Find unique, handmade items at Harper craft fair
Nearly every other weekend, woodworker Gary Weber of Roselle draws a crowd around his booth at Chicago area craft shows.
Sure, his collection of puzzle boxes, small treasure chests and banks fashioned from antique post office lock boxes make for popular gifts. But more than that, patrons at the show like to play with them and see how they open.
"It's the nature of making boxes," Weber says. "People just want to open them."
Weber will be among the 160 crafters featured this weekend at the Harper College Craft Show. The show takes place from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 20, and from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Sunday, Sept. 21, in the school's gymnasium, or Building M, at 1200 W. Algonquin Road in Palatine. Admission is $3.
Show producer, Donna Hansen of Elk Grove Village, says every artisan brings only handicrafted items, and she prides herself on sticking to that.
"It's all 'made in America,' as we like to say," Hansen adds.
The show is a fall-themed event, with lots of florals, home décor and yard ornaments, as well as holiday items also making their debut.
Many of the vendors bring items that border on fine art, including inlaid wood mirrors and wall hangings, painted furniture, calligraphy, watercolors, clay flowers, stained glass lamps, personalized ornaments, children's dresses, embellished purses, jewelry, and even painted wine bottles.
"I really try to find people you don't see at other shows," Hansen adds, "to bring new life to the show, new variety."
Weber's woodworking, however, has been a mainstay at the show for years, mostly because of his unique products.
Formerly, he used to run a Mail Boxes, Etc. store at Golf and Roselle roads in Hoffman Estates, before the franchise changed hands. For the last 20 years, he has developed his woodcarving into a full-time business, and he hasn't looked back.
Customers are drawn to his unique, tabletop boxes, with their nooks and crannies, and secret drawers, as well as the wood.
Weber makes his boxes from any of 27 different solid woods. When he can, he uses antique woods, taken from historic buildings or barns, and he includes a narrative with each item, telling about the origin of the wood.
The unique banks, made from the door fronts of old post office postal boxes, make for an unusual gift. As Weber explains, the post office discontinued the boxes in the mid-1970s, and replaced them with aluminum key style door fronts.
But the vintage lock boxes, with their distinctive doors, date back to the 1880s in post offices across the country, consequently he searches out antique vendors to find them.
They typically feature the original brass plating and antique door mechanisms, as well as either a combination or key lock entry, as well as a small window to see the contents, which Weber mounts on a small wood box to make a bank.
Weber always displays the year the lockbox door front dates back to, as well as anything more he knows about where it was located.
"I always like to add stories with each of my boxes," he adds, "whether it's about the wood or the building. It just adds to the overall gift giving aspect of the purchase."
Harper College Craft Show
When: 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 20, and 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Sunday, Sept. 21
Where: Harper gym, Building M, 1200 W. Algonquin Road, Palatine
Cost: $3
More information: www.stepbystepcraftshows.com