estate clearance sale
at tumbleweed found
Friday–Sunday, October 16–18 | 9 AM–2 PM
Our Monthly Estate Sale — Don’t Miss This One!
We’re filling the garages again with an exciting assortment of estate treasures!
This month’s sale has an especially wonderful selection of quality smaller items that would make thoughtful, unique, and affordable holiday gifts. If you love giving something a little unexpected, with character and history, this is a great sale to explore.
We’re also bringing out a sneak peek of our Christmas collection, with even more holiday treasures to come at our next estate sale!
A Few Things You’ll Find This Weekend:
Beautiful Kantha blankets from India — many still new in their original packaging
Jewelry
Mexican, Japanese, and studio pottery
Baskets and decorative containers
Fossils, butterfly collections, shells, crystals, and curious found objects
Sock monkeys, stuffed animals, and vintage toys
Original artwork and new art supplies
Textiles from around the world
Vintage linens
Kitchenware and entertaining pieces
Candleholders and Home Decor
Lots of wonderful little boxes
Barstools, a small vintage side table, and cupboard
A large cookbook collection — Part One! More from this collection will be offered at our next estate sale.
A sneak peek of Christmas and holiday treasures
And so much more! New inventory every sale!
The Details
Friday–Sunday, October 16–18, 9 AM–2 PM daily
Our estate sales are held monthly out of the garages on the Chestnut Street side of our building, behind 11th Hour Coffee, 1025 Center St., Downtown Santa Cruz
New inventory every sale!
Friday & Saturday: Estate sale pricing
Sunday: Everything 50% off!
Cash preferred. Credit card processing fees and applicable sales tax apply.
We hope you’ll stop by, explore, and find something wonderful to take home — or tuck away for someone special this holiday season!
See parking options. Parking strictly enforced.
The Rocky & Jack Show
Rocky Wagers + Jack Howe
Showing through October
Rocky Wagers and Jack Howe bring together two distinctly different approaches to assemblage and the art of the found object. Through antique fragments, cast-offs, curious finds, and objects marked by time and use, each creates work with an unmistakably individual point of view.
ROCKY WAGERS
Rocky is set to bring some of the most unique creations to this September and October art show. He originally began his artistic career as a weaver, but his path shifted dramatically when he realized the artistic potential in worn-out items that most people simply labeled as “junk.” Turning his attention to antique assemblage, he began collecting broken parts and cast-offs from the Victorian era through the 1920s, transforming forgotten relics into striking, imaginative works of art.
His creations are wildly eclectic, ranging from a demonic skull to a goblet made of women’s legs. For the September and October art show, Rocky’s work will prominently feature a wealth of beads and seashells. This specific aesthetic harks back to a 19th-century practice among sailors, who traditionally crafted pictures and notes framed in seashells to bring home to their loved ones.
Rocky describes his creative process as something of a dream sequence. He hunts down individual components, often keeping them around for years with the steady confidence that they will eventually find a purpose. Because he works primarily with historical fragments, he ensures that the legacy of his materials is preserved.
JACK HOWE
Santa Cruz artist Jack Howe creates assemblages from the accumulated evidence of everyday life—old photographs, antique objects, broken pieces, curious finds, and things that have acquired character through age and use.
A longtime collector of antiques, Jack began making assemblage in the late 1980s, finding new possibilities in objects and fragments that might otherwise have been discarded. The 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake, which damaged much of his collection, further shaped this direction in his work.
Jack’s constructions are instinctive, rough-edged, humorous, and sometimes provocative. Rather than polishing away the imperfections of his materials, he works with them, combining disparate objects into pieces that suggest stories while leaving plenty of room for the viewer to bring their own.
Over a decades-long career, Jack has exhibited in Santa Cruz and throughout California, as well as nationally and internationally. His work has appeared on movie sets and is held in private and corporate collections.
BOOKBINDING FOR THE ARTIST
Simple and Complex Accordion Book Structures
with Peter Thomas
Saturday, October 24
10 AM–4 PM
Artist books offer a unique vessel for collage, writing, personal histories, and the passing on of stories—creative practices at the heart of Tumbleweed Found.
This hands-on workshop introduces artists to the materials, techniques, and hand skills used to create accordion books while exploring the creative possibilities of the artist’s book.
Peter Thomas will begin with an introduction to accordion book structures, sharing examples from More Making Books by Hand, a book he co-authored and illustrated with fellow book artist Donna Thomas. Participants will then move from the fundamentals into more complex structures, creating three small-format accordion books during the workshop.
