American Craft Show - St. Paul

This weekend, I met Holly, my partner in the Textile Center Mentorship program, at the St. Paul American Craft show. We visited the booth of Kelly Marshall, a fellow Mentor in the program. Kelly has woven some new tote bag designs with a clever closing that uses only one handle. Her woven rugs featured sophisticated colors, as usual. I especially liked runners with blue squares that sang next to background rectangles of neutral colors. Holly checked out booths for display ideas for her recycled mittens and hats. We both enjoyed the felted creations of Lesley Hansard of Hansard Welsh Design. She had unusual scarves with calla lillies or other flowers three dimensionally draped into the background color. Holly purchased a ring for a reasonable price. She is planning a felting workshop in Guatemala this summer. I was very impressed with the baskets of Elizabeth Smathers. She has been turning wood bowl forms for bases of her pine needle basketry. All of the wood is salvadged.