Blogger Amanda Rae Busch shopping at the 2010 Holiday Handmade Festival (Photo: Wright and Wilk)
(PITTSFIELD, Mass.) – The Alchemy Initiative’s Handmade Holiday Festival, featuring nearly forty artisan vendors selling food, gifts, and greenery, kicks off with a Preview Party on Friday, December 2, 2011, from 4 to 7 p.m., at the former Notre Dame church at 40 Melville St. Shoppers are given first dibs on one-of-a-kind handmade products. There will be a festive atmosphere with holiday music, delectables, a cash bar, and artist-filled goodie bags for the first 30 attendees. Tickets are $20 and can be purchased at the door.
A juried craft show, the Handmade Holiday Festival includes quilt-maker Lisa Gamble and letterpress printer Zoe Ink. Vermont’s Elmore Mountain Farm will feature natural body products made from their own goat’s milk. Voted one of the top ten best bread bakeries in America by Bon Appetit Magazine, Berkshire Mountain Bakery will participate, and other vendors include Cedar Farm, Tom Fiorini, Shire City Herbals, and Moho Designs.
Crispina ffrench models her handmade apron skirt by Sarah O. Green of Mountain Ash Design at our Handmade Holiday Festival 2010. (photo: Sarah O. Green)
New this year is the ‘Drop and Shop’ program. In response to seeing family shoppers not get the full Handmade Holiday Festival experience, this year parents can drop off children at Bisque, Beads & Beyond for a 2-hour art project while they shop hands-free at the Handmade Holiday Festival. Drop and Shop reservations appreciated by November 30; call 413.442.9300.
General admission runs from December 2, 7 to 9 p.m. and December 3, from 10 to 6 p.m. Tickets are $4.
A countdown to the festival, highlighting a vendor each day, has begun and can be viewed here.
Alchemy Initiative builds community by providing a forum for food and farming, art and music, health and healing and sustainable living. Alchemy Initiative aspires to educate and engage the community to communicate, collaborate and create.