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For about 25 years now, Deb Kennedy has been making money on concho belts — literally.

Kennedy's specialty is fashioning the belts out of old coins, those minted in 1964 or before.

"I use dimes, quarters, 50-cent pieces," she said. "I will do special orders with silver dollars. But I like the old Indian-head penny, the buffalo nickel, the Mercury-head dimes.

"I buy them from coin dealers. It's funny. I go to a store and buy money."

Kennedy is among the 30 New Mexico artisans taking part in the 19th annual Corrales Fine Crafts Show, a juried event, at the Old San Ysidro Church in Corrales today through Sunday.

Besides Kennedy's concho belts and earrings, the Fine Crafts Show will feature other jewelry, woodwork, wreaths, rocking horses, pottery, silk scarves, folk art, fiber art and more for sale.

In the past, the show has continued for 10 days. This year, the Corrales Visual Arts Council, which organizes the event, decided to cut it back to three days.

Kennedy, co-chairwoman of the show, said there were advantages to the longer run.

"People would come in and look and kind of think about it, and then come back in a few days because they had forgotten to get a Christmas gift for so-and-so," she said. "But our first weekend was always the best, so that's why we hope this (shorter schedule) will be just fine."

One reason the first weekend of the Fine Crafts Show has traditionally been the busiest and most profitable might be that other Corrales Christmas events are going on then, too.

Corrales' Starlight Parade, featuring lighted floats and St. Nick, starts at about 5:30 p.m. Saturday at the Growers Market space just south of the post office on Corrales Road. Also, Casa San Ysidro, the historic home opposite the church, is having a holiday open house from 5 to 8 p.m. Saturday.

Admission to the crafts show is free, so it's easy for people to walk back and forth from the show to the open house just across the road.

Kennedy grew up in Farmington but moved to Albuquerque in the 1970s, about the time the silver and turquoise market was starting to boom. She got into the craft with small steps, making hooks and eyes for necklaces. Then she moved to silver beadwork.

"And then I met someone who did this kind of concho belt, and I hired him to show me how to do it," she said. "I've been doing it ever since. Styles change, but the demand for silverwork stays pretty steady."

She was living in Corrales in 1995 when she entered the Fine Crafts Show for the first time. She lives in Albuquerque's North Valley now but has returned to Corrales for the crafts show each of the succeeding dozen years.

Part of the attraction is the Old Church itself, which dates to 1868, and also the fact that each artisan donates 10 percent of his or her sales from the show to the Corrales Historical Society for the restoration and preservation of the historic church.

"I like that," Kennedy said. "And I think people who buy at the show like that, too. I think that's one reason it's so well attended."