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• Taste of Champaign artists spill it all

Visitors to this weekend’s Taste of Champaign had the opportunity to try food from the CU’s finest eateries, from the Seaboat’s classic fish sandwiches to Zorba’s gyros. They could have also explored the fifty booths of artists selling — and sometimes demonstrating — their crafts. A reveler at the festival could learn that soap is actually a type of salt, how to find crystals or how to turn a hobby into a job.

The fifty artists at this year’s Taste of Champaign each had fascinating stories and unique artwork. What follows are brief profiles of each artist.

Susan Huffman has been making fused glass jewelry for 12 years. She started working with stained glass and then moved to unique, kiln-fired pieces. She says that most of her business is from return customers.

Curt Carter’s wildlife and nature photography has taken him all over the country. Combining his love of travel, especially to the northeast, with what started as his “expensive hobby” of photography, Carter sells by word-of-mouth and art fairs, and is successful, but “not where I can quit my day job.”

Marcia Reardon’s recycled jewelry uses beads and jewels from older pieces, and reinterprets them in new and interesting ways. The retired teacher says that she tries to “make each of our jewels unique.” She has recently expanded into recycled denim purses.

Larisa Zimin has been making wood jewelry since she was 7 years old. She traveled from Michigan to attend her first Taste of Champaign.

Dave Smith paints portraits of houses. Starting as a gift for his father, this two-time Taste of Champaign artist has been able to devote time to “something I’ve always loved to do” since his retirement. When asked why he paints houses, he answers with a simple “why not?”

Phillip Kahman of Harpstone Jewelry makes intricate pieces from gemstones, 14 karat gold and sterling silver. His sister-in-law, a Celtic harpist, designs the pieces. She also taught Kahman the craft of making jewelry. This first-time Taste of Champaign exhibitor has been making his delicate earrings, pendants and bracelets for 6 years.

Earth Drops handcrafted soaps are the brainchild of Dave and Cheryl Lehmann. Their all-natural soaps are made with essential oils, herbs, natural oils bases and lye. They offer a wide variety of soaps they have learned to make throughout the past twelve years and traveling to sell them.

Crystal Creations to JaK is run by a husband and wife team, and goes back to their wedding. Jane — the J in “JaK” — fell in love with Swarovski crystals while making her wedding dress, and with her husband, Kevin, a woodworker, creates unique gifts.

Amanda “Mimi” Bickel creates digitally-altered photographs. She’s been focusing recently on Day of the Dead-themed skulls because they’re “not scary, but decorative.” She also creates art based on fingerprints, because for her customers they are “personal, a little more meaningful since it’s their print.”

Art Beco’s Rebecca Reid creates jewelry, paintings and digital art. She says that she’s always been an artist and has recently started working in 3-D with polymer clay. She says of her work that “you can’t really find art like this in this town.”

Erin’s Earring Shop, run by Erin Daun, uses recycled jewelry to create unique and funky pieces. Erin Daun has been creating her wearable art for six months. This was her first Taste of Champaign exhibition.

Erin Delio and Debbie Saathoff create traditional home crafts. According to Delio, Saathoff’s husband does woodworking with the two, and they work together on wearable children’s art.

Cherie Manrique photographs nature in the CU Area. “It’s amazing what you can find in,” she says, and enjoys taking photos in Busey and Allerton parks, as well as Kickapoo State Park. She uses a digital camera with no Photoshop work to let her subjects shine through.

Touch From The Heart Pottery’s Mary Jane Meyers creates one-of-a-kind ceramics with real leaf impressions. She’s been “real serious” about pottery since 1984. When asked about her art, she says “I just love keeping my hands in the clay.”

Touchstone Jewelry, created by Claudy Dwyer, uses 100% sterling silver and natural gemstones. Dwyer researches the meanings and origins of all the stones she uses, and believes that their properties can be used as a type of energy medicine. Touchstone Jewelry started this past spring.

Scott Westgard, a University of Illinois graduate, creates copper plate etchings, using techniques such mezzotint, aquatint, and drypoint. Westgard’s attention to detail drives him to create intricate and rewarding art prints. He hopes to move on to progressively finer and finer work, including microengraving like that used on dollar bills.

JW’s Gems & Beads is the brainchild of Juanita Wilson. Her handmade bead bracelets include Illini jewelry, which she describes as her biggest seller. She describes herself as an “artsy person” and says that she started making jewelry just for herself.

Something Different, by Joyce and Christ Buckls, is a hobby that turned into a business. Christ Buckls laughingly describes it as something that “keeps me from working for someone else,” while Joyce simple says “I’m very happy with what I do.” The Buckls produce handmade wood crafts and painted art.

Glassroots is Mary Patterson’s outlet for her fused glass and lampwork jewelry. When asked about her art, the Carbondale resident says, “I teach art, so it was a natural progression.”

Jeanette Bickrel, of Decatur, has been making quilts for “close to 50 years.” Starting out with baby quilts, she’s recently expanded into handmade quilted jackets, including one made entirely of pockets.

Silk Illumination’s Karen Gottlieb says that her desire to comfort people and spread a message of compassion is in every decision she makes, starting with materials. She uses “peace silk,” which is harvested without killing silkworms, to produce her fabric art, which blends texture, color, and prayers for peace and hope. Gottlieb works with “a really messy process that I’ve been developing for one-and-a-half years.”

Originaldeb.com is Deb O’Malley’s outlet for her creativity, which takes the form of everything from jewelry and hematite wraps to jean purses to fur bottle huggers. The fur bottle huggers are her own original creation, originally made for the opening of a friend’s bar. Her love of crafting started as a family affair, doing craft shows and flea markets with her father.

