51st Ann Arbor Art Fair

It's that special week of July. That week when you cannot meet anyone downtown for a cup of coffee, you can't get a haircut, and you can't eat at your favorite restaurant. Well, you could. You could meet for a cup of coffee, if you really wanted to, and you could get a haircut if you go out of town and you could eat at your favorite restaurant if you made reservations weeks ago. Downtown Ann Arbor is transformed into Art Fair.This morning I caught the bus in front of the house and made my way downtown. First of all....like most Art Fairs, it hot. Really hot. I saw lots of vendors of cool drinks and water and several free "Ann Arbor Tap Water" drinking fountains. Come on down for the fun, but keep hydrated. Right across from the drinking fountains was a fleet of ambulances (ambuli?) just in case. Let's hope nobody needs them.My destination was the original Art Fair that is around N. University and the Burton Tower. Here you will find the fine artists and well known artists. It is always inspirational. My first stop was at Kathy Frey's booth (booth #243). She makes sculptural wire jewelry. If you know me, you know she must be really out of the norm for me to stop and gawk in a jewelry booth. I'm just not a jewelry person, but I would definitely make the exception for Kathy's work.Click on to enlarge to see the delicate beauty of Kathy's work. You can see more of here stuff here. Kathy also had her book "Elegant Wire Jewelry" on hand. It is published by Lark Books.Next, I stopped and chatted with Marcia Derse in Booth 238. Marcia makes fabric constructions. You know, what we call Art Quilts. Lovely, Marcia.
When I asked Marcia if I could put this photo on the blog, she stepped behind the booth to grab a card for me. I saw she also had this behind her booth. Fat Quarters. She might still have some, but they were selling like hot cakes. Not only is Marcia a fine artist, she is also a fabric designer. Troy Fabrics has produced this collection for her. They really look like hand dyed, hand painted fabrics. Nice. Marcia showed me her new collection of strike-offs and we had a nice "fabric designer chat" about Quilt Market and such. And to finish off this tri-fecta of feminity at the Art Fair. How about these hats!
Aren't they beautiful! They are by Ignatius Hats. Oh, how I wish I could wear hats. Well, I can. It's just that there are people who can wear hats and people who shouldn't wear hats. Unfortunately, I am of the latter. Hand made and gorgeous.

Well, there is more, but I'll save it for later. If you do plan on coming to Ann Arbor for the fair, check out the Art Fair website and plan your driving and parking accordingly. Seriously. The municipal and private towers make most of their revenue this week. If you see this.....They mean it. Hope to see you here!!!

Laurie