Arts & Crafts Festival lures shoppers with diverse displays

If you could find a space in the West Center parking lots Friday and Saturday mornings, you were exceptionally lucky. Both lots were crammed, and the Sheriff’s Auxiliary Volunteers stayed busy directing all the traffic for Arts & Crafts Festival 2007.

About 125 local arts and craftspeople, all belonging to the GV Arts and Crafts Association, sponsor of the event, displayed their unique creations at tables that filled not only the courtyard, but also the lobby and the large auditorium inside.

The three areas were crowded, making getting from table to table a logistical feat. But the crowds didn’t deter determined shoppers, looking for a unique gift for a loved one or friend, something new to decorate their home or something fun for themselves.

Jewelry dominates

Lovers of distinctive jewelry had their task cut out for them since by far the majority of exhibitors displayed bracelets, beautiful necklaces, rings and earrings.

Donna Thiel, known to many Green Valley Recreation members as the belly dance and exercise teacher, brought literally hundreds of her jewelry items, crafted with amethyst, turquoise, tiger eye, natural stone, bone, antlers, cobalt and more.

“I love color and this year I’m showing loads of color,” said Thiel, who has been selling her jewelry at crafts association shows here since 1989. She counts a lot on repeat customers and strives to make her creative and distinctive work affordable.

“Only about 10 percent of what I make is priced at over $50,” she said, over the heads of dozens of customers clustered around her table.

Ruth Roy and her daughter Roberta displayed Ruth’s hand-carved wooden items, including Nativity scenes, Indian figures, Santas, jewelry and Christmas ornaments.

She does all the cutting, sanding and finishing using whatever materials she can. A favorite is cedar.

A wood worker for 17 years, Roy got the inspiration from another wood carver’s work she admired at a craft show in St. Cloud, Minn.

“I saw his work and said ‘I can do that, too’ and went out and bought a saw and a sander,” she said.

Talented seamstress

Seamtress Wanda Graves learned to sew from her aunt on a feed sack, using an old-fashioned narrow-gauge sewing machine. She later went to work for the Singer Sewing Machine Co., got a new machine and now sews all manner of items, including square dance clothes, children’s stocking caps, and bibs “from babies to nursing homes,” she joked.

Husband Ross joined her at the table to display his “hillbilly back scratchers” and hiking sticks.

Richard Paige, a hiking guide for Pima Community College, former president of the GVR Hiking Club and GVR Camera Club member, displayed dozens of stunning outdoor photos, matted and some framed, taken on his extensive backpacking trips around Arizona.

Mesquite creations

Ronald Perry, a winter visitor, turned to making cabinets and other wood items, such as wine racks, after a career as a shop teacher and principal. He showed varying-sized wooden bowls, crafted meticulously of mesquite, studded with turquoise and polished to a high gloss with tung oil.

He’s been making the bowls for the past 50 years, he said, and hasn’t lost his enthusiasm, evidenced by the fact that he still spends “six days a week” in the GVR woodshop.

Dolly Miller, known to GV audiences for her roles on stage with the Valley Players, displayed her ceramic work and jewelry. She favors garnets, her birth stone, but says “pearls are nice, too!”

The retired Registered Nurse learned to work with ceramics and to create jewelry through classes at GVR and has been exhibiting her work in arts and crafts fairs here for 13 years.

Indian wall masks

Diane West, who teaches gourd art at Pima Community College, displayed some striking, colorful Indian masks, studded with turquoise and coral stones and decorated with feathers “which have gotten a lot more expensive since they can no longer be imported from China because of bird flu,” she explained.

She uses turkey, pheasant, parrot and chicken feathers to create these unique wall decorations.

Many other arts and crafts were exhibited at this annual show, including leather and metalwork, sculpture, textiles, quilts, needlepoint, and paintings.

A portion of the show’s proceeds are donated to GVR and have been used for items ranging from a defibrillator to a piano, according to Elaine Stokes, chairman of Arts & Crafts Festival 2007. All exhibitors in the show are GVR members.

kengle@gvnews.com| 547-9732