Fort Mason Center: Crafts Treasures


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MARCH 2008

Pin by Shula, Photo: George Post Crafts Treasures
Festival Pavilion

If it’s March, it must be time for the Contemporary Crafts Market at Fort Mason Center. This impressive event draws more than 250 artisans to the Festival Pavilion to exhibit and sell distinctive crafts in all media. The market features a wide variety of handmade items suitable for the aesthetics and budgets of a diverse audience.

Founded more than 20 years ago by Roy Helms, the Contemporary Crafts Market is one of the first events of the spring and summer crafts season in California. This eagerly awaited festival attracts top US craft artists working in materials such as wood, metal, fiber, ceramics, glass, leather, paper, and stone.

Photo: George Post “Each year, the Contemporary Crafts Market provides shoppers with some of the finest craft pieces from across the United States,” said Helms.

Crafts market visitors can browse for unique jewelry, clothing, home furnishings, and more. The market also features a special exhibit by the Baulines Craft Guild. Based in Marin County, CA, the guild’s members are master craft artisans and teachers who have made significant creative contributions to the crafts field.

Karin Pohl is among the artists exhibiting at the 2008 market. Pohl trained in Vienna, Austria to learn the rare limoges technique for creating metal-enamel pieces of great beauty. Pohl specializes in animal and human portraiture and landscapes discovered in her travels. Her gorgeously detailed pendants and earrings display designs inspired by nature or the work of famed artists such as Gustav Klimt.

Another 2008 crafts market artist is Sharon Wheat, who fashions mixed-media sculptural totems from natural and tribal materials. Wheat employs elements such as Balinese woodcarvings, African mud cloth, Indonesian textiles, Indian silks, and South American and Turkish carpet remnants. Wheat’s figures bear iconic names such as “The Gatekeeper,” “The Traveler,” and “The Seeker.”

Celebrate National Crafts Month and have a stellar arts experience at the Contemporary Crafts Market. For more information, see March 8 and www.craftsource.org.