Being Crafty....

The real reason (it’s my story and I’m sticking to it) we went to Baltimore was not the dinner, but the annual craft show sponsored by the American Craft Council.  Let me stop right here and clarify something.  A lot of people have the notion that “Craft Show” means there are grape vine wreaths, yarn and Popsicle sticks, lawn ornaments of rotund ladies, and various homemade crafts we see at local armories and such.  There is nothing wrong with those, but this show is devoted to the exhibition works of art such as are displayed in the Renwick Museum in DC.  Which, by the way you should go see if you have not.  Anyway, the show ran from Friday through Sunday with a wholesale only on Wednesday and Thursday.  As mentioned before, we could only swing Sunday so that’s what we did.

The show is held in the exhibition area of the Baltimore Convention Center which is a considerable building.  Artisans from all over the nation are there as it is one of the major shows in the United States.  Unlike the Smithsonian Show (next month, on the schedule) it is not juried, and (I think) anybody can rent a booth.  I think you might have to be a member of the Craft Council, but I am not sure on that.  I suspect (with all due respect) there is some procedure to weed out the grape vine folk.

To give you some idea of the scale of the thing, here is a “map” of the various booths (and remember this is a HUGE space).

 

Each of those little "blocks" contains anywhere from six to ten booths

 

Each artist then displays their pieces ( a couple of “wearable art” shown) in the booths

 

I made a rough count and came up with over 500 vendors.  Glass, wood, ceramics, clothing, metal, fabrics, you name it. And as I have said before the prices can be quite amazing.  Especially in the jewelry booths where bracelets of (~18K) gold, diamonds and precious stones can reach five figures.  They are gorgeous.  Despite telling each other that we didn’t need anything we succumbed to a couple of pieces of ceramics (pasta bowl and serving tray or hanging)

 

They were NOT in the price range mentioned above.  MFO also got a pretty nice pair of earrings (ditto not quite!).  It’s always fun to see these things, it is amazing what people can do.  There’s beadwork that is so small you can hardly see it.  We finally tuckered out after four hours or so, and headed home.  We’ll be going to the Smithsonian edition (non-ACC, and juried) which is much more manageable but no less expensive..  will update when the time comes near the end of April..   So a nice weekend with an interesting dinner and seeing pretty things..

 

Other Odds and Ends

Coming (relatively, kind of, maybe) Soon!!

As reported in this space a while ago, it apparently is now official (Hey! It’s in FaceBook) that Clarke’s Landing will be filling in the space of the old “Lighthouse”  place on the Solomon’s.  Haven’t been by there lately but don’t think dirt has been turned.. It wasn’t clear to me if they will close the one on this side of the river or not…

As I did drive by the old “Catamaran’s” I noticed dumpsters being filled.  A little snooping came up with that maybe a fine(r) dining space will be upstairs and a more casual setting down.  I wish them luck.  That’s a tough location methinks.

Speaking of dumpsters the ones around the old Damon’s are also being filled.  Have not heard anything other than Monteray’s may be moving in.

Plaza Tolteca seems to have gone back into hibernation. Fits and starts there (at least from the outside).

 

Musically Speaking

 

Yesterday I went down to hear a "Piano Talk" by Brian Ganz.  I have been to several, but this was proabably the best one yet.  Being an aeroelastician, I thought I dealt in a technical world.  I now have even deeper respsect for musicians.  Terms flew, passages played to demonstrate.  I can't begin to recount.  And, with apologies to a certain busy bee, I misplaced the program so I cannot give yuo the name of the piece exactly.  It was Chopin and a "ballade" in some key from some opus.  Brian said it was his favorite piece of music, and maybe the one that started him on the journey he finds himself continuing.   Pieces of it were played to demonstrate various themes in his "Story Telling" subject, but at the end he played it from beginning to end.  A stunning piece of music.  No wonder.  As I always say, we are so lucky Brian is here..

Passings

I noted today the passing of Bill Taylor.  Probably not too widely known to the Feeder Followers, but Bill was a special person.  He was known as “The Dinner Designer” and spent many years catering large and small events around here.  Not so many in the past few years, but during the heyday of the county.  He was one of those people with a sense of flair, and doing it “right”.  I got to know him through those events, and eventually got invited to little dinners he would put on in his house.  The invitations were always hand written in beautiful scrolling script, elegantly worded and little pieces of art in their own way.  I think I still have a couple (somewhere).  He was also a huge fan of classic movies, with casts of Clark Gable, Katherine Hepburn and the like.  His house was a small museum with costumes, programs from Broadway Shows and the like.  One of his more renown events an Oyster dinner he put on every year.  Oyster this, oyster that, and so forth.  For a number of years he was a judge for the National Oyster Cookoff held in conjunction with the Oyster Festival.  I don’t know, but it just doesn’t seem like there are true characters like that anymore.   I hope he is catering someplace…  Thanks, Bill…

And oh yes, he was ALWAYS impeccably

DFD