By Kevin Coughlin
We’ll never look at a beer can quite the same way again.
Sompit Xia and her husband, retired Boeing engineer Shao Lin Xia, have been recycling their neighbors’ aluminum into fighter jets, World War II bombers, hot rods and angels. The kind you hang in your window.
The North Carolina couple are among more than 150 artisans from 25 states selling their wares at the 40th annual Morristown CraftMarket. The juried show runs through Sunday, Oct. 16, 2016, at the Morristown Armory. Tickets are $10, and proceeds benefit charities of the Kiwanis Club of Randolph.
Every year the CraftMarket features jewelry, leather goods, ceramics, metal, glass, wood, furniture, mixed media and wearable fiber… along with surprises like the Xias’ Can Do Planes.
Slideshow photos by Kevin Coughlin
Their eye-catching mobiles range from $10 to $300. For the record, it takes a dozen beer cans to create a replica B-29. And maybe a few bandages. Does Sompit ever slice her fingers creating these little masterpieces?
“Sometimes!” she confessed. Artists must suffer for their recycled art.
Also new to the show, and equally novel: Musical Ceramics, by Kimberlyn Bloise of Pittsburgh.
The saxophonist merged her passion for music with sculpting. The result: Coffee mugs that double as wind instruments.
So you can get good and caffeinated, and then compose a symphony… toot sweet!