‘Art in Bloom’ crafters discover the hidden gems beneath the hard surface

Jake Szramek says he remembers an Art in Bloom weekend when the mercury soared into triple digits.

So Saturday’s drab weather was far more welcome as he manned his booth full of wood toys during the fourth edition of the downtown Medford festival.

The 60-year-old retired state Water Resource Department worker is one of about 75 artists displaying and selling their wares this weekend. He began crafting toys three decades ago, starting with a biplane. After 30 years, he brought back the design this year.

Szramek works wood — a skill he first learned in a woodworking class at Chicago’s Gordon Tech High School — from sun-up to dark seven days a week, taking a break to attend art and craft shows during warm-weather months.

"It’s either that or watch TV, and I couldn’t do that," he says. "It would mean I’d have to go out and get another job."

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Szramek says he applies to 15 juried shows a year "and hopes to get into half of them."

The toy designs range from trains and tractors to sailboats and Noah’s ark.

He cuts out the pieces in multiples — 36 at time for trucks that might take three months to finish and 10 to 15 at a time for larger items.

"While one is gluing, I go into the house and do something else," he says. "I would never make one at a time because all the time involved would kill you. I try to make at least 10 of a kind at a time.

Toy sizes range from roughly 3 inches to about a foot and start at $3 and climb to more than $100 for a train set.

"Five years ago, I thought big toys would be neat, but the only place where they sold was in Bellevue (Wash.)," Szramek says.

The rising price of wood has put the kibosh on most larger trains, with or without a caboose. Bloodwood from South America costs $10 a square foot, leading Szramek to laminate the more colorful wood with ash to retain affordability.

"When I first started, oak cost $1.30 a square foot. Now you’re talking four to five dollars a foot," he says.

He tried making trains from all-Oregon wood, or all California and Washington fibers. But they don’t have the same appeal for buyers as the vivid, exotic imported hardwoods.

He says he doesn’t have any idea how many toys he’s made in the past 30 years, but he’s made more than a thousand since the beginning of the year.

"I’ve made more than 36 block trucks and 50 airplanes in the past three weeks and 22 medium-size trains."

Down the street, Greg and Polly Barber were doing a brisk business selling myrtlewood baskets their family has been making since 1979 in the Coos Bay area.

Greg Barber’s dad, Don, and Bill Lowell, who had moved to the Oregon Coast from Maine, began making bushel and picnic baskets.

"Bill said when the fishing and boat-building got bad in Maine, they started making baskets," Greg Barber says. "When the fishing and boating building got bad in Charleston, Bill said ‘Let’s build baskets.’ "

The myrtlewood is held together with copper fasteners. Greg Barber says a raw myrtlewood log lasts about six months.

Recently, the old boat builders brought out a new basket design — a drift dory that can hold snacks on the table or even a bottle of wine.

The Barbers do about four shows a year.

"We try," he says, "to keep it geographically realistic."

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Reach reporter Greg Stiles at 776-4463 or e-mail business@mailtribune.com