in the Appalachians we get ready for the holidays in a big way....

 

There's much to do before the holidays even begin in the mountains - for we like to be prepared for the upcoming winter so that when the snow and the holidays come we can lean back and enjoy the quiet beauty and the laughter of friends and family....

being that I live amongst the Christmas tree farms I have been witnessing the trucks loaded, trees wrapped, heading down the mountain.  It is a very festive feeling to live in Boone this time of year.

 

This year I am offering you the opportunity to let your loved ones choose that personal piece of artwork for their home....it's one of those special gifts that will be loved and treasured for many years and passed down to future generations....they can settle in and enjoy looking at all the designs that are available for their home....whether it's Christmas at your home or Hanukkah....

 

"the reader"
limited edition of 10
$265.00

 

we all know that one person who lives amongst a stack of books....        

 

 

"emma gatewood" she hiked the Appalachian Trail in 1955, all 2,168 miles at that time - at the age of 67. If you decide this year that you would like to give your loved one a gift certificate for a special piece made for their home (or yourself)....just give me a call and i'm happy to make one for you to give or I am happy to mail to them as a special surprise....a treasure from the Appalachian mountains....   dallison.squarespace.com 828-265-0977

                                     

 

 

summer....the perfect time to enjoy lazy days and late nights.... 

Summer is one of my favorite seasons....no schedule, little order, cookouts and lightning bugs in the deep woods, friends visiting and Georgia peaches, what more could one want?

 

 

I think summer is a regrouping of the spirit, a time to do less and enjoy the small things that life is really all about to you....for me it's kids, fresh food from the farmers market, games of chess with Eli, outdoor music downtown, good books and coffee in the morning with hubby.   

                                          

Much of my love for creating game boards comes from my past summer experiences....summertime at my grandparents playing board games, lunch on a pretty tablecloth set in the grass of their backyard by their garden.  This is why many of my game boards carry a childhood game name....reminding me how much fun it was to be a kid way back when....    "simon says" do you remember? simon says put your hands on your head. simon says turn in a circle. jump up and down.   "simon says"  limited edition piece of 10 I loved the soft sweetness of this pattern.  It is based on a design from the early 1900's from Pennsylvania. When this piece went to auction it was declared that the value was  $400-$700.  I can't imagine what they thought when the end price was $19,680.       wonderful colors...shades of blue, straw, greens, sienna and gold just to name a few.... 19"x19" limited edition of 10 then retired $245.00 (my mind sees this as really a soft colored piece to the eye...the photos seem pretty vibrant, so if you like I can send you more photos to view....just let me know)   "the reader" $265.00 If you would like to browse other designs, here is a link to my site:   dallison.squarespace.com to order, just email me at:   dianeallison@charter.net   or call my studio....828-265-0977   or here is a direct link from my site: http://dallison.squarespace.com/buy-game-boards/

The Reader....

 

 

I love this board....I loved it the first time that I saw this pattern that was well over 100 years old....

it reminded me of a library, stacked with books and books and even more books....with comfortable places around the edges of the building to sit and read and ponder....and in the center is where you can go for help....how lucky one must be to work in a library surrounded with time travelers....

things have changed in these last years, yes.  but many people will never let you pry that hardback book out of their hand or their paperback, which they have folded this way and that to take everywhere with them, just in case they have a chance at some point to slip in some sweet words and do some traveling....

the reader....

 

is a new limited edition piece of 10

 

19" x 19"

 

$265.00

 

colors of:  georgia clay, spice tan, sienna, sandstone, eggplant, blue sea, midnight blues and rose to list some....

 

this Parcheesi piece is based on a game board pattern from the late 1800's.  the original piece was auctioned for $15,990.

my colors were very similar to the original but I wanted to create a piece that was forever timeless by adding a story on how this piece became....my friend recently posted on facebook a study of the main colors used in specific movies....I ran with that idea, thinking it would give me the creative ability to cross a design into different centuries....

maybe this is why I love this piece so much, the combining of centuries as books often do.  so that is where the name 'the reader' came from....a reader is a time traveler searching out destinations.

then and now.....the first photo was taken in our area many many years ago.....the second photo is commonplace in our college town today....

blending the past with the current is something that I love to create.....

i have changed things up a bit....instead of blogging i have turned to using a newsletter style that i send out with any news or photos of new limited edition game boards... please just drop me a note to sign-up and i'm happy to add you to my mailing... dianeallison@charter.net Or to contact me directly you can use this link from my website: http://dallison.squarespace.com/sign-up-for-updates/ so this is what i'm doing now, but as things change, you never know i might just be blogging again... enjoy past posts if you would like - especially stories of those winter months in these appalachian mountains...

