Makers’ Market:

Artisans showcase their creative talent at open-air Atlanta event

Atlanta’s first Local Maker’s Market limited itself to a fivehour display of creative endeavors by enthusiastic local artists.

The concept for a local maker’s market is that participants are limited to being from 50 miles or less from Atlanta. The vendors’ crafts and art are vetted to be “handmade, homemade and homegrown.” No resale items here.

“Exceeded our expectations,” Atlanta Area Chamber of Commerce communications manager Kendell Wolfe said of the event.

“It was exciting to see just how many people we have doing things in their spare time who are creative and using their talents even though they may have fulltime jobs.”

Twenty-eight crafters and artists set up their booths and tents in the Woods Park on East Hiram in Atlanta for the 8 a.m. to 1 p.m. show Saturday. The event was held in conjunction with the fifth annual Steven Smith Memorial Classic Car Cruise Nite later that evening.

Both events exceeded expectations. Booths were filled with fresh and unusual works. Several salespeople at each location eagerly helped explain their work to the passers-by.

The location of the market at Woods Park in downtown

Atlanta was convenient and just the right size for such a gathering. People and tables were close together, encouraging talk and the greeting of friends. It seemed that the people were happy to be out and about after weeks of quarantine.

During the event, Lauren Caraway with her “Nailed It! — Custom Name and

String Art” display won the $250 Community Cultivation Award sponsored by Price Hardware.

“We may do this again in the fall,” Wolfe said.

The city is capable of handling the local makers’ market’s possible expansion. Atlanta’s downtown already has two open-space parks which could host an overflow of artists and their displays.

The accompanying photos show a number of local artists and their works.

“It was exciting to see just how many people we have doing things in their spare time who are creative and using their talents even though they may have full-time

jobs.”

—Atlanta Area Chamber of Commerce communications manager Kendell Wolfe

Staff photos by Neil Abeles ■ Atlanta’s first five-hour Local Maker’s Market at Woods Park spilled over into the street Saturday morning on East Hiram. The Easley family attracted attention with their interesting signs and displays at the park entrance.

■ Dewanna Sanders, left, and Brittany Aucoin show just a sample of the artfully made pine cones they have created. The family business is GBC Crafts of Atlanta and features everything homemade.

■ LEFT: John Smith is a welder of sparkling wind chimes and other objects of silver. They are his passion, he said. He had been an industrial welder who incurred physical disabilities from that line of work. ■ ABOVE: John Delafield is an individual who makes art his career. He’s an eighth-grade art teacher near Houston who spends vacation and summers here in Atlanta. He’s showing his pottery work in front of a self-portrait he created.

■ Chris and his mother, Dee Dee Easley, are happy to get down close to the colorful brick and concrete flagstones she makes. “I paint, and we get orders from all over for the bricks, which once were made here in an Atlanta factory,” Dee Dee tells of just one of her spare-time hobbies.

■ ABOVE: Jeanna Murray has a convincing reason for purchasing her soap. “Most commercial soap is detergent,” she said. “Mine is carefully made with oils that can be special made for the person. It is also wonderfully scented and long-lasting.” Her company’s name is Jay Ellen’s Handmade Soap.

■ ABOVE: The family of GBC Crafts in Atlanta has made this unusual sign to be used at weddings which normally would have a bride’s and a groom’s side for seating. “Now that they’re together forever we want you to sit wherever,” the sign says.