News — 1 Minute Read

All the events I've had leading up to this weekend were the perfect way to prime my system for the back to back events I booked for last weekend- the Glen Ridge Arts & Eco Fair on Saturday and the Montclair Flea on Sunday. And what a weekend! The weather cooperated, though the threat of rain on Saturday afternoon made tear down a bit chaotic and had me worrying that I'd be packing up the rental car with wet gear. A downpour never materialized and the light drizzle didn't disrupt my plans. So grateful! My booth on Saturday at the...

My in-person event season has gotten off to a fantastic start! In case you missed it, I popped up at Anthropologie with my Montclair Made paper heart garlands, and introduced my Montclair Creative Reuse Project to the community at Montclair's Earth Fest! At Anthropologie I displayed paper heart garlands, delicate decorations made from repurposed papers like vintage sheet music, field guide books, and atlas pages. I brought my sewing machine and stitched up garlands at the event. Midway through my scheduled time my friend Stephanie from Styled Blu arrived unexpectedly and popped up across from me! It was great to...

"Cycling is my passion". This phrase is delivered with deadpan perfection in the insurance company commercial and just thinking about it makes me laugh. But when I want to take a vacation in my mind, the imagery of riding off into the sunset on my bike is easy to access. I am openly trying to recapture my 13-year-old self on a 10-day YMCA  Adventure Camp bike trip from Portland, ME to Acadia National Park, a trip that truly informed my identity as a non-car-owning, casual-clothes-wearing, groceries-taste-better-when-you-carry-them-home-on-your-bike bike rider. Biking is my passion! Montclair is a bike community! Bike & Walk...

Like the consistent use of text as a design element in all my creations, marking anniversaries or special dates has become a familiar characteristic of my products.  For example, the bird ornaments I make from vintage calendar tea towels can be customized with an embroidered circle around the date on one wing and the month on the other. Apart from marking an occasion, I often consider the duration of time that goes into making something. I was recently confronted with an alarming reminder of how long it's taken me to complete a project I started in 2019 - how has...

When coronavirus began presenting, and self-isolation was fresh, Montclair Made was gaining new wholesale customers on Faire and maintaining a storefront on Etsy. I was comfortable where I was, so confident of a future with a steady workload that I had already made the decision not to vend at any craft shows in 2020. I made this choice after traveling to shows for 3 decades, and enduring losses for the last few years. But I could justify the choice to save time and money by staying home and fulfilling larger orders that were rolling in since I joined Faire in...