Sarasota Craft Show Returns For 20th Year

If you're looking for vintage wallpaper Mod Podged on a piece of wood, the Sarasota Craft Show isn't for you.

The 20th annual show features high-end works by artists all over the country, including nine Sarasota artists, displaying their ceramics, glass, fibers, handmade jewelry and more.

"We'll be exhibiting the best collection of one-of-a-kind jewelry ever presented in Florida," said Richard Rothbard in a statement. Rothbard manages the show with his wife Joanna. The New York-based artist also manages The Berkshires Arts Festival and several American Craftsman Galleries.

The show will relocate to the Robarts Arena and happen 10 a.m, to 6 p.m. Friday and Saturday and 10 am. to 4 p.m. Sunday. Tickets are $9 per day; $8 for seniors, $5 for students and $12 for a three-day pass. 

Be prepared to bring money to support these independent artists who have original works that cost anywhere from $50 to more than $1,000. 

Your Sarasota artists include: 

• Scott Causey—Ceramics
• Geoff Walsh—Ceramics
• Katherine Kaya—Jewelry
• Joan Michlin/Skip Ennis—Jewelry
• Harry Roa Studio—Jewelry
• Su Griggs Allen—Mixed Media
• John and Linda Whitney—Other
• Jessica Smith—Painting 

Many of these artists are accomplished and have had some notable buyers.

Take Causey for instance. Former Vice President Al Gore has one of his frogs hanging in his office Gore received as a birthday gift he received from Tipper Gore.

Griggs takes inspiration from quantum physics, Taoism and her international traveling as a child and combines them all into her figurative art telling stories through clay and paint.

“I try to give voice to our innermost being through the language of art,” Griggs said. “My work expresses the energy of human emotion—both positive and negative. Whether it be joy, love, hope and strength, or sadness, emptiness or loss, I try to capture that essence of spirit and communicate it to the viewer. Each piece is an expression of our basic humanity.”

Then there's Tampa-based glass artist Susan Gott whose 30 years of experience led her to creating large-scale public works for Tampa, St. Petersburg, the University of Central Florida and HARTline's University Area Transit Center. 

She's known for her rigid sand molds and casting to show detail on a large scale. 

"Sand casting combines my aesthetic concerns and allows an articulate yet raw method of expressing this ancient connection to the contemporary," Gott said.

Texas ceramist Debra Steidel received awards from the Houston Museum of Art Curator's Choice Award for Excellence in Ceramics and with working on a potter's wheel, you can't get anymore handmade than that.

"Our world has become oversaturated with a mass of machine-made items," Steidel said. "Finely crafted works of art are becoming a rarity as people leave traditions of working with one’s hands behind."

For more information, call 1-800-834-9437 or visit www.sarasotacraftshow.com.