Residents from Southwest Colorado, northern New Mexico and Arizona displayed their crafts, baked goods and pottery at Miss Margie Festival Productions that was held Friday through Sunday at La Plata County Fairgrounds.
For 47 years, the festival has been a way for local artists and craftspeople to show off their talents. Margie Myers ran the event until she died five years ago.
“Margie was an artist,” said Blu Harris, who now runs the festival with his wife, Beth. “She wanted to help other artists and crafters to be seen. She wanted to show them support.”
The Harrises took over what was formerly known as the Arts and Crafts Fair Productions after Margie’s death and renamed it Miss Margie’s Festival Productions.
“Everyone was ‘Miss’ to her,” Blu said. “That’s why we gave it that name.”
“She was the sweetest person,” said Vallecito resident and best friend, Barbara Aukerman. “She was a kind spirit. She was a painter. She was always helping new crafters.”
Margie’s artistic, altruistic spirit lives on at the fairgrounds, where sculptors, wood and metal workers, knitters, quilters, painters, photographers, jewelry makers, and bakers converge to display their handiwork with smiles and enthusiastic waves to come over and get a closer look at their merchandise.
Mike Madden, a Bayfield resident and Mountain Middle School counselor, takes the opportunity every year to show off his creative and innovative spirit with the jewelry he makes from repurposed guitar strings.
“I’ve been doing this for years,” Madden said. “I really love it.”
He also turned one man’s trash into another’s work of art. One of Madden’s displays is made out of the necks of two guitars he acquired.
“This guy brought in these damaged guitars, and I said ‘I can do something with those.’”
Repurposing used items and finding unique uses for others was a common theme of the festival. Live Your Best Life, a Dolores-based company, uses corn-based product to make their molds and figurines. Kathy Laskey, a Silverton resident, makes literary and pop culture referenced purses and wallets from recycled plastics. Diddle Lee Doodle Lee owner Lisa Morales paints and refurbishes colorful chairs and tables for children from furniture she finds at yard sales.
Baked goods expertly designed for Christmas consumption by local amateurs and mixed flavorings for hot chocolates, spices and salsa were also in-demand products at the festival. The most unique of these types of culinary treats was the “space salsa” sold by Ignacio resident Danny Jaques, who dressed in a handmade spacesuit. The dehydrated concoction could also be paired with a “space margarita” packet, a popular selling point.
“A portion of the proceeds goes toward sending local kids to space camp,” said NASA enthusiast Jaques.
No matter what each vendor was selling, whether space salsa, handmade rooster place mats or expertly glazed pottery, it was clear each artist and craftsman had put a notable amount of heart and soul into their work. Miss Margie would have been proud.
molsen@durangoherald.com
