Show dates

Booth layouts

Weathering the storms

Commemorative puzzles

Artist's statement

2021

August 28-29, 2021, to October 23-24, 2021.... Saturdays, Sundays, plus Labor Day Monday, September 6...Maryland Renaissance Festival, Crownsville, MD. Organizer: Maryland Renaissance Festival. Toll free: (800) 296-7304 | Local: (410) 266-7304 | Email: info@rennfest.com. Order your tickets online in advance. Bring your mask, as most booths require it to step inside; others, including Ye Olde Gamery, recommend it. Handwipes provided before play.

You can have a virtual visit to Revel Grove anytime—online—to see all your favorite artisans and entertainers on the Festival's website and in the Festival's Facebook Marketplace! New entries are added daily. Find your favorite artists' website addresses for an online visit and order directly. No need to wait a whole year to treat yourself to wonderful things. And that includes our entire website (you are here).

November 5-7, 2021....Friday, Saturday, Sunday...Craftsmen's Christmas Classic, Raceway Complex, Richmond, VA. Organizer: Gilmore Enterprises, Inc.

November 20 to December 24, 2021....11am to 7pm Sundays,Thursdays; 11am-8pm, Friday-Saturday. Closed Mondays, Tuesdays and Nov. 24 ...German Christmas Market, Inner Harbor, Baltimore, MD. Organizer: German American Marketing, Inc., info@baltimore-christmas.com

Our favorite month-long marketplace, the German Christmas Village in Baltimore's Inner Harbor, closed in 2020 and reopening in 2021, has, because of Covid-19, provided a Virtual Showroom of your favorite local artisans, including Ye Olde Gamery (that's us), with links to their artisans' websites so customers can see and purchase their work directly and comfortably from home. Do come to see us in the big tent at the Inner Harbor, in person this year, 2021! It's the real thing!

New shows will be added here as they are confirmed.

Our versatile booth layouts

Indoors or out, in large or tiny spaces, on asphalt, grass or boardwalks, with obstructions of lampposts, trees and parking signs, flat or hilly terrain, our booth set-ups are another whole puzzle to solve. Here's a look at our many different looks:

The gamepuzzles booth attracts all ages—scene from our Colorado 2013 tour.
Photo by Dick Jones.

 
The "Don't Know" tavern in downtown Baltimore invited our display for a day in
September 2020, large space, with front open to the street.
Kate in costume, of course, with Covid-19 precautions throughout.
Photos by Dick Jones.

This is our standard indoor display, most recently in Richmond, VA,
well stocked with all the puzzles that can fit.
There's a rug inside so Kate can work barefoot all day.
Photo by Dick Jones.

Our most compact display—a single counter top—at Fairfax High School, 2018.
Photo by Dick Jones.

Our tiny little stall at the Baltimore Christmas Village
(month-long) market, 2014, and the expanded 2015,
2016, 2017, and 2018 version, below. Photos by Eric Bare.

Our tiniest ever yet quite impressive display—a single 6-foot table—at the Joint Mathematics Meetings, Atlanta, 2017.   Photo by Alex Streif.

Our well-stuffed display stretching across two hotel tables at the Marriott in Paris, France—at the 37th Annual International Puzzle Party in August 2017.   Photo by Dick Jones.

Our magnificent pavilion, Ye Olde Gamery,
at the Maryland Renaissance Festival
(see interior shot below). Photo by R. H. Grainger.

Weathering the storms

• The Three Rivers Arts Festival in Pittsburgh in June 2004 had the stormiest weather in memory and inspired this little poem about the plight of outdoor art exhibits.
• The Boca Raton Arts Festival in Boca Raton, Florida, in January 2010 had the coldest weather in decades, with icy rain and nasty winds. It inspired this little verse.
• Coconut Point, Florida, in 2010 greeted us with gale-force winds during set-up. It went like this: Battling the Wind.
• Amish Acres in Nappanee, Indiana, in June 2012 went from idyllic to their worst storm in 40 years within an hour. Here are some photos.
• Wayzata, Minnesota, in June 2013 had a horrendous string of storms starting Friday evening, with the town totally blacked out from power failures. The show was canceled. Here are some verses recounting the event.
• Pittsburgh's Three Rivers Arts Festival in June 2015 set a new world record for take-down: 13 hours. A fourth river—vertical—arrived and kept on for all but 5 minutes every hour. It took us from 8pm to 9am to finish. Read it in verse.
  
  

Special commemorative puzzles (Links open in new window)

• Maryland Renaissance Festival's 25th Anniversary, 2001—This was the first use of our Poly-5 puzzle as an anniversary design. We presented the puzzle, with silver-like frame and numbers, to Jules Smith, general manager of the Festival.
  
