This show started years ago with mostly local artists and you had a central paying location. While the local artists had some talent, there were far too many amateur artists. Impulse buying was nonexistent due to the paying process and I pretty much went to the show to visit with one of my husband's cousins.
Not sure exactly when in the last ten years they opened up the art festival to artists nationwide and got rid of that awful central buying system. This turned it into a really great show; lots of new artists not seen everywhere and, being at the what used to be pretty much the end of the art season, it was one of the last opportunities to buy fine arts and crafts.
This year it did not have the same high quality it has in the past 5-6 years. There wasn't any energy. I have no idea what happened. Nothing really made me stop in my tracks. I am hoping this year was a fluke.
This of course did not stop me from buying, I beat the previous week's high from Port Clinton. My husband helped, we bought a lazy susan for our dining room table and a gorgeous little wooden bench for our entry hall. The wood art I have seen this season especially the functional wood art, is absolutely amazing. The pricing is also amazing so an artist offering a 50% discount made a piece we wouldn't have bought a piece that we happily brought home. The 2D art was better than in the past. Glass and ceramics, not so much. I found lots of jewelry to look at and of course, some to buy.
There is a small festival in a parking lot just down the street from the main festival. My personal jeweler Amy Taylor was located there. Due to some recent gem finds, she is now making two more bracelets for me. She is my right arm jeweler. At the main festival was Teresa Dever, my left arm jeweler. I added to the left collection also. I have taken a chain maille class and as I look at the bracelet I purchased, my awe of Teresa's talent increases. Her chains are not only beautiful to look at but so beautifully made. There isn't a link that is not perfection.
Just a note about Lake Forest --Of all the festivals in the Chicagoland area, this one probably has the highest household income per capita of all of them. This is a town filled with a lot of old money and a lot of new money. The town is filled with CEOs, CFOs, Presidents and Vice Presidents of very large corporations. The demographic skews older too, befitting those positions. (I keep picturing Munks' bull picture in the library/office of some lakeside mansion). It is hard to tell how this translates into sales, but the possibilities are there.
I am going to assume that this show was just off this year. I will be back next year and I hope the good artists are too.
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