Inkwatu » crafts

Mount Dora, Florida

Hilton Kean Jones — Thu, 25 Feb 2010 11:13:43 +0000

OVERLOOKING LAKE DORA FROM LAKESIDE INN
Mount Dora is a small town in central Florida on the edge of Lake Dora. As you can see in the map below, Lake Dora is just one of dozens of lakes, large and small, scattered throughout this area adjoining the Ocala National Forest.

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This past weekend was my first visit to Mount Dora and it definitely won’t be my last. To the question, “What is there to do here?” the answer, quite simply, is “LOTS!” There is so much to do, I’m not going to even try and list the attractions. Just check out the links below. I’ve listed them in the order I found the most useful.

Mount Dora is a small historical Florida village on the shore of Lake Dora that has successfully made itself into an arts and convention center with plenty of opportunities for outdoor recreation.

LAKESIDE INN PIER
The central theme in Mount Dora is Antiques: specialty antiques, such as the clock store pictured below, or little malls of high-end shops, or lower end, multi-storied antique shops filled chock-a-block with collectibles, as well as contemporary crafts that fit with the antique mystique.

JUST A FEW OF MANY MOUNT DORA SHOPS

This makes sense, of course, since Mount Dora is, itself, an antique, a little slice of preserved history as exemplified by its railroad station and historic homes.

HISTORIC MOUNT DORA TRAIN STATION

Newer buildings are designed to fit in with the old village look. Even the night spots preserve the theme of weathered quaintness.

ONE OF MANY LOUNGE/RESTAURANTS
Nature cooperates in this effort when birds such as those pictured below make their home in a chimney in downtown Mount Dora. Subliminally, one is reminded of storks roosting on chimneys in old European cities.

NESTING BIRDS DOWNTOWN MOUNT DORA
There’s a fond spot in my heart for any busker because I know, as a musician, that someday I may be playing for tips on a street corner or subway landing myself. New Orleans has jazz saxophonists as street musicians; Mount Dora has harpists. On the sidewalk in Mount Dora was a busker playing electric harp. His name is Rupert Parker and he has a lovely act and style. After hoofing it around the hills, to which I’m unaccustomed, it was such a pleasure to sit and listen to his music.

STREETSIDE HARPIST
This link to Sometimes When We Touch on Youtube gives you a feel for his performances. I plan on buying one of his several CDs from his website at www.rupertparker.com/; I hope you consider doing so, too.

TAKING IT EASY
My mom would have loved Mount Dora, after all, she herself lived for a while in Solvang, California, another quaint, historic town that fashioned itself into a successful tourist destination.

I was a bit disquieted by how thoroughly Mount Dora markets its quaintness. I wondered if perhaps I’d stumbled onto the set of the late 60s British television series The Prisoner, starring and co-created by Patrick McGoohan. But…no giant inflatable balls chased me down the street. It was just my overactive imagination sparked by my discomfort with a theme, too consistently packaged for my taste. Mount Dora’s charm makes it an effective tourist destination but, even in my retirement, I prefer living in a funkier, urban environment such as St. Petersburg…

WORLD’S SECOND LARGEST LAWN BOWLING COURT
…or the raw, authenticity of old Florida as embodied in this, now abandoned, roadside orange juice stand on Highway 441 on the outskirts of Mount Dora.

VINTAGE FLORIDIANA
I think, ultimately, even for all the planned activities and shops and man-made attractions in Mount Dora the real draw, the thing that sustains over the long haul is the lake itself. As you play the video below, you can’t help but instantly relax with the bird sounds and, even, the distant sound of the motor boat. This is really what Florida is about.

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LAKE DORA PANORAMA

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Thai Orchids at St. Petersburg International Folk Fair 2009

Hilton Kean Jones — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 10:30:52 +0000

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SPIFFS (www.spiffs.org/), the St. Petersburg International Folk Fair Society, is one of the beloved institutions of St. Pete. I’m honored to be their official photographer this year while their regular photographer is in the hospital.

This year, the fair has been moved from the spring to the fall. It is open to the general public Saturday November 7, 2009, 10am-10pm and Sunday November 8, 2009, 11am-7pm. Admission $8.00 children under 12 free w/paid adult.

I’m posting this article a day earlier than usual in hopes that those who read it will decide to go to the St. Petersburg International Folk Fair tomorrow (Saturday) and Sunday.

The fair is usually in Vinoy park, but this year it’s in a slightly different location. It’s on Alfred Whitted Park, along the northern edge of Alfred Whitted Airport. I’ve discovered that all the online search map programs incorrectly identify the location and address of this park! But, the directions are simple: take 5th Avenue South until it deadends at Bayshore Drive. There will be police directing you where to park.

Thursday and Friday of this past week were school days, during which Tampa Bay area students attend the fair. The photos in this post were taken during that time.

If you enjoy these photos, please go to http://inkwatu.com/spiffs-2009-photo-page/ for the final edits for each of the days as well as some collections by subject. This file will be updated until all photos from the event are posted.

A full-sized slideshow of all the pictures in this post is at this Flickr set. A webpage with link to slideshows and albums of ALL the stages and booths throughout the four-day fair is available at SPIFFS 2009 Photo Page.

I’ll now simply present the rest of the photos in this SPIFFS Thai Orchid collection without comment…hope you enjoy them. Be sure to click on pictures for larger images. Hope to see you at the fair!