  
• SIAM 50th Anniversary puzzle, — designed by Kate with 70 uniquely filigreed square tiles that fill both the SIAM (Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics) logo and the number 50.
  
  
• Three Rivers Arts Festival's 50th Anniversary, 2009— Kate designed a special version of our popular Poly-5 puzzle as a golden anniversary commemorative for Pittsburgh's biggest show and presented it as a gift to the organizers.
  
  
• Syracuse Arts & Crafts Festival's 40th Anniversary, 2010 — Our versatile Poly-5 set got a pearlized "40" in a special matching frame. One copy was presented as a gift to the organizers. The rest of this very limited edition sold out to local fans of the show.
  
  
• OHIO 4x4 Puzzle — designed for our Cleveland shows in 2010, the letters O-H-I-O make for a sudoku-like challenge in four colors, plus a sliding block puzzle. It's cool that all four letters are symmetrical and the same upside-down, too. Print it and play.
  
  
• Maryland Renaissance Festival's 35th Anniversary, 2011—Our 35-ball Giant Pyramid was the perfect gift, with a special base and Award of Appreciation for Jules Smith and the Festival staff.
  
  
• Berkshire 9x9 Puzzle — was designed for the 10th Annual Berkshires Art Festival in July 2011. The largest of our sudoku/sliding puzzles, it has 9 colors and 9 letters to print out, cut out and solve.
  
  
• Chicago 7x7 Puzzle — was printed for the North Michigan Avenue's great 20th annual art festival in 2011. You're invited to print it out for yourself and solve its sudoku/sliding block puzzles.
  
  
• Wyandotte 50th Street Art Fair — in 2011 inspired the design of a special 5x5 "50" puzzle that combines a sudoku-like arrangement with a sliding action. Print it, cut out the numbers, and play.
  
  
• Greensboro Craftsmen's Christmas Classic Crafts Festival's 40th Anniversary, 2013 — Our popular Poly-5 set has a frosted metallic blue "40" in a special matching frame and was presented as a token of appreciation to the organizers, Clyde and Tami Gilmore. We've been in their shows since 1984. See also their logo, the little toy soldier, we designed into a puzzle for their Richmond show's 2004 anniversary.
  
  
• Akron Arts Expo —in 2014 shared our own 35th anniversary, and we were happy to present them with a special commemorative edition of our Poly-5 set with embedded numbers 35 and frame in luminous green. Akron has been one of our most beloved shows for over 20 years.
  
  
• Verona, NJ, 30th Annual Fine Art and Crafts—in 2015 was our first time in this show, and we presented the hard-working organizers, Howard and Janet Rose, with a special edition of our Poly-5 puzzle with a "30" embedded and the event name inscribed. Their company is Rose Squared Productions, Inc., so of course the main color was a pearlized pink.
  
  
• The CHAP Convention for homeschoolers in Pennsylvania celebrated its 30th anniversary in 2016, another first for us, and we presented the organization with a special edition of our Poly-5 puzzle with a "30" embedded and the event name inscribed.
  
  
• The Maryland Renaissance Festival celebrated its 40th season in 2016, and we designed and presented to the management a special award honoring the family Smith, five brothers and their father whose incredibly hard work through the decades has made the Festival an enduring success. We've been with them since 1984 and look forward to many more.
  
  
• 50th Annual Artsfest of Greater Harrisburg, 2017—We returned to this nice show in the riverfront park on the banks of the Susquehanna after many years' absence and presented the organizers, Jump Street, with a special version of our Poly-5 puzzle with "50" embedded and the event name inscribed.
  
  
• Brookdale Park, NJ, 30th Annual Fine Art and Crafts—in 2018 we presented the organizers, Howard and Janet Rose, with a special edition of our Kite-Mosaik puzzle suitably inscribed. Their company is Rose Squared Productions, Inc., so we arranged the puzzle pieces in the tray to resemble flower petals.
  
  
• Greensboro Craftsmen's Christmas Classic Crafts Festival's 45th Anniversary, 2018 — Our 45-piece Kite Mosaik set is inscribed with a big "45" on two of the pieces, and "Greensboro Christmas Classic" and "1974-2018 Celebrate!" on the frame. We presented it as a token of appreciation to the organizer, Clyde Gilmore. We've been in their excellent shows since 1984.
  
  

Artist's Statement
Art shows like to have an artist's mission statement posted somewhere in the booth. Here is a one-page statement by Kate about her work that you can print out and share, if you wish:

The playable art of Kate Jones