The craft show during Piccolo Spoleto has been around for more than four decades. But last summer, renovations at Wragg Square — the longtime site of the show — threw a wrench in the tradition.
This year, the show is back with a new venue, a new name and some fresh perspectives. The newly rebranded Artisan Showcase will be held noon to 5 p.m. June 1 at Marion Square. Artisans also showed their crafts on May 25.
Vanessa Baran, who is an artisan vendor liaison for Piccolo Spoleto, said this year’s event is something of an experiment. All vendors are local — from a state away, at most — and every piece is handmade.
But there’s more to offer than what’s on display. For two first-time vendors, the story is just as much a part of the craft as the product itself.
Southpaw Cigarbox Guitars
Tony Walker, a 67-year-old Columbia resident, has been woodworking since he was barely in grade school. By college, he had a retirement plan: to craft colonial period furniture. But a decade ago, back surgery shifted those plans.
Furniture would be too hard for Walker to lift. Then, he discovered cigar box guitars.
“Oh, that’d be fun, and I can handle that size material,” he said.
Never having played the guitar or even smoked a cigar in his life, Walker gave it a try. After three attempts, he’d made a fully functioning instrument.
Encouraged by his daughters, he first participated in the Big Grab yard sale along 50 miles in the Midlands. From there, he gained traction at Soda City Market, the Charleston Night Market and Rockabillaque.
Walker said his health kept him from his dream of a cross-country motorcycle trip, but the guitars gave him a new way to explore. In less than a decade, the business has taken him across the Carolinas, Georgia, Pennsylvania and soon, Maryland.
Walker has learned to play just enough to demo his instruments, but his passion isn’t performing. It’s in honoring the roots of homemade blues music.
“I’m not doing what I initially planned on doing, but I’m doing something that I enjoy,” he said. “And actually, I enjoy this a lot more because it gives me an opportunity to get out and study the history of it.”
Every guitar he makes is a nod to the musicians that came before him.
“It really began post-Civil War, and then became prevalent again during the Depression. You have people like Lightnin’ Hopkins, Big Bill Broonzy,” said Walker. “They would build their own, [from] whatever scrap materials they could find, whether it be a cigar box or soap box. Drink Small said he used the inner tubes from a tire.”
Lowcountry Wood Art
Alfred Conley is a 61-year-old Charleston artist who creates serving trays, fruit bowls and cutting boards.
What’s most important to him is what happens before he picks up whiskey barrels from a local distillery, recovers storm-damaged trees from the Citadel campus or comes across a piece of driftwood on his morning walk along Sullivan’s Island.
Conley honors the materials he uses and doesn’t want their history to end with his products. Often made with epoxy resin, local sand and shells, his art is designed to be functional and he welcomes interaction whether shoppers buy or not.
“If I can make something that pulls you over, that you want to go see and touch, I feel like I’ve done my job,” Conley said. “That warms my heart.”
Woodworking has been his creative outlet since childhood. And although his work is for sale, he avoids turning his passion into a business. A frequent vendor at the Charleston City Market, Conley looks forward to setting up in Marion Square.
“Charleston is unique. There’s so much cultural influence here,” he said. “Great food, great music and entertainment. Spoleto certainly accentuates that.”
Conley feels most inspired when he’s surrounded by people.
“That’s the joy,” he said. “Interacting with people and telling the story.”
IF YOU WANT TO GO: “Spoleto Piccolo Artisan Showcase,” Noon to 5 p.m. June 1 at Marion Square.
Olivia Meier is a journalism graduate student at the S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications at Syracuse University.
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