SIUSLAW NEWS | WEDNESDAY, APRIL 10, 2019 | 9A
April’s 2nd Saturday Gallery Tour showcases local arts, galleries
Florence art lovers are set to
explore the arts on Saturday,
April 13, for the 2nd Saturday
Gallery Tour, a monthly re-
ception where galleries and art
spaces celebrate art, artists and
patrons of the art. The tour runs
from 3 to 5 p.m. and begins at
any of the participating locations.
Here are some highlights:
Backstreet Gallery
In April, Backstreet Gallery
features jewelry designer Rhi-
annon Griffiths. She adds a new
variety to Backstreet’s fine col-
lection of jewelry. A reception in
her honor will be held on from 3
to 5 p.m. at the Backstreet Gal-
lery, 1421 Bay St.
Griffiths’ jewelry extends be-
yond beading into the creation
of her own beads through a pro-
cess called lampwork. This is a
creative process where the artist
uses a torch to form
each bead from differ-
ent colors of glass.
“As I work, I enter a
meditative state where
I become one with the
glass and the flame. I
may go into a beading
session with a design
in mind, but more of-
ten than not, I find the
glass tells me what it
wants to happen,” Grif-
fiths said.
After the formation
of her one-of-a-kind
beads, she then designs
the finished piece of
jewelry. With elegance,
beauty and a bit of
whimsy, her jewelry will trans-
form an outfit from lovely to
stunning.
After she started beading with
seed beads, she saw a lampwork
the spirit of becoming
one with her bead cre-
ation.
“Beauty, creativity
and the play between
color and light have al-
ways been part of who I
am,” she said.
She
incorporates
some crystals, pearls,
semiprecious stones,
and silk knots into
her distinctive pieces,
along with silver, cop-
per or brass to comple-
ment her unique. She
has even adhered her
beads to vintage keys.
At her home in Seal
Rock, you might find
In April, Backstreet Gallery is her out of her studio
featuring the beadwork of for a breath of fresh air,
Rhiannon Griffiths (above) and gardening or absorbing
Florence Regional Arts Alliance inspiration from her
ocean view.
is feauturing Minn Depweg.
During the 2nd Sat-
demo by Carolyn Crystal. Be- urday reception, Jeff Lovejoy
dazzled by the process, she will offer live music.
was determined to learn this
FRAA
art. As a birthday present,
Florence Regional Arts Alli-
Griffiths received the tools, a
supply of glass and a space to ance (FRAA) is pleased to pres-
create. When she works with ent the beautiful and versatile
glass and flame in the skill of work of artist Minn Depweg
lampwork, she feels a joy and during the month of April at its
SALES • INSTALLATION • SERVICE • REPAIR
SIGNS from page 1A
LOCALLY OWNED & OPERATED | 5 41 - 9 9 1 - 0 3 67
Let me Showcase your property.
Ed Kopilec
Principal Broker 4836 Laguna Ave – Lake and forest views from
541 991-8630 this 4,000 sqft home just minutes from Florence.
Boat, fish and kayak from your private dock.
Remodeled in 2003. This house has hardwood
floors, gourmet kitchen, and large master suite
with walk-in closet. Pole barn and large 3 bay
RV barn provide plenty of parking. $1,425,000.
#2850-18330278
1749 Highway 101 • 541-997-1200
After that time, renting
rooms eventually gave way to
a used clothing store and —
for the last 15 years — a vin-
tage business known as Thrifty
Threads filled with used things
from Oregon’s past that are
bought, refurbished and resold
in slices of history.
Pamela and Patrick Em-
mingham, owners of Thrifty
Threads, have lived in the
refurbished rooming house
for decades after Patrick pur-
chased the building in 1980.
“Originally this was a
boarding house for the mills,”
Pam explained. “Workers each
had a room. It was a commu-
nity bathroom and they were
studio rooms; I believe there
were 11 rooms altogether.”
While the couple are small
business owners, their inter-
est is primarily as historians,
recyclers and raconteurs pur-
suing their passion for saving
bits and pieces of Oregon that
many others have discarded or
abandoned. Though some ar-
tifacts are purchased at estate
sales, many are offered to the
couple as a “last resort” before
being discarded.
One example is the current
sign on the front of building.
The only one of its kind, it was
created by well-known local
artist and sign painter Stu-
art Henderson, whose work
has come to be appreciated
around the state for its artistic
treatment of basic themes. He
is also a longtime Florence res-
ident that has retired and seen
appreciation for his work in-
crease with each passing year.
The Thrifty Threads sign is
well made and hand-painted,
with a filigree flare to the let-
tering that denotes an artist, as
well as an accomplished sign
maker.
The sign is just one of hun-
dreds painted by Henderson
over the years that have been
displayed throughout Flor-
ence and, particularly, in front
of businesses in Historic Old
Town Florence as far back at
the early 1970s. It is the his-
tory associated with Hender-
son’s artful signs that recently
inspired the Emminghams to
undertake a major renovation
on their building.
“When we heard that some
of Stu Henderson’s signs might
get thrown out, we knew we
had to try and get them,” said
Patrick, who found out that
there was a huge sale at Tree-
house Signs. “Sam Dantone
did purchase the Treehouse
sign business from Stu, so a lot
of the signs that Sam eventual-
ly replaced were signs that Stu
had done previously,” he con-
tinued. “And we bought a lot of
Stu’s signs.”
