Sale is a hit with buyers, sellers
Spring Art Market continues today
Artisans filled the Rome Civic Center and sections of the parking lot Saturday for the annual Spring Art Market, which continues today, hosted by the Last Stop Gift Shop and Greater Rome Convention & Visitors Bureau.
“I’m feeling so very blessed that the weather has turned out like it has this weekend,” said Charlene Mathis, manager of the gift shop associated with the bureau.
There are 50 vendors at this year’s market, which is open today from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m., selling an assortment of items, including books by local authors, wood carvings, jewelry and clothing.
Liz Barnes, who is visiting Rome from Oklahoma, found something almost as soon as she walked in the door of the Civic Center. An aficionado of dachshunds, she was greeted by Cave Spring author Mike Ragland and his paperback “Living with Lucy.”
“These are not dachshunds; these are fourlegged people,” Barnes said. “I got my first dachshund when I was 4 years old and everybody knows they’re just little people.”
Ragland said he usually does pretty well with book sales at these kinds of events. “People love local authors, and all of the Rome authors do real well.”
Fellow author Lonie Adcock, who shared a table with Ragland, said he agreed.
“People come in, pick ’em up and take a look, and a lot of ’em end up buying,” Adcock said.
“You just don’t know how many hours it takes,” said carver Jerry Ables. “I am usually working on two or three pieces, so sometimes it can take up to six months working off and on.”
Ables says he has loved wood carving since he was a child, and after he retired, he got into it on an almost full-time basis. He has a number of his works on display in Blue Ridge, where he is a member of their art association.
Tom Canada, a local wood turner, said he is successful at shows like the Spring Art Market when the weather and turnout are good. He couldn’t have asked for better weather Saturday, as temperatures reached the mid-70s, according to the National Weather Service. And the forecast for Sunday is just as nice, with the NWS predicting a high of 81 degrees.
Like Ables, Canada said it could take upward of six months to complete some of his classic wooden vessels. Others he produces in as little as two to three weeks.
Frances Herron was looking at cloth women’s bags to take to college football games this fall, but she remembered new regulations at most stadiums that require fans to carry items in clear plastic bags.
“Oh well, these are still fun and really nice to look at,” she said.