Valley craft festival a hands-on experience
Vendors at the Blackstone Valley Craft and Music Festival try to stand out from the crowd
WOONSOCKET – Tim Sandy and his wife Paula were offering all natural homemade soaps at the various markets they’d travel to for their business, Wholistic Essence. But as Tim looked around at some of the other vendors, he noticed a trend: many also had their own soaps.
“We had to find something to stick us out,” Tim Sandy said. That’s when the proverbial light bulb lit up over his head. He decided to use his two acres of land and the various gourds they grow to create something entirely new and unique – hand-crafted gourd birdhouses.
“It differentiates us,” he said. The husband and wife duo have been in the soap business for three years and have been hand-crafting their gourd birdhouses for two years. The gourds are grown on their land in Rehoboth, wood-burned, shellacked, colored, and winterized. Tim then
drills holes of various sizes for different birds to call home. The process, from growth to sale, he said, takes about 18 months.
These colorful and uniquely-shaped birdhouses then hit the markets, where curious patrons are intrigued by the products – and since they are grown from the farm, no two are exactly alike.
This sort of unique craftsmanship was seen across River Island Park in Woonsocket Saturday, with the second-annual Blackstone Valley Craft and Music Festival. Seventy-five local art and craft exhibitors brought to the park an interactive shopping experience featuring activities, do-it-yourself workshops, and demonstrations. Live entertainment with dance and music of all genres served to celebrate and unify the art and culture experience.
Among the rows of artists inside the park on Saturday was Jason Roze of Tiverton. His business – Rozeworks – creates leather bracelets and jeweled necklaces. Roze said he started making leather bracelets for his friends as a hobby and would use stones and sea glass from the beach to add to his necklaces. But about a year and a half ago, the hobby “got into something better” and grew into a business.
“Things took off...” he said. “I try to be as creative as possible without taking away from the natural essence. It still possesses its earthbound beauty.”
Despite the elaborate appearance of his necklaces, Roze has become so adept at creating his pieces that it only takes him between 45 minutes to an hour to make one. The leather, he said, has a little more “trial and error” with braiding and branding.
Roze said what got him started on making leather bracelets for his friends was that he had “all this leather hanging around” from his job working on orthotic footwear.
His products have a wide-ranging audience from teenagers to septuagenarians, he explained, and nothing fills him with more pride than to see one of his bracelets or necklaces worn by a person who traditionally wears “refined jewelry.”
“Not coming from a jewelry background, that’s a good feeling … I dove right into it and people were asking,” he said.
The Blackstone Valley Craft and Music Festival continues today from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. at River Island Park on Bernon Street.