2008 Fiesta Arts Fair

Today my wife, daughter and I attended the 2008 Fiesta Arts Fair which was hosted by the Southwest School of Art & Craft in San Antonio, TX. If you are familiar with San Antonio, TX you might be aware of the annual Fiesta events that take place in San Antonio all across the city. My family decided to attend the art fair this afternoon.

While we were there two different artisans caught my eye and prompted me to pick up their cards so I could review their websites. The first artisan that really caught my eye with what I thought was quite unique was Uli Kirchler's laminated plywood vases.

When I asked Uli how he managed to bend the plywood in this fashion he said that he did not. He explained that he laminates blocks of plywood together (sometimes with other species of wood inside) and then uses a grinder and band saw to cut at an angle through the faces or ends of the plywood to get this effect. I thought this this was a very interesting look that I had never thought of before.

The other artisan that I saw was Wolf Sittle's work. Wolf had several interesting chairs and tables, but the pieces that I liked best were the sand timers.

I liked the unique look that these timers had to offer as well a possible way to teach my daughter about time so that she could have a visual understanding that the sand represents the amount of time that she has left to do something. (like tv, or computer limitations) Anyhow, the websites for these two artisans are not the best examples of their work but at least you can get an idea of what I saw today and may try for myself in the future.

Thanks for reading!
- Robert