Mindy Thompson is the creative mind - and hands - of Mindy Makes. Her delightful line of hand-sewn items includes reversible capes for little girls and little boys, summer dresses for little girls (most are reversible and some even come with matching bloomers), baby bibs, burp cloths, nursing covers and purses. Mindy partners with her mother in the making of the clothes - and who doesn't love a business owned and operated by family?
Mindy wrote up a biography to share with her customers: Mindys Makes began a year ago after many suggestions from friends who liked the items I was creating for my son, my daughter and myself. After my son was born four years ago, I used my mom's sewing machine with my very basic knowledge of sewing (I could sew a mostly straight line) to make a baby blanket for my son. It was fun so I made blankets for my friends' new children. Then I made burp cloths, took some lessons and received a new machine for Christmas. From there I explores and expanded. Mindys Makes began with just me, Mindy. But my mom, Debbie, could not stay away. She loves to make this for her grandchildren and has been sewing for most of her life, so she gladly joined me and now we work together to make unique, fun and colorful itms for young children. In addition to children's items, I love taking a couple of pieces of fabric, playing around with them to shape them into purses. Aside from creating and designing items to sell, I spend most of my time playing with my two children. I have a son who will be five in February and my daughter is two and a half. Before children, I spent my days educating high school students about he mysteries of the world, using physics. Everything I make is something that I want to put on my daughter or son, or use myself. One of the hardest things about his business is not keeping the dresses, aprons and flannel pants for my own children. Often times, they come to visit me at the market and see something that they claim is "mine!". Mindys Makes started as an online business with little direction of where to sell, but as the year progresses and summer came along, I discovered the farmers market. It is a venue that I really enjoy and where I have found a little niche. I sell at other crafter's shows, bazaars and street festivals in the area as well, but I also enjoy the familiar clientele of the farmers market in Cameron Station Renee Clement is famous at the West End Farmers Market for creating crystal clear, exquisitely colorful images and using them to embellish gift bags, cards, decorative objects and journals. Renee has owned and operated her small business since 1995. She includes her family members, friends and pets of family members and friends as her inspiration - and as her models. Renee's note cards are perfect for birthdays, weddings, new babies, anniversaries, Halloween, Valentine’s Day and Easter. Photos capture the four seasons, flowers, beach scenes, cats, dogs, travel scenes from around the United States, military themes and monuments from around Washington, D.C.
Ernest Pazmany of Bella Tierra creates hand-crafted gold and silver necklaces, bracelets, rings and pendants from unique, one of a kind, minerals, stones, and semi-precious jewels. He chooses stones carefully when he travels, making available to customers beautifully crafted one of a kind pieces.
Lynne Orens started making jewelry about 8 years ago, fixing broken jewelry and making gifts. She has been a social worker for the past 35 years, and finds designing jewelry to be like art therapy! Lynne loves shopping for beads and findings, looking for unique glass, natural stones, wood, resin, and acrylic beads, and putting things together. Her style is pretty tailored and classic, so the jewelry tends to be just like that. She tries to pay attention to trends in jewelry and fashion, so her pieces are very wearable and versatile.
Lynne loves being out in the fresh air and chatting with people at the West End Farmer's Market about her beads and her passion. She also love special orders! One of our artists, Patrice Valle, is the creative force behind Paper Scissor Fabric and Clay. She loves color and texture in any shape or form so everything has the potential for transformation. Patrice tends to look at life sideways and you'll see from her designs that not everything conforms to generic expectations. She makes jewelry and bowls from fabric, paper and/or clay. There's a new line of fabric charm bracelets. Here's just one example of the kind of work she does:
All your favorite vendors will be at the market on May 1 - and hopefully a few more to add to the spice and pizazz of our market. We look forward to welcoming new vendors selling pickles and more prepared foods.
Our vendors as of today:
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West End Farmers Market
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