Meeting and Greeting and Selling In Person in 2019

We will be doing the Amherst Common Saturday Market again this year. We had a great season in 2019 and it worked out very well having both Mark and I in the booth and selling both our farm raised lamb and my artwork. I started bringing my artwork to the market when I had to take over when The Farmer was involved with surgery, etc. I figured if I had to stand there, I might as well try to sell my work as well as our lamb. We reached far more people because there is a limited number of folks who purchase lamb at farmers markets. There is another whole group who are interested in pretty handmade things. It was a good move and I've got to design some new tea towels to have ready for the upcoming 2020 season. 

In late September I did my first "show" with my ceramics at the North Quabbin Garlic and Arts Festival. It was a fun time. Here's the sign I made for my booth. I will apply again this year. 

This past December we had an extremely successful Holiday Open House here at Leyden Glen Farm. I'm not sure what it was that made it so successful. Was it the snow and the chance to visit a farm in the country covered with fields and surround covered with white fluffy stuff? Or was it my 100 day project that got people interested enough to come here? Whatever it was, I am thankful for those who came and I'll try to do make next year's just as exciting for those of you who choose to come. (Secretly though - I'm really hoping there won't be snow because it made me crazy with worry and complicated everything - as huge snowstorms are wont to do). 

Wrap-Up - 5th Holiday Open House

We had a fantastic Holiday Open House a couple weeks ago. I'm just getting time to process and upload the photos here to share with those of you who are interested in it and too far from here to visit. If you did come to the Open House THANK YOU! We had an incredible crowd and it was so much fun to meet many new folks and see old friends. This event is a huge amount of work in all ways - physically making things to sell, decorating the house, strategizing with the friends I invite to do the event, cooking treats to share and more..... I find it so worthwhile though to share our colorful farmhouse to folks who are curious and share my love of color and pattern. 

I was so busy that I didn't have any time to take any photos. Plus, my phone was being used to process sales. I really wish I had photos of the house filled with wonderful people. Over the last two weeks I have been reviewing the conversations in my head, trying to remember names and faces. 

If you are a creative artist and you have an interesting home or studio, throwing an Open House is a great way to get your message out there. It takes nerve to put yourself out there for people to judge you - because face it - you invite judgement when you invite strangers into your space. It is a great way to meet new folks in your community - whether virtual or local. I had so many lovely folks come who followed my 100 Days of Vases Project on Instagram this past year. It was so fantastic to meet the folks who commented and cheered me on. 

Another highlight of the weekend was meeting Eva who has been a loyal blog reader,  Facebook commenter and longtime follower. Eva's daughter Lisa brought her mom to the Open House as an 80th birthday gift! It was the actual day too! How special. I wish I had a photo of the two of us together. I was late getting set up (no surprise if you know me!) and Lisa and Eva arrived right on time. Eva sat in the wing chair and watched me scurry around getting things more organized. She was delightful and I'm so happy her daughter brought her to meet us. Eva had the best time exploring the handmade and handpainted decoration of our home. I'm glad we could be part of her 80th birthday - what a plus to a great weekend. 

Special thanks goes to my friends Alicia, Deborah, Gail and Juliana who added to the celebration by bringing their beautiful wares and helping to host the event. I couldn't do it without them. And thanks to Laurie B who did all the tallying of sales and wrapping. And to Cathy and Cynthia who came from Boston to help out. And lastly, thanks to Julia and Mark who put up with the incredible chaos of preparation, making pottery, figuring out the logistics, and me being in a frantic mood. This year we had the added drama of a massive snowstorm. Mark spent most of the day between selling our farm raised lamb keeping the walkway sanded and salted. Our neighbor Sid plowed the snow from the field where cars park - what a fantastic guy. I called the Road Crew to alert them of the event and Dave was here with the town truck sanding the road so people didn't get stuck. Many of the folks who came from far away had not had experience with a gravel road in the snow - that definitely added to the drama of the visit and the weekend! Many wondered how the heck we live here through the winter. The snow definitely made for an unforgettable weekend. 

Here are the photos - sorry there aren't any of the farmhouse with people in it. Maybe next year.  Thanks again to all who came.

 

Photos from 4th Holiday Open House 2018

The 2018 Open House was a wild success. It was so much fun to meet so many new people and connect with friends I only see once in a while. We were busy both days and although the finishing touches weren't completely done on time (that is me - wait til the last minute) - it all worked out fine. I don't have a lot of photos of everyone's work --- I was so busy I forgot to take many at all and remembered in the evenings when everyone was gone. My friends Gail Callahan, Alicia Hunsicker and Deborah Garner added their distinct styles to the creative and colorful flavor of our home. 

