Arts, crafts and tech come to Coupeville fest

The Coupeville Arts and Crafts festival, one of the oldest festivals in Washington, is turning 60 this year.

From 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Aug. 10 and 11, downtown Coupeville will be flooded with visitors from far and wide who want to immerse themselves in the Pacific Northwest’s creative juices — and eat some cake.

The Coupeville Festival Association invites people to celebrate the event’s diamond jubilee at 2 p.m. Sunday at the Recreation Hall, where they can have some cake with a splash of Martinelli’s, President Deb O’Brien said.

The festival was born in 1964 as an effort to beautify and bring life to Coupeville, which at the time “was basically a ghost town,” according to O’Brien.

In its first year, the festival brought about 15 artists and took place on “a dirt road” with “buildings falling down,” she said. In 2024, surrounded by iconic buildings that have made Coupeville a popular tourist destination, thousands of visitors will have 148 vendor booths to check out.

O’Brien estimates the event attracted between 12,000 and 14,000 visitors last year.

“I think this year is gonna be a little busier,” she said.

The festival is entirely dedicated to arts and crafts, therefore there won’t be live music or beer gardens, O’Brien said, though people can enjoy a meal at the food court. The association has also planned kids activities with the help of Indigenous-owned Beaver Tales Coffee, which is located on the wharf. Activities will take place on the wharf, where the Coupeville High School cheerleaders will paint children’s faces and help them create beaded necklaces with Indigenous symbols, O’Brien said.

The festival is an opportunity to bring together Whidbey’s vibrant art scene and give back to the community, O’Brien said.

In 59 years, the association has donated more than $1.2 million to support the community and enhance art, culture and history in the area through scholarships and donations, including the Town of Coupeville’s defibrillators and the wooden walkway on Front Street.

Almost half of the artists in attendance are new to the festival, O’Brien said. Out of those artists chosen from a pool of 280 candidates by a designated committee, 20 are based on Whidbey Island.

Among them, people might spot Gray Matter Printing, owned by Oak Harbor residents and Navy members Heather and Gary Gray.

A constant humming sound leads to a room on the second floor of their home, where 17 3D printers do their magic at the same time. With quick movements, the printing nozzles slowly build anything the Grays want, starting from the bottom with very thin layers of melted plastics, like polylactic acids — PLA for short — and polyethylene terephthalate glycol-modified — or PETG.

“It’s controlled chaos,” said Gary, who along with his wife has been 3D printing for about two and a half years.

He fell in love with the technology over a decade ago, waiting for printers to become more affordable to buy his own. In just a couple of years, the couple has entirely devoted a room to their side gig, and tours different local festivals.

The fun thing about 3D printing, they said, is that it can create a lot of things, from a palm-sized dinosaur, to a life-sized human body — that is, if you print in sections and put the various parts together in a second moment, Gary said.

The Grays are openly nerds. Their walls are lined with posters, comics, action figures and card games, like Magic the Gathering. Their passion for fantasy and magic is what inspires their creations, which include flexible dragons of various colors and sizes, hands, unicorns, birds and tiny spiders with flexible legs that can be used to relieve stress, Heather said.

Most of the models are bought from artists on Patreon, like Cinderwing 3D, which designs the dragons, and FlexiFactory, which designed, among different creations, a flexible samurai. The 3D image is downloaded to a flash drive that is then plugged into the printer, which takes care of the printing, following the shape, size and colors instructed.

The Grays have designed their own coasters, inspired by the Navy, where they work full time, and can also repair Nerf guns.

Some creations can take a few hours to make. Others, like their Godzilla-inspired helmet, can take five days of printing.

To Heather and Gary, seeing people’s excitement when they see their creation makes their day. Gary is pleased to see that kids are getting hands-on experience through school, which wasn’t a thing back when he was a student.

“It’s the future of manufacturing,” he said.

For more information about Gray Matter 3D Printing, check them out on Facebook or at @graymatterprinting on Instagram.