East Lansing Art Festival

The East Lansing Art Festival was last weekend. I am quite happy when my annual research trip to Michigan State University coincides with the fair, as it did this year. Stalls are set up on the side streets of East Lansing centre. On the North side of the main street (East Grand River Ave) are the high class artists and on the South the more mundane. Of course, there are some in the grey area that get sent to one side or the other. I got a few things from the artists that really stood out for me:

The bowl is from Aslakson Pottery. Even though I make pottery myself, it is not crazy to buy wheel thrown pieces which I don't do myself (I only hand-build). Anyway, it was a shape and decoration that I really liked. The leather wallet with the ginko leaf is from Mike Barnes. I am fond of ginko trees: there was an old one on UC Berkeley campus that I remember as a kid (my mother was a graduate student there and so I went with her). The tie-dye shirt was from one of the nameless South side vendors. I really like tie-dye (maybe from my Berkeley days) but am bizarrely picky about the colours and pattern. This one worked for me. 

There were a number of other great things there. The one other stand-out was the guy selling extra large (up to 2-3 inches), incredibly ornate marbles: Larry Zengel of Hot House Glass. I really, really tried to think of a good reason to spend $50 on a giant, fantastic marble but just couldn't find one. This may be one of life's great regrets.