Aiken's Makin' a scene with arts, crafts fair

AIKEN --- Max and Antonia Leimer are used to crowds.

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Zach Boyden-Holmes/Staff

Easton Jordan, 4, gets his face painted to look like Batman by Linda H. Clark at Aiken's Makin'. The fair resumes today.

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Zach Boyden-Holmes/Staff

Aiken's Makin' has reinvented itself, moving the 191 vendors from their normal location and putting them along the streets.

They have shown their acrylic landscapes from the Italian Alps to art towns along the Florida coast.

In the more than 20 art shows they travel to each year, they have never come to Aiken -- until this weekend.

"From what we see, this is a great show," Max said.

The Leimers are among the 70 new vendors who debuted at the 34th annual Aiken's Makin' festival on Friday.

The event reinvented itself this year by taking the 191 vendors out of their normal spot in the grassy medians and into the streets.

Organizers adopted the change to make it easier and safer for spectators to move between booths, festival volunteer David Clark said.

Clark said it's impossible to count how many spectators come through each year, but said the festival has a little something for everyone.

Booths lined the streets of Park Avenue from Chesterfield Street to Union Street in downtown Aiken, with vendors showcasing everything from oil paintings to fruit jams.

Tim Chism showed off handmade glass nail files with materials from the Czech Republic -- something he gets mixed reactions about.

"There's two kinds of people who come by -- ones that have never seen this before and ones that swear by them," he said.

On Friday, Ted Cothran stuffed Philly cheese dogs and deep-fried corn dogs for lines of customers. He is a veteran of fairs and festivals, with 17 years of traveling the East Coast with his Ted's Street Foods cart, but a newcomer to Aiken's Makin'.

Even so, he said he recognizes the enthusiasm wherever he goes.

"It gets in your blood," he said. "It's what you do. It's a part of us."