From Scratch Market

Snowday Ceramics had a table this past weekend at the From Scratch Market held at the Trexlertown Grange near Allentown. Credit goes to Pam Parker for a nicely organized event. I'd never spent much time in the Lehigh Valley before so I did not know what to expect, but ended up having a lovely day.

My table was located on the main hall of the Grange, with about 30 other artists and vendors of all kinds of handmade goods. I made friends with the other potter in the show, Pia Somerlock, who has her studio in the Poconos and has been doing this for about 10 years. She makes a wide variety of stuff including stoneware pots that are earthy on the outside, and brightly glazed on the inside. She will be at the Reading Public Museum "Art of the Craft" show next weekend.

I also chatted for a while with Melanie Linder, who has banded with a group of women from the Kutztown area to form Z-Town Made, an artist collective. A lot of their work seemed to be influenced by Pennsylvania Dutch folk art, but with a design-y freshness that is totally appealing. Maybe they are showing how design-y Pennsylvania Dutch folk art actually is. I ended up buying one of Melanie's prints.

A band called My Cousin The Emperor (I think?) played on the Grange stage, keeping the energy up throughout the day. There was also some very tasty food being sold downstairs, including a delicious butternut squash soup with fresh bread.

Speaking of food, after the show was over and I packed everything up, a source recommended I stop by Yocco's -The Hot Dog King, a local landmark fast food place. So I got pierogies, hotdog, and a birch beer before getting onto the Turnpike. Happy endings.

Art For The Cash Poor 2008

Art For The Cash Poor is a really cool art fair event that supports InLiquid, an online artists' resource. Having just done the Art Star Craft Bazaar two weeks ago, I can't help but compare and contrast the two. I think from the outside they look like the same thing: artists and crafters set up with booths, live music, & vegan food vendors. But if you look a little closer, there is more of a fine-art representation to Cash Poor, which makes sense seeing that many of InLiquid's members are painters, printmakers, photographers and the like. Meanwhile, the vendors at the Bazaar seem more likely to be makers of really cute/ironic crafts, jewelry and silk-screened T-shirts, although certainly these folks were represented at Cash Poor as well.


It wasn't until I got to the Crane Building that I realized that Art for the Cash Poor is meant to be a benefit for InLiquid, what with the extensive raffle, and food vendors, such as the nice folks from North Port Fishington Cookie Factory over there to the right, informing customers that a portion of their proceeds will be donated. There were also a festive fotobooth, and an artist wellness area featuring massage and reiki on the spot, which I thought was really interesting, although I didn't have any time to experience it.

And not to say that anyone at Cash Poor was unprofessional, but it seemed a greater number of the vendors at Art Star were fully entrepreneurial, marketing-savvy, prominently displaying their logo and signs, business cards at hand. There were artists at AFTCP whose art I noticed, but unfortunately I can't tell you what their names were.

But here are some booths where I picked up a card: Rotorcaps- Jen Roder makes jewelry from bottlecaps, which sounds at first like a tried idea, but hers are extremely well-crafted with sterling silver, and she has a way of isolating the bottlecap imagery from its context, allowing you to appreciate it with a new perspective. Wolf Bait - Kelly Wolf was selling zippered purses made with *unbelievably cute* fabrics from Japan. They were as cute as the 4-month old biscuit-colored French Bulldog puppy named Olive who came to my table on Sunday. I can't believe I don't have a picture of her. Here is an obligatory picture of my dog Jonah instead. (p.s. this photo keeps automatically rotating itself when I upload it, if anyone can tell me how to correct it, please do)

Would I do these fairs again? Absolutely. I learned a lot at each one and saw them as fun networking opportunities; it also makes me feel like the most popular girl in Philadelphia when so many people I know stop and talk to me at my table.