American Artisan Festival, Nashville TN

Sunday, we went to the American Artisan Festival in Nashville.

Fantastic: Martin Obakke and Celena Cavala call their art ‘The Filigree‘:

Sam Cheek from Notasulga, AL was there with his birdhouses:

James and Catherine Neill from Ozark, MO had some really great woodcarvings:

My favorite – the one thing I really-really wanted to bring home from the festival – was this Jonah in the Whale. Would’ve been perfect in Shug’s room!

One artist that I missed especially this year was Holden McCurry – this is a pic from his tent a couple of years ago:

Besides the prayer towers (above) he also makes these great journey boats:

In mid-July, he’s going to be at the Craft Fair of the Southern Highlands in Asheville, and that is one of the *very* best shows anywhere.

It was time for a late lunch after the festival, so we had Pancake Pantry for the first time (it’s a Nashville tradition).

Gracious at the pancakes! Av got chocolate chip and I got Santa Fe cornmeal with bacon, cheddar, and green chiles. They also had sweet potato, pecan, wild blueberry, raspberry, silver dollar, buckwheat, peach, and more on the menu. Blintzes and latkes and grits and country ham, too! It was good. Not life-changing, but really good.