Fair Season

-

Summer is the time for fairs! 


Since I've had the pleasure of attending two of these events this summer, I thought this would be a good opportunity to compare and contrast a county fair with a craft fair. 

In my last two posts I wrote about our local annual county fair, the vibe of a west coast event, it's energy, and friendly air of competition in everything from livestock to fine art. (https://creativelifesampler.blogspot.com/2022/08/more-scenes-from-2022-ventura-county.html) 

Each August on the opposite coast, the League of New Hampshire Craftsmen hold their annual fair. This summer they celebrated their 89th year. 


The mission of the League of New Hampshire Craftsmen is " To advance, cultivate, and champion excellence in fine craft." ( https://nhcrafts.org/) New Hampshire artists and artisans who work in fiber, silver, clay, paint, wood, and so much more, are juried into membership through review by other crafts persons in their field of expertise. The League maintains several galleries and offers members many opportunities to display their work, perfect their craft, and grow their business. At this fair, you will find very accomplished exhibitors.  

A member competition included furniture, apparel, paintings, pottery, jewelry, rugs, weaving, . . I'm sure I'm forgetting something! Just about every medium is used by this group of creatives.


In the spirit of sharing and promoting their crafts, there were demonstrations, . . . 

Basket weaving demonstration

Iron working at a forge

At work on the potter's wheel

Wood working tent

. . . and several opportunities for hands on experimenting:
"Community Loom"- weaving opportunity for attendees

Like the Ventura County Fair, the League fosters and encourages new craftsmen who displayed their creations in the "Next Generation" tent. It's so cool to see teenagers and young adults enthusiastic about their work and exploring new possibilities. 



Then there were multiple tents where members could display and sell their wares in booths:



I highly recommend taking in this New Hampshire event. All in all, it was a very pleasant way to spend a couple of hours. Lots of creative energy and lots of inspiration! 



Comments

Post a Comment

Popular Posts

Ooops, I did it again

-
Image
You know when you make a mistake and you end up thinking " Man, I really should have known better!"? I recently experienced that moment when I took my latest finish out of the wash, hung it to dry, and later found that the backing I used had bled through to the front of the quilt. Maybe it wouldn't have been so bad if it had covered the entire quilt, but in this case I have a strip of a stronger color on one side of the back: Heartbreaking to think that after all that time and effort, the piece was ruined just because I forgot to turn to the cold/cold setting for the delicate cycle on the washing machine. But then it occurred to me to "put it out there." I posted the problem on Instagram and got back several suggestions. The most popular solution was Dawn dish soap. And I'm happy to report I've met with success!!! It did require some persistence though. First, I tried applying Dawn to the affected areas and then putting it through the wash with a bit of ...
Read more

A Follow Up

-
Image
Shifting Contour When last you heard of this quilt it had been saved from the scourge of fabric bleeding. But I never posted the whole quilt. So here it is.  I have called it Shifting Contour because, in my mind, the patterned fabric plays the role of the background on the left side of the piece. On the right side, the patterned fabric moves to the foreground and becomes a solid shape against the cream background. It is an experiment with the concept of negative space. This year our local guild has taken the lead from our parent organization, the Modern Quilt Guild, and focused on a specific topic each quarter. They covered categories which can be found in the annual QuiltCon quilt show: modern traditionalism, applique, negative space, and minimalism.  I found defining these terms has been really helpful, as sometimes it's difficult to identify why a certain quilt is in a category, in which category a quilt "belongs" when entering it, and even how to deliberately incorpo...
Read more

Q=A=Q 2025 Opening

-
Image
  The first weekend in November was the opening of the annual Quilts=Art=Quilts show at the Schweinfurth Art Center in Auburn, New York.  Q=A=Q Opening Night The show includes seventy quilts created by fifty three artists from around the world, including  Australia, Brazil, Canada, Germany, Hungary, Kuwait, Switzerland, and the US. This is the second year that I've been honored to be juried into Q=A=Q.  It requires a bit of effort to get to upstate New York on opening night; there are no direct flights from our location. So I'm doubly grateful for the support of family who joined me to take in the experience.  This is very different from a large quilt convention. While you can get up close to the work at any kind of quilt show, the more intimate setting of a gallery brings a unique perspective. The environment elevates a quilt to the status of art. I love that there are so many ways to present my work. I know this is a relatively new phenomenon and it reflects c...
Read more