Once again our Firefly Handmade Gypsy Farm Market was a very successful endeavor! This year we added ‘Little Gypsy’ a younger aged marketplace of talented young vendors. Shoppers, parents and younger crafters alike were pleased with the addition and all the fun!

We also added a lovely creative lounge full of sponsor given books and magazines for shoppers to peruse while resting on our fabulous straw bale sofa! Thanks to all the Boulderites for your support and attendance. If you are interested in learning more, check out the site: Firefly Handmade.

Swapping food, either casually among neighbors or in an organized group, is reviving a barter-and-trade system for food that went away with the introduction of the modern grocery store, when Americans stopped worrying about growing, trading or stocking up on enough food to make it through the year.

As everyone grew accustomed to shopping for prepackaged foods made in factories, we lost the art of acquiring things to eat from people we know. But recently more people are growing, making and preserving foods, drinks, and goods that they once bought from a store and are rediscovering the benefits of trading goods locally, building community. Swaps are a wonderful opportunity to meet others who are interested in gardening, food preservation, beekeeping, and other sustainable, DIY activities. It’s like trick-or-treating for adults.

There are some of these swap groups right here in Colorado. The Mile High Swappers meet in Denver/Boulder and Fort Collins once a month. No money is exchanged, just think of it as a DIY potluck party! Participants bring at least 3-5 items to swap, but they don’t all have to be the same thing. Other groups in the state are in Colorado Springs with two versions the Pikes Peak Community Cupboard and Bear Roots Urban Homesteading. The Pueblo version is Homestyle Swap Meet. These free community events support local agriculture and encourage turning your backyard into a working mini farm of sorts to create  “swapable” items.  Every  community should have one of these locavore haunts! I now know where to take my pickles, jams, fruits and herbs!!

If you’d like to find a food swap in your area, check out the fabulous Food Swap Network!!!

Example of items to bring for bartering:

•Fresh produce, fruit, sprouts, and herbs from your garden.
•Backyard/Farm fresh eggs, cheese, baked goods, savory snacks, honey
•Preserved, pickled, fermented items, vegetarian soups, stocks
•Homemade condiments, dips, spreads, and toppings
•Handmade soaps, lip balms, lotions, and other beauty products
•Crochet/knitted items, handmade jewelry, handmade cards, etc
•Useful garden tools, household and camping/backpacking items
•Homemade flavored salts, spice blends, seasonings
•Seeds, seedlings, compost, soil
•Homemade soda pop, fruit juices, drink mixes

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Made by Hand / Teaser

Made by Hand are a series of short films celebrating the people who makes things by hand — sustainably, locally, and with a love for their craft. From The Bureau of Common Goods.

Its Open Studios season again! I frequent this every year, but this time I will visit the studios of Patricia Chapman–assemblage art, Rebecca DiDomenico-mixed media, Alix Christian-encaustic, Dawn Spencer Hurwitz-ethereal painting and Kristin Fitzgerrell-assemblage art. Happy October!

Boulder artist Kristin Fitzgerrell is gracious enough to open her home up every year during Boulder Open Studios to a barrage of eager art hunters ready to snap up her bold wall sculpture pieces and wooden assemblage. Her bright cheerful works are born from her previous life as a graphic designer in her amazingly inspiring studio and wood workshop. In wood, her work is still illustrative, textured  & bold. Her wonderfully decorated modern home (which she designed) shows like gallery with her creations of signage, lighting designs and personal flair. Kristin’s artwork is influenced by vintage country kitsch and modern chic.

Her art and interior projects support the comfort of her family life and even benefit the family dog who has artfully designed places for snoozing. Her interior environment is an ever changing project with endless hobbies spilling out into the kitchen in the form of super sweet ripe tomatoes and other fabulous treats.

What is most impressive about this local Boulder artist and friend is that she lives what she does on a daily basis, letting it enrich her life, her family’s life and that of her friends and even strangers when she warmly opens up her life to expose her creative process and environs.

Don’t miss her at the next Boulder Open Studios, when she exhibits this year at the Cherry Creek Art Festival or at another one of her joint ventures Firefly Handmade.

Pluckyfluff is the creative brainchild of pioneering hand yarn spinner Lexi Boeger from Placerville, California. The recipient of a bachelor’s degree in fine art from UC Davis, author Lexi Boeger is the founder of Pluckyfluff.com, a website for unusual handspun yarns and fiber art.

Lexi is an amazing innovator of new, non-traditional spinning techniques and inclusions in the yarn. Her gorgeous handspun yarns are a notable contribution to new urban craft culture. She is also the author of “Intertwined: The Art of Handspun Yarn, Modern Patterns and Creative Spinning” a new release from Quarry Books. She has previously self-published “Plucklyfluff Handspun Revolution.”

Some of her colorful yarns contain tinsel, shredded paper, vintage fabrics, recycled sari silk, small toys, feathers, ribbon, sequins, candy wrappers, plastic flowers and more. These gorgeous yarns are perfect for a unique knitting, crocheting or weaving project and can be purchased on her site.

Artist and Illustrator Carla Sonheim is the author of “Drawing Lab for Mixed Media Artists: 52 Creative Exercises to Make Drawing Fun”. She teaches creativity workshops in Seattle, showing spontaneous, playful approaches to creating.

She crafted these adorable animals out of recycled materials.