The first will be a simple accordion book with folded paper covers. The second will explore a slit-map-fold accordion with a paper case binding. The third will be a nested pop-up accordion—a structure developed by Peter and Donna Thomas in which a second accordion weaves in and out of the first.
Along the way, participants will learn foundational and more advanced book arts skills while considering how text, illustration, collage, and imagery can become part of the book form. Those with more experience will have the opportunity to further develop their books with text and illustration.
Participants will leave the workshop with three completed handmade books and an expanded understanding of the artist’s book as both structure and creative form.
ABOUT PETER
Peter Thomas is a Santa Cruz book artist, author, educator, and longtime practitioner of the book arts. His work encompasses handmade paper, printing, illustration, binding, and the creation of both edition and one-of-a-kind artists’ books.
For decades, Peter has collaborated with his wife and fellow book artist Donna Thomas. Together, their work combines the precision and craftsmanship of the fine press tradition with the structural experimentation of contemporary artists’ books.
From 2009–2019, Peter and Donna made four cross-country journeys in their artistic tiny home on wheels as the “Wandering Book Artists,” visiting university and community book arts centers throughout the country to teach workshops and give talks about the book arts.
Peter and Donna are the authors of More Making Books by Hand and editors of 1000 Artists’ Books. In 2021, The Legacy Press published Peter and Donna Thomas: Bibliography, 1974–2020, documenting their extensive body of work.
“The Peter Thomas book workshop was one of the most enjoyable classes we’ve ever offered. His insights into the history and use of books help his students develop a new appreciation of books, in their various forms and functions. We left with a beautiful, completed work of art.” — Debbie West, Rubber Stamp Plantation, Honolulu, Hawaii
“What a way to spend a Saturday, it was the best Saturday workshop in my life.” — Jone Small, Bay Area Book Arts, Palo Alto, California
$125 per participant, $10 materials fee
Registration required • Non-refundable
Limited to 8 participants
More information about materials and tools to bring, as well as what will be provided, will be sent to registered participants.
sense-making
An Introductory Workshop to Cellulose Nanofiber (CNF)
with Augusta Sparks
NEW DATES ANNOUNCED!
Two-Part Workshop
Thursdays; 10/29 & 11/5, 5:30-8:30 PM
What happens when we approach a material without already knowing what it could become? Sense-Making is a two-part introduction to cellulose nanofiber (CNF)—a material that invites experimentation, curiosity, and discovery.
Working with teaching artist Augusta Sparks, participants will work with CNF as an art material. Rather than working toward a prescribed finished object, the workshop encourages observation, experimentation, problem-solving, and following what emerges through the making process.
The two-session format allows for drying time, and to respond to what happened.
WHAT IS CNF?
Cellulose nanofiber, or CNF, describes a process. The University of Maine places cellulose in water, this can be softwood from Northern Maine, or any plant material that is being tested for research, for example eucalyptus, or hemp. This is then ground down into a nanosize particle. This pulp can be shaped, layered, coated, combined with other materials, and manipulated in unexpected ways. As it dries, it becomes lightweight and remarkably strong—and often changes in ways that become part of the creative process.
A BEGINNING, NOT A ONE-TIME WORKSHOP
Augusta describes working with CNF as a collaboration with the material. She invites participants to be artistic researchers, and play with a material that has no art history, no definition of right or wrong. Sense-Making is the required introduction for future CNF programming at Tumbleweed Found.
After completing this introductory workshop, participants will be eligible for upcoming opportunities including CNF exploratory workshops focused on particular processes, materials, questions, and creative directions, as well as a communal CNF open studio for those who want time and space to continue experimenting independently.
The intention is to build an ongoing community of makers who understand the fundamentals of the material and can continue learning through experimentation, observation, and one another.
ABOUT AUGUSTA SPARKS
Augusta Sparks is an artist living and working in La Selva Beach, California.
She received her Bachelor’s in Photography from Bard College, a Master’s in Arts in Medicine from University of Florida, a Maine Arts and Humanities in Medicine certificate and a MFA in Intermedia from University of Maine. At University of Maine, she initiated use, and teaches
workshops with, the Process Development Center’s cellulose nanofiber as an art medium. Augusta came to the University of Maine to serve as a teaching assistant for the Maine Arts and Humanities in Medicine program. She then went on to work with Dr. Hugh Silk as the art consultant for developing a database and faculty development toolkit to integrate medical humanities into family medicine residency training, at the UMass Chan Medical School. Prior, Augusta founded the Carnegie Picture Lab, an arts education non-profit, and the social prescription program Arts In Health: First Aid Art Kits for the quarantined population during COVID in Walla Walla, Washington. Recently, she has taught workshops in the California University system, community programs in Maine and California; exhibited at the Parsonage Gallery in Searsport, Maine and with the Performance Art Initiative in Rockland, Maine; presented at SPACE gallery in Portland, Maine; has been written about in Art New England and published in ArtPlace.
