Church Crafts Fair to Benefit Blind Seniors

One particular table at St. Andrews Lutheran Church is filled with colorful holiday crafts that arrest the eye.

A ceramic pig bears pastel flowers. A deep-red, tomato-shaped jar is bedecked with a bright green stem. A Thanksgiving platter carries the face of a pointy-beaked turkey with feathers in vivid gold, brown and maroon.

Looking at these wares, there is no way to tell that the creators are blind.

Along with 35 other vendors at the church’s Holiday Boutique--held Friday and today--senior citizens at the Center for Visually Handicapped Adults are offering their functional art for sale.

“At first, I thought, ‘Why are you teaching ceramics to blind people? They can’t see,’ ” said Elaina Fleming, who began as a student in the thrice-weekly ceramics class and now is one of the center’s most active volunteers. “But I soon realized that they do ceramics because they can. It’s not about seeing. It’s about thinking.”

Fleming said that once seniors conceived the ideas for the serving dishes, mugs, animal shapes and figurines, sighted volunteers helped them choose the appropriate look.

“We told this person that the angel had feathers, and he felt the texture and heard us describing it and wanted blue,” she said, holding a marble-glazed angel figurine. “A sighted person might be intimidated by art, wondering, ‘What if I put the wings on wrong?’ But these people just do it.”

The money raised during the two-day event will help fund activities at the center, which is housed at St. Andrews. The center recently suffered a financial setback when the city Department of Transportation withdrew its annual $92,000 allocation. The money had been used to cover the costs of transporting seniors to the center in vans.

Joe Crise, the legally blind executive director of the center, said the boutique proceeds won’t make up for the loss of city money. But even so, he added, the event will be a success.

“It’s kind of exciting when you can’t see and you’re able to create something,” he said.

The boutique is open today from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. at 15520 Sherman Way.