The 2009 Fine Craft and Design Fair at the Arts and Culture Centre in St. John's starts next week. The fair is 10 days long this year with a switch over in booths after five days. I'm participating in the second half of the fair so I have just under 2 weeks prep time left.I've been working on larger one of a kind pieces, like harpoons, knives and Lost Stone necklaces this week.
They aren't the sort of pieces that I like to be working on at the last minute and if something goes wrong I want as much time as possible to fix them. In the next couple of days I'll switch to smaller jewelry. If there are colours or materials that you'd like to see at the fair let me know ASAP and I'll be sure to have some on hand.Here's a peak at the knives while the sinew is drying and the Lost Stone necklaces before they are strung. I've had these knife blades around since at least last spring, but I just got around to making handles for them this week.
There are a couple maple handles in there from some left over hardwood flooring at Lori's parent's cabin, a couple pieces of yew from this summer's bows and a couple moose antler handles. I don't think I've used any of these materials in knife handles before so the fair will be a chance to see which materials and styles appeal to people. I like the moose antler tines more than I was expecting.
The Lost Stone necklaces are different every time. It looks like I'll only have 6 ready for the fair, so if they appeal to you come see me early between November 11-15th. Parking and Admission are free this year so you can come check out the show as many times as you'd like!Photo Credits: Tim Rast
Photo Captions:
Top: An Obsidian Lost Stone Necklace waiting to be strung
Second: Detail of the most recent batch of Obsidian Knives
Third: Obsidian Knives for the 2009 Fine Craft and Design Fair
Fourth: Obsidian Lost Stone Necklaces ready to string
Not that this has anything to do with craft fairs, but do you know any hunters who might be disposing of moose and/or caribou lower leg bones (metacarpals and metatarsals especially)? I'm planning to make some bone folders and those are the best materials. Even deer would be okay.
ReplyDeleteI'll keep my ears open. Those bones are hard to get because they tend to be left behind with the hooves during quartering. I needed some a couple years back for a reproduction of a moose bone dagger from the Mackenzie Delta and it took me a long time to get my hands on some. I was finally led by a friend of a friend to a winter-killed young moose in the woods.
ReplyDeleteThanks. Anything you can get hold of would be great. I was thinking about lurking around in the woods once hunting season is over to see if I can find anything the hunters left behind. I even though about sticking a sign at the end of the driveway, since we have guys in blaze orange driving by here all the time, but on second thought that didn't seem like such a good idea.
ReplyDeleteI'm looking forward to the Craft fair this month and the change in venue will be nice. While the downtown location was pretty fancy, I always hated the difficulty of trying to find a parking spot.
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