Shop Local in Bellevue May 13, 2017 with Handmade​ Nashville

The Handmade Nashville Summer Arts and Crafts Show is May 13 at the Red Caboose Park in Bellevue, TN. All of the items you will see there are made in America; in fact everything we offer is made in or near Nashville by mompreneurs and other motivated small business owners from this area!

Our 76 vendors are excited to share their wares with you. Between us we have a huge variety of handmade products for gifts (Mother's Day is May 14th hint, hint!) and home decor.

Here is a little background on a few of the friendly people you will meet on May 13 in part three of our Meet the Makers series.

There have always been crazy little ideas running through Jennifer Cater's head...wanting something but not finding it available out in the real world lead to the beginning of The J.Cater Shop.

Always crafty and resourceful, Jennifer now shares her creations with everyone. What kickstarted as a small business dedicated to fabric covered button earrings and jewelry, has now expanded to an eclectic mix of modern, vintage and upcycled jewelry, accessories and decor. 

Pieces are wacky, versatile, weird, person-centered but most of all FUN! Some items reach to your childhood or touch your soul, representing a piece of yourself maybe once lost or one never left behind.

There's something for almost all tastes! And if there isn't, Jennifer will do her best to create it!

Amanda Merry runs Inner Sun Soap. Her business started after Doctors could not find an effective treatment for her youngest son’s eczema. After a lot of experimenting and studying, everyone in the family began to have noticeably nicer skin. 

It was clear that she had a business when friends started buying her products from her. In an effort to be both ethical and cost-effective, she only purchases sustainable and organic products from reputable sources.

When you support Inner Sun Soap, you are helping a family buy baseball gear for their sons, and encouraging an entrepreneur to continue studying herbology, You’re helping a community of handcrafters and small businesses buy from each other. You’re helping to feed your skin with wholesome ingredients with the latest knowledge about skin care. And you're helping the homeless since a portion of the profits is donated to Open Table Nashville.

 FairyMeMore was a childhood passion passed on by Angie Wanke Ragan, known as Oni, by her nieces and nephews originally and now by those that know her best for her whimsy and eccentric personality. Angie has a flair for the newest trends with her own personal touch and Boho Chic and European treasures have always been her own personal style preference. She now has the time to embrace her creativity to share with others the love for handmade fairy, pixie, gnome gardens, houses, terrariums, furniture and even tiny food for your little visitors that flutter in the twilight or hide in your garden or around the house. 

Angie makes crystal jewelry and shares her collection of fine Sterling Silver Wrapped Natural Gemstones. She also has an extensive knowledge of crystals and their benefits to our mind, body and spirit and she sells her finds to others that embrace a holistic approach to health and wellness. You will just love to see Angie's Fairy Houses that will be featured at her FairyMeMore booth.

We can't wait to meet you on May 13th!

Summer Arts & Crafts Show May 13, 2017: Meet the Makers Part 2

Come out and make friends with the people behind Handmade Nashville May 13 in person at the Red Caboose Park in Bellevue, TN. Join our Facebook event for details and the latest news!

We are dedicated to the handmade movement and to helping grow our local economy by sharing locally made products with shoppers in our community. We will host over 70 vendors offering a huge variety of handmade items, gifts and home decor on May 13. Read on to meet some of our makers.

Statement Peace Jewels offers handmade one of a kind eclectic and inspirational jewelry pieces. Owner and designer Karen Kirscht creates ready to wear necklaces, bracelets, and earrings. The designer's work is often described as funky, whimsical, and upbeat.

Ready to wear pieces range from classic conservative styles through more ornate trendy contemporary looks. Since each piece is unique to itself SPJ offers a wide range of styles and materials to be an "affordable splurge" making the wearer feel their personal best.

For those customers who want to take an active role in the design process, Karen offers style consultation and over 20 years of self-taught jewelry making techniques to construct pieces on the spot. Customers are welcome to shop from Statement Peace Jewel's always evolving (and growing) jewelry pendants and materials to achieve that special piece that strives to "make a statement without saying a word."

Jill Stone of Beautified Essentials makes art that has a function such as manicure sets, bottle stoppers, hair accessories, etc. She is primarily a polymer clay artist, which means she blends solid blocks of clay with gold and silver leaf to create beautiful mixes of color. She uses the patterned clay to decorate ~30 practical useful items (hence her business name "Beautified Essentials"). She decorates the highest quality products because she wants her art to be enjoyed for a lifetime.

Jill minored in art at Juniata College focusing primarily on ceramic pottery, but she took a variety of art studio, and art history classes as well. She first started working with polymer clay in 2010, but has made pressed flower art since she was a child (over 26 years). She makes polymer clay art because she gets tremendous enjoyment out of making it, and she loves sharing the process and products which bring beauty and joy to everyone else. She garners fulfillment out of knowing that she has enhanced ordinary useful products into unique pieces of art.

Jill is a proud stay at home mom with two little girls, taking a break from teaching middle school science. She has sold over 7,300 pieces of art since 2010.

