Summer of Crap ... er ... Craft

We put it off for a year, but this summer, wife has decided, is the summer of crafts.

You read that right.

Last summer we were broke as shit, so it wasn't much use to put gas in the car to go to craft shows if we weren't going to even have a chance of buying anything. I was just starting a relationship with a local arts publication, and pitched the idea of having a curmudgeon like me galavanting around to craft fairs and to see whether or not by sheer volume I would be turned to what I considered to be the dark side. The pitch didn't take, and the editor turned out to be a horrible fit for me - as in she published a few articles but could never explain what she wanted and didn't want to put the work in on editing anything. I love writing multiple drafts, but not everyone jives with improving that way. I’m writing columns for an international art magazine now, so plan to use this space as a journal of this summer’s project to mold into a functioning piece by the end of August.

Anywho, the idea was germinated by This article by a guy who had to go to the Minnesota State Fair. I haven't been to the state fair ever, but I've learned to keep my mouth shut about that. I said as much at work last year and I think two co-workers were seriously ready to slap me for saying I'd never been. Really, their reaction was visceral anger flames.

So what could someone like me do to not copycat that article, but go one better? Well, smarty pants, why not make it a marathon? Sure anyone can go to a state fair for a day and write about it, but dragging your ass out of bed on an otherwise perfectly good weekend and spending hours looking at crafts? That's dedication. That's the kind of self-flagellating that in my mind outdoes any of those ridiculous self-mutilation videos people do online.

My idea of craft fairs up to this point has been shaped largely by attending them in Fergus Falls and Fargo, once because I was a reporter and, well, there's not much to report about in Fergus Falls, so you end up going to shitty craft fairs. And in Fargo - I went because Wife. 

Most times, I can bitch enough to be allowed to go sit in a corner with a book while wife walks around. I read my way through a chunk of The Road that way, and somewhat envied the characters in the book who didn't have craft fairs to go through, just a post apocalyptic wasteland of roving cannibals. 

When I hear the word, craft, I think of silverware with colorful rocks attached to it with wire to match fiestaware colors. I think of homemade belts. I think of hand painted rocks. I think of people with very specific sensibilities who for some reason are able to get other people to pay them for the things they found lying around and added some paint to or burned with a soldering iron. 

In short, I'm an asshole about crafts. 

The pain began a couple weeks ago. April 21, American Craft Council Show 2013. This was a show that you have to pay to park and pay to get in, so before Wife and I even see our first booth, we're out 34 bucks. 

The show was held in a large at the St. Paul RiverCenter, which seemed to be just the right size for the event. As a bonus, they had the event booths lined up in six clean rows with chairs at either end, so you could take a breather, walk down a row, and if your back was acting up like wife’s was that day, you can take another rest. This was sprinting style craft-fair attendance, and I liked it. I also liked being able to see an end to the place. Some craft fairs are set up outdoors and it seems like the rows of booths will never end until you give up.

The other nice thing about this event was that payment for entry seemed to guarantee quality. There were very few booths that struck me as especially “craft” driven as I have described above. Instead, this place was filled with what I would call artisans – people who have obviously put a lot of time and effort into providing quality over quantity. The booths were equally divided between metalworks, ceramics, woodworks, clothing, and jewelry. There was one photography booth as I recall, and a couple painting booths, but for the most part, this was the type of art/craft where you take something from nature and manuplate, cut, mold, and shape into something beautiful.

We went on a Sunday, which was the last day they were open, and the crowd was easily manageable. We never felt pushed along or as if we were simply avoiding being cornered by throngs.

Wife found what she wanted in the first row of booths, but we waited until we had seen everything to be sure and walked back (which is another nice thing about this setup – try this at some craft fairs and you may end up walking a mile back to the place you want to get something).

She bought a leaf.

Yes, a leaf.

This was actually more cool than it sounds. The guy collects leaves that mean something to him – at home, on trips to national parks – and preserves them by either encasing them with a thin layer of copper or by replicating them in copper. The process also takes color into account. What you end up with is a perfect (or imperfect) leaf in incredible detail with a pin on back to use it as a brooch or to connect to a necklace.

I got a nifty end grain cutting board that is composited together from various wood pieces. Not the most artistic of choices, but we needed a cutting board. It’s been a month now though, and I still have to get mineral oil to treat the board with.

Our third purchase – all for less than 100 total – was a Japanese influenced vase for a single flower. We got it in honor of our recent trip to the opera for the Japanese influenced production of Turandot.

I felt good about all three purchases – something not always true when it comes to craft fairs.

I do regret not partaking in a handcrafted whiskey tasting during the fair, but there was no way to know how much it would put us back, and I didn’t want the embarrassment of asking and finding out it was way out of my league.

The other aspect of this fair worth noting was about a dozen booths that were like little rooms decorated by local interior designers by creating the space around one craft piece from a booth at this fair. While that sounds rather interesting, the end results were like looking at pretension if pretension was a room that was decorated by someone who hates the idea of people living in that room.

Overall, our first foray into the craft world for 2013 was successful. Would I say I enjoy craft fairs now? Absolutely not. It will take more work to disabuse me of my prejudices when it comes to this whole “craft” world.

Our second scheduled craft fair was to be “Craftstravaganza” but with wife still on the hunt for full time work, we couldn’t swing the cash that it would take to gas the car to get there let alone actually get something. This was a crushing blow to wife, particularly after a job rejection she had made through the third round of interviews to get. We spent the day relapsing into smoking and heavy drinking what we had around the house instead. (6 cigarettes total, rest thrown away that night. 2 bottles of wine killed by noon on Saturday).

So the plan is to re-join this craft project with the Edina Art fair at the end of the month. This weekend is Art-A-Whirl, but we just don’t have the energy or cash flow to do that between two Red Sox vs. Twins outings on Friday and Sunday. We also went last year and had a less than stellar experience.