Introductions: Collaboration = Awesome desk named "Cirelai"

This is one of those posts that I have been dying to write for weeks! I am so glad to finally be putting into words what has been going on in my mind and behind the scenes at Knack for the past several weeks.I believe in strong collaborations and have been wanting to collaborate with other artists for some time now....but I just did not know who/ what/ how needed to transpire in order to make all of that happen. Well, it hit me about 3 months ago. I knew exactly what I wanted to do, and  who I wanted to talk to. Once it all came together in my mind, the ideas flowed like milk and honey! {enter angelic music here} Thankfully, when I approached the special people of my choosing ...they were just as excited about my crazy ideas and immediately came on board!I chose the first artist {yes, there are more to come! yay!} because I absolutely love his work....but even more importantly I love who he is as a human being. I get to interact with both Eric Benjamin and his awesome wife Bekki on a regular basis, and I am really proud to connect myself with these two wonderful people.It was really important to me that I not dictate what any of the artists that I collaborate with, create on my pieces..... so with just a few basic thoughts about direction we were off and running!This desk is a collaboration between Eric Benjamin and I, and here is the run down of how it all came to pass:> I painted the base color, which I decided to do navy because I like navy. {This mind you is a decision that I did not run by Eric because we wanted it to be really organic as far as how the design played out}> I took it to Eric's studio and dropped it off....with no instructions except "Do your thing, and bring it back to me for the finish".......and boy did he ever "do his thing!" WOWSA!> Once the desk came back to me, {and I picked my jaw up off the floor! So gorgeous with its forest of trees!} I sanded, stained, and put my finishing touches on the desk.I can't say enough about how stoked I am with the design and finish of this piece, and I am thrilled with this venture into the collaboration world. So thrilled....that we did another piece together, which I will show you as soon as it is photographed......and then I teamed up with another artist who I will introduce you to next week! This is not the end of the collaborations.....there are two more artists in the works.....and the designs are going to be so wonderful I can hardly stand it.All of these pieces are available for sale in the Knack showroom located at 11 Lois Ave. ,Greenville, SC 29611 and in the Knack Etsy shop!Hang on tight folks.......things are gettin' good around here!xo,Barb