American Folk Festival

I went to the American Folk Festival in Bangor yesterday. It's held on the waterfront the last weekend in August each year and there are performers from all over the world, craft tents, and lots of food. The music and food are great, but I spent most of my time in the craft tents. There were only a couple of fiber booths - Crows Wool had wet and needlfelted wool framed art, which facinates me and is something I want to try someday, and Done Roving Carding Mill, where I spent a lot of time petting wool. Maybe it was the heat (the weather here turned hot and sticky after a week of fall weather), but all of the yarn felt stiff and scratchy - and suspiciously like kool-aid dyed yarn. I hope no one caught me smelling it! Another favorite booth was the Lucinda pin booth. Lucinda spent two years being homeless, and created these pins as a fundraiser for the homeless. This particular booth was raising money for Habitat for Humanity in Bangor. They are actually made on a cardboard base, which is coated with layers and layers of varnish. The detail on them is amazing. I bought these two which I absolutely love!

They are $15.00 ea. and you can order them in bulk for fundraising or individually on line here.

I love pins and have a large collection of them. Because I teach young children most of my pins are whimsical - the kids love them. So in addition to the Luncinda pins, I couldn't resist this pin by Lisa Bess. She makes the most amazing pins, badge holders, eyeglass holders and other adornments out of new, found, and recycled objects. As with the Lucinda pins - the detail in her work is amazing. You can see more of her work and check to see if she is going to be showing at a craft fair near you here.

Those are actually real rocks from the Maine coast that the lighthouse is sitting on.

In other booths there were all kinds of yummy lotions, soaps, herb mixes,maple syrup, fudge, jewelry, way too much to name.

It was a long day and the heat finally got to me, so I headed home with my treasures, listening to the Red Sox beat the White Sox 14-2 - and stopped to do some food shopping - see below!