Sometimes, crafting is the best medicine. With the popularity of Pinterest and simple DIY projects that can be found online, people are able to easily destress by creating unique décor, furniture and accessories.
This weekend, Columbia will be hosting the 32nd Annual Craftsmen’s Spring Classic, one of the country’s most highly acclaimed crafts festivals, at the South Carolina State fairgrounds.
This is your chance to put aside the hot glue gun and leave the craftiness to the hand-selected professionals, who were chosen to attend the festival for their originality and creativity.
The festival exhibits several styles of arts and crafts, from contemporary to traditional to decorative usages. Over 250 craftsmen travel from 25 different states to display and sell handmade products such as pottery, fine art, glass, jewelry, baskets, clothing and much more.
“It’s like you are seeing 200 boutiques or galleries all in one place,” said Carly Gilmore, director for marketing and advertising for Gilmore Enterprises, the producers of Craftsmen’s Classics.
Gilmore said the festival's biggest attractions for the past few years have been custom work and yard art, which is metalwork and plant pottery decoration for lawns.
“We feature a lot of outdoor custom work, especially down south where people have big yards and spend a lot of time outdoors,” Gilmore said.
Although custom work and yard art captivate the festival's large crowds, the Craftsmen’s Spring Classic has a lot more to offer.
From African-style-inspired clothing to purses made out of leather cowboy boots, there's a wide range of crafty eye candy to see and buy. The festival also features glass blowers in action and an opportunity to create your own silk scarf.
There will also be specialty food items provided by vendors with different ethnic backgrounds.
“My favorite is the strudel, from Austria,” Gilmore said. “There are also cinnamon glazed almonds and lots of nuts to snack on when you walk around. There will also be a group from Virginia that has their own farm so they bring in pickled okra, relishes and salsas and other things they make.”
There are thousands of unique choices for different styles, taste and budgets. These projects are all original and cannot be found in retail stores, so this may be your only chance to see and purchase this season’s original works, special to this year’s festival.
“The show evolves as the exhibitors evolve. There’s a lot of new trends, so they are always getting new ideas and creating new things, and they are always excited,” Gilmore said.
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