Upper Dublin Hosts Third-Annual Craft Show

Over 35 craft artists filled the community room of the Upper Dublin Township building, during the third-annual Upper Dublin Craft Fair, which took place on the morning and afternoon of March 2.

The township’s Parks and Recreation department organized the event. According to Tammy Echevarria, Parks and Recreation superintendent, the fair was organized by popular demand.

 “The crafters anted their own show,” Echevarria said.

For the last 15 years, Echevarria said that the township has held another popular event, its two annual flea markets, one of which takes place in the spring and the other in the fall. Echevarria said at the flea markets, crafters would often ask for an event of their own, wanting a brighter spotlight on their work. The township would go on to select the first weekend in March to hold the festival.

“These people put a lot of time and effort and have a lot of creativity in them,” Echevarria said. “And, March is National Craft Month.”

According to Echevarria, this year marks the third year in a row in which the event had sold-out vendors’ spaces. She said that an event’s success can be judged by the number of vendors that come back year after year.

Labor of Love

As is the nature of such events, the Upper Dublin Craft Fair featured an eclectic variety of people and their hand-made crafts, each one with a story to tell.

The table of Mary Ellen Wagner showcased fabric crafts.

“Otherwise known as quilting,” Wagner said with a smile.

Wagner, an Ambler resident, works as the mental health counselor at Sandy Run Middle School in Upper Dublin School District. This was her first year at the Craft Fair, but she has been quilting since 1969.

“It’s a nice way to spend a Saturday morning,” Wagner said, adding, “or, afternoon or all weekend.”

After graduating from Upper Dublin High School, Wagner went on to nursing school, where she used her love of sewing and quilting as a way to unwind after a particularly stressful day at school—and kept at it ever since.

“It became an overblown hobby,” Wagner said. “I love it. There’s so many different things I can do with it. Each new pattern is an adventure.”

Fellow first year Upper Dublin Craft Fair attendee, Melanie Pawleski, is comparatively newer to her craft than most crafters there.

Pawleski is a 2011 graduate of Moore College Art and Design in Philadelphia. She studied art education and fine arts. She specializes in Fused-Art Glass artwork, in which she takes smaller broken pieces of glass, and, essentially, melts them together to create flowing patterns of color.

However, wanting to further promote her work and sell more pieces, Pawleski had to re-imagine her art for the craft-show audience by turning her artwork into glass bowls and plates.

“I had to make my art more functional, so people could use it on a daily basis,” she said. “It’s safe and non-toxic.”

Some crafters initially had no intention of selling their work, until they found their work could help others.

For the last 10 years, sisters Donna and Barbara were doing just that.

“We started by doing silk flower arranging,” Donna Eberz said.

Donna, a retired Upper Dublin High School math teacher, said that she and her sister started selling the arrangements to help raise funds for their other sister who was diagnosed with Mesothelioma. Since then, their crafting repertoire has grown and with it charities from whose sales the sisters support. This year, the Eberz sisters are supporting Twilight Wish Foundation, an organization dedicated to improving the quality of life of senior citizens.

Crafting as a Teaching Tool

Tess’ Totes, the custom handmade purses table immediately next to the Eberz sisters’ table, also has a similar mission when it comes to crafting.

Among the organizations that Tess’ Totes sales support, include Susan G. Komen for the Cure and the American Heart Association. However, to Tess’ Totes owner Kathleen Matthews, perhaps the most important support her craft business supports isn’t an organization, but a very special person to her.

“I was sewing since I was 6,” Matthews said. “My mom taught me how to sew.”

Matthew’s mother, Tess, had a stroke three years ago. Matthews said in order to help raise funds for her mother’s rehabilitation, as well as part of the rehabilitation process itself, she began to sell hand-stitched and designed fabric bags.

She said she sees how helping to create the bags also gives her mother the opportunity to use her hands and mind.

“You use both sides of the brain when you do that,” Matthews said.

And, she would know, as Mathews is also a math teacher of 13 years in the North Penn School District.

Prior to selling her crafts, she used them in the classroom to demonstrate geometric math principles.

“I was doing this for fun and for teaching,” Matthews said.

Matthews, who has attended all three years of the Upper Dublin Craft Fair, feels that she has found kindred spirits with her fellow crafters.

“We got to places and say, ‘Oh, I remember you from that show,’” Matthews said. “We’re not a crafting community, but a family community.”

For more information, visit the Upper Dublin Parks and Recreation website.