Sortaculture

It has been a busy three days around here, so Sunday is slow down day. I am finally getting caught up on some of my photos too.

From my previous post you know that I spent most of Thursday with my college roommate. We looked at collage annuals, trying to remember people, and filled each other in on our lives. I took her to lunch at Anthony's at the Des Moines Marina, where when she got out of the car, she reveled in the smell of the salt air. Later in the afternoon Tom and I drove Joyce into the city to meet up with other friends she would be staying with. Then there we were at 4:00, rush hour, with no desire to fight traffic. So we walked a bit at Greenlake, and then met up with Jake in Ballard for an early dinner at the Market Arms.

Friday morning we attended my SPU class reunion (see my last post) and then before lunch we skipped out on the rest of the full day of activities, and instead drove north to Everett to go to Sortaculture.

Sortaculture is a large garden arts fair held annually. We had heard about it from other gardeners, but had never been free on that weekend to attend. This year we got it on our calendar well in advance, so when the class reunion got scheduled, we saw the the art fair went on into the evening so we decided we could do both on Friday. 

We didn't quite know what to expect, thought it might be indoors, but soon discovered it was a huge outdoor market, held not in the American Legion Hall, but in the American Legion Park!

 While most of the vendors were selling garden and nature related arts and crafts, there were a few plant vendors too, like The Antique Rose Farm in Snohomish, just as we entered.  

 This vendor's concrete art is designed from drawings of ornamentation on English cathedrals. 

 This acid washed copper with verdigris was lovely. 

 This bird house attracted me, but in the end I passed it up. 

 Ceramic sea life at good prices. 

 Metal work. 

 Funky ceramics - so cute and creative. 

 Lovely pottery. 

 Fence post toppers seem to be the new, hot thing. We really liked these pottery birds. 

 This plant vendor had a peek-a-boo view out to Port Gardener and Possession Sound. 

This plant vendor had an especially lovely display. 

There is so much creativity displayed at these shows. 

 Several vendors had wonderfully fun creatures made out of rusty tools and machine parts. 

Oh, no. Here was my favorite clay artist from Sherwood, Oregon. Can I resist?

 This vendor's work was wonderful too. Ceramic and concrete. 

 So beautiful. Pricey, but I can see why. 

 Some of us make glass flowers and towers. There were lots of such vendors there. But here was a new twist - using pots and pans.

 Bob Bowling's rustic sheds are wonderful. 

 I love sedums, but I have enough for now. 

 Oh, you caught me finishing off my wonderful almond chocolate chunk ice cream. 

 I loved these little metal birds. 

 I can't pass up "collecting'"another grand old tree. 

 This was something new to me - glass quilting. Stained glass and other objects are appliqued onto old window glass using a clear liquid resin. 

 I think they are wonderful!

 Oh, no. Will Tom find another geranium he doesn't have? Yes, he did. 

 As the tag says, these sheep are made out of unraveled flexible conduit. 

 See that sky? It was about now that a front moved in, with gusts of wind causing vendors to hand on to their canopies. 

 Fortunately it blew through quickly and we avoided any rain downpours that were in the forecast. 

 We finished up about 4:00 but did not want to drive back south through Seattle during rush hour, so we found and antique shop to browse, drove through the old section of town and went for a walk by the marina while we waited for a table at the Scuttlebutt Brew Pub, which our smart phones told us about. 

We managed to resist most of the treasures we saw, but we did come home with a few. 

Yep, I did not resist my favorite clay artist. Isn't this little acorn sprite adorable?

 The little hummer came home with us too.

 And these concrete hosta leaves were to inexpensive to pass up. 

And on top of that, we had a ton of fun!