What’s Happening at Allegory Gallery? - Friday, July 11, 2025

Hello Friends!

Welcome to another installment of our “What’s Happening at Allegory Gallery” series. This past week has been very busy for us. Since we last posted here, Andrew has released a new series of artwork. These gorgeous little collages are ACEO-sized and feature layers of acrylic on Bristol board with lovely metallics. Here’s what Andrew had to say about these pieces:

“Whenever I am feeling off centered or need to process big emotions, I turn to my art. There is something about the act of creating that gives me perspective and is balm to the soul. It doesn’t “solve” the issue I’m facing, but it makes it easier to focus and proceed. I did that yesterday. I spent many hours working on these pieces, enjoying the small acts of making and dreaming of better days ahead. I played with familiar motifs and bright color and even a little iridescence and shimmer. It helped.

I am about to embark on a month-long journey, taking me up to Maine and then down to North Carolina. I won a fellowship and a work study and will be traveling most of July learning about craft and refining my skills. I always try to make a small collection of affordable art; the aim is to help offset the expenses and pay for travel and materials.”

So far, these have been available only on his Facebook timeline, but we’ll be adding them to the online store soon for those not on Facebook.

Andrew also taught another class this past Saturday at Contemporary Craft in Pittsburgh, PA. I went along again to help TA and this class was all about decals on enamel. All of the students had some type of enamel experience, so we went over some basics, taught a few short-cuts that we’ve learned, and went right in to creating custom decals for the students and showing them how to apply them. It was a really fun class, and we think that everyone had a great time. Many great projects were made, and we can’t wait for the next class: Razzle Dazzle for Enameling on August 9th! If you’d like to sign up for that class, click here! 

Speaking of the Razzle Dazzle class, Andrew has been working on some samples for that class this week so that students are able to get a better idea of what they will be able to work on. He’s been working with some fun glitter enamels and also doing tests with some other materials to ensure that times and temperatures are as honed as possible for the students to have the best outcomes. 

With this past weekend being the Fourth of July holiday weekend, we took some time on Sunday to do some much needed yard work at Star Cottage Studio. Because it had been raining for what felt like weeks on end (at least a little every day), the yard had grown quite a lot since the last time it was dry enough to mow. It actually took two full mowings to get everything finished, once to get most of the higher, thick grass cut down and another run to tidy everything up. We use a battery-powered push-mower, so it usually takes a charge and a half of the batteries to get through the full yard. Because of how thick it had grown, it took four charges! This meant that there was time in between to do other things like clean up sticks and limbs that had fallen and cut down some of the weeds and thistles that had started to grow. Unfortunately, our weed-eater died part way through, so now we have to purchase another one of those sometime very soon (thank you to our Patreon members who helped us get this one a few years ago and will be helping us to get the replacement). But, it was a great day outside and it literally took the entire day to get everything done. It felt great to be outside (even if it was very, very hot) and get some needed things done. 

Not only did our weed-eater stop working, but we also had a broken pump on our portable sink at Star Cottage Studio. As many of you know, we don’t have running water at the cottage, so we use a portable sink for our metal studio. Thankfully, we were gifted a new pump, and I tried to install it this past week. Unfortunately, it wasn’t working, and so we set it aside for a few days until we would be able to contact the manufacturer. Thankfully, that wasn’t necessary, as we read some online reviews and realized that the pump doesn’t easily prime itself. Using some techniques by those who figured it out in the reviews and shared their knowledge, we were able to get the pump working! Unfortunately again, we also realized that now our hot-water hose has a leak! So, we took that off and need to run to the local hardware store to match up a replacement. Again, thank you to our Patreon members who support us and help us to acquire things like this for our studio. 

The reconfiguration of Star Cottage Studio continues as we’re trying to decide how our casting setup with look and function. While I worked a lot on packing and shipping this week, Andrew took the reins of trying to reorganize the old shipping area to make room and organize the casting setup. We “sketched” it out by putting things in place temporarily to see how it might function and fit in the space. We plan to do more on this when he gets back in August from his trips, and hopefully we’ll be casting in silver and bronze shortly after! We’re super-excited to be able to cast anything we can imagine, and we know it’s going to open up a world of possibilities for us and our business. We’re so very thankful to all those who helped us acquire our casting items and we couldn’t have done it with the support of some very special people in our lives! 

Meanwhile, I’ve been playing around with some new pottery pieces over the past few weeks. I’ve been using some new materials and testing colors and glazes to see what happens. I can’t say much about them yet because I’ve not seen any results, but should have them by next week, so I hope they come out well and it adds to what I’m able to do and experiment with. But, time will tell! I’m enjoying the process though, and it gives me something else to focus on once a week when I go to my class. It helps to get my mind off of some of our day-to-day work and actually can help me refocus in better ways on some of that when I do come back to it. 

In Johnstown, there is this festival called Squonkapalooza, which is a celebration of all things crypid—including the Pennsylvania Squonk! The vendor list fills up quickly and we’ve been put on the waiting list. So, if someone drops out, we’ll be able to attend. Since Andrew will be away if/when we get the news that we’ll be able to vend there, he’s been creating some extra creature ornaments for me to have availble just in case. He’s created some gargoyles, squonks, and a few others that he’s not divulged yet! Even if we don’t get into the festival, we’re hoping they will be a draw for people to come into the store while they are in town! 

And, last but not least, on a more personal note, Andrew has been experimenting with making homemade pizzas. He’s been making pizza dough in the evenings and creating pizzas from scratch for our dinner the past few nights. We’ve had a bean and curry topping, mushrooms and onions, and a Margherita pizza with a balsamic reduction sauce. Running a small business, we often don’t have a lot of money for going out to eat and usually cook all of our meals at home. This has been a really fun way to create a new experience and also get to feel like we’re changing up our routine at the same time! 

Well, if you’ve made it through this entire post, thank you for reading! I know it was a long one, but we’ve been working hard on so much because Andrew is leaving tomorrow morning to head up to Maine and then down to North Carolina for classes. He’ll be away for almost a month. I have to say that I’m a bit anxious about it. This is the longest he’ll have been gone in quite some time, and it’ll be mostly all up to me to keep things together. As many of you know, I’m no stranger to anxiety, and I’m trying my best to meditate, relax, and stay calm. But, it is scary. There are certain things that I can’t do while he’s away (or things that are much harder), and it’s always easier when there are two minds coming up with new ideas and executing everything. That’s why I’m so very thankful for all of you out there who continue to support us and help us keep things going. We run on very small margins because we want everyone to get the best deals we can offer. We know what it’s like to not have a lot, as we both grew up with families that had to do a lot with a little. So, we try our best to make sure access to beads and jewelry supplies are open to as many as possible—and keeping our prices low is a big part of that. Most of our income is reinvested into the business to keep it going, with us only taking what we need to live day to day. So, when one of us is away, it does make things harder. But, I also know that the knowledge he gets from these classes is very important and will really help us down the line (for example, he’s taking a wax-carving class this trip and we’ll be able to use that when he returns with our casting setup). 

So, thank you all so much for your support, again, and I hope to be back here next week with another update on What’s Happening at Allegory Gallery! 

Your friend,

William