Kiley Burke travels the country showing off her spin on dream catchers that combine tradition with whimsy, lace and artificial flowers.
“I actually really wanted one for my house, and I very much so appreciated the traditional dream catchers, but they really didn’t match my décor,” said Burke, owner of Thunder & Twine in Winston-Salem, NC. “I wanted to make some that were more whimsical and a little more delicate.”
So in 2018, Burke started creating her own and going to shows like Art in the Park in North Lake Park—this year, she brought 200 of her creations to the 55th annual artisan festival Saturday and Sunday in Loveland.
Originally Burke learned the craft from her aunt, a Native American. She incorporated the moon and sun into some of her patterns, added lace, crystals and flowers to the outer edges, and even decorated a few with macramé.
“I wanted to do something I could do to brighten somebody’s day a little bit,” Burke said. “It’s the nice calming sense it can bring a lot of people, and I love doing that for them.”
Burke is among the more than 180 artists displaying and selling their work at Art in the Park. Held during the second weekend in August, the festival is featured alongside two other nearby festivals, Sculpture in the Park and the Loveland Fine Art Invitational. Art in the Park will continue 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Sunday.
“It’s a really great artist supported festival,” said Jill Atchison, festival director of Art in the Park and executive director of the Thompson Valley Art League, sponsor of Art in the Park. “We do it to give artists a venue to sell. And it’s something that’s needed.”
Each year, 10,000 to 15,000 visitors come to the festival to see artisan booths under tents, talking with the artists about their inspirations, their processes and the tools they use, reviewing their portfolios, and purchasing what they have to offer. A few of them demonstrate how they create their art.
“A lot of people get to see their work,” Atchison said. “It’s a great networking opportunity to meet new clients.”
The art ranges from paintings and photographs to sculptures, woodwork, ceramics and jewelry art.
“It all has to be made by them, so we don’t allow any imported, mass-produced products,” Atchison said.
The artists primarily come from Colorado and the region, including places like Wyoming, Nebraska, New Mexico, Arizona, Utah and California. Several are members of the art league, a nonprofit that operates the Lincoln Gallery in Loveland, where 60 artists are exhibiting their work and the membership totals 130.
Katy Johnson came from Broomfield to show and sell her chain maille though her business, Dragon Lair Designs, which she founded in 2018. She’s attending 11 shows this year, all in Colorado and including Art in the Park.
“I work with a variety of metals and different gages of wire,” Johnson said. “With the variance of the types of metals and the size of the rings, you can put them together in so many ways.”
Johnson uses chain maille to create clothing, jewelry, dream catchers and tapestries—she’s also working on building a castle and so far has completed three towers and two walls and is working on the drawbridge. She works primarily in stainless steel, titanium and aluminum.
“I just love coming up with new things to do with it, just the whole creative process with it,” Johnson said.
Twyla Letourneau of Loveland has a booth for the first time, selling her late husband’s crafts that he made through Ron’s Carving Shop. Ron fashioned the heads of older gentleman out of the inside of golf balls, then used the shells to make things like hats, cigars and glasses. He didn’t venture into anything other than men with wrinkles, nor did he sell any of the 345 pieces he made, but Twyla is because, as she said, it’s time to get them out there.
“I think he was going to take them to golf courses and sell them there,” said Letourneau, who had been married to Ron for 38 years.
The heads, which Ron started making in 2013, serve as ornaments and decorations and are getting some attention, Letourneau said.
“He had so many artistic things he did,” Letourneau said. “I have no idea how he came up with all the different faces because no two are alike. They’re all older men and they’re all detailed. … I don’t think there’s anything out there like this from the inside of a golf ball.”
Art in the Park also includes seven food trucks and two beverage booths sponsored by Sweetheart Winery and Crow Hop Brewery—it’s the only art event of the three with food trucks on site.