One was the Old Town sign
now displayed on the building,
which for years had been the
city’s sign announcing the en-
trance to Old Town.
Art Center and Gallery, 120 Ma-
ple St. in Historic Old Town. De-
pweg paints in oils, water colors,
pencil crayons, oil pastels and
acrylics. She also does stitchery
and quilting. She has made many
wall hangings in a variety of
styles for the FRAA Gallery.
Depweg has displayed and
sold art pieces across the West-
ern U.S. and has gifted art to a
wide variety of charitable caus-
es. Many of her pieces hang in
a variety of clubs, restaurants,
churches, businesses and homes.
While living in Chico, Calif.,
Depweg taught arts and craft
classes before moving to Flor-
ence in 2004.
She enjoys her membership
at FRAA, saying, “It enables
me to view and be a part of all
the beautiful artwork that flows
through FRAA and our beautiful
city of Florence.”
The public is invited to meet
Depweg and view more of her
art pieces during the 2nd Sat-
urday Gallery Tour from 3 to 5
p.m. at the FRAA Art Center and
Gallery.
Refreshments will be served.
For more information or to
see Florence’s other galleries, vis-
it 2ndSaturdayGalleryTour.com.
“We thought it was so cool,
we just had to have it on our
building,” Patrick said.
The purchase of the original
Old Town sign also spurred
the Emminghams to paint
and upgrade their home and
business. The freshly paint-
ed yellow exterior of Thrifty
Threads complements the
color scheme and motif of the
Old Town sign and gives the
Emminghams a feeling they
are not only saving precious
pieces of Florence’s history —
but also helping the environ-
ment in the process.
“We have sort of been going
green since before that was
popular, and that’s kind of the
idea up to today,” Pam said.
“We try to recycle and save
some cool things from just be-
ing thrown out.”
And along the way, preserve
a sign or two of the times —
along with pieces history and
the local artists who created
them.
EMERGENCY
PREP AREDNESS
Living on Shaky Ground:
Prepare-Survive-Recover
A WLEOG Public Outreach Program
Sponsored by West Lane Emergency Operations Group
Web address: www.wleog.org
NOW YOU CAN LEARN
HOW TO PREPARE FOR
EMERGENCIES AND DISASTERS -
ON YOUR COMPUTER,
PHONE OR TABLET!
Go to WLEOG.ORG and click on
PREPAREDNESS CLASSES for a menu
of disaster prep subjects. Each has short
videos on different topics that you can
watch when it is convenient for you and
your family.
**SAFE WATER, SAFE SANITATION
**EMERGENCY FOOD PLANNING
AND PREPARATION
**PET CARE PLANNING
FOR DISASTERS
**ARE YOU READY?
**SENIOR CITIZEN PREPAREDNESS
**DOCUMENTATION AND
INSURANCE
In addition to the classes, the WLEOG.ORG web-
site has extremely useful information on NATURAL
HAZARDS and EMERGENCY PREPAREDNESS.
Each of these has videos on various topics that
explain the hazards the Pacifi c Northwest faces, and
how to prepare for them.
For more information, visit these websites:
A MERICAN R ED C ROSS — WWW . REDCROSS . ORG
C ITY OF F LORENCE — WWW . CI . FLORENCE . OR . US
FEMA — WWW . READY . GOV
L ANE C OUNTY — WWW . LANECOUNTY . ORG
S IUSLAW V ALLEY F IRE AND R ESCUE — WWW . SVFR . ORG
WLEOG — WWW . WLEOG . ORG
Business Planning
Y
our business should not be put on the back-burner when instituting
an emergency preparedness plan. If you are responsible for employees,
it is your job to make sure your staff members are equipped with the
knowledge and capabilities to protect themselves in the face of a disaster.
Simply knowing what to do won’t cut it. Your employees need maintaining operations and keeping their employees and cus-
regular training and reminders of standard operating proce-
tomer safe. Visit readyrating.org for information.
dures related to your company’s emergency plan.
WHY TEST YOUR PLAN?
Putting your plan to the test will help you find out if it is
ready to stand up to a high-stress emergency. Don’t think
of your test in terms of pass or fail, but focus on improving
your plan piece by piece for a more effective comprehen-
sive program. There may be simple fixes you are overlook-
ing that can make your plan a bit more stable, which can
make all of the difference in a dangerous situation.
HOW TO TEST YOUR PLAN
Testing doesn’t have to mean full-blown exercises in
which you simulate every possible emergency situation.
You have a business to run, and putting that much time
into executing “mock” disasters probably isn’t an effective
use of time. Set brief, regular meetings instead. Elicit feed-
back from your staff to improve you plans, while continu-
ally reinforcing their knowledge of procedures, systems
and equipment. Keeping an open dialogue on emergency
planning also can make sure everyone is on the same page.
ARE YOU READY?
Ready Rating is a free American Red Cross service that
helps businesses, schools and organizations become pre-
pared for disasters. Members of the program are privy to
extensive resources, tools and expert advice that can help
them improve their ability to withstand disaster while
Sponsored by
C ENTRAL
L INCOLN PUD
Florence • 541-997-3414
S TREETS I NSURANCE
Mon - Fri 8am to 5pm
1234 Rhododendron Dr. Florence 541-997-8574