Breezy day, beautiful art in Oakbrook Center

Though artist Michael Angelo Menconi lost a few of his blown-glass creations to wind gusts that ripped through the Oakbrook Center mall Saturday, he remained upbeat Sunday.

Menconi, the founder of The Contemporary Studio of Glass Art in Westmont, creates art using a mixture of lime, baking soda, silica sand and ash. The process, he said, involves using natural gas to heat the raw materials to temperatures as high as 2,350 degrees Fahrenheit.

"The art is the technique, the style, the flow. This," he said, pointing to pieces featuring delicate, graceful curves, intricate design and expert workmanship, "is the aftermath. Or just the result of it."

Menconi was one of roughly 100 artists who displayed their work in the outdoor shopping mall during the weekend-long 45th annual Invitational Fine Craft Exhibition.

As strong breezes blew through the mall's courtyard, art appreciators stopped to look, inquire, and in some cases, purchase what they saw.

Under a tent set up near Bloomingdale's, John Crahen of Baraboo, Wis., along with his wife, Margaret, displayed an eye-catching collection of stained-glass windows and glass vases.

Crahen said he uses copper foil along the edges of his windows, soldered together. For reinforcement, he adds steel around the frame. Several windows, suspended from the tent canopy, swayed in the wind.

"My pieces are strong enough that the wind doesn't hurt them - as long as they don't hit each other," he said.

Crahen has been an artist since 1991, when he retired from a 21-year career in the U.S. Army. He and his wife, also an artist, travel from art fair to art fair. In the last few weeks, he said, they visited the Detroit area, then North Dakota. Madison, Wis. is next on the itinerary.

Around the corner, a whimsical display by Roselle artist Gary Weber featured "museum-quality" piggy banks, walking sticks, gooseneck backscratchers and an item called "fairy doors."

"I don't know, they're so pretty," said shopper Elizabeth Vasconcellos of Wood Dale to her mother, Maria, as they tried to decide which little wooden door would look best affixed to the house or a tree in the garden.

A tree-shaped door was ultimately chosen.

"I've seen them in magazines," said Vasconcellos, as she took the door from the display. "They've always been intriguing. It's just magical to have a fairy door on your house."