Couple takes crafts on the road

Dave and Rose Overby are giving new life to those old glass bottles sitting around in the garage gathering dust.

They are making hummingbird feeders and lamps out of them. They’re a big hit when they hit the craft show circuit. Their season starts in September. Rose said they will participate in five juried shows by Thanksgiving, including the closest, Fall Festival Arts and Crafts Show at Fin and Feather Resort from Sept. 22 to 24, Arts Festival Oklahoma from Sept. 1 to 4 at Oklahoma City Community College, one in Rogers, Ark., in October and Colorado Springs and Denver, Colo., in November.

While the glass bottle art is what’s hot now, Dave still has a love for woodworking. He will take his wooden name train to these shows but there is no longer a demand for his other wooden toys.

“I guess they’re all going high-tech,” Dave said. “It bugs me. There’s no imagination.”

The wooden name trains have magnets that connect each part. Letters cost $3.50, and the engine, caboose or a heart are $4.50 each. They are magnetically coupled so they won’t stick the wrong way. That helps little ones learn how to spell their name, Dave said. A hummingbird feeder or lamp costs from $5.95 to about $23.95 — it depends on how much they had to pay for the bottle.

Almost every day, you’ll see Dave out in his garage in Honor Heights working on something. Retired from the U.S. Navy, he said he’s just not very good at sitting around and he doesn’t enjoy TV.

“I’m not a couch potato,” he said. “I’ve got to do something.”

Dave and Rose always are on the lookout for glass bottles. Bright blue liquor bottles, old pop bottles like Dr. Pepper and Royal Crown Cola, and crystal decanters are the most popular.

“We recycle. We find them at antique stores, flea markets and swap meets,” Rose said. “Some people bring them to us.”

The bird feeders are decorated with number six solid copper wire, which was 12 cents per foot three years ago and 85 cents today. The largest bottle they have to make a lamp from is a 25 1/2-inch vodka bottle that a family member gave them. She worked in a liquor store and the bottle was used as a display. It’s never had alcohol in it, they said.

Dave uses a ceramic tile and glass drill bit to put a hole in the bottles for the lamp kit.

While Dave makes the crafts for the shows, Rose is on the computer making signs or entering them in other juried shows. They say there aren’t as many today as there were when they retired and started crafting eight years ago.

She helps him load up and unload at the shows and enjoys “people watching.”

They are looking forward to the two new ones in Colorado this year. But they enjoy Fin and Feather’s show because it’s close to home. This will be their seventh year there.

“Craft shows are few and far between,” she said.

Reach Leilani Roberts Ott at 684-2908 or lott@muskogeephoenix.com.