Artisans

If you go The American Craft Show will be held from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. today and from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. tomorrow at the Baltimore Convention Center, 1 W. Pratt St. Tickets are $14-$20. Call 800-836-3470 or visit craftcouncil.org.

Maryland vintages will be featured at the 1999 Maryland Wine Festival on Saturday and Sept. 19 at the Carroll County Farm Museum.Hours are 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Saturday and noon to 6 p.m. Sept. 19. Admission is $15 for adults age 21 and over with identification, and includes an engraved wine glass, 10 one-ounce samples of wine, seminars and tours of the museum's farmhouse.Ten Maryland wineries will showcase their products. The Governor's Cup Trophy winner will be announced Saturday. Amateur winemakers will have a competition at 1 p.m. Sept.

PARACHO, MEXICO -- A few months ago, Sacramento Equihua, after eight years of making guitars at home, rented a small store on the main street in this town known for guitars.Then he began hoping someone would pass by. That hope is essentially his business plan.Passing tourists are about the only sources of sales for Paracho's independent luthiers like Equihua."This is our big problem. We don't sell over there [in the United States]. That's why I put this store here, because people sometimes pass by," says Equihua, 23. "I just put in a telephone to receive phone calls."

WHAT IS so rare as a day in June?May's nights are sometimes cold, and the heat of July will soon wilt us all.But June can be perfection itself: warm enough to barbecue, cool enough to savor. And now, here come the last of these perfect days.Among the pleasures of the month is the opening of Folkways, a home furnishings shop at Savage Mill, from 10 a.m. to 9 p.m. tomorrow and from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. Sunday.Owner Kathy Branch has worked at her shop since May 18, getting her stock in place, making sure that everything runs well.

THERE'S A new craft gallery in Savage Mill, called the League of Maryland Craftsmen, which features the work of local artisans.The gallery shows the work of its members on its sales floor. But a little gallery area is available to local groups for art or craft shows.Until the end of the month, the Chesapeake Woodturners are showing their work at the gallery in an exhibition called "Chesapeake Woods."According to the group's president, Margaret Lospinuso of Laurel, this was an opportunity to mount an unusual display and showcase the talents of group members.

THE PERFECT image from a past holiday celebration includes a family packing a picnic basket and meeting friends at the local park to enjoy supper, visit and listen to a band.Relive the past at this year's first Linthicum Park summer concert at 6 p.m. today. The Barry Dove Jazz Quartet will entertain with a repertoire of big band, Latin, be-bop and contemporary improvisation. The quartet will perform original compositions and pieces by such greats as Chick Corea, John Coltrane, Miles Davis, Duke Ellington, Dizzy Gillespie, Thelonious Monk and Charlie Parker.

SLAYTON HOUSE Gallery in the Wilde Lake Village Green will be the venue for the sixth "Wilde and Wonderful" artisans' sale from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Nov. 14."Wilde and Wonderful" is a one-day sale of traditional and contemporary art and crafts presented by "Bravo!" -- a Columbia-based cooperative of artisans.Items for sale this year will include tableware, furniture, pottery, prints, clothing and jewelry.Participating west Columbia artists are quilter Patricia Ciricillo, weaver Lucy Kerewsky and jewelry designer Mary Kay Sigaty.

WITH ITS February date on the calendar, the American Craft Council's winter market in Baltimore has at times coincided with the kind of weather associated with the season. This year, thankfully, no blizzards threaten to dampen attendance.The nonwintry temperatures may translate into fewer sales of the glorious scarves and hats on show in many of the stalls. But it will almost certainly mean that more Baltimoreans will be tempted once again to venture into a world filled with whimsy, imagination and, above all, meticulous attention to quality, workmanship and detail.

A line of low-riding campers, battered vans, hitched wagons and jam-packed sedans snaked around three sides of the sprawling Baltimore Convention Center all day yesterday as some of the nation's best-known crafts people assembled for a week of selling and displaying their hand-wrought wares.They are here for the city's 22nd annual American Craft Council exhibition, a bazaar where they'll schmooze with hundreds of wholesale buyers and 35,000 customers every day -- while adding up to $20 million to the Baltimore economy.

NEWARK, N.J., - By the fourth century, when St. Ambrose offered St. Augustine the advice "When in Rome, live as the Romans do," Rome had long been more than a city. It was a vast empire that extended over three continents.The entire enterprise was financed by Rome, with raw materials and finished products flowing between Alexandria and Olbia on the Black Sea, Carthage and Cologne, Gaul and Britain. Provincial centers became in effect little Romes, retaining an autonomy of taste and style that enriched daily life throughout the empire.

