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It was a beautiful, if a bit warm, day yesterday. It was the occasion of the first Raritan Bay Arts Festival held on the grounds of the Conference House on Staten Island. There were displays of crafts, some food, demonstrations of Kayak making and, in the afternoon, live music performances.

Steve Nutt, of Friends of Fire, organized the artisan part of the festival; he’s the founder of Friends of Fire which has been an association of artisans, mostly potters, for over 10 years. I recently joined the group and we (a few members of the group) have opened a brick and mortar store in the Stapleton section of Staten Island. You can see the store on it’s faceBook page.

Here are some photos of the event. When I took the photos I was focusing mostly on the participants who are members of the store rather than the entire event. I was there mainly to show my work and couldn’t leave my table for very long.  This is a wide shot of the Crafts area, my ‘tent’ is in the right side of the photo in the back. Steve  is the guy in shorts, his head is framed by the second tent from the right.

Toni, who started, who Casterbridge Fair store in Stapleton, is sitting with her hand made pillows. Janice, another store member, is in black sunglasses with her hand dyed silk scarves near Toni.

This is Judith,  she makes charming ceramic teapots and tableware.  You can see them on the  Friends of Fire at Casterbridge Fair  faceBook page .

Me with my display. I’ll put shots of the whole display up at the bottom of this entry.

Here’s Steve with his new line of majolica on display.

Our friend Christy, another potter, with her New York  ’Delft’.

This guy makes Kayaks. I like the model with pontoons and  a mast. It looks like it should come from Hawaii.

These painted kayaks were on display. I like the one with the three eyes. I think of it as insurance that  you won’t lose your way if the boat is carefully watching your drift.

Here are the shots of my work, from one end of the table to the other.

Colman spent most of the time water coloring.

New earrings in dichroic glass on the left side of the board with a collection of Pearl and Stone  sets. Earrings from an earlier ‘Glass Period’ on the right.

I’ll open this entry with a shot of my display for Art by the Ferry  which took place the first two weekends of  June. The photo was taken by  our friend Sarah Yuster. It turned out to be a successful show. It was on the tail of that energy that I made the following new pieces for the upcoming show this weekend at the Conference House on the southern tip of Staten Island.  It is to be the first Raritan Bay Arts Festival.  Wish us luck and temperate weather.

I have just finished this long silver chain with faceted, polished aquamarine nuggets and hammered silver rings. I loved these stones the minute I saw them, I have others that will be wired together in the byzantine style as the summer progresses. 

Here’s a close up. The hammered silver rings flash and sparkle when the chain moves.

I finished this chain of triplets at the beginning of the week: a choker made of  polished aquamarine stones in a freeform cube shape with large round freshwater pearls, there are matching earrings.  The hook works in all of the large rings and the piece could probably be worn doubled as a bracelet.

This is a collection of earrings and a few pendants in stone and glass that I put together for summer and evening wear.

I also worked on the Lion Cup this week, It will take a little longer  than I expected getting it finished and ready for wine. There’s a lot of polishing to be done on the inside and on the lip. Here’s a photo of the cup as it came from the electro form mold.  We have ordered another one.

Last Wednesday (June 2nd) we were invited to a BBQ at Gennady’s Home in Long Island. It turned out to be a beautiful day and a lot of my classmates arrived for what turned out to be an extraordinary feast.  The garden in front of the house was a grand array of blue flowers, clematis and roses. This is just a small view.  When we arrived we could smell the roasts cooking.

Happy, with Eileen and Cindy are around Gennady’s wife  Irene.

ChengLin and Anna joined us and Colman took a shot with me in it.

On the Menu:

grilled butterfly leg of lamb marinated in pomegranate juice

grill roasted pork loin with garden herbs

grill roasted Atlantic salmon with garden herbs

Beverages: cold virgin caipirinha and  hot tea from Russian samovar.

Quoting from Happy’s FaceBook album: ” Beautiful summer BBQ day outside the city. Hungarian Pork Leg. Cheese. Parmigiano Reggiano. Cucumber wasabi salad. Grilled butterfly leg of lame marinated in pomegranate juice with hot hungarian sauce. Grilled roasted pork loin with garden herbs. Grilled roasted Atlantic salmon with garden herbs and yogurt wasabi sauce. Mediterranean pita. Cold virgin caipirinha and hot tea from Russian samovar. Freshly picked sweet strawberries. Banana Cream pie. Absinthe. Rose. red, white wine…”

There is a small deck on the front of the house, it’s set with a screened pavillion, table and chairs, the front of the house is decorated with these metal sculptures.

The samovar is smoking under an umbrella.

The pork loin arrives bathed is a remarkable chipotle sauce.

Eileen

The salmon was the last meat course to arrive at the table, roasted on a cedar plank with herbs.  Very good.   I cut and served this one.

Lively conversation as we finished eating, Happy has put a lot more photos of the day  up on her facebook page, here’s a link to the second BBQ album. There are also shots of the studio and a lot of Gennady’s work.

David and Mai.

Eileen modeling one of my new necklace and earring sets.