It's almost time!

We have had a productive and exciting month getting everything ready to launch our community space in Historic Longwood.  Our location is so nice, and we just learned a florist will be our newest neighbor!  So we now have a destination for you to enjoy with Barbed Wire Browns Community Art Gallery and Makers Space, Zanzibar Coffee House, the Wild Hare Farm market, Nu Naturals body products shop,  a Barber shop, Pete's Eats deli, an antique shop and now a florist.  The Craft Shack and some other lovely shops are just a short walk from us also!  We are at the sun rail stop In Longwood so you can relax and ride right to our back door! Or we have great parking next to our building! 

So you can grab a friend, jump on Sunrail or hop in your car, chat on the ride, grab a coffee, shop and be inspired in our gallery, perhaps take a class, gather some flowers, some organic locally grown produce, pick up some essential oils or get your nails done, choose from several options for a tasty lunch, check out the awesome mural that's a work in progress at the corner of Church street and Ronald Reagan Blvd., stroll the historic district, take a tour of one of the original buildings, discover some other shops scattered on your stroll, learn some history, and this is just a few of the possibilities!

Caroline working on the Mural in Historic Longwood

Stop in and say hi soon! 

We have a Facebook page that we would love you to visit and like to help us spread the word.  It lists our times and our class schedule.  At this time we are closed Sunday-Tuesday.

  9-3 on Wednesday

And Thursday

9-5 Friday and Saturday

New Barbed Wire Browns Article in

Molly Green Magazine!

Holly Giles has written an article for Molly Green Magazine on our family life and business, that really captures the heart of Barbed Wire Browns....she is a gifted speaker and writer and I think you will enjoy a visit to her site so click on her name to take a little visit to the Giles Frontier today!

See the article From Junk to Jewels: A Fresh Perspective

Opening soon!

Barbed Wire Browns is opening a community creative Art space and shop at 317 N. Ronald Reagan Blvd.  In historic Longwood.  We are next door to Zanzibar Coffee (opening October 1) and a few doors down from the Wild Hare Kitchen and Garden Emporium.  We are Tentatively setting October 3 as our grand opening!  Follow us on Instagram or check back here for more details.   

What can you do at Barbed Wire Browns!

• Visit!
• Bring in coffee from next door!
• Bring in Kombucha from the Wild Hare (share with me!)
• See what our project of the day is and do it!
• Look at all the great Art books in our library!
• Meet a friend here!
• Find a great local, handmade gift!
• Support local art!
• Be inspired!
• Sign up for a class!
• Be creative!
• Shop responsibly! Tell a better story!
• Get advice on your own DIY projects!
• Recycle items on our wish list (old aprons, bubble wrap, interesting glass jars like maple syrup, jelly, types that come in gift baskets etc....)

We are telling a redemptive story through our art work- Our artwork and our store are all focused on recycled and repurposed materials, basically Redeeming junk is our focus. We salvage wood, metals, wire, old jewelry, basically anything that can be given another chance instead of the trash pile. Plus we have lots of people joining in now and gathering things for us to rework and breath new life into.    Come see what that looks like when we open!

Studio shelving from free materials

One thing that really gets us excited here at the Brown Homestead is finding the materials we use in our projects!   We recently found a number of dresser drawers being thrown away at a local hotel and with some pallets we picked up from around town we were able to build wall to wall and floor to ceiling shelving in our art studio.  We wanted a way to see more of our supplies so we did not spend so much time looking for just the right thing all the time.  Since we all like to make things in our studio the hope is that it will be easier to keep it organized. So for the cost of the nails and screws, and our time we were able to put together a really useful wall of shelves. This would be great for a garage too!

One thing to learn about is how pallets are marked.  Their are codes on them that tell you if they have been chemically or heat treated so look into that by searching on your computer before you start a project!

How we got our pop up shop!

Before it was ours, when I saw our vintage Apache Ramada camper In very sad shape in the neighbors yard I started to get an idea...an idea that, even though my husband has been hearing my crazy ideas for over 25 years now,  made his jaw drop.   I can still picture him stamping his foot as he said he would have no part in this one, and I almost gave up right there.

 Now I had already been longingly gazing at vintage trailers and girlie campers, but knew they were out of reach, those cute Air streams and Shastas cost a good amount of hard earned money, but what about an abandon pop up camper that needed a ridiculous amount of work, Could it be cute?  Could it be a way for our creative bunch to share our vision and art with others! I thought it just might work.  So, I made a very special dinner and when my husband was sitting back full and content I made my move.  I usually just blurt things out but I waited for a good moment this time, (I had seen this camper) Now I wasn't expecting his reaction at all.  I thought he would catch the same fever I had already caught right away. He had not seen the Pinterest boards and the magazine articles,  but...he had already seen the camper, He already knew that what I call sad shape was really much worse.  I am not sure why he
changed his mind but I can tell you that after a few months of working all day Saturday, I had lost some of the dream and was kicking myself big time for letting my impulsiveness drive me.   This is something I have learned about myself and my husband.  I am great at getting an idea and jumping in, then I second guess myself, doubt and fret a bit when it takes longer than I thought.  Now my husband is cautious  at the beginning because he likes to have all the facts before starting and his impatient wife wants to just start, But then he gets going on the idea and stays steady working it unto fruition and inspires me with his love, loyalty and kindness.  The more we see how our differences compliment each other then we are free to appreciate those differences.  I know I need to research and have some answers for him upfront and he is getting better at learning as we go and letting mistakes be part of the learning process.  We can laugh and relax about how different our approach is because we know our destination is the exact same place!  Now that the project is done and we can look back to see what we learned, I will have to say he became a serious woodworking machine, we found out that pallets are an incredible free building material and that spurned on what I will tell you about some other time....a studio makeover with pallets!

Working on the inside with one of my girls!

All Done!

Thanks so much Scott!