There are holiday art and crafts fairs and then there are holiday art and crafts fairs – make no mistake, not all are created equal. Possibly the best one in the St. Louis area takes place this weekend.

Unique Boutique art fair at John Burroughs School features quality, one-of-a-kind gifts, fine art and handcrafted items by more than 70 locally and nationally known artisans. Among them are several Jewish artists, who you can read more about below.

This year’s Unique Boutique takes from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Nov. 19th and 20^th at John Burroughs School, 9243 Clayton Road. Tickets, at $7, are good for both days; children 18 and under are free.

All participating artists are featured on the website.

Featured artists who are Jewish

Diane Balber

Art and designing have been a constant in my life from a very young age through my education and career. I started as a design major in college and moved into education. In 1999 I began designing and making jewelry and was introduced to a fairly new medium known as PMC (Precious Metal Clay) which is fine silver (.999) in its purest form. PMC is finely ground silver held together by an organic binder that makes it pliable like clay. Each piece is hand formed, constructed, and cut into various shapes, then textured while still wet. After dried minor sanding is needed, the pieces are fired in a kiln at 1650 for two hours, which burns out the organic binder and all that remains is the silver. The final steps include tumbling and an oxidation process to highlight the textures and patterns. Using various textures allows me to create floral and leaf designs that influence the shade and help create pieces with natural and organic influences for charming yet significant jewelry that is wearable every day.

Bar Rodin

My connection to jewelry and creativity has its roots going all the way back to Israel, where I was born and raised. About 20 years ago, I moved from Tel Aviv to St. Louis, where my husband is from, but I still go back to Israel bi-annually and maintain a regular routine of keeping up with my home country’s beautiful and unique jewelry production and design. In 2015, I decided to start my own business because I felt that I needed to bring something new and different to the jewelry market here in America. Originally, I worked with a few designers that I knew from Israel, imported their pieces, and sold them here.  Very shortly after I saw success in selling pieces that I imported, I realized that I too had a creative passion to design and create jewelry, which I began doing and selling at lower price points than the pieces that I imported. My company’s mission soon became to create our own Israeli-inspired, spiritual, and creative jewelry and bring it to the U.S. market at affordable prices.

Sallie Volotsky

Glass fusing is an art form in which pieces or sheets of raw glass have been manipulated and transformed upon exposure to a carefully controlled application of heat in a kiln, an enclosed insulated chamber capable of reaching temperatures, for my purposes, to 1500°F. Depending on the project a firing schedule is configured of multiple three-part segments regulating the rate at which the temperature is increased, how long it is held there before advancing to the next segment. By varying these parameters, the desired texture of the piece can be engineered from gluing pieces together, to smooth, to softly rounded defined edges. Color may also be temperature dependent as some glasses only achieve their color after being heated and may deceptively appear entirely different when at room temperature. Whether ultimately functional or artistic, my sources of inspiration and influence come from my surroundings, culture or identification of a need and converting this vision into glass. Imagination stimulates resourcefulness. Projects can be customized for shape, size, and color preferences.

Rachel Miller (Illustrated Cocktail)

“The Illustrated Cocktail is a different kind of cocktail recipe book. Yes, it contains over 60 classic cocktail recipes, as well as tips and tricks for setting up your home bar, but it does so through drawings that inspire and are fun to explore. Local Artist, Rachel K Miller, created the book during the pandemic. Besides the book, there are posters and prints available of the colorful drawings and recipes from the book.