Re: Sugarloaf Craft Festival (Festival information)

I had an awesome time at the Sugarland Craft Festival a couple weekends back. No matter how often I see hand crafted items, I am just amazed at the quality and pure artistry of hand made crafts. There were so many amazing artisans, it was hard choosing a few pieces to buy, and the majority of what I bought was for my sister!

There were literally dozens of potters there, but I got my sister two beautiful large soup/chowder mugs from "As the Pottery Wheel Turns, Inc.". What caught my eye about this potter was that his pieces were of a very high quality but inexpensive; the gigantic mugs only cost me $10 each. Many other potters had nice pieces too, but they were charging more (up to $60), and the few others that I saw who sold more affordable pieces, were of a lower quality (bumps in clay, bubbly glaze, etc). Unfortunately this crafter only seems to sell his wares at the Sugarland Craft festivals, as he does not have a website, and did not have business cards or a catalog. He did tell me that he will be at the next Sugarloaf Festival in Chantilly in May.

I also brought Bexn some handmade fudge and some maple leaves from Mr. Ed's Elephant Museum. This museum on elephant collectables also sells old time candy. I'm not sure about all the ingredients they use in their candy production (how "natural" it is), but my sister said the fudge was very good.

Though there were mainly potters, jewelry makers, wood and metal workers, and food vendors, there was a natural cosmetic company there, Pretty Baby Herbal Soaps. They are a family run business that have been making soap for five generations. They sell a vast assortment of herbal all natural soaps (no chemcial preservatives or colors, made with all natural ingredients, colored with natural pigments). They also sell several other products, including balms and creams. Of the ingredient lists I've read they were all 100% natural, though I am not sure what kind of wax they use to emulsify their creams with, either way their creams are 90-100% natural too (all of the other ingredients in their creams are natural ingredients from plants, but they just listed vegetable wax or something like that as the wax ingredient, and some "vegetable" waxes are not natural). So far I've used the La-Tea-da soap, and it is very nice! Very emollient and fresh smelling (lime/ginseng/irish moss/green tea/lavender scent). I also have the gardenia soap which smells wonderful. (I also brought Bexn a couple).