Sunday, April 23, 2017

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!



Monday, April 10, 2017

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.



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!