Lauren of Lauren Antoinette designs became an accidental jewelry designer after breaking a necklace her father gave her. Thankfully two women in a jewelry design studio in Mobile, Alabama walked her through a quick fix, leading to a passion she never knew existed. The spirit behind the local shops is something that stuck with her and has been a driving influence as she opened Lauren Antoinette Designs.

Lauren uses only 14k gold-filled or sterling silver materials to ensure the longevity of the timeless pieces. They are hand-made to order using the simplest tools – her hands and a hammer. By personally molding and hammering the quality wire, each piece is an individual and can be client customized.

The pieces are referred to as “Little Happies." Growing up, Lauren’s mother would randomly give a small gift to someone and say, “She just needed a little happy!" The phrase stuck - a collection of unique little happies to share with the world. As she reminisced, another "happy" came to mind - music. Whether it be an exciting moment or an upsetting one, there was a gravitation towards music in order to express those feelings. If she couldn’t find the words to express her feelings, Lauren knew EXACTLY which song did. That's why you will find some hidden musical inspiration in the products. The songs or lyrics they are inspired by hold a story in her heart. As Lauren shares her happies with you, she hopes you will share a little happy with someone you love.



Come back to meet more of our makers next week and if you missed part 1 you can read it here.

Look out for Karen, Lauren and Jill May 13th at the Handmade Nashville Summer Arts & Crafts Show!

Summer Arts & Crafts Show May 13, 2017: Meet the Makers Part I

The Handmade Nashville Summer Arts & Crafts Show is May 13th at the Red Caboose Park in Bellevue. It is a great venue for families with a playground on site and it's in an easy to find, high traffic area of Bellevue with fast access to I-40, just about 20 minutes drive from downtown Nashville. Visit our event page to get updates plus driving directions.

All of our events feature only handmade items with a wide variety of locally made crafts including jewelry, natural bath and body products, clothing, bags, accessories, home decor, personalized gifts and much more!

We are excited to introduce you to some of our 60+ vendors. Read on for part one of a three part blog series to get to know some of the people and crafts that will be with us on May 13th.

Original Organics Herbals

Grown from a love of plants and herbs, Rachel’s line of small batch products feature primarily organic and wildcrafted ingredients. Raised in Nashville, she is happy to be back in the rolling hills of Tennessee after growing her love for natural living in the woods of Wisconsin for many years.

On walks through her garden, and sometimes in unexpected areas like the city or the forest, Rachel collects beneficial and healing plants, which she combines with organic essential oils, mineral-rich salts, and vegetable-based oils and butters. These mixtures eventually emerge as nutrient-dense moisturizing balms, detoxifying bath salts, non-toxic deodorants, and skin-soothing serums.

All of her products are feel-good in more than one way: the nourishing benefits of plants and herbs front and center, with Rachel’s deep connection to the earth driving environmentally-aware and sustainable processes throughout production.

Find out more on Facebook!

Wise Butter LLC

"Don't deny what you know to be true: everything's better with butter."

Wise Butter is small-batch, blended butter made lovingly by hand in Nashville, TN. Their butter allows you to have a spiritual experience with toast. Or it can make that sad little recipe you're working with sing. The flavors change with the seasons (and our whims) and they work meticulously to highlight local produce and other regional specialties. Their butters span the spectrum from familiar to unexpected, so both a gourmand and a 5-year-old could easily be pleased with something Wise Butter has to offer.

Wise Butter offers five flavors, two of which are seasonal and rotate often. They always stock Roasted Garlic Basil, Chipotle, and Vegan with Smoked Salt. Their current winter flavors are Pumpkin Spice and Maple Cranberry. Be sure to follow them on social media for the latest roster.

Sally Hodges Bags

Sally of Sally Hodges Bags loves color, textiles and fabric of all kinds and it shows in her work! This small sewing business is committed to repurposing, recycling and reusing; and Sally makes bags and other small items from felted sweaters, vintage fabric, home decor, used clothing and other found objects.

With sustainability in mind, each piece is made using around 90% second hand contents.

Sally has sewn for most of her life and she has been a quilter since 1974. For the past ten years she has enjoyed working with repurposed fabrics which has given her the freedom to be improvisational and creative.

Beckitybootique

Beckitybootique specializes in handmade clothing for children and dolls as well as writing services for small businesses. Although it started as a sewing hobby business and a way for a new stay-at-home-mom to make some "fun money" for the family, after a few years writing began to take a forefront, especially after a third baby came along. Beckitybootique now offers writing services on Etsy and also under the name "Beckityboo" on Fiverr.com.

Popular products include Halloween and Christmas dresses on the sewing side and Etsy "About page" biographies and product descriptions on the writing side.

Writing for small businesses helps owner Becky feel connected to the handmade world even at times when she is not able to be physically creative and she takes great pride in being able to help other small businesses be more successful.

Look out for more information on our event coming soon and don't forget to make plans to be at our May 13th Handmade Nashville Summer Arts & Crafts Show!

