112 vendors bring creative passion to Old Deerfield Fall Arts and Crafts Festival

DEERFIELD — On-and-off rainfall couldn’t drown out the annual Old Deerfield Fall Arts and Crafts Festival, with 112 artisans, craftspeople and more representing the 47-year tradition’s largest vendor turnout since before the COVID-19 pandemic.

“We had a fairly decent crowd, considering, and they were excited to come to the fair as they usually are,” said festival Co-Coordinator John O’Neill. “It’s always a big attraction for them.”

The fair, open both Saturday and Sunday, featured artisans of various backgrounds, specialty food, free museum exhibits, activities and more. Although visitor turnout was lighter than it had been historically, the aisles between rows of vendor tents remained well-trafficked with shoppers, even amid instances of drizzle. In fact, even with fewer customers, vendors reported business that was on-par with what they’d become accustomed to in years past.

“Some of our vendors have reported that they’ve had really, really good sales,” festival Co-Coordinator Jennifer Fay noted. “They were expecting down sales because of the rain and everything, but they’ve surpassed their original goals, so people are coming and buying.”

“People are still coming through smiling,” O’Neill said.

The sunshiny vibes were reciprocated from the other side of the checkout counters. Kept dry underneath a tent, multimedia artist Donna Ryan, of Yarmouth, Maine-based Salem Collectibles, said she and many others will often go to great lengths to unite with a “family” of fellow vendors at craft fairs. Oftentimes, she added, when she attends a fair, she will see vendors she met before at other fairs. She credited the energy cultivated by these shared creative spaces as fuel for her to attend up to 40 fairs per year over the past four decades.

“I think you feed off of each other, personally,” said Ryan, a Texas native who, despite this being her first time in Deerfield, has sold her artwork at fairs across the country. “Almost every show I do, I walk around. Other crafters, they get ideas from me, I get ideas from them.”

Cheshire, Connecticut-based artist Jim Flood, who makes copper enamel sculptures under the moniker Bovano of Cheshire, took pride in bringing something of a lost art to an event full of innovators. He explained that his work, which involves fusing colored glass powder to copper constructions, used to be common in art class curriculums, but has since dwindled in prominence. Nowadays, he only knows of two suppliers in the world that still carry the type of glass needed for his sculptures — one in Kentucky and the other in France.

“[Each artisan brings] their good nature, their craft and their spirit into a show, and the people coming to a show like this, they’re going to feel that,” said Flood, a first-time vendor at the Old Deerfield Fall Arts and Crafts Festival. “That common spirit of the excitement about what they do and the passion of what they’re crafting, that all comes out when they talk to the people visiting these shows.”

Reach Julian Mendoza at 413-930-4231 or jmendoza@recorder.com.