“Your president told people to go out and spend money, and they've done it,” potter Dick McGee said as aisles filled Friday at Cincinnati's 23rd annual Thanksgiving weekend crafts show. “I've had some great shows in September and October.”

        Mr. McGee was not unique among the crafts people interviewed in the first hours of the three-day event at the Albert B. Sabin Cincinnati Convention Center. The show continues today.

IF YOU GO

The 23rd Cincinnati Winterfair will be open noon to 5 p.m. today at the Albert B. Sabin Convention Center at W. Fifth and Elm streets.     Admission: Free for children 11 and younger. $6 for everyone else.

        “Every show I've done in the last three months is better than I've done in the past,” Bruce Meyer said amid his hardwood kitchen utensils. He said it might be “the nesting thing” in a tight economy and aftermath of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. “Our work kind of lends itself to that.”

        Carolyn Williams, in her first year as director of the sponsoring Ohio Designer Craftsmen Enterprises, was upbeat as visitors walked by with purchases.

        The show, known before as CraftsAffair, is competitive, open to works accepted by a jury of craftspeople. This year, about 270 are exhibiting toys, fabrics, ceramics, woodworking, leather, knives, jewelry and photos.

        Veronica Cox, of Baltimore, Md., bought one of Tom Thompson's sculptural wood boxes, and her mother, Sandra Cox, of Washington, D.C., bought pottery, a tray, a covered jar and other items.

        They learned about the show while en route to Cincinnati to visit family and Ms. Cox learned from Mr. Thompson that he'd be exhibiting at Winterfair.

        So the whole family came and spent. “It's a great show,” Mrs. Cox said. “We'll be back.”

        Another happy shopper was Paul Anderson, of Bridgetown, who found a color photo of the lighthouse near an aunt's Portland, Maine, home. It will be her Christmas gift.

        Greg Roche, a perennial exhibitor with leather purses that cost as much as $400, was so busy he could only stop to say it's a “normal year” and women who favor his designs “still come here and get something.”

        Nearby, Mike Kline, whose leather works range from coin purses and belts to a $950 briefcase, said, “I've done two shows since then (Sept. 11) and they've both been good.”

        Gold weaver Stuart Golder said recent juried shows have varied widely and “people are definitely hesitating to buy.” Cincinnati is home with repeat business for his $200 to $7,000 offerings, Mr. Golder said. But a recent Houston show was slow when international clients stayed away, apparently fearful of flying.

        Instrument maker William Rees feared the impact of terrorism on psalteries and harps costing $70 to $6,000. “We thought this was going to be devastating to us,” he said, but sales have been good. “People want to do something nice for themselves.”

        Here for the first time, wood turner Jamie Donaldson had high hopes, saying a similar show last week in Indianapolis was “moderately good.” His work — $3 toadstools to $900 turned and carved vessels — includes creative use of honey locust thorns long enough “to puncture a tractor tire.”

        Terry Groseclose also feared people would pull back after Sept. 11 but “We've had a pretty good response” to jewelry up to $1,800.

        “It seems people are spending with us instead of taking trips abroad,” his wife, Sheron, said.

        A similar refrain was heard from Dan Dropkin, who works with wife Jeanne Scannell selling women's $450 jackets from handwoven mohair and other natural fibers.

        “The high end has been selling but the low end is slowing,” he said. “But people with money see something they like, and they buy it.”

        Moments after he spoke, in a rare double sale, one woman bought two of their costliest jackets.

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