How to Have a Stress- Free Craft Show with Handmade Nashville

Handmade Nashville is made up of over 900 local people who make and sell all kinds of different handmade items from jewelry and furniture to clothing and artwork...our purpose is to  support every single one of our members, regardless how far along they are in their skill or their business!

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Our philosophy is, by lifting everyone up, everyone has an equal chance to succeed and get their work in front of interested buyers in the Middle Tennessee area (and beyond!). So with this in mind, we have come up with a couple of new ways to help new or inexperienced sellers get started and for experienced vendors to get their items into a stress-free craft show!

• You don't need a ton of supplies or sales experience!
• You don't need to be at the show all day!

Option 1: Handmade Nashville COMMUNITY BOOTH

Perhaps you have another event on May 13 or can't get a babysitter? Maybe you're just shy about selling your handmade items directly to the public? No worries!

The Community Booth will be prominently placed at our show and staffed by Handmade Nashville admins. We offer this option for new sellers or experienced vendors who just flat out don't have the time or supplies to run their own booth.

You simply bring us your items before the start of the show and we'll present them alongside our own and others like you. For an idea of what this looks like, take a look at this picture from our last show!

At the end of the day, you come back to pick up any unsold items and we will transfer the proceeds from your sold items to you via PayPal within one week of the show date.

You can sell around ten items this way (depending on size) and the cost is just a flat $25.

For more information, check out our vendor app:

Option 2: Participate in our SWAG BAGS and BUSINESS CARD DISPLAY

At our Summer Arts and Crafts Show on May 13th, like all shows we do, we will hand out free swag bags to the first 25 customers. Everyone loves free stuff and it encourages foot traffic. Inside our swag bags are items from our members who are at the show.

Some members add a freebie or a sample, others add a coupon to their online store and others add brochures or business cards that explain their business. Being a part of this promotional bag is beneficial to get your product and your business noticed.

For only $5 we are offering ALL of our members the opportunity to be a part of our swag bag program (members who will have a booth at our Summer Arts and Crafts show or who are a part of Our Community Booth need not apply as this is provided with your booth fee.). In addition to being able to put your card or sample into the swag bags, you will also have your business card displayed in our Community Booth in a prominent location, for the taking by the thousands of customers we are expecting to see at our show.

This is a great way to help spread the word about your business for a very little investment. If you're interested in being a part of our swag bags and having your business cards on display at our show at Bellevue Park, please fill out this application, pay five bucks and get your sample items to us. Our hope is to have our swag bags overflowing with handmade goodies and our community table brimming with cards / information on hundreds of our talented members!

If you'd just like to come along and shop at our event, we'd love to see you! Join our event page on Facebook for up to date information and directions to the show on May 13, 2017!

Attention Handmade Arts & Crafts Makers in Middle Tennessee!

We are looking for HANDMADE arts and crafts vendors to join our SUMMER ARTS & CRAFTS SHOW May 13 in Bellevue!

What is Handmade Nashville?

Handmade Nashville is an active Facebook group with almost 1,000 members. We have been supporting each other and our small handmade businesses since 2014 and we have hosted several craft shows for our members in Nashville in recent years. We have an active Facebook page with 1,700 followers.

All About This Event!

For our latest event we are relocating to a larger venue in Bellevue, TN! We will be set up at the Red Caboose Park (aka Bellevue Park) on Colice Jeanne Road/Highway 70. This is a great venue in a high traffic part of Bellevue and is highly visible from the highway. It is family friendly and pet friendly and is located right next to the playground and public library.

What to Expect:

Our events are 100% handmade vendors...we don't accept any resale or Direct Sales vendors. We advertise our events on Facebook as well as locally.

Our admin team is made up of volunteers so all of the profits from our shows go right back into the next event and this helps us keep our costs reasonable. We are all handmade vendors ourselves with craft show experience and we put a lot of effort into vendor communications and making sure someone is available to help vendors at all times during our shows.

More Information:

For more info, you can request to join our Facebook group or follow our event page on Facebook.

Vendor Application:

Or sign up right now using our online vendor application!

Summer is coming soon (ish) and so is the Handmade Nashville Summer Arts & Crafts Show!

Mark your calendars because we're gearing up for our next craft show!

When? Saturday May 13, 2017

Where? The Red Caboose Park in Bellevue, TN

What is it?  The Handmade Nashville Summer Arts & Craft Show featuring 60+ local vendors selling locally made handmade products

What's different about this event? We only sell HANDMADE items at our events, so you won't find anything mass produced or offered through a direct sales format. All of our items are 100% handmade locally in the Nashville area!

Our event is family- and pet-friendly! We'll have food trucks there too!

FIND OUT MORE and keep up to date with important event-related updates by clicking on the "GOING" or "INTERESTED" tab near the top of the event page which you can find at the link below:
Handmade Nashville Summer Arts & Craft Show EVENT PAGE!

We'll see you there!