Makers Market At The Point Series One
Thompson's Point in Portland, Maine puts together a series of Makers Market events where craftspeople around the state get together to showcase their work. Kristan Vermeulen kicks off the interview series at their September event where she interviews a hand weaver who recently started her business, The Cultivated Thread, a quilter who started this as a side gig and full-time is a frontline worker, JP Quilts, and a woodworker who laser engraves, cuts and dye-sublimates, Benoit Design Co.
“I am a hand weaver and I use a relatively small floor loom and it's a very hands on process. And my main products are kitchen towels, hand towels, things for drying things, and scarves. And I do make a few other things. But weaving is what I do,” says Hilary Crowell, owner and founder of The Cultivated Thread.
Hilary has a passion for farming but needed to find a hobby during the wintertime as farming tends to slow down in the colder months. Weaving became a passion and she recently built a business to showcase her skills and people enjoy her designs and products.
Photographed by Frances Mahoney
Kitchen towels, placemats and coasters hand woven by Hilary.
“I spend a lot of time imagining colors and then the process becomes a bit less imaginative and more calculated, literally calculated. There's a lot of math. So I think about, “Okay, what am I making? How big does it need to be? How much will it shrink once I wash it, and then calculate to make sure I add extra to account for shrinkage? Is it going to be hemmed or have fringe?” I imagine the finished product, which sometimes is a lot to think about, yet very good for my brain…carefully and without any feline help I take all of these threads that are counted and measured and in a very particular order to the loom and the next part of the process is dressing the loom, and all together, it usually takes me maybe three to four hours to do the those steps that are involved in dressing the loom. But sometimes if I do hit a snag or a cat gets involved, which really doesn't happen that often, but sometimes it does, and then it can take a little longer. But each individual thread has two distinct places it gets threaded through. So that means if I'm making a piece that has that's 400 threads wide, I've handled that thread now, at least, three times, like once in winding the warp once in what's called slaying through the read, which governs the distance between threads, and then one by one going through a heddle, which is what governs the pattern, then ultimately the pattern of the weave,” says Hilary.
Hilary’s works of art encompass colors that create eye catching pieces. She is a true artist between her hand weaving and time on the farm.
Photographed by Frances Mahoney
Hilary taking in the sights of the market with her beautiful scarves in the background.
“I mostly concentrate on quilts from baby quilts all the way up to queen size. What got me started in it was, by coincidence, a friend said, “Hey, let's go take a class at Portland Adult Ed.” And I said, “I don't want to take the quilting class.” And I've sewn pretty much all my life so I knew how to sew and everything. So I said, “Alright.” So we took the class and there I loved it, I absolutely fell in love with quilting and from that point on. My friend only made it through the first class and never signed back up. Then within a couple years, there was eight of us that seemed to be signing up for the same class over and over again and we became a little pack. We now still quilt together, a couple of them have left because of health reasons or other reasons but there are about eight of us and we quilt about five weeks a year. But we're called the the Fantastic Eight and so we have an instructor who has always guided us and given us projects. But the wonderful thing about our instructor was that over the years, she taught us a technique, not a pattern. So with that being said, you know, one class, we learned 16 different ways to make a flying goose square. But by the time we were done, we could pick and choose, which was the one that we liked. So instead of learning pattern she taught us techniques,” says Jami, the owner and founder of JP Quilts.
Jami Bouley started his craft of quilting by taking a class with a friend which then turned into a hobby he will never stop doing. He has built his business by going to craft shows throughout the state and even some out of the state. He's known for his Maine inspired quilts as well as his cardinal themed quilts.
Photographed by Frances Mahoney
Jami’s quilts are one-of-a-kind as they hold various designs that take a lot of skill to craft.
Photographed by Frances Mahoney
Jami (left) learned his skills from the instructor (right) and continues to learn from her through the Fantastic Eight group.
“I'm an operating room nurse and so my day is getting up walking the dog and feeding the animals and going to work at 6:30 am. Fortunately, I love my job, and I love what I do…with COVID happening, and pretty much everything getting shut down for us this year, I kind of set myself a little challenge. Back in February, I guess, that I was going to try to make a quilt top a day…I pretty much got about 140 out of the 175 projects completed,” says Jami.
Jami has a busy life between being a full-time nurse and taking on his quilting projects but he enjoys every minute of it. Every quilt tells a story and he loves taking on new, challenging projects.
Photographed by Frances Mahoney
Jami showcasing his well-known cardinal designed quilt.
“We are a lifestyle brand based around laser engraving, cutting and dye sublimation technology. So we make a lot of different products, whether it's home decor and gifts, or whether it's apparel. We've run a business in the last couple years where it was about 50/50 service work for local people as well as our own products. And so we've focused a lot more recently on building that product portfolio doing a lot more design and development on that laser design and also the dye sublimation,” says Greg Benoit, owner and founder of Benoit Design Co.
Greg is continuing his family tradition of offering beautifully crafted products to the public but he is doing things a little differently by offering a broad set of services. His brand offers their own collection and they also work with other brands on custom products.
“There's a lot of Maine history in the brand Benoit's so it's interesting to carry it on and we're very honored to do that. Benoit's have been a part of the Maine history for over 100 years now selling products and selling goods through the Maine community up until the 1990’s. So being able to reinvigorate the brands and launch it as a new take on what we want to become in terms of a company that also services people but also in being a sense of community, but also providing high quality products and continuing that sort of belief that the old Benoit's shared is being is really important to us,” says Greg.
Photographed by Frances Mahoney
Benoit Design Co.’s handcrafted products displayed in their shop on wheels.
Photographed by Frances Mahoney
Kristan Vermeulen interviewing Greg Benoit.
Greg and his team source their products with made in USA materials and they are looking to expand their operations by hiring immigrants in the local area who are looking for work.
“We try to strive to carry everything that's US based. And everything that we sell and make and manufacture is US grade material. In terms of Maine based products, we try to support as many local distributors of those raw goods, whether it's our wood products, in our soft goods. But it is tough sometimes. In order to try to find the right distributors to give you that right material. So we've had to outsource a couple of our products to the west coast. We buy from California as well as a company out in Washington for some of our other products, but we try to keep it local as we possibly can…we're in the process of working with a local community organization called Sewing For Seeds of Change, where we're going to be hiring some immigrant people to come in and become our sewers. So we're really excited about that,” adds Greg.
Greg continues to expand his brand outside of Maine and hopes to grow their own collection and add to his custom projects.
One can check out these vendors at upcoming Makers Markets on the Point at Thompson’s Point in November and December, just in time for the holidays. Tune in for more episodes in this series to learn more about other makers that vend at this popular event.