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Oct 28, 2024

Meet 6 fascinating artists at the 2024 Syracuse Arts & Crafts Festival – This is CNY

The Syracuse Arts and Crafts Festival is back this weekend for the 53rd time since its inception. The free festival takes place in Columbus Circle, and typically attracts more than 50,000 attendees

The Syracuse Arts and Crafts Festival is back this weekend for the 53rd time since its inception.

The free festival takes place in Columbus Circle, and typically attracts more than 50,000 attendees looking to buy and sell art and jewelry, see live performances and enjoy festival food.

The three-day event sponsored by M&T Bank and the Downtown Committee of Syracuse began on Friday, July 26 and ends on Sunday, July 28. The festival begins every day at 10 a.m., and will be open until 6 p.m. on Friday and 5 p.m. on Saturday and Sunday.

With nearly 150 art vendors at the festival, visitors may not have the time or energy to stop at every booth. Here are six we found worth stopping for.

Eric Beauchamp has spent the last 10 years learning to control and manipulate fire and electricity to create art. This will be his first time sharing his work at the festival.

Beauchamp practices high voltage pyrography, or fractal burning, the art of using electricity to burn patterns into wood. The electricity creates branch-like structures reminiscent of lightning strikes or tree branches. The patterns created by the electrical discharge are different for each piece, so each creation Beauchamp makes is one of a kind.

“We as humans relate to these patterns that are being produced in a very unique way,” said Beauchamp. “It has these calming effects on us, we connect with them. It is one of these patterns that replicates everywhere in nature.”

The practice is somewhat controversial, with the American Association of Woodturners banning it in 2017, citing fatalities and incidents as the reason.

While Beauchamp may have given himself a few mild shocks over the years, he’s taken several safety measures to prevent any major electrocution.

One of those barriers for Beauchamp is to create his art with one hand.

“The electricity I’m working with wants to go to the ground, so if I’m being shocked it’s going to come up my arm and it’ll travel out the fastest way which would be through my leg,” Beauchamp said. “But if I have two hands out, it would go up my arm, across my heart, and out my other arm. Understanding how electricity wants to travel is a great way of understanding how you can protect yourself.”

Beauchamp describes his art as a methodical combination of woodworking, art, electronics, and science. His time spent working at companies like IBM and Microsoft helped fuel his passion for combining technology, science and art.

Location: Booth A24

Price point: $40 to $4,000

Website: beaubois.us

Sue and Ira Lances’ journey into fashion began in the 1980s when they began selling hand-painted jogging suits in New York City.

Now, over 40 years later, they travel to arts and crafts festivals around the country selling hats, scarves, and jackets.

Ira, who creates and designs everything by hand, is a third-generation garment maker. He started his career in his father’s factory, making clothes for children.

“We were a young couple just getting married, and it was time to figure out what we were going to do. We had some ideas of art to wear, so we put it on fabric and went to a show and the result was unbelievable” Sue said. “We went off on our honeymoon and actually had to cut it short and come back because the stores were calling and ringing in the phone and wanting to know where their order was.”

The couple uses several different techniques to create fabrics. The most popular is a technique they call handmade chenille, where four layers of rayon fabric are stitched together and then cut through, causing the fabric to open up and fray. The result is a delicate, airy, colorful and web-like garment.

The floral patterns in their work are easy to spot, with bright petals and flowers sewn into nearly every piece. The colors, textures, and aesthetics of their 40-year-old floral garden is a major source of inspiration for their work.

“We’ve taken up every inch of soil we have at our small townhome with our garden,” Sue said.

This will be Sue and Ira’s second year at the Arts and Crafts Festival.

“I just love the banter in the booth and the excitement when the customers tries something and a person walking by says that looks great on you,” Sue said. “And next thing I know they turn to me and say I’ll take it and then I get their credit card. I love that part.“

Location: Booth B6

Price point: $38 to $300

Website: handmadechenille.com

While Stephen Brucker’s art may appear fragile, his incredibly durable Borosilicate (Pyrex) glass sculptures are resistant to thermal shock and can withstand high heat without cracking.

For Brucker, he sees this dichotomy as a representation of his experience within the LGBTQ+ community.

“The glass I use, it can withstand over 40 pounds of air pressure and silicon carbide while it’s being sandblasted–the same process we use to take rust off of steel. Yet, it looks incredibly delicate,” said Brucker.

