Hi guys, long time no post, eh? Well I’m here with something special to tell you today…there’s a new pop-up shop coming to Stamford and it’s coming just in time for holiday shopping!!

Coinciding with the annual Fall Festival at Designs by Lee, the new shop, Handmade at Designs by Lee will be opening up on Sunday, October 14th and running weekends through the holidays.

The Festival is a great family friendly event taking place two Sundays  October 14th & 21st and runs from 12pm-4pm. There will be hayrides to the pumpkin patch, pumpkin painting, face painting, bounce house, entertainment, food trucks and more! (See link below article for more info.)

(The stage is set!)

The shop is the vision of Drinkable Arts Connecticut (and semi-newbie to Stamford), Heather Patterson.

An artist herself, Heather has a history of gathering creative types together to form such ideas as the music and crafts festival that ran at the Playland boardwalk. When she came here to our fair city, she realized (as many of us living here do) that there really is not a lot of options for local crafters and artists to sell their wares.

The two local crafts fests we have here: Arts and Crafts on Bedford and the Harbor Point Crafts Festival, while excellent, are only a weekend a piece out of a whole year and frankly from the crafter point of view, pretty pricey to get into unless you do your work on a larger scale. There are a couple of galleries of course, but the competition is fierce. For others, we end up looking for smaller shows at schools, churches, wherever we can to sell our handcrafted items. Of course the other alternative is online, but especially at this time of the year, we like to get our pieces out there for folks to see in person.

(Wood, glass, fabric…great mix of handcrafted goodies!)

Heather and I met through WOTM. I was promoting her Drinkable Arts (DA) gigs around Stamford (link will be below for you to check out) and she was helping spread the word about WOTM for me. Needless to say, we were a good fit and soon became online friends. That’s when she found out that I also create jewelry on the side. I’d been upping the game on it lately as Itook a hiatus from WOTM and she helped me spread the word about that as well.

Then one day she messaged me and said that inspiration struck after doing a DA gig at Designs by Lee. She was going to go and ask if they would be interested in a pop-up shop for local crafts artists to run for the holiday season. In less than 24 hours, it went from an idea to a reality!

We now have a designated space, the artwork has been hung and there is a great variety of artists selling our one of a kind pieces for you to come and buy as gifts for family, friends or to just treat yourself.

There are plans being discussed to bring in some music on some days and getting ideas for more as the weeks go on and we get closer to the holidays so be sure to like the FB page below to keep up with updates and happenings.

 (Some of my own work available)

A few things to note:

1. Remember, one of a kind MEANS one of a kind. What you see one day may not be there the next time you come to visit, so be sure to visit often!
2. If you have kids with you, they are of course welcome, just be aware of the glass works that are out on the tables please.

I’m personally hoping that this becomes a stepping stone for more of these to open up in our area. It would also be great if folks from local shops, salons, etc come and see what we have to offer and maybe put some of our work in their retail establishments.

I’d also like to thank Heather for coming up with this idea and putting all the work into it that she has and will continue to do. It’s because of her this is all happening and I’m both grateful and excited to be a part of it!

Local work by local artists…isn’t that a great way to Keep it Local Stamford?!

~~~

Related links:

Our FB page, be sure to ‘like’ it for updates on happenings at the shop and more: Handmade at Designs by Lee

Designs by Lee Fall Festival Info

Happylife Studio & Drinkable Arts CT

Goblet Designs Jewelry (that’s me!)