Our Craft Fair is a major fundraiser to support the mission of UUFH. There will be baked goods, pottery, jewelry, photography, notecards, woodworking, knitted goods, quilted and woven items, and donated holiday decorations!
Please come and shop, and invite your friends and neighbors to join you. All items are hand-made and of very high quality. It’s the perfect place to find unique gifts for special people in your life, that hard-to-please friend, your kid’s teacher, or to treat yourself.
We are proud that two of the top vendors are our own Mike and Honey Burrell. Both were educators and, since retiring, each has focused their energy on learning a new craft.
Honey chose pottery-making 12 years ago after taking classes locally. She knew immediately that pottery was for her. She started ‘hand building,’ making mainly flat items, such as platters and plates, all inspired by nature.
Her first creation was a colorful maple leaf, which she still has. Honey now has her own kiln and pottery wheel and many of the items she makes are turned on her wheel.
The latest one currently in demand is an Earring Holder. Each takes many hours to produce, but there will be a plentiful supply at the Craft Fair. As you might guess, a lot of care goes into each item Honey creates.
When Mike retired, he knew what he wanted to learn, having seen a crafter making perfume pens on a lathe. Mike has taken a number of classes locally and started small-turning ink pens and other spindle-like items, such as perfume pens, salt and pepper shakers, and handles for kitchen silverware.
As his skills improved, Mike joined the Apple Country Woodcrafters and jumped feet first into creating segmented bowls. Like Honey, he has the very first segmented bowl he created. These are constructed out of many pieces of wood, glued together into rings, stacked one on top of another to make unique patterns, then turned into the shape of a bowl on the lathe.
Most of Mike’s recent bowls have a base of a solid piece of wood that is then topped with thin layers of contrasting wooden rings to make a truly special work of art.
The Burrells support our local community: Honey participates in the Empty Bowls program, which works to fight hunger in Henderson County, and donated 50 bowls this year. Her ambitious goal for next year is 100 bowls. Mike works with Apple Country Woodcrafters, helping to create thousands of wooden toys each year for the kids of Henderson County.
Be sure to visit with Honey and Mike at the Craft Fair, and take home some of their creations on Saturday, Nov. 10, 10am-3pm.