Big Crowd Turns out for Sammamish Art Fair on Saturday

A big crowd of curious art and crafts lovers turned out for the Sammamish Art Fair on Saturday afternoon and were able to enjoy nice weather, live music and a variety of art works by local artists.

Spread out through both floors of , the  and the , local artists and performance groups displayed their works and talents for interested visitors and buyers. On display were a variety of sculptures, photographs, paintings, craft works and more.

Some of the artistic talents involved at the Art Fair even demonstrated their creative processes. Sammamish’s Joe McConnell, a practitioner of Northwest native-style woodcarving, demonstrated his carving techniques and answered any and every question about his works.

Another Sammamish artist, Judy Salas, showed onlookers how she paints intricate nature scenes on bird feathers, a delicate process that can take dozens of hours just to produce one piece.

In all, 31 different artists had their works on display at City Hall, much of it up for sale.

Grace Follete of the Issaquah Highlands came to the event because she loves to support the arts and likes to keep up on what local artists are doing.

“I like to support the local art shows,” Follete said.

An artists herself, Follette said that she loves to come to shows to get ideas and to be struck by someone else’s work.

“I love art,” Follette said. “I love local art.”

Over at the library, visitors took in live performances and kids were able to get involved in art projects. Kids were also able to play in a giant web of yarn outside on the Commons or add their own creations to the sidewalk chalk art. There was even a giant chime made of various scraps of metal, buckets, pans and more that kids could bang away on.

And like any street fair there was plenty of food and other refreshments on hand for visitors.

The Sammamish Art Fair continues on Sunday, Oct. 9 from 10:00 am to 5:00 pm.