featured artist…ann trinca
ann trinca is a curator and founder of napa nest located in napa, ca...she has been active in the napa arts scene as an editor of pearl necklace zine and a member of the fruit stand collective...she currently also works at the bedford gallery in walnut creek and blogs at www.napanest.com/flourish. i asked ann to tell us a bit about herself..and the cool coffee clutches she creates. i love her gallery/shop the nest…check it out...the nest..and don’t miss a visit during your next trip to napa!
“About Me:
My mom loves to tell the story about my first “craft business”. At about 12 years old, I got the idea to paint and bead those plain white Keds sneakers that you could by at Long’s Drugs for $4.99. I made them mostly as gifts for my friends and tried to personalize them with meaningful objects. Sometimes I sold them to an admirer, which led to secret fantasies about a giant mega store of personalized craft shoes and my name in lights!
Friends and family are used to receiving handmade gifts from me. They do a good job of pretending they are thrilled and it saves me from having to go to the crowded, boring mall shops, and lets me exercise my creative prowess.
Which is another reason I started Napa Nest with my business partner Norma Quintana. I wanted a reason to push myself, experiment, and contribute to the community. Our vision at the Nest is definitely a green one—to live creatively and give generously.
Creative living includes looking for ways to reduce waste, and this gave me the idea for the C.C.C—Creative Coffee Clutch. A coworker of mine has a growing stack of those cardboard coffee sleeves towering above her desk. She saves them all and probably recycles them, but I’ve found a better solution. After thrifting a book of upholstery fabric samples, I turned them into fashionable cloth coffee sleeves, that you can keep indefinitely! Carry one in your bag and see how many conversations they start.
Well Mom, guess what you’re getting for Christmas this year!”