20 year celebration

she's been doing it for 20 years?

it is hard to believe that in just a couple of months i will have been creating game boards for 20 years.  i picked up my first piece of wood and began creating game boards only for the reason that i thought they were really neat and i wanted a group of them on my wall... but as i began making them i just didn't want to stop for i began to dream of a day where i could make them for your homes.

when i began i had a tiny area on my porch where i had set everything up....i learned to not only paint, but to saw, hammer and sand. i learned so much about layout and design.  my only background was pretty much my belief in that if i wanted to do it then i could....(thanks mom and dad for self esteem and confidence, the two greatest gifts you gave us kids, much needed for cliff diving in life.)

when you have a small art business, so to speak, you are the wearer of many hats...not only do you design and create you also are the resident painter, mathematician and woodworker.  you are the task manager; accountant, web designer, blogger, research department, shipping department, purchasing department and cleaning service.  you are the doer of all, the dancer of building your own life...

many of you have been with me for all of these twenty years; you've been with me for my move from texas to these appalachian mountains, that i knew i would love and that is now finally called 'home', and from what was the back porch to a studio more than big enough to be somewhat organized....we have laughed with each others stories, and shared our fears and sadness....we've watched each others kids grow...and many of you are now enjoying your 'retirement years', which is so much fun for me to witness...

and sometimes we were lucky enough to have been able to meet face to face - already feeling like old friends...

i thank all of you for this....for wishes do come true...

to visit my site; which really you did help to create, here's the link:

www.dallison.squarespace.com

below:  "big top, bullseye and gypsy"

http://dallison.squarespace.com/round-game-boards/

take me to the circus....

i have begun a new series that is very sentimental to me... "take me to the circus"

when i was a very little girl living in iowa my parents gathered all of us little girls into our car and took us to the ringling brothers and barnum and bailey circus....45 years later i still can remember the day...

as we began to pull our car up into the open field my eyes danced with my very first view of the 'big top' standing high; calling us to walk into a different life.  this life of mystery; smells of sawdust, wild animals and food.   colors; of tents, wild lions in their cages and the sparkling costumes worn by what i thought had to be the most beautiful people in the world pulled me in many directions...

a rapid heartbeat caused by the fear of watching the high wire acts, and the awe of seeing lions, tigers and elephants for the first time in my young life is instilled in my memory... 

i was hooked; mystery and color, the perfect combination for my little girl eyes...

years later we moved to sarasota florida....home of the ringling brothers circus...imagine my curiosity,  for still a young child, we drove through areas that the performers were known to live during the winter time.  

as i became a young teen i found that my geography teacher was from the famous flying wallenda family, i was surrounded by circus and a much simpler time in sarasota...

my parents still took us to 'the biggest show on earth', and as i became older i watched and pondered my escape to run off with the circus, for i knew, i always knew, that i should be in the circus...

this first piece in the series is entitled 'the big top', for after all this was my first view, and inside that tent comes all the mastery of all your emotions...

this piece is, as you can imagine, color with the underlying hint of all the organized chaos that one might find under 'the big top'..

it is 'loosely' based on an american antique game wheel dated 1930 that originally had a spinner attached.  the original piece was priced at $1,800.00.  i state 'loosely' primarily for the reason that my piece does not have a spinner attached

limited edition of 10 pieces,  then retired  (9 available at this time)
19" x 19"
baltic birch from russia and poplar from the appalachians

$245.00

i hope you will like the journey that we are taking....if you would like to order this piece, just drop me an email at:  dianeallison@charter.net or give me a call at 828-265-0977...

you can also browse my website if you had another piece in mind:

www.dallison.squarespace.com

happy birthday, happy birthday and more happy birthdays...

september is the month of birthdays in my family, a delicious celebration just about every week is scattered throughout the month..a mountain full of cakes and cupcakes and a heart full of love...

happy birthday to all of you...my life could never be as wonderful if it weren't for each of you....i love you all so much...

