More News from the Alaska State Fair

Today I am featuring 2 other artists whose work we carry in our Fair booth. The first is Heather Krawiec of Fairbanks. She makes fabulous fleece hats and each one is unique. Her company is Mountain Heather.

The other wonderful artist is really 2 artists! Ardella Hagen and her daughter Lucinda Durham create treasures from birch bark in the form of baskets, bowls and cylinders. I am a big fan of theirs and have quite a collection!

Alaska State Fair

We survived opening weekend at the Fair with excellent attendance and great sales. This year, my jewelry displays are spread around the building and it seems to be working.
Here is a mixture of some necklaces, earrings, earring sets. Below are my knitted, felted handbags.


This is some of my freeform beadwork and new oxidized necklaces. On the opposite wall are my two earring racks -- the "bread & butter" of Orion Designs! My earring sets (lower right) are a hot commodity this year as well. I raised the price of them this year for the first time in about 8 years. This was necessitated by the rise in the price of precious metals. I'm thankful that my customers appreciate the materials and the work that goes into creating them.

Opening Day!

I thought it might be nice to highlight the big sign for the State Fair along the highway. Each day, the sign features what musical entertainment will be happening that day.


And here's a photo of our booth -- all set up finally! Yes, opening day was a little overcast, but it cleared off later in the day. There was a great turnout for a Thursday and we remain optimistic!

Today's feature is Cindy Shake Design. This is a large metal sculpture entitled "Garden Goddess". She's already been getting lots of well deserved attention!

... Still Setting Up

As promised, here's a picture of the new back door ... well, it's the opening for it anyway. Since I took this picture, the actual door has been installed by Rick and painted by Carol.


Carol grabbed the camera and captured me while displaying the travel mugs (cool colors, huh?) and the ceramic mugs, which have always been great sellers for us.



Here's Carol again --- this time she's going mad --- amidst a large pile of our newest product. They are some really cute lavender colored zippered hooded sweatshirts with a new swirly design.

Setting Up at the Alaska State Fair

It seems like the State Fair comes as a surprise every summer. It's our 11th year doing this Fair. Even so, we never know where to start. Setting up takes days and days. Here are some highlights of the first 2 days of set-up. The Bad Girls building, built by Rick in 1998, is set in place with a huge forklift by the contractor. here's what it looks like before we even touch it:



Stored inside the building are the components of the ramp and handrail, which Rick built last year. It took us (mostly him) a few hours to install them.

The next day, while Rick is busy creating a back door (photos in the next post) for the building, Carol and I start the set up. Here she is outside the building on a ladder looking at me inside, through the window. I'm extremely busy rolling hundreds of t-shirts and slowly going mad doing it (sorry, no photo available).

Lampwork Earings

I started with lovely lampwork beads from Deronda Designs. They are of and indescribable golden hue, with touches of aqua and soft pink. Emerging from the bottom is a collection of glass beads in coordinating colors, including some tiny aqua colored vintage glass beads.

These earrings are 1 1/2" (3.6 cm) from the bottom of the sterling silver leverback earwires. They are available for sale in my
etsy shop.