Winterthur Museum’s Artisan Fair returns Friday, Saturday and Sunday with a few twists and 100-plus artists.
One of Virginia Mitchell’s favorite summer events returns this weekend: The Winterthur Artisan Market, which she calls unique because of its setting and the quality of its artists.
“The Artisan Market is not your average craft market,” said Mitchell, who lives in Kennett Square and will be going for the third year in a row Sunday. “I can tell the artisans have been selected thoughtfully and represent very high quality, local and regional talent.”
When the fourth annual market returns this week, it expands to a three-day affair by adding a Friday. The fair will run Friday , July 19 (noon to 6 p.m.), Saturday, July 20 (10 a.m. to 4 p.m.), and Sunday, July 21 (10 a.m. to 4 p.m.).
Tickets are $35 and are only good for one day. They have sold out before previous markets, but Winterthur spokesman Jason Brudereck said the addition of Friday sales may be open longer.
For those curious: The museum expects a steady crowd each day, but as of last Friday, Sunday seemed to have a bit less demand and might be the best choice for someone looking for smaller crowds.’
‘Perfect outdoor setting’
“It takes place in the perfect outdoor setting,” she said, with vendor tents grouped around the property of the former du Pont estate, connected by a shuttle and by walking paths.
“I especially like that I can spend time shopping and viewing the artisans, and then I can also explore the grounds or visit the Museum’s exhibitions,” she said.
The weather looks promising, especially compared to our run of oppressive heat: Highs at 84 Friday, 81 Saturday (with small chance of rain) and 86 Sunday.
Even without the blessings of Mother Nature, Mitchell finds Winterthur’s grounds the perfect outdoor setting for a day of shopping and meeting artists.
“Often, markets can feel overwhelming, but I can easily and enjoyably navigate through the vendors and grounds, while listening to the live music,” she said. “They provide really pleasant places to relax in the shade to share a treat or enjoy a libation.”‘
Artisan inspiration
This year’s vendors will offer antiques and collectibles, furniture and home décor, garden items, architectural salvage, high-quality handmade crafts, vintage clothing and jewelry, artisanal and
small-batch gourmet goods, original art in various media, and more.
The Artisan Market is meant to reflect Winterthur’s focus on fine American handmade arts and crafts, the basis of the former du Pont estate in Greenville’s vast collection of furniture, textiles and decorative arts.
It also supports the mission to educate audiences about American material culture, art and design,” said Chris Strand, the Charles F. Montgomery director and CEO at Winterthur Museum, Garden & Library. “Many of the artisans create high-quality crafts related to art, textiles, ceramics, glass, woodworking, antiques and gardening. Each of these categories
connects to Winterthur’s past.”
Winterthur spokesman Jason Brudereck said the event also introduces people to Winterthur and perhaps broadens the institution’s audience.
“The audience is still people who enjoy American craftsmanship,” Brudereck said, “but I think we’re probably bringing in some different people with a market than we are with our regular museum offerings.”
Sarah Bourne Rafferty, who will sell her cyanotypes at the Winterthur Artisan Fair, says she loves talking to customers.
Sarah Rafferty
Many of the items offered for sale have some kind of botanical theme or connection to nature, which artist Sarah Rafferty of Atwater Designs in West Chester, Pennsylvania, believes is deliberate and meant to evoke Winterthur’s spectacular gardens cultivated under H.F. du Pont.
Rafferty, who creates botanical art using plants and a photographic process called cyanotype, and says she likes the caliber of her fellow artists at the market.
“I think like it’s much more geared towards art and fine craft without being like a fine craft show,” she said. “I think that they really hone in on the botanical arts, which is perfect for their audience.
“But what’s amazing is that then they share their audience with us as artists, and we botanical artists or people inspired by nature want the audience who’s gonna just eat up your work. I think Winterthur does such a great job of partnering us with their audience.”
She is featured in the current edition of Magnolia Journal and was a recent Winterthur artist-in-residence.
Rafferty discovered cyanotyping when she was studying photography. It’s a genre called alternative process photography that includes daguerreotype and tintype.
She places leaves, branches or other pieces of plants onto paper she’s prepared with chemicals and exposes it to the sun. The results are vibrant, but soothing images against a serene sapphire blue background.
Rafferty has built a successful business selling original work and running workshops out of her studio.
“I just, I love, I love being outside, and it is the foundation of all of my work,” she said. “Not just nature, but the headspace that we embody when we are in nature is really where the work is.”
Renita Coursey took up beading as a way of getting in touch with her Nanticoke heritage.
