About The Artist
Who is Prairie Dance “We”, who make each and every piece of Prairie Dance art, are moms that have a first responsibility to our family. You probably won’t find us in the office or in the studio after 3:00 p.m. on school days and we try to arrange our work load such that we can be home during school vacations. We think we have the best of both worlds…flexible time with our family and a career that allows creativity. “We” also now includes our part-time welder, a talented and dedicated Ethiopian immigrant. And an art grad that we’ve somehow talked in to packing and shipping for us! “Me” is Terri Schuver, a textiles and clothing major by education, a retailer and business person for 25 years and a wife and mother of two boys every day. It was the wife and mother part that pushed me to look at a little adventure in a different way. Read on….. How It All Started While on vacation with my husband and another couple, my friend and I were attracted to some metal sculptures fashioned from aged metal. The husbands, not relishing the idea of transporting the art home, responded “Well, we can do that.” I took the men up on their claim and just to give them a little push, committed to a local arts festival a few months away. True, to their word, the husbands were able to help craft the new designs, yet days before the Sidewalk Arts Festival in Sioux Falls, I had nothing to sell. The experiments to age the metal had failed. Two days before the festival, tired, hot and frustrated we applied a solution of vinegar and water to the sculptures lying in our garage and walked away. Overnight, a combination of elements imparted a patina more unique that any I had seen. Others found it appealing too. The arts festival opened at 9 am: by 9:15 am we had sold out of several designs and Prairie Dance was on its way! Today It took us months to figure out just what worked that night, but through trial and error we were able to replicate the process. Today, we’re honored and gratified every time we see one of our pieces gracing a fireplace mantel, near someone’s front door or on a stroll through their garden. We’re also happy to have expanded our design formats such that there is a price for every pocketbook. We’ve recently expanded our studio and gallery, located in an up and coming historic warehouse district in downtown Sioux Falls. We truly enjoy the opportunity to create our art and sell it along side hundreds of talented American craftspeople in our gallery, Sticks and Steel. We welcome your ideas, so contact us via phone, fax or e-mail. Than you so much for including Prairie Dance metal art in your decorating plans!
Just over ten years ago, a desire for unique garden accessories in my own landscape led me down a path… and now that path is filled with the designs you see on this web site! Our first arts festival proved that lots of other gardens were anxiously awaiting one-of-a-kind artwork. Shortly after that, the artwork moved indoors. Now the collection features as many designs for the inside the home as outside.
