Bazaar to showcase arts

Nearly 110 creators of arts and crafts will hawk their wares on Sunday at the annual Holiday Bazaar.

The event, formerly organized by Lawrence residents Monty and Doreta Boyd, is being put on this year by the Lawrence Parks and Recreation Department from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Sunday at the Community Building, 115 W. 11th St.

The Boyds ran the fair for 25 years but said they were ready to move on.

“It was just getting harder and harder,” Monty Boyd said. “We’re not any younger any more.

“We have made a lot of good friend through the years. We’ll miss the people.”

In years past, he said, the bazaar has drawn as many as 160 to 170 exhibitors to Lawrence from across Kansas and even other Midwestern states.

One of the featured artists this year is Marybeth Bethel, who has been making mosaic garden stones for about a year and a half. It will be her first year in the bazaar.

“It started kind of as a fun thing, and then people asked me if they could buy them, so I’ve been making more,” she said.

Marybeth Bethel is one of many artists featured in this year's Holiday Bazaar this Sunday at the Community Building, 115 W. 11th St. On Thursday at her Lawrence residence, Bethel displayed two of the mosaic garden stones that will appear in the exhibition.

Bethel creates the stones by pressing shards of glass and ceramic into cement. Flowers, moons and stars and some abstract scenes are the focus of her designs.

Though the stones are meant to be displayed outside in the garden ” Bethel’s own garden is full of her artwork ” they’re not to be left in the elements year-round.

“I try to educate people that they’re more decorative art,” she said. “If they leave them out, they’re not going to last very long.”

Bethel will share a booth at the fair with Peter Avila, who makes fresh garlands, rock jewelry and ornaments.