using this traditional medium. I started creating designs for stockings and pillows for family and friends and went from there. I was encouraged to offer my work on-line and at arts fairs, and it's been great connecting with people around the world. I have pieces across the US, in the UK and Europe.
flying sheep pillow
3. Where do you draw your inspiration?
I love old, traditional primitive folk art images and take inspiration from my life here in New England: the autumn leaves, flocks of sheep, a drowsy pussycat, the Nantucket Rainbow Fleet. I even have a tea cozy that echoes the motto of Providence by asking "What Cheer?" I like to make useful items--a table runner, a pillow--that will give people a warm, happy feeling, and maybe even a jolt of nostalgia, when they see it in their homes.
What Cheer tea cozy
4. What’s your favorite item to make?
Of course it's always the project I'm working on at the moment! Right now I'm finishing up a draft stopper I was commissioned to make for a woman in London. She loved my "flying sheep" motif and asked if I could reprise that on a draft stopper. I'm especially fond of designing anything with animals on it. And, in terms of the finished products themselves, tea cozies are a particular favorite of mine because I always like to imagine that I'm helping people enjoy a nice, hot cuppa on a cool fall morning or a snowy afternoon.
Autumn Leaf Trivet Surround
5. What’s your best seller?
My pillows and tea cozies are popular items, especially for the custom work I do, but in terms of quantities of a finished item sold, I'd have to say that my winter holiday stockings are the best selling item I offer. They're relatively inexpensive and while I have lots of 'stock' images I use, people can get very creative in commissioning original work. One client commissioned me to spell out her family's last name, one letter per stocking, so she could hang them on their mantelpiece at Christmas.
6. How long have you been in Rhode Island?
I've lived in Rhode Island since 2001.
7. What do you {heart} about Rhode Island?
Rhode Island is a very special place, full of history, amazing natural beauty AND a thriving arts community. Museums, restaurants, live theatre, book talks, arts festivals--there's always something to do! I've found Rhode Island to be full of generous, neighborly people who have a wonderfully self-deprecating sense of humor. Life in Li'l Rhody is great!
8. Please include anything else you’d like to add:
I enjoy demonstrating, and talking about, traditional hooking (yes, I AM a happy hooker!) and am available to teach classes for groups of up to ten people.
For those unfamiliar with Shepard Fairey's work, welcome to Providence, where it started. Obey the Giant is a film by (then) RISD student Julian Marshall.
I should note that the film's been out for more than a year...sometimes I'm a bit behind the times.
We'd been hearing about The Mayor's Own Marinara Sauce since before we moved to Rhode Island. Local interest books talk about it. A conversation about "Buddy" Cianci that lasts more than five minutes mentions it.
I finally found it at our local Stop & Shop and decided to give it a try.
The sauce pours out thick and a little chunky. It smells fresh. We only gave it time to heat through on the stove, as we didn't want it to cook down. We wanted the real taste, so we didn't add anything to it.
I served it over whole grain pasta, since that's what we had in the house.
Bear loved it. She thought it was delicious, and came back for seconds. I thought it tasted bright, fresh and tomato-y, but that it was lacking...something. We usually buy store brand sauce and doctor it ourselves with spices, herbs and red wine. I was probably missing the wine. Even so, I thought it was very good.
It's definitely pricey ($4.99 for a bottle), but a portion of that goes to "benefiting Providence school children," as it says on the label. I'd want to know a little more about that. Unfortunately, when I click on the "marinara" link on Buddy's website, I get a "no data found" page. I hope they'll update it soon.
I got an email today about the upcoming Sketchbook Project summer tour, that's coming to Providence in June. I'd never heard of it, but after reading about it, it seemed very interesting. Artists from all over the world have sent sketchbooks to the project and museum in Brooklyn, NY. The summer tour takes some of them on the road around the U.S. I love traveling exhibits!
from their press release:
"The Sketchbook Project is a global, crowd-sourced art project and traveling exhibition. Since 2006, the Sketchbook Project has encouraged participants from all walks of life to fill the pages of a blank sketchbook. The results are cataloged in the Brooklyn Art Library and shared with the public in venues around the world. The collection currently includes more than 26,000 sketchbooks representing nearly 8,000 cities worldwide.
This summer, Steven Peterman, co-founder of the Sketchbook Project, and Sara Peterman, director of the Brooklyn Art Library, are hitting the road to share the stories behind the Sketchbook Project with communities across North America. The husband-and-wife duo will set out for adventure in the Mobile Library — their custom-built bookmobile — along with a selection of 4,500 sketchbooks from the permanent collection. Covering more than 10,000 miles and 32 cities in just four months, the Summer Tour is a unique opportunity to experience the Sketchbook Project firsthand and swap stories with the project’s organizers."
...
"The goal is to continue inspiring people from diverse backgrounds to make art. “Given all the ways that technology has integrated with our lives, it feels meaningful to meet new people over physical
books,” says Steven. “This project is about people leaving their mark in the world.”
About the Sketchbook Project
The Sketchbook Project is a global, crowd-sourced art project and interactive, traveling exhibition of handmade books. Our community is made up of over 75,000 people, and our permanent collection at Brooklyn Art Library holds over 26,000 sketchbooks from 135 countries around the globe.
We invite participants from all walks of life to fill the pages of a blank sketchbook and send it back for inclusion in our ever-growing library of inspiration.
