By Andrea Nemecek

Crocheted teddy bears, jewelry, cards, pottery and decorated desserts were among the items members of the Grinnell community had the opportunity to buy at this semester’s Craft Fair on Sunday, May 8.
The fair was organized by Christine Grummon ’11, who has participated in the Craft Fair since it started during her first year. A little less than 10 students sold their crafts and dozens stopped by during the five hour time slot of this semester’s sale.
Grummon, who crochets in her spare time, said her favorite thing about the Craft Fair is seeing what everyone makes.
“There’s a pretty impressive variety,” Grummon said, “and one of the things I’ve enjoyed most about being involved in the Craft Fair is seeing all of the kinds of creativity Grinnell supports.”
Some of the more unique and distinctly Grinnellian items Grummon remembers seeing at the Craft Fair are wallets made out of old Pokemon cards and jewelry made from typewriter keys.
Abby Johnson ’13 sold earrings she designed and made at the Craft Fair. This was Johnson’s second time participating in the fair. Johnson has dabbled in a lot of different arts and crafts and started making earrings a few years ago when someone she was living with encouraged her to make her first pair. Since then, Johnson has spent her breaks from school designing and making earrings, primarily for the Craft Fair. Johnson enjoys making earrings because it allows her to be creative.
“There are so many options of what you can do,” she said, “and then people can enjoy it, which is always nice.”
Johnson plans to continue making jewelry—she wants to incorporate more designs into her earrings and to start making necklaces, but she doesn’t plan to sell her products anywhere else.
Like Grummon, Johnson said that her favorite part of the Craft Fair is seeing what everyone has made. Sara Woolery ’11, who has participated in the fair since her second year, agrees.
“I like seeing what other people have been up to. I feel like it’s a side of Grinnellians that I’m not surprised to see, but that I often don’t get to see,” Woolery said.
For the Craft Fair, Woolery made what she calls food art, which involves “creating beautiful little things out of normal food products.” Some of these normal food products are Cheerio’s, which she decorates to look like mini-doughnuts, and cookies, which she stacks on top of each other and decorates to look like cakes. Woolery also enjoys baking and making fudge. Currently, some of her favorite things to bake are tiramisu pancakes and strawberry pies. Her food creations hinted at a future in baking, but it might not be her primary career path.
“It’s like my retirement plan,” Woolery said.
Though the Craft Fair will lose several key organizers and participants as the class of 2011 graduates, Grummon is confident that the Craft Fair will continue into next year and beyond.
“I think it’ll definitely keep going,” Grummon said.