Learn more about Augusta and her work:
https://www.andwithevery.com
https://augustasparks.com
8 Participants
$125 for both sessions + $25 material fee
Registration is for both sessions and is non-refundable.
GaTES OF GRIEF
Join in community for an intimate conversation about grief and loss.
with Harper Cheaney & Maria Walsh
Saturday, November 7, 6-8:30 PM
Join us for a small gathering exploring the many expressions of grief through thoughtful questions, shared stories, and quiet moments of reflection. Gathered around intimate tables, participants will move through five “gates” of grief, each offering space for conversation, listening, and connection.
Inspired by the work of Francis Weller and his book The Wild Edge of Sorrow, this gathering offers space to explore grief through conversation, reflection, and community. Books are available at Tumbleweed Found.
Facilitated by Harper Cheaney & Maria Walsh
Maria is a movement teacher and dancer. She teaches Dance for Parkinson’s as well as pilates,
and works with folks experiencing dementia. Maria also volunteers as an herbalist with Santa Cruz Herbal Mutual Aid, supporting the unhoused community with herbal medicine.
Harper is a therapist who works primarily with grief in its many forms. They are trained as a death doula and volunteer as a hospice volunteer. Harper is an artist and voracious reader, endlessly hungry for engaging with the ways our lives are shaped by how we live and how we die.
Hosted at Tumbleweed Found, 1025 Center St., Downtown Santa Cruz
Registration required $45-55 sliding scale, non-refundable
Space limited to 12.
Ancestor portraits
A Minimalist Collage Workshop with Iris Weaver
Thursday, November 19, 5:30-8:30PM
Join collage artist and photographer Iris Weaver (@irisweavercollage) for a workshop exploring ancestralportraiture through collage. Together, we will reflect on family history, memory, identity, and the visual traces left behind through photographs and personal imagery.
Participants are encouraged to bring photographs of their loved one(s) or ones that represent them as well as images that reflect their ancestors’ interests, landscapes, or daily lives. Some people find it easier to work with images that represent the person or copies of photographs versus the actual photos of the person.
Using techniques such as cutting, layering, repetition, and juxtaposition, participants will create collage portraits that honor, reinterpret, and reimagine ancestral narratives. We will explore how fragments of photographs, textures, and found images can be combined to create visual stories that bridge past and present.
All materials will be provided, including collage papers, vintage imagery, and archival source materials.
All levels welcome. No prior collage or art-making experience is necessary.
Iris Weaver studied art on weekends at the Royal Academy of Art in The Hague and the Gerrit Rietveld Academie in Amsterdam while living and teaching in the Netherlands. Her work has recently been exhibited at Gallery 881 with Broad Magazine in Vancouver, British Columbia (2024) and Postales desde el Limbo in Zaragoza, Spain (2025). Her work has also been featured in Contemporary Collage Magazine, Kolaj Magazine, and Why Collage? Magazine.
Hosted at Tumbleweed Found, 1025 Center St., Downtown Santa Cruz
Registration required $45, non-refundable
Space limited to 8
studio four
A quieter space for deeper creative practice.
Settle into four uninterrupted hours of creative exploration in a calm, contemplative setting.
Limited to four participants, Studio Four offers individual workspaces, thoughtfully curated collage materials, drawing supplies, and the option to journal throughout your session. Whether you collage, draw, write, or move between them, this is a space to slow down, follow your curiosity, and immerse yourself in the creative process.
We invite participants to keep conversation to a minimum, creating an atmosphere that supports focus, reflection, and unhurried making.
Studio space and materials. No Instructor.
Monthly • 4 hours • 4 participants • $25
Thursday, October 22, 10-2 or 2:15-5:15
Studio Guidelines
Create as much as you’d like during your session, but please leave all shared materials and supplies at Tumbleweed Found for others to enjoy.
Please return all shared tools before you leave.
OK to use wet media, including liquid glue, Mod Podge, gel medium, paint, or other wet adhesives. Bring your own glue and brushes,. if using more than glue sticks.
No food, please. Covered drinks are welcome.
To reserve your spot, text or call 831-419-3130.