Magdalena Zdankiewicz finds abstract art in nature. Using extreme close-ups and digital effects, Zdankiewicz brings out the weirdness and beauty of the natural world.

Szappan is the project of Melissa Nagy. Since 2003, Nagy’s home-based business, named after the Hungarian word for soap, has been producing glycerin-based hand soaps, bath products and hand lotions. Nagy, who grows many of the herbs used in her products, started because she was dissatisfied with the quality of mass-produced soap.

Susan Campanini makes handmade beaded earrings, which she describes as “kind of an addiction.” She says that “half the fun is collecting interesting beads from all over, and the other half is that each pair is unique.”

Steel Canvas is Craig Downen’s creative outlet. The welder hopes to open his own shop, featuring both three-dimensional steel sculpture and torch-colored metal art.

Jewelry Naturally grew out of Connie Loyet’s time as a “rock-hound.” While collecting interesting rocks and crystals, a friend suggested that small pieces of geode could be used to make interesting jewelry. According to Loyet, she’s “never seen anybody else doing it. It’s pretty unique as far as I know.”

Whimsical Iron Design is both the name and description of Jennifer Hyatt’s artwork. Hyatt’s artistic journey began with a degree in theatre, which is obvious in the expressive “faces, figures and scenes” in her work. The Memphis, Tenn., resident travels from Louisiana to Illinois in search of beautiful weather and big crowds and found the Taste of Champaign has both.

Georgia Morgan uses polymer clay, silver and copper to make one of a kind jewelry. She preempted any questions about inspirations and origins with a smiling “I don’t know and I don’t remember when.” Morgan has been a fixture at Taste of Champaign since 2001.

Maplewood is the husband and wife team of Jo-Ann and Don Draheim of Johnson Creek, Wis. Their work includes whimsical pet beds and carriers shaped like mansions and fish. Jo-Ann started sewing as a hobby, and then moved on to cat shows and craft fairs. When she found that she couldn’t keep up with demand, she taught her husband how to sew.

Diane Hardy makes colorful, lightweight fabric jewelry. Her artwork got its start as Christmas presents for family and friends and then bloomed from there. This was her first appearance at the Taste of Champaign.

Jerry Rhodes has been a carpenter for 30 years and still works with wood in his spare time because he finds woodturning calming. He said that he made the transition from a hobby to a business because he “had to sell some of my stuff to buy more toys,” referring to the lathes and tools he demonstrated at the festival.

Renee Healy uses watercolors, acrylic and oils on silk and other fabrics to create impressionistic floral art. She laughingly attributed her current career to winning artist of the year in 9th grade, and then admitted to taking an eighteen year break. Moving cross-country from Tacoma, Wash., to Hannibal, Mo., did nothing to dampen her enthusiasm for painting, as she exhibited at her first Taste of Champaign.

John Penning demonstrated the art of making wire-wrapped gemstone jewelry at this year’s Taste of Champaign. The wire artisan started as a gem collector and was inspired by a wire wrapping demonstration at an art show. He described his technique as “wrap some, twist some, swear at all of it, make it into jewelry.”

Charlie Cox described his discovery of pottery as pure luck. After retiring from the Army, he enrolled at the University of Illinois – Springfield to study computer programming and “saw a room full of wheels.” He hasn’t looked back since. His hand-thrown pottery features a variety of designs and glazes.

Willey Pottery has been
Robin Willey’s love since graduating with an art degree. She found funding to open a business and “went for it.” She has a sizable fanbase with many returning customers. She is a returning exhibitor at the Taste of Champaign, and says that she loves the show.

Ryan Slattley makes large sheet metal works. His pieces include a larger-than-life fishing rod, a giant wind-up toy and a working cement truck. A metalworker by both trade and artistic inclination, he has been making sculptures for 5 years now, and offered them for sale at his first time at Taste of Champaign.

Divina Fourman credits Debbie Saathoff for getting her to take her art public. She’s exhibited her jewelry — decorated with crystals, gems and beads — at her first Taste of Champaign.

Alamonde is Yu Wadee’s creative outlet. “I’ve loved to do jewelry since I was young,” she says. Her works also includes embroidered cotton and silk purses made of material imported from Thailand.

Rajni Shinghal has been painting since her childhood. Her technique is “similar to the way you do icing on a cake: always three-dimensional.” Her paintings all have a theme of “oneness” with a focus on “bringing peace or harmony.”

PB Designs by Tonya Pulley-Baillie features jewelry made from glass, stone, wood and shells set in sterling silver. Her art is a natural growth from working with her mother at a bead store. Starting by selling to friends, her hobby blossomed to selling at craft and art fairs.

Experience Mehndi with Sujata Dey-Koontz is a chance to experience traditional and intricate Indian handpainting. Dey-Koontz learned the art from her grandmother, and was a leader in popularizing it in the Champaign- area.

Beadqueen.com started as B.J. Guderian’s way of paying for her hobby. Inspired 13 years ago by an issue of Bead and Button magazine, Guderian has won multiple best of show awards.

The Campaign County Pottery Club demonstrated raku-style pottery at the Taste of Champaign. Raku is a Japanese technique that uses fire and smoke to add color and texture to pottery. Chen Yu, a newer member of the club, said that he joined because it was “fun and relaxing.” Christine Bryant-Cohen praised the club and its fund-raising efforts that helped “tons of us in the community who couldn’t afford out own kilns or our own studios get a chance.”