Craft lovers crowd into Cape for three big shows

It was a big weekend for crafts in Cape Girardeau, as several large shows lured vendors and shoppers from the area and beyond.

The Osage Centre, for example, smelled like cinnamon rolls, filled wall-to-wall with vendors selling quilts, homemade jellies, yarnwork, jewelry, handpainted Christmas tree ornaments and more during the Christmas Arts and Crafts Extravaganza sponsored by the Arts Council of Southeast Missouri.

Some vendors, such as Tammy Clark of Dexter, Missouri, had been part of the event for over a decade.

"I love showing here," she said, flanked by shelves of her hand-thrown stoneware pottery. "I see a lot of repeat customers."

Pottery, she said, is a side gig she got into on a whim after seeing a pottery demonstration in Branson, Missouri.

Mary Pamler with Mary's Little Lambs Products spins yarn Sunday during the Christmas Arts & Crafts Extravaganza at the Osage Centre in Cape Girardeau.ANDREW J. WHITAKER

"This is my retirement job. ... The only art class I ever had was in seventh grade," she said with a laugh. "I made a little pot."

Now, she mixes her own glazes to ensure each of her customers leave with a unique piece.

Most of the artists also had unique stories of how they acquired their skills.

Vendor Dave Leedham of Arkansas said he started woodworking as a child with his grandfather.

"It sort of got out of hand," he said, looking around at his display full of wooden spoons, cutting boards and even oars. "But now, it's my business."

Sarah Seabaugh, 7, loads a rubber band gun Sunday with her mother Candice Seabaugh during the Christmas Arts & Crafts Extravaganza at the Show Me Center in Cape Girardeau.ANDREW J. WHITAKER

But, oddly, his leap from hobby to profit came out of a frustration with PBS programs.

"They'd always use a little bit of film clip and then yak, yak, yak," he said.

Bored, he took to whittling while listening to the evening news.

"I was making a spoon a night just watching the news," he said.

His wife, faced with a growing supply of spoons, began selling them at farmers' markets.

Millie James, 1, walks around with her toy duck Saturday during the Christmas Arts & Crafts Extravaganza at the Show Me Center in Cape Girardeau.ANDREW J. WHITAKER

"And they started selling," Leedham said. "So she told me, 'You're gonna have to watch some more news.'"

Across town at the Arena Building, the River Valley Craft Club was hosting its own fair. It smelled more of aromatherapy oils and handmade soaps, but it was just as packed.

On the balcony, Mike Branscum stood at his spoon-jewelry stand.

"I've been doing craft shows off and on since the 1970s," he said, scratching his white beard. "Mostly used to do leather, but leather just got so expensive."

While at a craft fair in Eminence, Missouri, he fell into impromptu apprenticeship watching a man at the next booth over craft rings and other jewelery from discarded cutlery.

People walk around and look at venders Saturday during the Christmas Arts & Crafts Extravaganza at the Show Me Center in Cape Girardeau.ANDREW J. WHITAKER

"So we developed a friendship," he said. "He died a few years ago, and I went full-time."

That means about 15 shows a year, he said. Originally from Batesville, Arkansas, this weekend was Branscum's first time in Cape Girardeau.

"We've done pretty well," he said. "We're planning on coming back next year."

At Notre Dame Regional High School, the scene was much the same -- hundreds packed in to peruse.

At one table, Robert E. Lee Jr., of Festus, Missouri, said he's been a crafter for 14 years.

"It started when my neighbor gave me some little gourd plants," he said. "I planted them in the backyard, and behold, I got 200 gourds."

He sounded almost annoyed at the thought. Not knowing what to do with them, he said he had to just give them away to a local school at first.

"They'd paint 'em and sand 'em and whatever," he said. "But then, I started making some stuff out of them."

Vases and bowls at first, but then birdhouses, specially designed to attract wrens.

"Then I started using a wood burner to burn designs into them," he said.

His wife, Anita, already was on the crafting circuit with her jewelery, so the 58-year-old Lee began selling his custom-designed birdhouses, too.

"They're very crude, but when I get done with 'em, they're gorgeous," he said, winking. "Gourd-geous."

tgraef@semissourian.com

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