MURRELLS INLET, S.C. — When Barbara and Rick Umbel moved to Pawleys Island in 1996, Rick suggested to his jewelry-making wife that she create something with the sea urchins they found washed up on the shore.

After worrying that the urchins would be too fragile, it only took Barbara a few days to figure out that she should fill them with resin to make them solid and create a more durable product.

Fourteen years later, the Umbels create jewelry out of more than urchins – the goldsmiths also use calico scallops, moon snails and baby’s ears. They also use the Pawleys Island shell, one that Barbara said is only found in the area between Wilmington and Charleston.

This past weekend, the couple sold and showed off their original jewelry to the attendees at the Atalaya Arts and Crafts Festival alongside 102 other artists from all over the country.

The 35th annual festival was held on Friday, Saturday and Sunday inside grounds of the 77-year-old castle, which is located inside Huntington Beach State Park.

The money raised from the festival will support the entire state park, said Brenda Magers, park manager.

Magers said some of the money may help repair a broken window in the castle, but no money has been earmarked for a specific fund within the park.

Variety of handiwork

Visitors to the arts and crafts festival enjoyed work created by jewelry-makers like the Umbels, woodworkers, potters, glassblowers, painters, photographers, clothes makers and even a broom maker.

Local restaurants Drunken Jack’s, Inlet Affairs, Chick-Fil-A and Quick Pop Kettle Corn provided food to festival attendees.

Four local bands provided beach and bluegrass music for festival attendees. The Out-of-Towners Band, Latitude, Vocal Point and Northern Border played on a stage among the artists and craftsmen’s booths.

Myrtle Beach resident Diana Thornell and her family took advantage of the variety at the festival.

Thornell and her mother, Rebecca Thompson of Tennessee, enjoyed the original jewelry, while Thornell’s father, Jimmy Thompson, preferred looking at artists’ photographs. Thornell’s young daughter Liz said she liked the snow cones best.

Festival veterans

Sixty percent of this year’s artists have participated in the arts and crafts festival before.

Marlow Gates, a broom maker from Leicester, N.C., attended the festival in the ‘80s with his father, who was also a broom maker. This year marked Gates’ fifth year as a craftsman at the festival.

Jewelry maker Lynn Mcnees-Sams, of Jamestown, N.C., remembered the first Atalaya Arts and Crafts Festival.

“The first one was held outside the castle where the parking lot is now. It was a big brushy field that they bush-hogged the day before the festival,” she said.

“In your booth, you either had a live snake or a dead snake, and everybody had cut-off poison ivy in their booths,” she said.

By Anne Jones Marion

annejmarion@gmail.com