"linda quilts"....

i have this friend in texas.....i met her in our quilting group....and her name is linda.....

over the many many years we quilted together i noticed something that i was reminded of when i saw this antique game board, that linda never wore out when she got to making her borders...

her borders were grand, they were intricate, they were breathtaking.....a beautiful frame to her art....not like my quilts, barely a border was to be found, and certainly nothing that was as beautiful as the inner quilt itself.  it's almost like her borders danced and celebrated, the grand finale if you will...we are 'over the top borders' they sang out....and that they were....

so when i saw this game board, i thought of her immediately and there came the name whispered out loud....

this is a Christmas piece, however i'm sure you will find a place for it all year round too....

the original piece was dated 1934 and signed on the back 'Happy Birthday 1934'....there is a story to this piece with that information and i designed many scenarios in my own mind while i was painting the checker board....who's to say one of them isn't close to the truth?  it's a sentimental piece to me for that reason...

the price of the original is $2,100 and is painted on an early laminated board.

limited edition of 10 pieces
19" x 19"
$220.00 (shipping included for this piece)
the colors are a soft yellow, red, black and forest green

if you would like to look at other pieces available, here's my link:  

dallison.squarespace.com

in the process...

every year when i see my mom it seems she always say's, 'you should make a Christmas board', and every year i ponder and ponder... but i had never come across an antique piece, until now...

as you know from my last post, i have so much more studio time on my hands, which is clearly filling up with new pieces and i don't know how i'm ever going to get all the boards i've researched done before i'm dead!  but then i'm sure you are saying that about using all your fabrics too....

but lo and behold, i found an antique checker board that dates back to 1930-1940 to study....the original piece was actually painted on laminated board, and you can see from the picture that certainly it was created by a quilter, no doubt in my mind.  the back of the board says 'Happy Birthday 1934'.  I sit and think did a mother make this for her daughter, did she make it for her son, or a fellow quilter?  or did he make it for his wife from one of his or her favorite quilts?  there is such a story here, that we will never know the answer to.

so this is the first Christmas piece i am introducing into my line of reproductions - for i know that time of year i just love to pull out my Christmas quilt to lay over my couch, hang my advent calendar that my mom made for me, and will now have a board to finish off the room....i love the warmth of the season, the scents of the pine, the baking of the apples and the unexpected turn in a room where my eyes can see artists celebration of the season...

here's a sneak peek of the original piece which i will introduce over the next week or two....- and yes, it's august, but the leaves are changing already (very very early), the air is crisp and i'm already thinking of november since i work many months in advance...and i wanted to make the pieces in early fall so that you can set them out in november....for i know so many of my friends  decorate before the thanksgiving holiday....

this will be a limited piece - number unknown at this time, but her name is 'linda'....and of course she doesn't have to be put away after the holidays either, you will probably find the perfect spot for her for the rest of the year too...later i will tell you why i chose the name that i did for the piece too....(yes, having to do with a quilter that i know)

the colors are green, bright red and soft yellow....

if you would like to see other designs, here's my link:

dallison.squarespace.com

blogging.....again....

finally....and i say finally for the reason that i haven't been able to blog 'comfortably' for some time.  apparently the issue seems to be that my computer is very very 'old', and has not been able to adapt 'comfortably' to the new google system...

well....some days i feel very very old and have a hard time adapting, so you won't find me running out to purchase a new computer with more memory and zippity zap speed....no, i will hang on until it just decides that it's time here is done....

i do, simply put, become quite attached to 'material things' in my life, and will actually have human emotions for inanimate objects....  i'm sure there is some sort of 'mental' description of this most abnormal behavior, left over from childhood i'm sure, for i remember crying when my teeny snow man melted when i was just five....

so what is one to do?  well time seems to take care of things in many instances....so i gave my computer a good long rest, some updating that it was fighting me on and here we are, back to blogging....the issue was that i couldn't click photos, type style, etc. on my blog for the windows wouldn't allow it...but here we are, after a much needed 'mechanical' rest she is simply going along with my agenda today....

as far as what is going on in the rest of my life?  school is in full swing and so is eli's football....i will have to admit that i'm going through the same feelings of 'displacement' as i did when my oldest was hardly around, but i've adapted to his very lengthy days at practice and feel sure that in no time i will say to myself it's already 6:00?!  (bold faced lie)....how can that be, i still have so much more to do before dinner....

so since his schedule changes, mine does too.....i will be in the studio for almost twice the amount of time now, throwing myself into work as i adjust to 'his lack of need of me'......so far so good....

i'm currently finishing up all of your orders of the 'wheel of fortune', and hopefully this will bring us all an extra amount of good luck....i will also be creating new designs over the next couple of months and am rolling around in my mind another web sale in the fall....that was fun last spring, so i'm keeping that in mind....i have events to attend and pieces to make for gallery showings off the mountain this winter, and as you know that is stepping out of the box for me, since I NEVER GO DOWN THE MOUNTAIN!  but hey, why not, it's for the arts, and after all the arts have been pretty darn good to me...

i will keep busy, do what it takes to begin this new chapter in my life.....of not being needed....boo hoooo

if you are in need of some fall color, christmas ideas or color for your home,  please browse my site, it will help me feel 'needed', here's my link:

dallisongameboards.com