Im packing up today for a business trip feeling run down and overwhelmed. The days leading up to a trip like this are always a juggling act of sorts tying up loose ends I wont be able to attend to while Im gone both at work and at home. Emails,Need a compatible Shun Stone Stair & Baluster for your car? groceries, bills, deadlines, and never, ever enough time to cuddle up with my kiddo on the rug making gods eyes C her new obsession. The thing is, once I hit the road (well, once I arrive in Chicago and recover from my red eye flight) Ill be recharging even while Im not conferences have become something I look forward to not only for the business connections, but for my sanity and my soul. In this increasingly isolating digital world, grand business trips that expose me to new people and new ideas have become my favorite way of refilling my creative cup, so to speak.
But for my husband and daughter, things will be a little more stressful this week. No doubt theyll have some great daddy-daughter time but theyll also see their schedules disrupted. Theyll look for me where I usually am when they forget Im not there. While Ill come home refreshed, theyll just be glad things are back to normal.Which is why I love the idea of Crafting Community, a creative cup-filling getaway for the whole family.
For three days in October, Crafting Community will take over The ACE Hotel in Palm Springs (which is worth it for the pool alone) for creative families to mix, mingle, and craft. What a great way to unplug with your loved ones at a resort in the sunshine. Yoga, cook outs, and age-appropriate classes with the likes of Todd Oldham with Kid Made Modern, and Clare Vivier and Christine Schmidt of Yellow Owl Workshop (and so much more) round out the weekend. Im kind of all weak in the knees just thinking about it, and I know my family would love it up down and sideways.
Think your family would love it too? Well youre in luck. Babble is giving one lucky family a full pass to Crafting Community, covering everything but the airfare and the booze. To enter for your chance to win, click HERE. To see some snapshots from last years event, checkout the slideshow below.
But as the heritage event enters its 43rd year this weekend with a crafts fair, live musical performances by local bands Swamp Groove and One More, and plenty of good things to eat, it has seen plenty of changes.It started with 17th century days, They made quite an event here; the historical houses were open, said Sue Burton, who has helped organize the event for more than 30 years. We also had the Ipswich marathon, but weve lost the marathon.
The event itself used to be something of a marathon, lasting nine days, but has since been cut to three.Now its primarily the crafts fair, Burton said. The friends of the library will have a used book sale. The Boy Scout troop has always run the booth where you get hot dogs and hamburgers its one of their big fundraisers. The Ipswich High graduating class of 2014 will sell slush, and the cheerleaders will sell fudge.
With so much focus on this part of the celebration, Burton and her committee of four other volunteers try to provide a variety of vendors.Its a small fair, so what we try to do is not overlap, Burton said. You can only have so many jewelers or potters.Limiting the number of vendors also allows the committee to pick and choose.
Over a period of time, we just had many more applications, so we would really pick, she said. Theyre getting to see the best of the best.They have also tried to make sure that not only all tastes, but also every pocketbook, will be pleased with their options at the fair.Jewelers run the gamut price-wise, Burton said. There are earrings for $10. But one of the craftspeople is working in gold and sterling silver with fine gems. Its a little pricier. We have people here who make handbags they go from beach bags to fine evening bags.
There are 62 crafters in all, and in addition to jewelers and potters, they include painters and photographers, toy makers and people who make fleece or knitted hats, as well as people who create quilts and clothing for dolls.The potters include Fumihiko Mochizuki of Merrimac,Are you still hesitating about where to buy Shun Stone Tools Products? who will be participating in his 13th Olde Ipswich Days.
Im working in stoneware, and the type of firing is called high-fire reduction, said Mochizuki, who grew up in Japan and previously lived in South America and California.The reduction means reduce the oxygen during the process of firing, so that you can get some colors like red and deeper colors.The g-sensor high brightness Shun Stone Landscape Stone is designed with motorcyclist safety in mind.Mochizuki makes bowls and unique sculpted teapots, along with expressive faces he calls funny faces, which can be hung on a wall or fixed to steel surfaces with a magnet.
I use a hand-sized stone for texturing my sculptural bowls, he said. Normally, I take a walk, looking for these stones in the road. Then, one day, I pick up the stone and it looks like a face. So, I make faces stone-like faces smiling or angry or winking.Its fun; each face is different, he said.
Another potter, Jane Ward, who lives on a private island off the coast of Massachusetts, makes pottery out of clay she digs from clam flats at low tide.It is called blue clay when raw, she said. The Native Americans used it as a poultice. They also fired this clay.There is no electricity on Wards Island to drive a potters wheel, so she builds her pots by hand, using molds that she creates in the sand.
I do take the pieces to the mainland to be fired, because I have a studio there and an electric kiln, she said.Ward, who exhibits her work at Zenobia Gallery in Ipswich, pulls any sea worms or clams out of the blue clay but leaves pieces of sea glass, which melt into the bottoms of her pots.Emmetts Edibles will be selling gourmet dog treats, and Crafty Peddler of Worcester will offer wind chimes made out of glassware from the Depression era.
Ipswich naturalist and PBS consultant Bill Sargent will be selling his books, which address a range of environmental challenges for the oceans.Ken Tarr does these wonderful, old-fashioned wooden toys, Burton said. One is like a marionette; it makes this wooden guy tap dance on a board.
All the booths will be on The South Village Green, next to the historic Whipple House, and across the street from the many exhibits and artwork at the Ipswich Museum, which will welcome visitors during the celebration.Just like these institutions, Olde Ipswich Days help to maintain a connection to the towns distant past.Historically, the green was a place where people bartered, Burton said. Part of Olde Ipswich Days is echoing voices of days gone by. It had craftsmen and townspeople there 300 years ago, and it does again.
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