This year I had help from my friends Kay and Alexxis at the check-out counter (no photos there either) and farm friends Jess and Emily helped me hang holiday decorations because I was so behind. Miraculously I got 2 loads of pottery fired before the Open House - even if the second load didn't get unloaded until Sunday morning. It has been a difficult year for me making with Mark's surgery and slow recovery but somehow I had plenty of things to sell. 

We had a lovely spread of food -- appetizers, cheese, lamb tagine, chocolates, veggies, coffee and drinks. This Apple Harvest Cake which Gail made was a huge hit. Follow this link for the Harvest Apple Cake recipe from my blog back in 2012 - it is delicious and very easy to make. I wish I had photos of the food table because it was so beautifully presented (thanks Alicia and Deborah). 

I will be doing a shop update this weekend with pottery, tea towels and books. If you would like to know when it goes live, please sign up for my Newsletter on the top right hand side of this blog. You will get immediate notice when work is available ON-LINE. It takes a crazy amount of time to photo and list all the work because each is different and needs multiple photos and descriptions. I wish I could pot and make the same thing over and over because it would make that part easier but that would not be interesting to me.

On top of it all, this week our sheep were shorn on Tuesday and Wednesday - hence the lateness of this review post. I'll share photos of that in a couple days.

Thanks to all who came out and thank you all for your support of my creative work, life and family. XO 

Here are some photos so you get a feeling for the 2018 Open House - our 4th. 

Some of my new tea towel designs that I will be listing this weekend. 

Julia's holiday emporium - pom poms and glitter ornaments

Crewel embroidery products for sale. 

Some of our little friends came and were loving the kittens. 

Cali and Bobby asleep on the radio. They were stars.

Some of my pottery that will be listed for sale this weekend.

Ruth - who had come to one of my Creative Retreats brought her finished pomegranate printed and embroidered fabric. So beautiful!

Janet (I think that is her name) sat with the kittens on her lap for at least an hour. She was in heaven.

Our newest litter of kittens resting up after all the holding and activity they got - 

Deborah's beautiful work on the porch - 

The dining room in the evening -

The dining room table full of my handmade pottery - 

The brass chandelier became a bird's nest via the artistry of my friends Jess and Emily

Come to Our Holiday Open House this Coming Weekend - Here Are My Special Guests!

I hope you all had a good Thanksgiving Holiday. We had a great visit with family and cousins. I look forward to the chaos of all the people every year. My family is quite loud (The Farmer would tell you) and so the couple of days we spend together is rather raucous but so much fun. On the Friday after Thanksgiving we continued our crafting tradition at my sister Nancy's home in New Hampshire. These two days together are really the only ones we all spend together at the same time so it is fun and memorable.

My friends Gail, Alicia and Deborah and I have been very busy making beautiful things for this coming weekend's 4th Annual Holiday Open House. I hope some of you can make it. I thought I would share some of their recent work here today.  

I'll start with Gail. Many of you probably know her as The Kangaroo Dyer if you are into yarn. She is also the author of Hand Dyeing Yarn and Fleece. Her book is one of the best selling craft books ever. Gail is the inventor of The Color Grid which I have written about before. Recently Gail has been dyeing silk fabrics. She will have her hand dyed yarn and silks, books, and Color Grids with her this weekend. I have a few of her brightly colored silks that I wear almost every day as scarves. They keep my neck warm, are lightweight and don't get in my way. 

Here are some of Gail's silks. Gorgeous. 

Here are some of her beautiful hand dyed yarns. 

Check out Gail's website here if you are too far away to come to the Open House. 

My neighbor Alicia Blaze Hunsicker is a Fine Artist. She is an incredibly talented painter and has exhibited widely in the Northeast. Alicia has painted in oils and most recently acrylics. Her recent work has an other-worldly quality to it. Here is some of her work and you can see more on her website here. 

Recently Alicia began experimenting with a new technique of art. It is much quicker for her to produce and she can lower the price point to make her art more accessible. Here is her new work....... 

Color and attention to detail has always been part of Alicia's world and I think this new work is stunning. Check out her website for more. 

My last guest is my Textile Loving Friend Deborah Garner. For years, Deborah and her partner Jay travelled the world collecting textiles from foreign lands. Their main business was supplying museums with rare tribal textiles. You can imagine how Deborah and I hit it off once we discovered our mutual love of textiles. Deborah has a wealth of knowledge and has lived quite an amazing life.  

In her textile travels, Deborah collected lots of beads and trinkets from the tribes. For this Holiday Open House, she is making jewelry out of objects from her collection. Here are some of the baubles that she has made so far. 

You can check out Deborah's website here and see some of the incredible textiles she has collected. Here is the link to her Jewelry page which has many beautiful earrings and necklaces for sale too. 

So that is a little preview of what we have in store for this coming weekend. I will be sharing some of my finished work later this week as it cools down from the latest kiln firing. Fingers crossed the weather cooperates for us all.