Tuesday was a good day to get hands dirty.
Lindsey Medeiros of Weare got to spend time on the pottery wheel working and spinning clay with her former teacher Lauren Morrocco from the Kimball Jenkins School of Art in Concord.
Besides selling her works of art, Morrocco was offering hands-on pottery instruction at the 90th Annual Craftsmen’s Fair at the base of Mount Sunapee. The fair, held all week through Sunday from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., features two hundred artists and skilled crafters like Morrocco demonstrating both traditional and contemporary fine craft including pottery, woodworking and blacksmithing.
“We’re very fortunate that the league has asked for the New Hampshire Guild of Potters to sponsor a tent, and we decided to have it be an educational experience. Students of all ages could come in and try the wheel, play, and also have an experience hand-building with air dry clay,” Morrocco noted.
Morrocco, who graduated from Colby-Sawyer College with a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in Studio Art and a minor in education, approaches her love of learning honestly. Her full-time job as a teacher along with her time exhibiting at the Craftsmen’s Fair combine her talents to share her passion for the arts.
“Working with clay is a whole body experience. You are tactilely using your hands, you’re watching the clay move as you’re adjusting it, and you’re really smelling the earth in your face,” she said. “It’s hard to ignore all of those senses at once.”
For more information about the Annual Craftsmen’s Fair, which is held rain or shine, go to www.nhcrafts.org.