A shopper’s dream: Find it all at arts & crafts show

You don’t have to leave Green Valley to find unique gifts for someone special — or even a little treat for yourself.

An array of arts and crafts by some of Green Valley’s most talented artisans will be for sale Friday and Saturday during the Green Valley Arts and Crafts Association’s 2010 Arts & Crafts Festival at the West Center.

The show highlights more than 125 vendors showcasing their jewelry, ceramics, textiles, woodwork, lapidary, clay work, pottery, metal work, woven and knitted items, sculptures and more.

There are 12 vendors showing goods for the first time.

La Tienda Gift Shop will also be open to the public during this special event. All those showing their work are Green Valley Recreation members. Many of them have taken classes in their specialties and use GVR equipment available in studios, woodworking and the lapidary rooms in the various GVR centers.

Award winner

Quilt and fiber artist Jaan Troutwine, a 23-year veteran of the festival, is excited about this year’s exhibition.

Her hand-quilted table runners, place mats, pot holders and baby blankets will be for sale. A Wisconsin transplant and a quilter for the past 44 years, Troutwine has won multiple awards for her quilt creations.

Here comes Santa

Almost everybody loves Santa Claus, and no one knows that better than Green Valley woodworker Al Felly, who has been carving his Santas from bass wood for nearly 20 years. A popular booth at the Arts and Crafts Festival each year, Al continues to carve even during the two-day show while his wife, Eadie, handles sales.

Santa is not only represented during the Christmas season, according to the Fellys, winter visitors from Wisconsin. Al carves a variety of Santas representing each month. His March Santa features a mint green suit adorned with shamrocks. His July Santa sports a U.S. flag motif and other patriotic emblems for the July 4th holiday.

“I have people who want to collect all of them,” Al says.

His Green Valley home wood shop is overflowing with loads of carving tools and Santas in various stages of completion. He and Eadie are about to release their Santa book, illustrated by Wisconsin illustrator Tom Kelly.

Wood turning

A former finance manager for Dow Chemical, Arthur Emerton now spends some of his retirement creating exquisite wooden urns, bowls and other vessels, many featuring veins of inlaid turquoise. He describes himself as a wood turner and works on a lathe. Wood turning differs from most other forms of woodworking in that the wood is moving while a stationary tool is used to cut and shape it.

Emerton frequents the annual gem show in Tucson, where he purchases the turquoise he later crushes and inlays on his pieces, adding colorful highlights to the maple, mesquite, palo verde or other wood used for each unique project.

“I pride myself in creating very light pieces with extra fine finishes,” he says.

Ultra thin and lightweight, each wooden creation takes own its own personality.

“I really like the wood to have holes or open areas, providing visual interest.”

While the arts festival allows local artisans the opportunity to make some extra money, the association usually gives a major donation, from $5,000 to $6,000 a year, to GVR out of the proceeds and those from other shows.

In the past, the association has donated funds for many projects, including money for a piano and new stage curtain for Desert Hills Center, new equipment for the art room at Santa Rita Springs and funds to Valley Players to produce their spring musical “Gigi.”

The group also donated a majority of the funds, with help from the Lapidary Club, La Tienda Gift Shop and Valley Players, for the new LED outdoor electric sign at the West Center.

The group participates in community service projects, making blankets for Project Linus, hats for St. Andrew’s Children’s Clinic in Nogales and newborn baby caps for St. Mary’s Hospital.

rford@gvnews.com | 547-9740