CARY -- Kathy Hart makes an annual pilgrimage to the Lazy Daze Arts & Crafts Festival looking for "a signature piece" to add to her one-of-a-kind collection of one-of-a-kind objets d'art.
"I can go through my house and point out the things I have bought at Lazy Daze through the years," Hart, 53, of Cary said as she cruised the booths at the 34th annual festival Saturday morning. This year's find: a multicolored clock in the shape of a house. The price tag: $150.
Festival-goers like Hart are the lifeblood of the 385 artists and craftspeople from 17 states who strutted their stuff at Lazy Daze.
It's a laborious way to make a living or earn some supplemental income. Most of the exhibitors, some of whom drove a considerable distance, spent hours Friday setting up their booths for the one-day festival. They showed up as early as 6 a.m. Saturday to set out their handiwork before the crowds started to arrive.
The festival officially kicked off at 9 a.m., but long-time attendees know they can start shopping earlier - enabling them to beat the crowds and the heat. This year's festival was expected to attract 50,000 people.
"I was selling by 8:15," said Pauline Atkinson, a jewelry maker from Zephyrhills, Fla., who makes her own glass beads.
And when the festival ended at 5 p.m., the exhibitors had a minimum of two hours more work ahead of them to dismantle their displays and pack up their vehicles.
Still, the demand for festival booths exceeds the supply every year. This year, 190 would-be exhibitors were rejected because of lack of space, said Joy Cox Ennis, festival coordinator for the town parks, recreation and cultural resources department.
Carol Griffin, who sews fabric bags and totes for women, was encouraged by brisk sales Saturday morning. She was hoping to best the approximately $1,200 she grossed at last year's festival.
"It's my best one-day show," said Griffin, who hails from Waxhaw in the western end of the state. The price tags on her bags and totes ranged from as little as $28 to as much as $200.
Affordable art
The struggling economy has put a damper on the sales of fine art and crafts.
"It's a little bit frustrating," said Joe Engel of Jamestown, Tenn., who creates what he calls "salvaged folk art" - primitive acrylic paintings on wood gathered from dumpsters and elsewhere, which he sells for $50 to $350. "I'm trying to do art people can't ignore, and trying to keep my prices low enough that people can afford it."
David Nichols, a glassblower from Weddington in Western North Carolina, reckons his sales have declined 30 percent to 50 percent since the recession hit. His colorfulvases and bowls sold for $45 to $160.
"You are going to find at this show here - nobody needs any of this stuff," said Nichols, whose full-time gig is teaching art in a public high school.
Sales can be very hit-or-miss on the festival circuit.
Bruce Mitchell, a Durham artist who specializes in oil paintings of Americana - such as outdoor signs displayed by service stations and restaurants - recalls going to a festival two years ago in Philadelphia.
"I lost my shirt," Mitchell said. "It cost me two grand, and I sold $40 worth of paintings."
Atkinson, who probably wouldn't have made the 12-hour-plus drive from her home in Florida if she didn't have a daughter who lives in Raleigh, said customers are "being more conservative in their purchasing."
People who used to buy "multiples" - say, a bracelet, a necklace and a pair of earrings that went together - now are settling for just one item.
Prepared to buy
To be sure, some people arrived in a buying mood.
Linda Nisbet, a real estate agent who lives in Cary, purchased some jewelry, a bird feeder, orchids fashioned out of clay and some hand-lotion within an hour and 15 minutes of arriving. The bill added up to $148.
"Shh, don't tell my husband," said Nisbet, 58, as she laughed. "He didn't come this year. He's playing golf. That's what he gets."
