None of the vendors at the Festival on the Green craft fair expect to make a living on their hand-knitted sweaters, beaded jewelry or decorative throw pillows.

Some of them don’t even expect to break even.

But that doesn’t stop them from driving all over the state to set up canopies and display the fruits of hundreds of hours of their labor.

“Even when it sells for the price that you’re asking, you don’t make a lot,” said Anna Mancini, 47, of Danielson, who runs Anna’s Beaded Creations and sells beaded jewelry. “You do it because you love it. It balances out the drama of everyday life. This is the outlet. This is the fun. Some people go hiking, biking or swimming. I go beading.” Read more…

TWELVE underprivileged children in Oman are to learn a range of skills that could help them kickstart a promising career.

The seven boys and five girls, aged between seven and 16, from the Childhood Care House in Muscat, will receive their training at the Al Kindi Institute for Fine Art and Craft.

The institute offers a wide variety of courses aimed at helping needy people to develop a range of fine art skills.

The 12 children will attend the institute five times a week for a six-week programme, learning traditional and contemporary arts and crafts skills such as drawing, abstracts, shaping, portraits and landscape. Read more…

The Art and Crafts Village would be yet another addition to planned cultural facilities in the federal capital. The Capital Development Authority (CDA) has started work on developing an Art and Crafts Village near Sharkarparian.

The site of the village, which would reflect culture of all regions of the country at one place, was shifted from foothills of Saidpur Village to Shakarparian near Rose and Jasmine Garden. The project would be completed with a cost of Rs120 million over an area of 20 acres in 15 months time, CDA Director Special Projects Sanaullah Aman said. Read more…

The 42nd annual Pentwater Art-Craft Fair is Saturday at the Pentwater Village Green. The fair, presented by the Pentwater Junior Women’s Club, runs from 9 a.m.- 5 p.m.

The event is a juried fair, with up to 150 crafters. The show is juried by an outside source and there are prizes for the first and second place “best in show.”

Vickie Scott of the Junior Women’s Club said the proceeds from the fair will go to charity or a project to be decided upon. Read more…

There is a consistent demand for furniture and there is no reason why woodwork should be a dying craft. Get someone to take you on as an apprentice.

Sarah-Jane Bosch spoke to Pierre Cronje and found out more about the profession.

What does your job entail?

Our business is the manufacture of custom-made furniture for clients, and various ranges of furniture for sale in our three retail stores.

Products include domestic furniture - anything from dining room tables, chairs and sideboards, to bedroom furniture such as beds, pedestals, desks, and dressing tables. We don’t manufacture soft furniture like lounge suites, although we do the upholstery of dining room chairs.

The woods we use are mostly exotic, because South African woods tend to be too soft for good quality furniture. Indigenous yellowwood and stinkwood are suitable, but unfortunately they are not readily available. Read more…

STRAWBERRY FESTIVAL - - The annual Strawberry Festival/Craft Bazaar is just around the corner. The festival will continue today at Jefferson Depot Village, 147 East Jefferson St. It is open from noon to 5 p.m. Tours of the village, strawberry shortcake, entertainment, rides, food, a quilt show and kids corner are activities to be featured. An antique car show is scheduled for 1 to 4 p.m.

JEFFERSON DAYS - - Jefferson Days will be held June 24 and 25. The event, sponsored by the Chamber of Commerce, will feature a community yard sale and flea market. The celebration is open from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. both days and takes place at Village Park, South Market and East Jefferson streets. Vendor space is available by contacting the Chamber of Commerce. Read more…

At first blush, the PicoCricket Kit resembles a plastic box of arts and crafts supplies, crammed with colored felt, pipe cleaners, cotton and Styrofoam balls.

But this is a craft kit for the digital age. It includes electronic sensors, motors, sound boxes, connecting cables and a palm-size, battery-powered, programmable computer.

By combining the traditional materials with high-tech ones, children as young as 9 can invent interactive jewelry, fanciful creatures that dance, musical sculptures and more, said Mitchel Resnick, an assistant professor of learning research at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Media Lab. Read more…

Just when stocks and bonds are skittering ever so slightly, contemporary craft — that sometimes sly specialty made up of glass, ceramics, metal, fiber and wood — is hitting a high. Simply consider the ninth annual International Exposition of Sculpture Objects & Functional Art in New York, June 1-4, 2006, otherwise known as SOFA, the brainchild of former potter Mark Lyman. When the 59 dealers at the fair closed up shop this past Sunday evening at the Seventh Regiment Armory at Park Avenue and 67th Street, they left in their wake banner sales, new price benchmarks and some startling new taste trends.

Now, it’s not like the notion of “craft from the dark side” makes a lot of sense. But spotted at SOFA were all manner of craft works edging into downright creepy shadows. It seems to be a time, at least as far as the craft artists are concerned, to dress everything from bugs and slugs to guns and drugs in, shall we say, domestic garb for the upscale shopper. Read more…

At first blush, the PicoCricket Kit resembles a plastic box of arts and crafts supplies, crammed with colored felt, pipe cleaners, cotton and Styrofoam balls.

But this is a craft kit for the digital age. It also includes electronic sensors, motors, sound boxes, connecting cables and a battery-powered palm- sized, programmable computer.

By combining the traditional materials with high-tech ones, children as young as 9 can invent anything from interactive jewelry to fanciful dancing creatures to musical sculptures, said Mitchel Resnick, an assistant professor of learning research at the MIT Media Laboratory.

Resnick, whose work with children and learning at the Media Lab helped Lego create its highly successful Mindstorms robotic construction kits in 1998, said he wanted to conceive something in which the emphasis was not on the building of mechanical objects.

Instead, he said he was more interested in encouraging the creation of something artistic, and delivering a technology and programming language that would permit young people to take more control of how their creations would behave. Read more…

The Aurora Public Art Commission presents Interior Journey, Furniture Renaissance, an exploration of the materials and methods of furniture construction and design, from 1760 through the present.

Curated by the Aurora Public Art Commission and Albert and Mary Ann Signorelli, Interior Journey features the work of three artists: furniture designer and craftsman Tonino Stalteri, and photographers Tony Berardi and Sally Good. In addition the exhibit includes numerous pieces of period furniture from the collection of the Aurora Historical Society. Read more…