A Festival of Folk!

Wow, I survived my first three-day outdoor show! I vended at Art in the Courtyard as part of the Lowell Folk Festival which happens the last full weekend in July every year.

It rained all day the previous Thursday and made me VERY NERVOUS! But the weather turned lovely for the bulk of the weekend, sunny and hot.



We set up in the quiet shady space created between the buildings of Market Mills between Market and Dutton Streets. It was a great location and wind was not a problem. There was a huge turnout of people coming through and quite a lot of them were interested in handcrafted pretties so we all did well!

My set up:



Choosing a card to give mommy:


I gave needle felting demonstrations, here I'm making little gray wool beads:


I shared a space with Amanda of Brick Mill Studio
and we were kindly placed next to Candace of The Intuitive Garden. Etsy representing!





Here is Amanda, working while she vends:




And her beautiful work, bead crochet:


Expert bead stringing:


From the Intuitive Garden, delicious-looking pendants caught in in the slanting evening sun:


Post earrings, so cute!!


We are not only Etsy peeps, we are WASers! Other Western Avenue Artists vending were Vicki Green, Heather Wang and Peter from La Sal Mountains Studio.


Only some of Heather's gorgeous goods:


Peter's set up:



Peter helps a little girl choose the perfect glass animal:


I met the lovely Kendra Renee and snapped some pics of her stunning work:



We ate many meats on sticks, and enjoyed the festive atmosphere. I let D loose with the camera and he returned with this fantastic collection of shots which really captures the scene:
D self portrait:


The Courtyard:




Best meat on a stick:

Everybody gets in the spirit:

Which design to have painted?

The cooling station misunderstood:

Great dog watching:

Crossroads:

The event was exhausting but totally worth it! We were scheduled to end the weekend at 5 on Sunday, but at 4:30 a fierce thunderstorm raged in and washed us out. We knew it was coming and had rigged up tarps and tent walls but it was still a scramble to pack up without anything getting wet in the blowing rain and the water sluicing down the steps behind us and under our tables. D was heroic and brought my car into the courtyard so we could pack quickly in the downpour and none of my items got ruined! After a few days the tarps, chairs and dolly were dry again. What's an outdoor show without a little excitement, right?