handmade mart in silver spring, maryland
Last Sunday, my mom and I trekked up to Silver Spring, Maryland for Handmade Mart. It was a beautiful day and a great show – lots of very talented and original artists & craftspeople! The spread was quite well done, with a good variety of crafts represented and most were of very good quality. Overall, I was impressed!
The person I was least impressed with, though, was myself. I was there with “the big camera” around my neck, and you know how many pictures I took? One. I have been kicking myself all week about that one, and needless to say, I will never again take my camera to an event without taking a decent amount of pictures. I seriously feel like such an idiot… it’s a feeling that will linger and certainly get me shooting more in public!
But enough about me and my random camera shyness… let me give you the lowdown on some of the awesome people that I saw!
Probably my favorite booth, and one of the most unique, was that of pidgepidge. She weaves scarves on a loom, and the results are simply fantastic. She has a wonderful eye for color and the different weaving techniques she used on each scarf gave them a wonderful texture. I was especially surprised at how soft they were; they looked like they might be scratchy, but they weren’t at all. She uses mostly natural wool & cotton fibers, and they gave the scarves a luxurious and huggable feel. This one’s definitely on my wishlist!
I was very intrigued by the work by Lori Flanders, who makes her own glass lampwork beads in the shape of birds, cupcakes, hearts, and other cute things. She uses rods of glass and a high-heat torch, and it’s an artform where you have to work really quickly and skillfully while the glass is hot. Later on in the day, we saw Ryan Eicher (photo at top of post) doing a glass forming demonstration, which was fascinating. The molten glass is so unpredictable, yet has the potential for some really breathtaking results… that’s something I’d like to learn. Ryan teaches lessons, so I might have to check into that!
Now my corkboard is covered in little cards from that day, inspiring me to keep working my crafty self. A few other artists that I got to see and chat with were Jennifer of Cotton Monster and Fuzzy-Ink screenprinted t-shirts. I also visited the ArtSpring store in Silver Spring, and will hopefully be consigning some of my work there in the future!
And of course it’s not like I could leave the show empty handed… here are my treasures! Two prints by Jeff of El Jefe Design: Albie, from a song by Flight of the Conchords, and a whale riding a tricycle – because who doesn’t need one of those?
It was a great adventure and it was good for me to remember how awesome it is to be a crafty person… I’m certainly inspired to fill my summer with as much making things as possible!
I have begun to refer to my room as the Narwhal Factory (others may argue for One-Woman-Sweatshop), considering that besides homework, eating, and sleeping (in that order), narwhals are basically what I do. I’m not complaining. I’m almost complaining. It’s stressful at times. But this is an awesome college job.