Renita Coursey
This is the first year Renita Coursey will participate in the Artisan Fair.
Coursey is one of three artisans whose businesses received grants to participate in the market. The others are Mike and Alysha Borio of MB Woodworking and Eva Dillon of Salvage_19144.
She didn’t start beading until March of 2022 when she returned home to Millsboro after earning two college degrees, a stint in the U.S. Navy and a divorce. She reconnected with her childhood sweetheart and now they are the parents of two children.
“Moving back home really sparked the connection with my tribe and subsequently, beadwork,” she said. “There’s a lot of women in my tribe that come together and hold classes and sew ribbon skirts and, you know, practice beadwork. That’s how I got reintroduced to it and and fell in love with it.”
Some of her pieces feature depictions of animals.
“I think it’s pretty common knowledge that in Native American culture animal totems were used pretty significantly to send messages, or to be reminders for certain things,” she said. “I thought it would be a cool idea to integrate the animal totem idea with a fashion statement for people to wear.”
She hopes to expand her stock of those time-consuming people and to continue to become and expert ribbon skirt creator.
“One of my goals is to combine traditional native ideas with modern streetwear,” said Coursey, who sells her creations under the name of The Nanticoke Native.
A veterinary nurse by day, she hopes to move more into working with hide like deer or moose. It can be ordered from various places or bought at powwow shops.
“That kind of really makes me feel like I’m doing something that my ancestors did,” she said. “I’m working with materials similar to what they worked with, and it’s kind of like a cool connection.”
Marcie McGoldrick will sell her porcelain jewelry, dishes and candles she makes using molds of vintage Grand Tour cameos from Rome.
Marcie McGoldrick
Marcie McGoldrick, a former editorial director for crafts and holiday at Martha Stewart, will be selling her jewelry, dishes, candles and more she’s made with porcelain she mixes and pours herself.
She pours the liquid porcelain into molds she’s made herself from her collection of Pompei and Herculaneum cameos.
Some of Marcie McGoldrick’s pendants.
“They were the original souvenirs when people would go on the Grand Tour, and they were miniatures of different works of art and things that people would see,” she said. “You can buy them sometimes you see them in antique stores and they’re framed, and there’s like a grouping of them, but sometimes you can buy them separately.”
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McGoldrick uses a process called slip casting.
“I tell people it’s a bit like the chocolate rabbits that you get in the spring,” she said. “You pour the chocolate in and you let it sit and it hardens on the shell, and then you dump out the liquid in the middle. It’s the same type of thing.”
She studied industrial design in grad school and took a class on slip casting and began doing it as a hobby. Now it’s the basis of her business, headquartered in Orland, Pennsylvania.
McGoldrick got involved with the Artisan Market when one of the organizers reached out. She was familiar with the cultural institution because she and her mother used to go there during the holidays.
“I don’t do a ton of shows, but I do a handful,” she said. “Some people that are at other shows reached out and said that they were doing it as well. So I’m excited to see them there.”
Emily Scott and Julia Tyler founded Dance Happy when Julia couldn’t find a traditional job.
Dance Happy
Making its first appearance at the Artisan fair will be the social impact brand Dance Happy. Its textile patterns are designed and screen printed by co-founder Julia Tyler, who has Down syndrome.
Part of the company’s mission, says Emily Scott, the other co-founder, is to spread the message that those with the syndrome have much to offer the world, including work.
The company, which produces all kinds of bags, bins and art, has been sold through Nordstrom, Madewell and Aerie, as well as more than 40 boutique and specialty retailers.
Dance Happy has an office in Wilmington and studio outside Philly.
Scott and Tyler met about 12 years ago when Tyler was looking for an internship while in high school. They started the company eight years ago when Julia was having trouble finding a traditional job.
The company got its name from Julia.
“Aside from designing, her favorite thing to do in the whole world is dance,” Scott said. “When Julie’s happy, she dances, like even in the office, she’ll just kind of stop and start dancing. So when we started the company, we decided we wanted the products we made to make people so happy that they were dance happy.”
Julia has been battling cancer, which is in remission, and won’t be at the market, but Scott will be.
She had been meaning to apply for the Artisan Market but kept forgetting the application is due soon than you’d expect. This year, she marked it on her calendar so she wouldn’t forget.
Dance Happy is growing.
“Part of our mission is to create meaningful employment for other people with disabilities,” Scott said. “A big part of what we’re trying to do is just continue to grow the brand so that we can create those good, meaningful jobs.”
Betsy Price is a Wilmington freelance writer who has 40 years of experience.
