By Rit Carter
The holiday shopping season unofficially kicked off last Saturday in Bristol with the annual St. Gregory Craft Fair at the CCD Center on Stafford Avenue.
Judging by the crowded parking when the doors opened at 9 AM and how cars had to park in the grass, the craft fair was a success.
Over 40 vendors squeezed into the CCD center Saturday and Sunday to sell a wide array of handcrafted Christmas decorations, woodwork, trinkets, wreaths, artwork, ornaments, and more. Every year the fair brings out the best of local crafters and creators.
One such creator is Danielle Lee. Lee comes from a crafting family, with her mother and grandmother always making crafts. Having a creative spirit herself, she decided to use recycled materials rather than buy materials (upcycling).
“That’s really the main goal here is to try to take something and make it something useful and make it something beautiful and have people come by and smile,” Lee said.
She makes charming pieces of art using bags, wine corks, bottle caps, and even vinyl records. “A lot of times, people will find some old vinyl in the basement and can’t play it. So, I turned it into something useful,” she said.
For Beth Sloan of LoveBeads by Beth, creativity is in the family, too, with her mother and grandmother being creators.
She started by selling and trading her handmade items at concerts, “I would trade my jewelry for something they had. All artists all different, so if someone had a really cool pendant, I would give her a dress, she would give me her pendant and it worked out.”
Today, she makes handmade and customized items like headbands, key chains, pins, jewelry, lanyards, and joy; she likes to joke. Her enthusiasm and cheeriness are no joke because it is infectious and shows up in her work.
But it wasn’t just crafters at St. Gregory Craft Fair.
Katerina Kretsch is a photographer, and she’s been taking photographs for many years, but seriously, for the last seven.
She photographs landscapes and wildlife mainly but also has an interest in the abstract as well. “When people look at it, they don’t know right away what it is. It takes them a while, so it grabs them into the photo. They try to figure it out, and they end up looking at it longer than just glancing at it.”
Despite her interest in the abstract, she prefers landscapes and wildlife because there is more to them than what the eye naturally sees. The beauty lay in the details.
“I find that when I take the photos after I look at the photo, I really appreciate what nature is,” she explains.
“For example, a hummingbird. My eye catches the hummingbird, but when I look at the photo, I look at the details of the color and the feathers, and I really get to appreciate it a lot more. It makes me stop. It makes me appreciate nature and what God has created, and that’s what keeps me coming back because every single photo is different.“
To see more of these creators’ works, visit the following sites:
Danielle Lee: Dani (@danielle_dleedo) • Instagram photos and videos
Katerina Kretsch: www.photographybykaterina.photos
Beth Sloan does not have a website but she will be at the St. Matthew School and Craft Vendor Fair Saturday, Dec. 4 from 8:30 a.m. until 3:30 p.m.
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