By Jon Chown
More than l50 artists will be showing their wares at the 42nd annual Capitola Art & Wine Festival on Sept. 13–14, and potter Honora Bacon is thrilled to be one of them.
Honora Bacon’s beautiful ceramic tableware.
“I’m very excited about doing it,” Bacon said while showing a reporter around her studio in Ben Lomond. “I do open studios and I’m so excited now to expand and do the Capitola Festival.”
Bacon creates ceramic tableware. Bowls, platters, cups and plates are scattered across the studio. When finished, they are decorated with beautiful outdoor designs: waves, the sun, clouds with striking lines. A lot of it is thrown on her wheel. She said she probably enjoys making platters the most.
“It takes so much time to hand build, but you get things that are out of the round,” she said, noting that the process of adding and reducing clay to a piece is quite meditative.
Bacon started her craft during her senior year at the University of New Mexico, and then stayed an extra year in school to keep studying it. She grew up in Ohio and always knew that California was where she should live. Her mother told her every day.
“She was complaining my entire childhood about how horrible Ohio is, like literally, it was a broken record,” Bacon laughed. “So all four kids eventually made it out here. You guys have the best weather, the best everything.”
Potter Honora Bacon talks to a reporter in her Ben Lomond studio.
Bacon said her mom and grandmother were both artistic and she was often dabbling in it, but never found her niche until college. When she put clay in her hands and started molding it, she knew she had found her place. That was in 2007. Five years later she moved to Ben Lomond to further her career as an artist. She said it was very difficult at first.
“When you’re young and everybody has all these years under their belt, you think, when is it ever going to happen for me,” she said. “But you just keep working and all of a sudden you have a lot of experience.”
That experience and her hard work will be on full display at the festival, which, in addition to all the artists, also features local wines and live music.
This year’s featured artist is Cristina Sayers, who created the 2025 poster for the event. She was raised in Aptos, Capitola and Soquel. As a child, she won a local coloring contest and an oil paint set from Palace Art as her prize. It set her career path.
Twenty-two local wineries will be pouring at the event. Wine tasting requires the purchase of a 2025 festival glass for $20, along with tasting tokens. Guests must be 21 or older with a valid ID. Entertainment at the Bandstand Stage in Esplanade Park includes James Durbin and The Lost Boys on Saturday evening, and Viva Santana closing the festival on Sunday. Dance groups, local studios, and performers will appear throughout the weekend.
Festival hours are from 9:30 a.m. to 8 p.m. on Sept. 13, and from 9:30 a.m. to 7 p.m. on Sept. 14. Admission to the festival is free. Free parking and shuttle service will be available from the Capitola Mall on 41st Avenue, with shuttles running every 20 minutes. A free bike valet will also be offered at the David Lyng Real Estate parking lot, hosted by Harbor High Leadership.
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The event is hosted by the Capitola-Soquel Chamber of Commerce, with proceeds benefiting local schools and community organizations.