About Solstice Handmade
Since 2017, Solstice Handmade has been working with other local artists and small businesses to create unique offerings made with our hand pulled prints. From natural dye artists, to leather workers, to quilters and ceramicists, we invest in our friends and neighbors and believe more can be accomplished together. Whenever we can, we use local help, organic fabrics, natural colors, secondhand garments, and use up every scrap of material.
My illustrations and prints are often inspired by the creepy crawly, the slimy, the overlooked, the in-between stages of growth and decomposition, beginnings and endings. Education and exploration are at the heart of these images, and of our that classes bring together art and science. Through in person workshops and virtual classes, I aim to make art approachable and start conversations about conservation and place.
The murals I create put specific species and systems in the spotlight, hoping to inspire stewardship and curiosity in the world around us.
Find me at an art fair, library, festival, or shop near you.
About Dayna Walton
Dayna is a printmaker, illustrator, and mural artist who makes work advocating for the 'creepy crawly' parts of nature, highlighting the importance and beauty of the gross and strange. She graduated from Kendall College of Art and Design, earning her BFA and Excellence Award in Printmaking in May of 2019. Originally from Hudsonville, MI, she resided in Grand Rapids, Michigan during college and afterwards. From 2019-2022 she was a member at Dinderbeck Studios, working with her tightly knit creative community as a full time artist. Dayna has recently moved to Western North Carolina and is excited to find new inspiration and opportunities in the mountains.
Dayna takes a regional approach, traveling as much as possible for events, research, residencies, art fairs, and public art projects. She sells her work through her small business, Solstice Handmade. When she's not printing and designing for the business, she works alongside nature centers, museums, public libraries, and similar groups to lead workshops and create murals. Through collaboration science and art come together and inspire others to learn about and tend to the ecosystem they themselves are a part of.