Artisans’ fest celebrates Fine Works Washington County group to display handmade crafts at gathering

BAILEYVILLE – Much of weaver Nan Sepik’s home on the South Princeton Road this weekend will be transformed into a gallery of finely crafted jewelry, hand-woven clothing, intricate woodcarvings, stained glass and delicately dyed fabrics. Pounded-flower greeting cards, painted floor cloths, sweet-grass baskets, and hand-turned burl bowls will fill the space usually reserved for the Washington County artisan’s loom.

Handmade soaps, herbs, flowering plants, wool-felted accessories, wall quilts and silver holloware will vie for the viewer’s attention as fiddle tunes and the aroma of freshly brewed coffee fill the air.

The May 4-5 show at Sepik’s Daylily studio is becoming a rite of spring for devotees of Fine Works, a Washington County artisans’ collective that Sepik and her friends founded a year and a half ago.

Fine Works’ Spring Festival is the collective’s fourth show and will feature the work of guest artists and associates of the seven friends who banded together a year and a half ago to market their work.

“At first, we had a lot of grandiose ideas about opening a store,” said Beverly Runyan, a domestic violence educator who will be showing her painted canvas floor cloths, handmade journals and greeting cards.

Scott Withers, a physician assistant whose silver and gold jewelry and silver holloware will be on display, said he and Sepik came up with the idea of an art collective during a discussion about an article she’d read on a craft co-operative.

“We can do that!” Withers remembers saying. “We know a lot of talented people.”

One of those people is Withers’ wife, Marjorie, a mental health consultant who creates cards and small prints by “pounding” flowers and plants, leaving their impression on the paper.

“This has really been a sanity-maker,” she said, laughing.

Sue Martell, who teaches first-graders in Woodland, describes her woven handbags and quilted wall hangings as “my passions.” She also makes herbal eye bags, balsam bags and brightly-colored neck cushions filled with grains and native herbs.

Gal Frey is known for her meticulously designed beaded jewelry, but this year she is also selling the ash and sweet-grass baskets she’s learned to make during a two-year apprenticeship with Sylvia Gabriel, a nationally known basket maker from Indian Township.

Peter Moore has been fashioning leather moccasins, jackets and coats for 10 years and is equally admired for the intricate designs he carves into walking and talking sticks – a Passamaquoddy symbol that is passed from person to person in traditional talking circles.

Sepik, who left her job as a physician assistant three years ago and turned her living room into a weaving studio, creates jackets, hand-dyed and painted silk skirts and an array of accessories including woven hats.

She was busy last week having some of her pieces photographed in preparation for inclusion in an art clothing catalogue.

This weekend’s show will be busy, but the members of Fine Works have built in an instant stress-reliever.

Don Green of Petite Retreat in Machias will be offering chair massages throughout the weekend.

Spring Festival will take place on Saturday, May 4, from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. and Sunday, May 5, from noon to 4 p.m. Daylily Studio is located at 2269 South Princeton Road in Baileyville. From Calais, take Route 1A to Baileyville and turn left on the South Princeton Road between the car wash and the church. Daylily is one mile down on the left.

From Machias or Bangor, take Route 9 to Alexander and turn left onto the South Princeton Road after Pleasant Lake. Follow the South Princeton Road for four miles and bear right at the sign for the Woodland Road. Daylily Studio is about one mile down on the right. For more information, call 427-6070.