A whale of a holiday arts and crafts weekend

WANT TO GO?

Crafts, Gifts and Collectibles Extravaganza Weekend

When: 5 p.m.-9 p.m. today; 9 a.m.-4 p.m. Saturday; 9 a.m.-4 p.m. Sunday.

Where: The Bavarian Halle, Jackson, Mo.

Admission: $1 today and Saturday, free SundayArts Council of Southeast Mo. Arts and Crafts Bazaar

When: 10 a.m.-6 p.m. Saturday; 10 a.m.-4 p.m. Sunday

Where: Show Me Center, Osage Community Centre

Admission: $2 each day

River Valley Arts and Crafts Show

When: 10 a.m.-6 p.m. Saturday; 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Sunday

Where: Holiday Inn Convention Center; A.C. Brase Arena Building

Admission: $1 each day with early bird special 1 hour before opening Saturday only

Michelle "Mike" Ochonicky is a landlubber from Eureka, Mo., who specializes in an art form developed on the Atlantic Ocean more than 300 years ago, when whalers carved designs in whale teeth and whalebone to pass the time making gifts for their loved ones.

Scrimshaw, sometimes known as "the whaleman's art," also has been made from other raw materials, including elephant tusks, coconuts, sea shells, tortoise shells and hippo teeth. Ivory and whalebone no longer can be imported into the United States.

Ochonicky carves knife handles, jewelry, boxes and picture frames from deer antlers, cow bones and a polymer that has a hardness similar to ivory.

"The softer it is the more difficult it is to carve," she says. "Harder material gives a much cleaner line."

She will be one of many hundreds of artisans and craftsmen from a five-state area who will exhibit their work here this weekend at one of three holiday arts and crafts shows. An estimated 10,500 people usually attend the shows.

The granddaddy of the shows, The Arts & Crafts Bazaar, is sponsored by the Arts Council of Southeast Missouri at the Show Me Centre and the Osage Community Centre. The more than 400 vendors will offer a variety of arts and crafts at the bazaar, which has been presented for 31 years and is the organization's primary fund raiser.

"It works," says Tom Howard, executive director of the Arts Council. "It's a tried and true formula, and we're sticking with it."

At the Bavarian Halle in Jackson, Mo., Sandra Skidmore will be one of 100 exhibitors at the Crafts, Gifts and Collectibles Extravaganza Weekend. The Malden, Mo., woman crochets rag rugs and sells Skidmore Family Honey.

Skidmore started crocheting rag rugs because "I needed something to do." Now she does it full time.

Rag rugs are "an old pioneer thing," she said. The rugs are made of fabric pieces, old socks, polyester -- "anything washable."

Buyers of rag rugs are "looking for something serviceable, economically priced, and a color scheme they like," she said.

Some are as big as room size. "When they get so big, you will sit down and instead of you working on the rug it works on you," she said..

The show is sponsored by the River City CB Club. Part of last year's proceeds were used to sponsor a 24-day, 10-country tour of Europe for two teen-aged girls.

The other show is the River Valley Craft Club's annual River Valley Arts & Crafts Show at the Holiday Inn Convention Center and the A.C. Brase Arena Building.

To make scrimshaw, Ochonicky uses a tool called a scribe, which looks like a pencil but is tipped with carbite steel. She hand-draws the designs with the scribe.

"It breaks the surface to where the material is porous," she says. "It requires a lot of arm strength."

Ink is then applied to outline the design.

The sailing connection and its status as American folk art attracted Ochonicky to scrimshaw.

"I love the history of it and the romance," she said.

"... It's gone a step beyond the primitive into really fine art."

Ochonicky is president of the Best of Missouri Hands, an organization that represents about 150 Missouri artists whose work has been juried to assure it is notable and meets certain artistic criteria.

The organization grew out of one started by the state Department of Economic Development in the 1970s when it was trying to find a way to help financially hurting farm families supplement their income by fostering their folk art skills. Best of Missouri Hands has since separated from the DED.

"The goal is to foster art in the state of Missouri," Ochonicky says.

Customers will be able to spot members' work by a gold seal at their exhibit space.

sblackwell@semissourian.com

335-6611, extension 182