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NEWS RELEASE FOR
Royal Oak Chamber of Commerce
DATE – 5/21/08
FROM Sharlan Douglas, APR at Douglas Communications Group, 248-548-5460;
313-319-4846 cell;
mailto:sdouglas@douglasgroup.biz
FOR RELEASE IMMEDIATELY
Festival map
CLAY & GLASS FESTIVAL BRINGS PRACTICAL MAGIC
TO DOWNTOWN ROYAL OAK JUNE 21 & 22
ROYAL OAK, Mich. (May 21, 2008) The Royal Oak Clay & Glass Festival
will start early this year. On Friday, June 20, from 5 to 11 p.m. there
will be a pre-glow party on Fifth Street, east of Washington, with food,
drink and music.
“This is another way to bring people into Royal Oak to have fun,” said
Bill Allen, executive director of the Royal Oak Chamber of Commerce,
which presents the festival. “They’ll see the artists setting up their
tents that evening, so it will help promote the festival, too.”
The art fair itself will open on Saturday morning, June 21, at 10 a.m.
and run to 6 p.m. Sunday hours are 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Food and beverage
and entertainment will be offered at two locations this year: On Fifth
Street, as in the past, and also on Sixth Street. Creative Arts Studio
will offer crafts for children at the corner of Washington and Sixth
streets. On Saturday evening, from 6 to 11 p.m., the Royal Oak
Restaurant Association will offer entertainment, food and beverage on
Fifth Street.
Seven exhibitors will demonstrate their craft at intervals during the
festival. Miles Stearn of Berkley will set up a wheel and throw pots
and Paul and Charlie Shoulders will demonstrate lampwork glass making.
Practical magic
More than any other art fair in the region, the Royal Oak Clay & Glass
Festival offers beautiful art that works. Tiles and pavers can
become walls and floors, vases enhance bouquets of flowers, and trays,
bowls and cups make dining and entertaining a visual feast.
It’s practical and it’s also magic. How else would you describe a
process in which searing heat turns common clay and sand into objects so
lovely and enduring?
"There are many people who may not necessarily go to art fairs but may
be renovating their kitchen or bathrooms and are looking for something
unique for their tile installation. Instead of buying mass produced
tile, they might look to local artists exhibiting at the Royal Oak Clay
and Glass," said Royal Oak tile maker Laurie Eisenhardt, who will
exhibit at the festival.
Eisenhardt lives in a 1917 Royal Oak house, one of many from that era
influenced by the Arts & Crafts movement, which championed the work of
the individual craftsman and the use of ordinary and natural materials.
Eisenhardt has used her painterly tiles in muted shades on the floor of
her house and on the staircase risers. She used brighter, small round
tiles in a mosaic pattern on the floor of a shower.
Eva Amine’s 1988 Royal Oak condominium shows how to stretch the impact
of a handful of artistic pieces. The backsplash in her contemporary
kitchen is a field of black, matte contemporary tiles, dotted with
commemorative Pewabic. She whimsically incorporated the head of a Lenox
china camel – all that remained of a broken statuette -- into the
backsplash.
Black tiles with an iridescent platinum glaze surround the fireplace in
the contemporary Royal Oak home of Frank and Carol Ann Arvan. Frank, an
architect, designed the house. Carol Ann, also the firm’s business
manager, made the tiles in a class at Pewabic Pottery, inspired by tiles
the pottery made for the McNamara Terminal at Metropolitan Airport. At
a previous Clay & Glass Festival, Frank bought the multicolored Mary
Tomas vase which sits on the hearth. Tomas will again exhibit at this
year’s festival.
Exhibitors whose works might lend themselves to architectural uses
include tile makers Scott Weaver of Horton, Mich. and Richard Pruckler
of Ferndale; stained glass artists Larry Harris of Dearborn and Paula
Shoulders of Brighton, and Sara Frank, who creates tables with mosaic
tile tops.
Jewelers adopt NASA technology
Until about 10 years ago, “dichroic” glass was only
seen in outer space, laboratories and electronic devices. But artists
scrounging in the trash bin at Gerald Sandberg’s California company
inspired him to experiment with new colors and ultimately create a
business specializing in artistic materials. Invented by NASA, dichroic
glass is coated with metal oxides and crystallized in a million-dollar
vacuum machine to produce brilliant, iridescent colors and patterns.
Appropriately, jewelry maker Mark Slaven worked in the aeronautics
industry for 20 years as a precision grinder before starting his second
career as an artist. He layers the sheets of glass and fires them,
using diamond tools to cut them into pendants and earrings, which he
wraps with gold or silver wire.
Michelle Corsich compares the appeal of dichroic glass to that of
Swarovski crystal.
“There’s just so much sparkle, and such vivid colors,” she said. Her
jewelry features mosaics made from tiny chips of the glass.
Festival background
This is the 14th year the Royal Oak Chamber of Commerce has produced
the event, presented this year by National City Bank. The
family-friendly event will be even more so this year because, for the
first time, it will not coincide with Father’s Day.
Festival visitors can easily make a day of it, walking just a few blocks
from the festival to experience Royal Oak’s galleries, coffee shops,
restaurants, bars, sidewalk cafes and antique, gift and apparel stores,
or the nearby Detroit Zoo.
“This event fills two purposes,” said chamber Executive Director Bill
Allen. “It promotes Royal Oak as a livable, walkable community. It
also raises funds to support the chamber as we help our members grow
their businesses and as we advocate for business-friendly policies in
the city.”
In additional to the Clay & Glass Festival,
the chamber will promote the city with the Antique & Garage Sale July 19
and 20. Those events, plus Royal Oak in Bloom in May, bring an
estimated 80,000 visitors to Royal Oak each year.
The chamber will donate a portion of the net combined profits from five
chamber events, including those listed above plus the golf outing and
the March, 2008 South Oakland Business Expo, to charity.
The Royal Oak Chamber of Commerce helps its more-than 600 members market
their businesses and grow them through educational programs, discounts
and networking. It held 51 public and member events in 2007. The
organization promotes Royal Oak as a destination for visitors and
residents and advocates for business-friendly policies in the city.
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