It was perhaps the most populated Port Clinton Arts and Crafts Festival in recent memory.
The grand event — put on by the Greater Port Clinton Area Arts Council — has been around for two decades but it moved to Lakeview Park for the first time Saturday.
It allowed for more than 60 artists, local and out-of-state, to showcase their diverse creations to a populous crowd enjoying a sunny, 70 degree day.
The artists agreed: the event’s move to Lakeview Park was a wise one.
“I’ve been coming here 15 years,” sculptor Jay Rinser said. “It’s been a good day.”
Rinser did not need a traditional tent to display his work.
He sculpts concrete animals which could have briefly been mistaken for the real thing. Birds, fish and turtles were laid out on the park’s grass.
Rinser sculpts the shape from clay and creates a mold. From there, he lets others finish the job.
Employees of the Developmental Disabilities of Clark County pour the concrete and add a sealer when the pieces dry.
A group of adults with mental disabilities finish the pieces, Rinser said.
The move to Lakeview Park coupled with the good weather made for plenty of commerce, said Carol Morgan, president of the arts council.
“It’s the perfect venue,” Morgan said. “There’s artists from Indiana and Pennsylvania, from all over.”
She said the move to the park came because of seagulls, of all things.
Whatever the reason, it seemed to work, according to artists.
Doug Hoover had success selling his miniature — but still large — lighthouses crafted from exterior siding.
“Yeah it’s been good, people have been interested,” Hoover said of Saturday’s festival.
If Hoover and Rinser somehow did not represent the festival’s diversity, Christine Boyle and Pat Schorling seemed to.
Boyle works with her sister to make decorative coasters from floor tile and tissue paper.
Her work is available at pamelachrisdesigns.com.
Toledo native Pat Schorling takes recyclables, especially empty glass bottles, and makes lamps from the materials.
Her sports themed lamps are the best-sellers, she said.
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