Kate Repola, director of Main Street Vermilion, said that her organization has unofficially dubbed Vermilion as the driftwood capitol of the world. With so much driftwood coming to the shores of Lake Erie, Vermilion residents have gotten creative. This year marked Main Street Vermilion’s fifth ‘All Washed Up’ driftwood art festival.
The art gallery’s offerings were made nearly entirely of driftwood from the town’s numerous beaches, Repola said. “We are the self-proclaimed driftwood capitol of the world,” Repola said. “We thought we are pretty much guaranteed that title.
We have some of the most beautiful beaches on the shores of Lake Erie...
And we have beautiful driftwood, especially after a storm.” The festival has grown steadily over the past five years, according to Repola. The annual festival’s marquee event, the driftwood art competition, brought in artists of all skill levels for four different competitive levels this year, she said.
“Every year, we’ve grown a little bit,” Repola said. “We’ve kind of added to it. The base of the day is the driftwood art competition, and then in addition to that, we have kids activities.
.. (And) wealways have the Lorain County Woodcarvers here, showing their talents.
” In addition to the competition portion, this year’s driftwood festival brought some vendors to Vermilion, Repola explained. The 2024 edition of the festival allowed driftwood artists to sell their wares to promote the downtown shopping aspect of Main Street Vermilion. Nikki Halstead, owner of Pixie Dusted Creations, has been selling driftwood art for about a year, along with her friend and business partner Missi Mikulin.
Halstead said that her lifelong obsession with folklore and fairy gardens led to her driftwood art business carving out a niche in northern Ohio within the past year. “We collect rocks and driftwood and make fairy houses and different things from things from the lake,” Halstead said. “I love mushrooms, and I hand collect all this driftwood and I put little (plastic) mushrooms on it.
It’s a little whimsical, and I think it’s kind of fun.” Perhaps the most unique part of Halstead’s creations is their ability to emit light. She showed off the electronic capabilities of the art’s painted mushrooms, which light up the surrounding area with various colors.
“(I love) the folklore and little miniature things. It’s just fun,” Halstead said. “It takes you to a magical place, out of reality.
.. The mushrooms are made with hot glue and they do light up, and they look completely different when they’re lit up.
Some of them almost look like a watercolor kind of thing.” Repola said that the festival continues to grow, but the small town appeal has remained. The art is special, she said, and unique to Vermilion’s lakefront locale.
“Our whole focus is to bring people into our historic downtown,” Repola said. “Our goal is to kind of mix art and community, to bring people downtown, and really show off what we have here.” More information on Main Street Vermilion and the annual ‘All Washed Up’ driftwood art festival is available at www.
mainstreetvermilion.org..