The stock market rises and falls, but the 33rd annual American Craft Council Show, which returns to the Baltimore Convention Center this weekend, is for investors of a different sort. The largest indoor craft show in the country will showcase the work of 700 artisans. "We're anticipating a good crowd," says Bernadette Boyle, the council's senior marketing manager. "People who come to the show are investing in the craft." There is something for every taste and budget. For the second year, an Altcraft section will highlight the burgeoning indie craft movement.

Havre de Grace Main Street is seeking artisans and crafters for its annual festival, the Graw Days, to be held from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Oct. 11. The Graw Days commemorate the construction of the Havre de Grace Racetrack, called "The Graw," which was started in 1912. The track was considered one of the best racing strips in the country and was the main training ground for owners who hoped to win the Kentucky Derby. The theme of the festival will be the Roaring Twenties, with emphasis on horse racing and horse-related items.

ANGELA LYNN 840A W. 36th St., Hampden / / Hours: 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Tuesday through Friday, 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. Saturday / / 410-235-4446 ........................ ANGIE CHARLOW STRUGGLES A BIT to find the words to describe her boutique on Hampden's Avenue. "You have to come in and see it," she tells those who ask. But when pressed, she gives this description: "Gifts and accessories for you and the home." Here you'll find handmade jewelry, clean-burning soy candles, French soap, travel bags, purses, picture frames, furniture and all-natural cleaning products.

2006 Pieropan Soave Classico From: Veneto, Italy Price: $22 Serve with: Seafood, Vietnamese-Thai cuisine This is not your dad's Soave Bolla. Once almost a synonym for bland and boring white wine, Soave now can reach amazing heights when produced by artisans such as Pieropan. This wine is more complex than 90 percent of California chardonnays in its price class. The dazzling mix of flavors includes sweet pea, pear, white pepper, cherry, peach, herbs and minerals.

Chuck Patterson of the Baltimore firm SMG Architects has made a career out of bringing old buildings back to life. He spent two years restoring the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad Museum's historic roundhouse after its roof collapsed in a 2003 snowstorm. His latest challenge is converting part of a 19th-century foundry at the former Clipper Mill Industrial Park to a "green restaurant" called Woodberry Kitchen for owners Spike and Amy Gjerde and Nelson Carey. It's the first restaurant project for the 31-year-old Patterson, who lives in Roland Park with his wife, Tracy, and their dog, a Rhodesian ridgeback named Fischer.

Celebrate the cultures of Denmark, Finland, Estonia, Iceland, Norway and Sweden today at the 23rd annual Scandinavian Fest in New Jersey. See more than 30 performers, including dancers and fiddlers, on three stages. Also, watch artisans carving wood, making lace and weaving. Traditional Nordic food and crafts will also be available. The festival is 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. at Vasa Park, 1 Wolfe Road, Budd Lake. Tickets are $14 for adults, $13 for seniors and free for children 12 and younger. Admission is free to those in authentic folk dress.

ALFRED PEET, 87 Coffee shop owner Alfred Peet, a pioneer of American coffee culture, died Wednesday in Ashland, Ore. Mr. Peet opened the first of Peet's Coffee & Tea stores in 1966 in Berkeley, Calif. The corner store serving brews from high-altitude beans grown in Costa Rica, Guatemala and East Africa "quickly became a gathering place for UC Berkeley grads, undergrads and faculty, as well as local intellectuals, radicals, writers, musicians, artisans and any number of the colorful people who still make up Berkeley today," the company said.

If you go The American Craft Show will be held from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. today and from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. tomorrow at the Baltimore Convention Center, 1 W. Pratt St. Tickets are $14-$20. Call 800-836-3470 or visit craftcouncil.org.

In Annapolis brick mason William Forsythe's workshop, he combines varying parts of lime, sand and a bit of Portland cement to make his own 100 different mixes of mortar. Oyster shells might enter the equation if he has a 17th- or 18th-century pile to repoint. His late father's handwriting is on the wall: "Keep Shop Clean." Forsythe, 68, has plied his craft in Annapolis since his apprentice days 50 years ago. He has worked on many historic houses and public buildings - as well as building walls and walkways that add to the city's Colonial charm.

Main Street concerts set in Westminster The Westminster Department of Recreation and Parks is sponsoring free Music on Main Street concerts at noon every Friday this month on the Locust Lane stage off East Main Street. Scheduled concerts are Eat Your Neighbors today; Mike Selby on June 11; Al Parsons on June 18; and Tony Denikos on June 25. Coffey Music is sponsoring the performers. For information on performers, call 410-848-5003. Information: 410-848-6962. Coffeehouse planned at Finksburg church The Cedarhurst Unitarian Universalist congregation will hold a coffeehouse tomorrow at the church, 2912 Clubhouse Road, Finksburg.