Culture Features

Athletes, on your mark, get set, knit.
Welcome to the 2012 Ravellenic Games, the most buzzed about event in recent fiber arts history. As the Olympics are underway across the pond, local knitters are participating in their own international version of the greatest games, including “events” like the bag-n-tote backstroke and hand-dyed high dive.
The “games” were dreamed up by a knitters social website, called Ravelry, where knitters can share their excitement over their Ravthlete knitting feats. Crafters form teams, pull forgotten skeins of yarn out of craft boxes and select patterns, all as warm-ups for their own Olympic-inspired knitting events.
Team Imperial, which has challenged itself to a sweater triathlon, is just one of the local teams participating in games.

Arts Central of Bend provides “Art for All” and really means it. Just before the school year ended, art instructor, Kyla Schoessler—with the help of Laura Campbell of the Upper Deschutes River Watershed Council—put on a program for the Sisters Middle School that was nothing short of amazing. They designed an outstanding field guide to Whychus Creek using the students’ art work.
The results of these educational, conservation and art experiences will be on display in the community room of the Sisters Library for all of August, as part of the Friends of the Sisters Library (FOSL) Art Exhibit.

There are no elephants or other exotic species. There’s no lobster boy or bearded lady sideshow.
In fact there isn’t even a trademark big top tent at the Bend Circus Center, which is located in a non descript metal fab  building on Bend’s southeast side.
That’s all right with founder Brandon Huston who modeled his upstart circus academy on the modern European circus acts like Vegas veterans Cirque de Soleil. While there may not be a caged lion in the wings, Huston with his curled moustache is the clear ring master here at what he hopes will be an academy of sorts for circus arts like juggling, tight rope walking and even trapeze work.

Human anatomy printed on vintage dictionary pages. Cast iron horses jockeyed by real beetles. Earrings made of artificial teeth. The online wonder of Etsy is clearly not for the aesthetic conservative.
It is, however, the first place to go to quickly find something specific, like a birdhouse made from wine corks and stones collected from local vineyards and rivers.
Shoppers torn between the efficiency of online shopping and keeping dollars close to home are now turning to this virtual bazaar showcasing $61.9 million in handmade and vintage treasures, more and more since its inception in June 2012.

It’s the classic entrepreneur’s dilemma – how to turn a passion into profits. It’s a question that many homebrewers are apparently pondering. For industrious home brewers wanting to test the waters of production with an investment in the $5K – $25K range instead of the minimal $50K involved in starting a larger brewery, nano brewing provides a market test without losing ones’ proverbial shorts.
According to “The Great Nanobrewery List: From CA to MA,” from Hess Brewing in San Diego, there are 84 U.S. nano breweries in operation and an additional 51 still in the planning stages. Founder Mike Hess counts an average of two new nano breweries a week contacting him.