Arts Alive to feature unique jewelry
PLACES TO GO
Delmarva Daily Times, MD
Events
OCEAN CITY — Lynda Dashiell-Ohotnicky, a local metal smith, spends part of the year in Vermont coming up with ideas for her original jewelry and the rest of the year in Ocean City making the pieces and teaching others her ways.
Ohotnicky is one of the more than 100 artists who will gather at the Northside Park lagoon this weekend to showcase and sell their precious pieces for the sixth annual Arts Alive festival while enjoying music, food and fun activities.
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“Most of my sales are at retail art shows,” Ohotnicky said. She also shows her pieces locally in Snow Hill and Rehoboth Beach, and sells wholesale to shops and galleries.
No two pieces of Ohotnicky’s jewelry are the same since they are all individually hand made. “I use different metals, silver and gold mostly, and semi-precious gems,” she said. “I am really big into pearls.”
Ohotnicky collects her raw materials from gem shows and then, when inspiration hits, she creates.
“I have a good supply of raw material, and I keep them around like a painter does the colors of paints,” she said. “When I get inspiration I go to my pallet of gems.”
Ohotnicky’s semi-precious contemporary classics fit right in with the festival’s focus on fine art rather than crafts.
“We feel we are really now on the map as far as fine arts shows,” said Veronica Donaldson, special events coordinator for the Town of Ocean City. “It’s definitely different from Springfest and Sunfest.”
The festival receives more applications from artists each year and is host to 12 categories: Ceramics, drawing, fiber, furniture, glass, print making, jewelry, mixed media, painting, photography, sculpture and fine wood.
Among the selected newcomers is Michele Porta, who, like Ohotnicky, crafts her own jewelry. But instead of using gems like Ohotnicky, Porta makes her own glass beads.
“My jewelry is really becoming an artwork,” the Parkersbury, W. Va. resident said. “It’s not crafty when you make your own glass beads.”
Porta buys glass rods and melts them down with a propane torch that reaches 2,000 degrees. She mixes them with enamels, silver and gold, and then puts the beads in a kiln to stabilize.
“My degree is in chemistry and I had seen these beads and wanted to know how they make them,” Porta said.
Porta’s jewelry will be on sale at the festival and up for judging. The festival is juried by a group of judges from the field of art.
“We try to get them locally, but they come from as far as the Baltimore-Washington area and Delaware,” Donaldson said.
During photographer George Rhodes’ first year at the show, the judges awarded him $500 for one of his marine-oriented photos.
“I do very well at the show and I like the area,” Rhodes said as his reasoning for traveling from Plantation, Fla. “And nearby is Assateague where I photograph the wild ponies, which is one of my biggest sellers lately.”
Rhodes said he and his wife stay in Berlin and make a vacation out of their time spent at Arts Alive.
“We always stay a couple of days extra,” he said. “It’s just a nice package for us: the park is a nice location for the festival and the committee treats you so well at the show.”
Donaldson said 8,000 to 10,000 people will crowd around Rhodes and the other artists in the North Side Park Lagoon from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. Saturday and 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Sunday.