“It’s a way for me to parlay the experience of my community—which has taken a lot and continues to take a lot, yet we’re still perceived as delicate and fragile. But because of that internal strength we have, much like the glass itself, we continue to build.”

The glass sculptures, with their intricate swirls and patterns and bright colors, are incredibly multifaceted. Some of the pieces are so complex that it’s easy to forget that you’re looking at glass. The pieces aren’t functional, they’re made to be purely decorative.

Brucker earned his bachelor’s degree in fine arts at SUNY Oswego where he focused on sculpting and metalcasting.

“I loved the process, but the product was yielding these very heavy, very dark, and lifeless sculptures,” Brucker said. “I went to an exhibition at the Rochester Institute of Technology and I saw glass being utilized as a sculpting material and my mind was blown. I knew I had to do this.”

Now, 19 years later, Brucker sells his art in over 20 festivals a year and owns his own studio in Camillus where he creates his own glass sculptures and instructs students looking to follow in his footsteps.

Location: Booth C17-18

Price point: $70 to $11,000

Website: stephenbrucker.com

Jeremy Wilken loves robots. He hands out stickers that look like cog wheels to children and his shirt is covered in fun, colorful robots of all shapes and sizes—similar to the ones he sells at the festival.

Wilken, a newcomer to the Arts and Crafts festival, describes himself as a lover of junk.

“I make robot sculptures out of anything I can find from garage sales, Goodwill, flea markets, and even the trash sometimes,” Wilken said. “I don’t paint or polish any of the items I find, I just combine them to make things like robots, ray guns, and rocket ships.”

No two Woah-Botz are ever made with the same material, making each creation one of a kind.

He has two main sources of inspiration: his background in theater and 80s robot movies.

“I’m just basically taking my [theater] prop background and making characters with their own names and their own birthdays.”

He’s made over 1,900 robots since he began in 2013. The robots are incredibly bright, fun and playful, but because they are made with metal parts and have sharp corners they should not be used as toys.

“People should stop at my booth if they want to have a little bit of fun, see some bright colors and see something at this show that they’ve never seen before,” said Wilken.

Location: Booth C22

Price point: $130 to $300

Website: woah-botz.com

Hai Wei and Yulin Huang are visual artists living in Queens. The pair are from China, with Wei studying painting at the Tianjin Academy of Fine Arts and Huang graduating from the China Central Academy of Fine Arts. They came to the United States in 2016 through visas for individuals with extraordinary abilities in the art.

Their work is very different, with Wei’s work heavily inspired by superheroes, extinct animals, and mythological creatures and Huang’s work inspired more by folklore and children’s art.

“I use lots of flowers and birds [in my art], things that have beautiful meanings,” Huang said. “My paintings are more beautiful, while my husband’s paintings are more-”

“Crazy!” Wei said, laughing.

They both draw inspiration from animals and nature and have loved art since they were children. Despite attending different art schools, their shared love for painting brought them together.

The two consider themselves environmentalists, with Wei citing Dr. Jane Goodall as one of the reasons he loves to paint animals so much.

Location: Booths G6 and G7

Price point:

Hai Wei’s Instagram: @haiwei6

Michael Fambro, the head Jazz Cat at Jazzhouse Designs and former theater kid, creates earrings intended to capture the fun, funky, and vibrant spirit of jazz.

“My father, Miché Fambro, was a jazz musician and when he passed in 2020 I inherited his record collection,” Fambro said. “So to cope with the grief, I had to find something to keep my hands busy. I was out of work because all the theaters were shut down, so I started practicing with the clay and playing the records. And I got pretty good because I was grieving a lot.”

Fambro’s earrings are handmade by her (with the occasional support of her two kids) out of polymer clay. The use of clay makes the earrings lightweight and easy to wear.

The earrings, which are full of bright colors and fun patterns, are all named after different types of jazz. The cool jazz earrings are more muted, while the abstract jazz earrings are bold and multi-colored.

This is Fambro’s second year at the Arts and Crafts festival.

“I just love the vibe in Syracuse. Everyone’s so exciting and the people here are really sweet,” Fambro said. “They just have a taste for local art and I love that. They’re not afraid to get funky.”

All of Fambro’s earrings are nickel-free and use stainless steel metals.

Location: Booth E20

Price point: $15 to $35

Website: jazzhousedesigns.com