The July First Friday event at The Flower Nook will feature a plethora of stories and the artists and artisans who create them.
Peggy and Wayne DeBey, the owners of The Flower Nook, have discovered over the past years that artists and artisans have stories to tell, stories about their inspiration, technique, or media used. Those stories continue when community members participate in various events that highlight the artisans, artists, and their works, such as First Friday at The Flower Nook.
The July First Friday event is scheduled for 4:30-7 p.m. July 2. It is open to the public at no charge. The Flower Nook is located at 208 E. Iron Avenue.
In celebration of the people who have received their vaccines, the first 25 people to show their completed COVID-19 vaccination cards will receive a $20 gift certificate to Barolo as The Flower Nook’s thank you for caring.
READ: Find The Flower Nook rock and collect a $120 prize package
Charlie Wilks and Christine Kester, two members of the Wichita Envision Program are scheduled to participate in the First Friday event. Envision's mission is to improve the quality of life and provide inspiration and opportunity for people who are blind or visually impaired through employment, outreach, rehabilitation, education, and research.
Wilks will provide guitar and a vocal performance throughout the First Friday event. He does not see his blindness a barrier to his ability to play pop to rock in additional to his electrifying finger style when playing his acoustic guitar.
Kester is a talented, and loving mother of five children who, shares with her daughters Shelby and Madison the same eye disease, Retinitis Pigmentosa. Christina’s world began to darken when she was in grade school, and she is now almost totally blind. Although she still loves getting her hands in clay and throwing pottery on the wheel at Envision Arts, where she has attended classes since 2013, her true passion is making jewelry.
Christina is now known as the “mouth beader,” as she is dependent on using her mouth to creative her intricate work. From working with small, seed beads to creating bracelets and necklaces with a Native American flair to using rivets to create inspirational quotes in Braille on leather cuff bracelets, Christina continues to push herself as a jewelry maker despite her vision loss.
Christina’s work has won her multiple awards in the annual Insight Art Exhibition at the American Printing House for the Blind in Louisville, Ky., where her beaded art is now a part of their private art collection. Christina currently has work on display at the Aloft Hotel, and at Fred & Barney’s restaurant, both located in Wichita.
The Flower Nook's back wall artist is Carrie Gebhardt of The Starry Cauldron. Using multiple mediums, she creates to express where the human and spiritual intersect. As a person who is autistic and a member of the LGBTQ community, expressing the wholeness and healing of the human experience from a slightly different perspective has been the trademark of her work for several years. Gebhardt lives in northeastern Kansas, where she strives to make a life outside of the box.
If you are interested in connecting to the doors to your soul, Claire Catherine Brooks will be on hand to use her psychic abilities to read your tarot cards. Besides tarot card readings, she offers home cleansing, healing, channeling, and psychic readings.
And don't forget to check out the works of a number of artisans on display at The Flower Nook, as well.