Renaissance Faire at Casa de Fruta

You should come out and see me at my Renaissance Faire booth this year. This will be the third year at Casa de Fruta, but the previous owners did not want to continue this event so for 2004 the participants came together as "Play Faire" to run the Faire ourselves. The papers were signed with Casa de Fruta, now we have finished our second season as Play Faire and look forward to our next season. It wasn't all that simple and easy. Folks have worked tremendously hard to make this happen. I'm thrilled to continue at the Casa de Fruta festival grounds. It is a very beautiful and magical site.

Faire Dates are weekends from

September 9 - October 15 2006

September 10 - October 16 2005

September 18 - October 24 2004

Look for a booth called Washburns Woodcuts

These are some of the things you will find there.

Woodcuts of the faire

I carve images of scenes and characters of the Faire in wood and print them in limited edition on archival paper.

Celtic on cloth

I carve woodblocks with Celtic and natural designs and use them to print cloth combining multiple images.

Natural dyed cloth

I do a natural dye demonstration using the Walnuts that grow on site and mushrooms that I gather here at Cabrillo. I do indigo dye demonstrations sometimes as well, but I buy my indigo.

Here are some things to do that make going to the Faire especially fun.

• Be someone else for a day.
  • Wear a costume.
  • Try on a new personae.
  • Make up a character for yourself.
  • Give your character a name and a history.
• Choose a favorite knight, loudly and exuberantly cheer them on. Helpful hint: take a shade hat.
• Try a food that you have never eaten before.
  If you have had it all, get your favorites and have a picnic under a tree.
• Order Turkish coffee and watch the belly dancers from the front row. Flirt with the dancers.
• When you find some crafts that you like, meet the artist and have them tell you about how they made it.
• Shop for a special present for yourself. (You can get presents for others too. Faire is a great place to find unusual things.)
• Laugh and smile a lot all day. The Brun and Moonie stage is a good place to start