A post from sponsor Art Star Craft Bazaar with Art Star Gallery & Boutique owner Megan Brewster.

My gallery, Art Star, just hit its 5th year anniversary this past November.  Many of you may not know that we began 7 years ago with our first Art Star Craft Bazaar. The formative years were not very memorable.  The bazaar started off with 20 vendors in a cramped church basement.  The artists were not juried; it was first-come-first-serve, so there was some bad stuff, but good stuff, too.  Maybe a couple hundred people came to the show.  Oh well, gotta start somewhere, right?

My business partner, Erin, and I have been gearing up for our 7th ASCB since January.  The show is now juried, held along the waterfront at Penn’s Landing Great Plaza, has over 160 participating artists and we estimate over 10,000 people will attend the show.  I can’t believe it’s right around the corner – May 15th & 16th! I have not been sleeping well and have been obsessively checking the weather, but it is all worth it!

I think I say this every year, but this year’s show is going to be the best yet!

Probably about half of the artists are from the Philadelphia area and the rest are east coast artists hailing from NYC, Baltimore, DC, Delaware, etc.  We also have a few artists from North Carolina, Ohio, Virginia, and one from Canada.  Some local stand-outs include:

• “Project Runway” Season 1 Winner Jay McCarroll’s The Colony
• Robert Siegel + Stephanie Kao who make brightly colored porcelain pottery decorated w/ lace patterns
• Shana Hostetter photographs Philly buildings and collages pieces together to create an homage to all the diverse neighborhoods our fine city has to offer
• Tyler grad Maria Eife will be selling her laser cut, felt bracelets & necklaces based on binary code
• Angela Davidson crochets octopi and other creatures w/ long limbs and tentacles
• John Murphy stages nature scenes w/ fake birds and flowers that he photographs and displays in his lovely hand finished frames.

Please come out and support our incredibly talented artists!  It is free to attend and our friend Jack McBrearty of local bands The Mural & the Mint and Songs for Lonesome Hearts has curated a selection of bands to play throughout the day.  We will also be giving out free tote bags (screened w/ the ASCB logo designed by artist Julie West) to the first 250 shoppers each day.

We hope to see you there!  Come say hi to us at our booth #s 100-102.

You may also enjoy: This Weekend: Art Star Craft Bazaar | are you ready for Art Star? | The Art & Craft of Small Town Living |