SHELBURNE FALLS — Featuring three first-time vendors, the second annual Harvest Makers and Art Market held outdoors at The Mill at Shelburne Falls will return Saturday, Oct. 2, from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.
The market was held for the first time in 2020 and features work by both resident makers and guest vendors. Additionally, Saturday will see the return of the popular Pots for Pets fundraiser, according to organizer Sue McFarland.
“The Pots for Pets tradition was started 13 years ago by Patty Corsiglia, a longtime pottery student of Molly Cantor and a volunteer at the Dakin animal shelter,” McFarland said. Cantor and her students put pottery seconds — an imperfect ceramic typically sold at a discount — out for sale by donation, with the money raised going to the Dakin Humane Society and the Franklin County Sheriff’s Office Regional Dog Shelter. Members of The Handle Factory Community Clay Center, founded at The Mill in 2019 by Cantor, continue the tradition in Corsiglia’s memory.
Carson Converse, a contemporary quiltmaker and one of the newest additions to The Mill’s community of makers and artists, is a first-time participant in the Harvest Makers and Art Market.
Converse describes herself as a “longarm” quilter. Longarm quilting is the process by which a longarm sewing machine is used to sew a quilt top, quilt batting and quilt backing together into a full, finished product.
“I fell in love with quilts when I was probably 5,” Converse recalled.
When she was a child, she said, “Little House on the Prairie” was on television and the family in the show owned many quilts with bold, bright patterns. Converse also said a fascination with geometry began in preschool.
In some of her work today, Converse combines clean geometric shapes with more complex and sometimes “messy” fabric patterns. She said quilting allows her to “make a mess and then pull it back in” by cutting patterned pieces into shapes contained within the completed quilt.
“A lot of the time I’ll get comments that people find them really calming,” Converse said of her quilts. “I like pieces with detail, but that are overall calm, balanced and symmetrical, or have limited colors. I’m typically described as a minimalist, but I add a lot within that minimalism.”
Specifically created for the market, Converse will show a variety of small items made from quilted textiles, pillows, pouches, and small stretched and matted artwork.
Other first-time Harvest Makers and Art Market participants include Karen Sullivan, who has been weaving baskets for more than 35 years and teaches chair seating with different materials and techniques like cane, rush, shaker tape and splint. There is also Pat Hayes, of P. Hayes Designs, a long-time silk artist who merges her eye for color with top-quality professional tailoring to create hand-dyed clothing and accessories in both casual and formal styles.
Returning guest vendors include: woodturner WR Haines with memorial urns turned from local wood; bench jeweler Mark Lattanzi of Alchemy Studio; and Buckland weaver Emily Walsh Gwynn of Hands to Work with table linens and home decor.
Returning Mill resident members and exhibitors include: sculptural gourd and watercolor artist Emily Gopen; Jane Beatrice Wegscheider with 2D mixed media artworks and drawings; Laura Iveson with her photo transfer art; Judy Wombwell with origami pieces and abstract photographic panels; flamework glass artist Jeremy Sinkus; landscape painter Ann Lofquist selling greeting cards; Heather Wynne of Connected Threads; Katie Cavacco of Free Ramblin’ Kids; and handweaver and felt maker Sue McFarland.
Other featured participants include: Yani Counelis, a mixed media artist; weather vane and etched ornament maker Marian Ives; and members of The Handle Factory Community Clay Center with a variety of ceramics for sale.
Located on the Buckland side of the Iron Bridge at 49 Conway St., The Mill at Shelburne Falls has onsite parking. Admission is free. Organizers strongly recommend wearing masks and social distancing protocols must be observed. More information is available at themillatshelburnefalls.com or by calling 413-522-4944.
Zack DeLuca can be reached at zdeluca@recorder.com or 413-930-4579.