Visiting an artisan's workshop allows you to go behind the scenes and actually speak to someone who lives, breathes, and works in the location you are visiting.  It opens a window to the community, its lifestyle, economy, history and culture - in essence, it lets you peek into the soul of the community. Watching a product be transformed from raw materials to high quality uniquely-made craft or agri-food product gives you a memory to take away from this encounter. 

Each product tells a story.

Susan Keeping

Susan Keeping

I learned to knit when I was 5 years old from my mom. I started knitting clothes for my dolls and went from there. Dad likes to tell the story that the first pair socks I knit were so tight they were waterproof. As I got older I started knitting sweaters for myself with no patterns just out of my head and then I learned to read patterns which opened a whole new world for me. I also taught myself to read the patterns. I learned to crochet at 15 and thought that was wonderful because I could do it so fast and it was something I could make money at. Doilies were all the rage back then. I would do 5 piece sets and sell them for $20.00, that was a lot of money to me back then. This was taught to me by my mom. I’ve tried my hand at hand at plastic canvas and cross stitch but didn’t like either of them, I had to learn to do it just so I could say I knew how to do it. My latest adventure is quilting, I can make a top for a quilt now I need to know how to put the whole thing together.

 
Marge

Marge Keeping

I have been making different types of crafts from a very young age. I am a self taught artist in painting, different types of mat making, paper mache, sewing, household decorations, and much more. I make much of my items from materials collected from the outdoors and recycling.