Kaaren Wiken
Late in her embroidery career, Kaaren added sculpting recycled metal with a plasma torch, creating a second body of work in a menagerie of rusty animals. Though Kaaren has retired from creating both embroidery and metal sculptures, she continues as a Zen Sewing Teacher. She also custom sews robes for Zen priests and practitioners.
Tom Rauschke
Tom continues to do works in wood, one of his latest projects was a large Sandhill Crane Mobile for the Waukesha Public Library. Most recently he has been playing with Pen and Ink drawings that change, in the format of traditional Advent Calendars, but in completely new and unique ways.
Xn-trix Art Studio
The Xn-trix Art studio is housed in a hand hewn timber barn at Tom and Kaaren’s farm home. The renovated 1860’s barn includes Tom’s woodworker’s studio with a second floor gallery, as well as an enclosure for their pet chickens. In a separate building you can visit the plasma cutting studio where Kaaren once created her metal sculptures. The buildings themselves are surrounded by the Kettle Moraine State Forest, with a dramatic landscape of prairie land and tree savannah. It’s the perfect setting for Kaaren’s life size wildlife sculptures of deer, wolves, turkeys, cranes, and all manner of chickens, cats, opossums, and so many more. The sculptures are unique in that the design components are not welded together, but fit like puzzle pieces. Tom’s intricate wood sculptures are nature inspired and are often lathe turned, cut and carved from the native hardwoods of the Kettle Moraine.
