At craft shows, Juliette Thibault sells her handmade jewelry for fun, while Catherine Longstreth sells her clay figures to earn a living.
Whatever their goals, artisans will be hauling their Christmas ornaments, Victorian angels and dried flower arrangements from show to show from now until Christmas Eve, one of the most hectic seasons on the craft circuit.
This weekend alone, you could go to 20 shows in Maryland. By season's end, there will have been 40 shows in Anne Arundel County.
The kinds of artisans and craft shows are as diverse as the handiwork sold in an industry where success is measured less by profit than by personal satisfaction.
"If I make my table money, then I'm happy," said Ms. Thibault, 66, as she draped dozens of plastic necklaces and bracelets over a table that cost her $20 to rent during a fair at Downs Park last weekend.
Ms. Thibault started making rosary beads four years ago, but has branched out to make jewelry out of colorful plastic beads. Her bedroom is her workshop, she says, and she goes to about five shows a year.
Several tables away, Ms. Longstreth, 33, who bakes and paints clay figurines, calculated she'd make $1,000. "It started out as hobby; now it's an income," said her husband, Arnold Longstreth, 39.
For the past year, Mrs. Longstreth of Odenton has made miniature animals and nativity scenes. She's turned her spare bedroom into a workshop and travels to about 30 shows in a year.
No one knows how large the retail craft industry is because so many people work out of their homes. Crafts Report, a trade publication, estimates that about 250,000 people earn their living making crafts.
Annapolis artisan Sharron Bynum, who publishes a calendar listing craft shows, says there were 650 craft fairs scheduled in Maryland this year. Because many shows are known only through listings in local newspapers or by word of mouth, she believes there probably are more than 1,000 shows in a year.
The size and scope of the shows vary, from the Downs Park fair to the Show of Hands' Christmas show, a "juried drop show," where prospective vendors send in photos of their work to a committee that decides which artisans to include.
This year, the committee accepted the work of about 90 vendors for the show, which opened yesterday at the Ruritan Community Center in Davidsonville. Show organizers then display and sell the vendors' crafts for them, taking a 20 percent commission and a $75 table fee.
"To professional crafters, this is the best way to go," said Laureena Fiduccia, promoter of Show of Hands Inc., which runs the fair. "You can be at another show at the same time."
But the Show of Hands event is unusual. Most craft shows require only that goods be handmade. And few are "drop shows." The artisans must set up and run their own tables, where fees run from as low as $10 to as much as $475 for larger and prestigious fairs.
Show sponsors range from professional groups to churches, community centers and schools looking for a simple way to raise money.
The Chesapeake High School band's fall craft fair, scheduled Saturday, is its biggest fund-raiser of the year. The band expects to earn more than $7,000.
No matter where the show, or who is sponsoring it, craft enthusiasts follow them, sometimes traveling across the state or attending several in a weekend.
"We pretty much try to hit every one between now and Christmas," said Crofton resident Paula Neff, who was shopping yesterday at the Show of Hands fair.
By season's end, she and her shopping partner Liz Drury hope to hit 20 fairs. They say they like the shows because the items are unique. They also like them because they support the community.
"The people here are local, so we're giving back to our community," said Ms. Drury.