Green Craft Fair This Saturday

My recycled wine bottle serving trays and I will be at the Watkins Nature Center in Upper Marlboro, MD this Saturday, November 14th, for a fun new show in its first year! The Nature Center is encouraging a more eco approach to the gift-giving holidays by gathering artists who use recycled, natural and sustainable materials in their work. I'll be bringing some new etched designs that aren't yet available online, so be sure to stop by if you're in the area!

Watkins Nature Center
301 Watkins Park Drive, Upper Marlboro 20774
10 am - 4 pm

In addition to the craft fair, the center will be accepting clothing donations for Planet Aide and hosting a book exchange!

Just a typical Friday night

My dish drainer bristles with wine bottles -- I've just finished scrubbing the labels off, and now they're dripping dry. Many will require a second treatment with a de-gooing agent to remove all of the adhesive from the labels, then a second washing. You can see a few of my glass blossom candleholders off to the left -- I'm very behind in photographing them!

I've just put the last piece of a custom dining set into the kiln for its first firing. I designed four bright, modern, geometric dinner plates and a matching oval serving platter based on the recipient's love of green and the 1970s. After their first 18-hour trip through the kiln, I grind the rounded edges off to create a crisp, square edge on a diamond lap wheel. If there's a lot of extra glass around the edges -- for example, if I measured the mold wrong! -- I might use a tile saw first. Once I'm satisfied with the size and shape of the flat fused pieces, they go into the kiln again to drape into a mold to create a lip.

I'm off to make earrings now -- I'm gearing up for my first craft show of the season, next Saturday, April 25th, in Crofton, MD. If you're in the area, I'd love to see you! It's at the Crofton Country Club from 10am to 4pm. You can find details and directions on my show list.

Glass Squiggles - Hot Off the Candle Flame!

I'm gearing up for my winter show -- the annual Festival of Lights in Greenbelt, MD this coming weekend. Display boards, gift bags, stickers, cards, new tables for a new booth size, oh my! At the same time, everyone on the internet seems to have discovered my Recycled Wine Bottle Serving Tray at once! Eek! They're flying out the door like very heavy hot cakes, and I'm piping them through my kiln as fast as I can.

Horde of Squiggles

Of course, I'm also trying to build up some new inventory for the show! I'm making a few batches of my signature squiggle pendants. I've just finished bending a horde of squiggles and polishing the soot out of all the wee twists and turns. Any requests for background colors? :D

Rockfield Manor Wine Festival

I just spent a long, hot, sticky weekend at the Rockfield Manor Wine Festival in Bel Air, MD. Sales were slow for both artists and wine vendors, but I used the downtime to weave a couple of long byzantine chains. I had purchased some antiqued silver rings, and I combined them with the bright silver rings I usually use for a two-color chain.

New records were set for setup and breakdown! I was able to park the car next to my spot for unloading, and we managed to go from a full car next to an empty patch of grass to ready for business in 50 minutes. Breaking down was even faster -- 30 minutes to pack up all my wares, displays, tablecloths, packaging, and tools; break down the tables and tent; and stack it all back in the car (a process now known as "Tetris").

My new roadie is handy with a camera and took this photo of me weaving a chain, reflected in my booth mirror.

Photo by Thomas McKenzie

A Restaurant to Visit

I had the good fortune to be placed next to the best food vendor at the show -- the Bliss Coffee and Wine Bar. While other vendors offered hamburgers and polish sausage, the Bliss folks had seafood stew, lovely asian pulled pork sandwiches, and pasta salad made with penne and fresh veggies. I took the opportunity to peruse their menu, and they're actually a full restaurant with an awesome-sounding menu. Also, the chef has nice tattoos. If you're near Bel Air, I recommend stopping in for a meal!

Next Show

My next show is in two weeks: Saturday, September 27th at the Crofton Country Club in Crofton, MD. Visit my show list for directions and hours!

New Show!

I've just received my confirmation for a show in September. I'm trying a new venue, going relatively far afield, and a new market -- this will be the most expensive show I've done to date.

Third Annual Harford County Wine Festival



I'm very excited about the show: it's a combination wine tasting and craft exhibition at a historic manor house north of Baltimore. Tickets are $25, and that gets you a number of wine tastings. There's also food and live music. You can buy tickets online now to secure your entry!

The festival is held outdoors, rain or shine, at Rockfield Manor on Churchville Road in Bel Air.

I'll be bringing plenty of wine bottle serving trays -- they'll make great gifts in combination with the wine available for purchase at the festival! I'll also have a selection of my fancier jewelry.

Wind Resistance!

A quarter-inch of Plexiglas mounted with screws on the back of a riser will protect the earring racks from wind from the back. I'm hoping that gusts from the sides won't catch enough to lift anything so that I can get away with not taping the cards down. But you can bet I'll have a roll of masking tape just in case!



The pendant board has been wind-proofed with a 1x2 board as an outrigger on the front, C clamps at the bottom of the board, and a bungee cord hooking over the top and then passing through the easel hinge.

I have decorative glass bits to weight down my business card and next-show fliers.

My new table cloths (bright-colored sheets) are coming this week, and a friend who sews is going to put weights in the hems.

Bring it on!

Booth Shot!

The camera has been located! Here I am a couple hours into the show. Hat hair already! (That rainbow feathery object hanging from the rafters is the offending headpiece.)

I've just finished a couple of nice summery necklaces -- I'll get pictures tomorrow when the sun comes back. My car has a flat tire (grumble) so I can't go into the office (yay!). Having a car for which no garage stocks tires is a mixed blessing.

Craft Show Outtage

My first real craft show was Saturday! I spent every evening last week frantically getting things ready, then arrived to find that the situation was not what I'd expected. I'd signed up for a small show in the back room of the local cooperative cafe where you got one small table, but the cafe had been closed for renovations that day, so they'd tacked the craft show into an outdoor musical festival two weeks later.

I'd been thinking that we'd get the same amount of space outside that we'd had inside, but it turned out to be a free-for-all. We were told that we could set up anywhere within a giant amount of space on one side of a plaza. I arrived at 10am to find the area already hot and in full sun, and the fellow jewelry maker I'd met at the previous small, unadvertised back-room show urged me to go get my Tent. I waffled a bit, having received the Tent in the mail only a few weeks before and not even taken it out of the box as I didn't expect it to use it until May 4th. "How long will you last in the sun?" she asked. "I'm ready to pack up and go home now," I replied, having only gotten my table out of the car.

This was deemed an untenable situation, so I scurried home for the Tent. It's an EZ-UP, which -- if you have one and recall your first interaction with it -- is a misnomer. The directions are not altogether helpful, but with much hemming and hawing and the assistance of a bystander, it was erected. This was a great boon, as the day proceeded to be Wretchedly Hot.

There were more Exciting Incidents involving all of my earring racks and then a big bulletin board on an easel loaded with fused glass pendants going over in the wind. I may have uttered certain bad words went the easel went over, but none of the pendants broke when they hit the concrete. Littering the ground around my booth with broken glass would have been a catastrophe! Much masking tape was applied, and plans are afoot for easel outriggers and a windbreak for the earring racks.

I learned a lot. Much of it was regarding wind (are those my business cards blowing away AGAIN?!). I filled a couple of pages in a notebook with notes on what to do differently next time. Fun! I'll have a photo of the booth when the photographer finds his camera.