They’re crafty

Alex Coolman

“They tend to be world travelers. They’re people with more than a college

education. They tend to be a very literary group, and very socially

aware.”

It sounded like she was talking about Nobel Prize winners or maybe famous

diplomats, but Nancy Gary Ward was describing typical makers of craft

art. Ward’s characterization of the craft-making type is remarkably

generous, but there’s a good reason for it: she’s the director of the

Artistic License Fair, a show of artisans’ work that has run in Orange

County in one form or another for more than 30 years.

The fair comes to Estancia Park today through Sunday, giving Newport-Mesa

residents a chance to encounter crafty types in the flesh, and also to

investigate the colorful their products.

Ward, who does some weaving and jewelry-making in addition to

coordinating the fair, said Artistic License shows off the craft

community at its best.

“Our show is one of the leading shows for people who do it on a serious

level, because of the sales we get and the response from our clientele.”

The exhibitors produce crafts that have aesthetic integrity, but they do

so without the attitudes that sometimes go along with the “high” art

scene, Ward said.

“There’s this certain kind of camaraderie we have,” Ward said. “There’s

not a great sense of competition with each other, which is not true in

fine arts.”

Artistic License will feature about 50 artisans selling a wide variety of

work, including hand-woven garments and accessories, jewelry, ceramics,

glass, paper and silks. The items for sale range from the extremely

affordable -- a $2 handmade paper card -- to the more refined and pricey.

An opalescent raku vase might run several hundred dollars.

For the people who make such objects, craft work is often a consuming

passion rather than a mere hobby.

Newport Beach resident Michael Crook, who creates very small, very

realistic wood carvings of animals, said he has time to work on his

projects because he is retired. But even before he could take it easy,

Crook was involved in creative endeavors.

“I was a combat artist in Vietnam,” Crook said. And later on in his

career he operated a family printing business. The work with wood is only

his latest activity as an outlet for his expression.

“This is my most recent incarnation,” he said.

Crook originally got into doing the carving as a side-project derived

from working on “craftsman style” glass and wood lighting fixtures. He

would put together the fixtures, and then stare at the materials he had

remaining on his workbench.

“I had all these little pieces of wood left over,” Cook said. It was only

a matter of time before he got to work whittling them into the shape of

rabbits, butterflies and elephants.

“I’ve always done artistic things,” Cook said.

Joanna Craft, a Costa Mesa jewelry maker, also started her craft after

pursuing another career. In her case, though, the transition was more

difficult.

Craft was working as a landscape architect when Orange County went

bankrupt in the early ‘90s. The small firm she worked for relied heavily

on county commissions, which threw it into financial turmoil, and Craft

was forced to look for new work.

“It was a real transition time for me,” Craft recalled. “I thought, ‘What

do I want to do?”’

Like Crook, Craft had a long background doing creative work, and she

decided after some agonizing that she should launch herself as a craft

artist.

“If I wanted to try this, now was the perfect time to do it,” she said.

But cracking the market was difficult for Craft, whose jewelry sold

poorly initially and whose judgment about craft shows lacked

discrimination.

“I made tons of mistakes at the beginning,” she said. “Then I started

learning about which were the good shows.”

She also refined her jewelry-making act, developing the distinctive style

she sells today. Craft’s signature pieces are made from silver, but they

combine the precious metal with unconventional materials, including

textiles and bits of text. The jewelry often incorporates epoxy resin,

creating an object that looks “like a miniature picture under glass,” she

said.

“I love the idea of combining nontraditional materials with precious

metal,” Craft said.

Craft’s customers think it’s a good idea as well. She said she continues

to go to the “Artistic License Fair” because the crowds she meets there

-- more than those she encounters elsewhere -- are able to enjoy her

work.

“It’s a combination of the artists ... and the customers,” she said. “The

people who come are just wonderful. They really appreciate nice things.”

WHAT: “Artistic License Fair”

WHERE: Estancia Park, 1900 Adams Ave., Costa Mesa

WHEN: 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. today through Sunday

HOW MUCH: Free

PHONE: (909) 371-6507