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Arts and Crafts

Hilton Kean Jones — Wed, 04 Feb 2009 11:51:41 +0000

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FRAN SIMS BEADED HANGING (SHOWN HORIZONTALLY)

Arts & Crafts

Whenever I’ve felt like “running away from home” (from responsibilities, from humdrum, grinding routine) I’ve fantasized about quitting all jobs and surviving by selling homemade art (water colors, photos, prints, whatever) along the side of the road. So far, I’ve not actually done that, but people, indeed, do just that. There’s an en plein air (Fr. open air) oil painter who sells his wares along the Gandy Causeway. He has my admiration.

Locations such as Florida, Hawaii, any beach town, certain picturesque cities (New York, San Francisco, Paris, Santa Fe) seem—for some reason—to foster artists and craftsmen. I think it’s the romanticism of the locale. It brings out the urge to create. (Or perhaps, it’s that romantic locales attract people who like to create things.)

Back in the early 70s, if you mentioned “crafts” one immediately thought of the dreaded macramé wall hanging. Thankfully, crafts have moved beyond that into a plethora of cottage industries—the products of the arts and crafts themselves as well as the supplies for those crafts. Some examples of crafts are quilting, weaving, knitting, tatting, glass blowing, pottery, sewing, and stained glass.

Think about that list for a minute: they’re all time-honored activities aren’t they? Their roots are in pre-history, skills that enabled us as a species to survive the elements. Therein lies the answer to the question that always arises: what’s the difference between “arts” and “crafts”? For me, “crafts” are arts that facilitate survival and “arts” are crafts that make life worth living. To make life worth living is to facilitate survival. It should be clear there’s little difference between the two. Imagine a beautifully hand-crafted wooden boat; it gets you across the river, but it’s a beauty to behold. I believe, there’s really no meaningful difference between arts and crafts beyond the fact that some arts are more utilitarian than others—it’s all still art. Examples are the absolutely gorgeous jewelry designs of a friend of many decades, John Beeman, and the works of Full Blown Glass mentioned in the Inkwatu article on the Creative Clay Folk Fest. They’re all utilitarian; they’re all art.

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FRAN SIMS BEADED CUTLERY AND BOWL

Shows & Stores

Arts and crafts have a long history in all countries, including our own. I’m thinking of beautiful Shaker furniture, Amish quilts, Appalachian dulcimers. And, it’s not just “folk” arts. Tiffany, Steuben, Fabergé…commercial? Of course. Crafts? Yes. Art? Definitely.

The values of arts and crafts found expression in the “official” Arts and Crafts Movement in the early part of the 20th century. Inkwatu covered that movement in the post on the Craftsman House. If you want to see some outstanding, locally produced glass and pottery do check out the Craftsman House and while you’re at it, get a light lunch there.

In another Inkwatu article, we covered the St. Pete Shuffle Holiday Crafts night. I’ve been to two of those so far and have found items to purchase I’ve enjoyed. There are many such venues for craftsmen to locally display and sell their work. One of the biggest and best attended is, of course, the St. Petersburg Saturday Morning Market (Inkwatu article). There are numerous annual events such as the St. Pete Beach Corey Area Art & Craft Fair that just concluded on 1/31-2/1, 2009. For a complete list of Arts and Crafts shows in our part of the country visit Where the Shows Are!!!–over a hundred in Florida, alone. Last year, I attended a private crafts show presenting works of about eight different craftsmen in the home of the artist, Fran Sims, whose beaded jewelry is featured in this post.

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ASSORTMENT OF FRAN SIMS BRACELETS AND NECKLACES

Fran Sims

Fran’s specialty is beading, an ornamental craft. Each piece has a personal history such as the hanging pictured at the top of this post that depicts significant images in the life of the person for whom the item was made, or the stones in the necklaces in the picture at the end of this post, necklaces made of beads created by a women’s project in Kenya. About these beads, Sally Adams, of St. Petersburg’s Buttons, Bangles, and Beads, writes:

These colorful, oh-so-smooth beads are made by African women at a women’s project in Kenya. Although they have had little formal schooling, they are highly skilled at making these beads and, in some cases, are the sole providers for their children and extended families.

The project was started over twenty five years ago, and has supported hundreds of women, who, otherwise, might have been unable to provide this support. They receive fair wages, have excellent working conditions, receive assistance from the project for their children’s school uniforms and tuition, and are provided medical assistance through a weekly clinic on the project’s grounds. The project has been accepted by the World Fair Trade Organization—an accolade for projects in developing countries.

Sims, is currently headed to Tucson for the world’s largest bead show, the Tucson Bead Renaissance Show, where hotel rooms are turned into vendor rooms. Conferences, shows, and events for all of the crafts I listed in the lead of this article abound around the country. Locally, St. Petersburg.com‘s listing for “craft stores” yields 41 entries, from national chains such as Michael’s to many small specialty crafts shops for specific arts.

I recommend an excursion to one of these stores to just wander around and see if something strikes a resonant chord somewhere in your being. Such an experience is what happened to Sims who, while visiting her brother in Alaska discovered the fascination of beading during two days of unrelenting rain. Later, while visiting other cities as part of her profession, she began to visit beading stores in those various locations. And…an obsession is born. That’s how it is with crafts.

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ASSORTMENT OF FRAN SIMS BRACELETS

Beads & Beading

If beading, specifically, interests you, Sims recommends these two magazines:

There you’ll learn about the world of beads made from almost every conceivable substance including—but definitely not limited to–crystal, glass, wood, clay, polymer, shell, and metal. Stores, such as St. Pete’s Buttons, Bangles, and Beads offer classes in specific crafts.

There’s simply no excuse not to get out there and have some fun either by visiting a show to view and maybe purchase someone else’s work or by creating and displaying your own. Even though I poke fun at macramé, maybe you’ll be the artist to change my mind about that medium!

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AFRICAN BEADS IN FRAN SIMS JEWELRY

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