PORT GAMBLE — It’s a quiet small town, perfectly manicured and well-kept. But three days out of the year, it breaks out on the map with regional artists, crafters and musicians, entertaining the eyes and ears of those that show up to eat, shop and enjoy the results of creative musings from within the region.
The North Kitsap Arts and Crafts Festival took over the lumbermill town of Port Gamble this past weekend, turning its streets and grassy plains into a sea of endless vendors with endless possibilities of crafts and art.
After walking down the hill from the free parking by the cemetery, crowds fed into the sprawling campus of music, food and art. High noon found a large crowd enjoying the Home Town Band, playing delightful American favorites.
While the group provided a robust sound for the crowd, festival-goers fed on true festival food behind the stage, with hot dogs, sausages, chili dogs, teriyaki chicken and beef and non-alcoholic margaritas.
Around the corner, in front of the Port Gamble Community Center, came a different sort of music, with a faster beat and a modern sound. There, Christopher Britton was manning the Intuitive Body Painting tent, where kids could get as messy as they wanted while expressing their creative talents by painting with different parts of their body on a roll of butcher paper as their canvas.
Britton provided red, blue and yellow paint plus an endless variety of squirt bottles, roller brushes, loofahs and all sorts of different types of sponge shapes attached to gloves and waistbands.
Some participants were meek, but others like Olivia Williams from Long Beach, Calif., really got into it — after some prodding from Britton to use the different paint applicators available.
At first she was hesitant.
“My mom will be really mad if I get any paint in my hair,” she said about her long blonde mane. But that didn’t stop her 10 minutes later as she flung sponges, squirt bottles and roller brushes against the canvas, creating a splattered effect.
After pounding the canvas with her bare, paint-covered hands for some final touches, her masterpiece was complete and she was quite pleased with herself.
Up Rainier Avenue, in the Masonic Lodge, Walker Ames House and Post Office were the award-winning works of the region’s student and adult artists. Both floors in the Walker Ames House were filled wall to wall with as much art as Lynn Terry, co-member of the festival committee, could fit.
The first floor displayed the juried selections and winners for the juried show, including the Best of Show piece by Marilyn Bergstrom for her monoprint, “Window Series II.”
Ashlee Fosmaugh, won first place for her work “Untitled 3” for the senior high as well as Best of Show for the student art. Claire Taylor took first prize in youth category as well as Best of Show for the Black and White Category and John Taylor took home first place in the adult category as well as Best of Show for the Color category.
On the streets, town criers, Andy Hansen and his wife Judy Jewell — dressed in colonial garb and accompanied by their bells — called out the day’s events, even reminding shoppers that Christmas was only a few months away.
Vendors were out and about in numbers, selling lavender in many forms, home decor, gardening decor, children’s toys and pottery, just name a few. But the vendors with furniture had a tendency to stick out.
John Chugwater of Suquamish, and his wife, Stacy Conner, were selling Chugwater’s handcrafted furniture that was made from driftwood for his business, Beach Bum Furniture Co.
“I’ve been doing this for 10 years off and on, making money,” said Chugwater, previously a truck driver. “I thought, why not (do this full time)? I can always go back to driving a truck.”
He said he loves making beds because people really seem to appreciate them and they can be handed down and treated as antiques. The driftwood is stained in deep browns and yellows. Chugwater also dabbles in other types of wood, such as curly willow and cedar.
The festival buzz started to trail off in the late afternoon as Rick Hartman and his buddy, Ronald J. Walker, Sr. sat in handcrafted Adirondack chairs under Hartman’s vendor tent for This N’ That Furniture, watching the scenery go by.
“The reason I come is for the music. I did spend $10 on food and bought a boot bird house for a friend. But I come here for the music,” Walker said, commenting particularly on how impressed he was with the Prohibition Jazz Band that performed earlier in the day.
Hartman said while his business is new, (he just retired from the Navy in May) he’ll always come to this festival to sell his chairs because of the people.
“Even if I got rich and didn’t have to come back, I’d come back because I like to be around people,” Hartman said. “I like to see what (the other craftsmen) are doing… exchange ideas. It reminds me of what America is all about.”
