THE RAVINE ART FAIR – A FUN AND FESTIVE WAY TO CELEBRATE MOTHER’S DAY WEEKEND – MAY 13TH AND 14TH
If you haven’t made your Mother’s Day Weekend plans yet, we’ve got you covered! This year, a new event, The Ravine Art Fair, combines the outdoors, and beautiful artwork and gifts with the annual the Mother’s Day Tea at the Bainbridge Apothecary and Tea Shop.
The Ravine Art Fair – 10am to 5pm, Saturday and Sunday, May 13th and 14th – will feature several local artists, fun kid’s craft events, and of course tea!
FREE Kid’s Crafts at the Art Fair: Make and Take on both days of the fair.
Saturday only: Scrappy Art Lab will host a “Make A Flower” craft. Kids will be creating beautiful, tissue flowers from 10am – 4pm or until supplies are gone.
Sunday only: Melody Maleitzke will host a Mixed Media Collage for Kids – With the assistance of her Girl Scout volunteers, Melody will be showing kids how to create Mixed Media Collage art from Noon-4pm or until supplies are gone.
EXHIBITING BOOTH ARTISTS
- Mixed Media – Washi Tape – Melody Maleitzke
- Handmade Sterling Silver Gemstone and Druzy Jewelry – Erin Delargy
- Floral Designs – Danis Morgan
- Mosaic Garden Art and Jewelry – Darcy Thompson
- All things fairy – Marcia Peterson
- Fused & slumped glass bowls, plates & assorted accessories – Laurie Moose
- Batik, silk scarves & oil paintings – Carolyn Doe
- Blown & fused glass functional art – Kathy Barrett
- Bead weaving, embroidery jewelry – Claire DeBor
- Outdoor metal sculpture – Rob Satterwhite
- Photography – Dinah Satterwhite
- Batik & Tide Pool Photography – Melissa Bixby
- Epoxy & abstract acrylics – Kolyne Forro
- Lifestyle accessories handmade of natural cork – Tiradia Cork
All artists are juried and sell original items of art and gifts that are locally made, hand-crafted, and demonstrate high-quality work.
Art represented at Island Life Artisan Gifts at The Ravine: Woodwork, pottery, candles, sea glass, beach jewelry, ornaments, all things Bainbridge Island and pickleball. Two of Island Life’s artist will also have booths at the Art Fair: Darcy Thompson (jewelry and garden art) and Melissa Bixby (batik originals and art prints).
In addition to tea, the Bainbridge Apothecary and Tea Shop serves wine, cider and beer, and the Taco Barn will be open during the event.
The Ravine Art Fair was the brainchild of local mixed media artist and digital marketing consultant, Melody Maleitzke. Melody loves finding fun things to do on Mother’s Day weekend, “I remember as a younger mom finding an art fair on that weekend made me so happy—a way to combine my love for art and spending time with my children,” she told me. It inspired her to draft a plan for something similar on Bainbridge Island and she floated the idea around to other local artists, who encouraged her to pursue it. She then presented the idea to Erika Thayer, owner of the Bainbridge Apothecary and Tea Shop, The Ravine and Taco Barn. Erika loved it and from that point, the wheels were in motion.
Melody is no stranger to getting ideas off the ground. She holds a BS in Business and a minor in Visual Arts, and prior to taking time off to raise her children, she worked in the marketing field. After a divorce and 10-year gap in the workforce, Melody found re-entry into professional life difficult and decided to start her own business. She created a Singles Dating Convention, gathering dating coaches, life coaches, dating experts, and businesses with goods and services that supported singles—much to her delight, it was a huge success.
She was also on the ground floor of social media marketing. “Since Facebook was in the initial phase of opening up to businesses, I had the privilege of being a pioneer in social media marketing for small businesses,” she explained.
As an artist, Melody’s work has spanned many different genres, such as floral design, crafts, jewelry and sculpture. She also taught arts and crafts for many years, and found time to write and create art for children’s books and comic books. She even won an award at the San Diego Comic Con Masquerade for her original, handmade costume, Elytra.
In 2019, she discovered washi tape. “It was fascinating stuff, so I found myself buying more than was necessary for a craft project,” she said. “One afternoon, my daughter was bored and I said, ‘Let’s “paint” with washi tape’.” They created portraits of each other with washi tape on canvas and from that point forward the world of washi tape art opened up for her and she began creating art using the delicate, patterned tape as her medium. She and her family moved to Bainbridge Island in 2020, and she’s a participating artist on the bi-annual Bainbridge Island Studio Tour. She will also have her own booth at the Art Fair.
About The Ravine
Located on Winslow Way, next to the Winslow Ravine, sit four of Bainbridge Island’s oldest buildings. Built between 1892 through 1930s, the buildings have housed a variety of businesses over the years. When the owners decided to sell, it was rumored that the land would be developed into a boutique hotel, however, Erika Thayer and her family had a much better idea.
Wanting to preserve these historic buildings and provide a location for her Apothecary and Tea Shops, Erika jumped at the opportunity to purchase the property in 2020 and restore it. At the time, Cuts Above Barber Shop was the only remaining tenant, and was soon joined by the Apothecary in one building and the Tea Shop next door. Not long after, Alex Sanso opened her Bainbridge-centric shop, Island Life Artisan Gifts.
Erika’s dreams were bigger though. To begin with, she started cleaning up the property and renovating the buildings at the back of the lot to accommodate new business. In 2021, Erika added her Taco Barn to round out the diverse group of entrepreneurs. Phase two of Erika’s plans included an open-air space, which would have casual seating for guests and a stage for live musical performances and allow a venue for other events. She also decided to combine the Apothecary Shop and the Tea Shop, now the Bainbridge Apothecary & Tea Shop, which also allowed for an additional business in the compound, Hot Hot Yoga.
Erika designed the layout for the courtyard area and employed the skills James Rudolph, who created the stage in the community courtyard behind the Winslow facing shops. Several large boulders, used as a retaining wall, were already there, and James “carved” the stage floor to follow their path. Whimsical rock art, created by Ethan Currier, can be found throughout the courtyard. The creativity doesn’t end with James, Ethan and Erika, Alex Sanso, owner of Island Life Artisan Gifts, also tossed her talents into the project with murals that adorn the back side of her shop, as well as the street facing side.
If you’d like to learn more about Erika and The Ravine, check out our 2022 article: Welcome to The Ravine – A slice of history with a side of enchantment | THE ISLAND WANDERER
The Ravine is located at 450 Winslow Way E, Bainbridge Island, Washington
To learn more about The Ravine Art Fair, visit their website: http://bit.ly/RavineArtFair
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