Artisan Market Wrap-Up, Pt. 1 (or Awesome People, Awesome Day!)

I learned two important facts at the Artisan Market on Saturday:
1) There are some really talented, creative, friendly people in Houston!
2) It's very dangerous to let me attend a craft fair because I'll want to spend all my profits on others' handiwork!

As for the day's specifics, let's start with me, shall we?



The day started out with quite a bang.
As I was setting up my booth, a lovely woman named Helen happened to jog by and bought all my tissue poofs and half my "wacky" flowers! She rode home with the flowers nestled inside her bicycle basket. Tres jolie!

After we finished setting up, to prime the pump (as it were) Josh and I added a few fake addresses to the mailing list sign-up sheet. See if you can guess who they were for... (Leave a comment if you think you know!)





I soon decided to wander around and look at my fellow artisans' wares.
The first place I stopped was Crossroad Creations by Kelley.
Robin Kelley and her husband work together to create crosses out of stone, wood, and metal.



Many of their pieces include chips of amethyst, turquoise, and other gemstones to give the rough-hewn stone pieces a bit of sparkle.
Humble, yet special... I love it!




Next up was the lovely Ana Maria Sanchez of Amaria. She creates luxurious, feminine jewelery that would be just perfect for any bride! Obviously, they'd be lovely for anyone, but I think brides could particularly benefit from her talent.



Many of my favorite pieces were her pearl ones.



Check out her Etsy shop for more examples of her finery!





Arlinda Smith of Quilt Addiction does superior quilt work, but there was one quilt that I really had to tear myself away from:



Not only is the color combo right up my alley, she also told me that the fabrics were recovered from Galveston Island after Hurricane Ike. How cool is that??

I also really liked her fabric bowls...







Right in front of Arlinda's display was Matt Slimmer, metal artist.



He doesn't just do small stainless steel sculptures like the ones at the Artisan Market...



He's also an accomplished Art Car artist! If you don't know, art cars are kind of a big deal here in Houston and there's an annual parade for the local artists to show off their creations.



Matt made the "Toybota" car/boat featured in the Readers' Digest article referenced on this site.



My booth neighbor was the adorable Mandy Welch of Help Me Pledge.



Mandy's business offers a really unique way to help fundraise for charities...



Help Me Pledgewill come and set up a booth at your charity's fundraising event and will donate 50% of the day's profits to the charity - with no cost to you!

A creative gal with a creative business idea!



Okay, that's probably enough for today...
I'll post the rest tomorrow. Tomorrow will have more excellent jewelry, excellent edibles, and one picture of me looking mega-funky after a long day in the heat.

Stay tuned!