AUSTINTOWN — People found countless ways to deal with the upheaval and high stress and anxiety associated with the COVID-19 pandemic, but Linda O’Neill found a diamond in the rough — or, more precisely, many of them.

“I’ve been doing this since the pandemic hit. I’ve done 240, and I take orders,” O’Neill, of Liberty, said.

The 240 she referred to denotes the number of diamond-based paintings she has carefully created during the health crisis. She had a few dozen of the artwork pieces for sale during Saturday’s artisan farmers market in Austintown Township Park, 6000 Kirk Road.

Typically, the biweekly gatherings draw 24 to 30 vendors, and they will continue for several more Saturdays in August and September, Stacey Willis, event coordinator, noted.

For her works, O’Neill, who named her business Just Shenanigans, establishes numbered color codes and works row by row. Then she uses a dough cutter to run down the lines of diamonds to ensure they’re straight before adding a specialized glue to give the crystals an added glittery look then adding the frame for them to be hung.

O’Neill has crafted such works to represent all of the NFL teams, with her favorite being the Green Bay Packers. On the more sobering side, she made a piece depicting the World Trade Center with an American flag wrapped around the north and south towers. She also has made many to honor veterans and those currently serving in the military.

“All of my Cleveland Browns are gone,” O’Neill said, adding that the Ohio State Buckeyes is the only college football team for which she’s designed and framed a diamond-filled piece.

O’Neill, who works at Walmart in Liberty, also has spent about 20 years creating sports- and holiday-themed wreaths, some of which she was selling Saturday. In addition, she spent the pandemic making an estimated 400 masks.

Crafting rocks was more the calling for many children that included siblings Ryland and Reghan Koch, 10 and 13, respectively, as well as Bryce Clay, 10, and Liam Hoover, 12, all of Austintown.

They and others painted the rocks as part of an ongoing project to build a snake figure from the rocks “to see how long we can make it grow,” said Willis, who also thanked the Austintown Home Depot store for donating 12 bags of rocks.

Of course, offering healthful food choices was part and parcel of Saturday’s farmers market, and that included a tent under which Tim and Julie Klaus of Austintown were selling varieties of microgreens.

“They’re basically your pre-vegetable of a full-grown vegetable,” Tim Klaus said. He, along with his wife, runs Wholly Organic Microgreens.

An inherent value of the greens is that their small size contains a high density of nutrients — considerably greater than those found in mature vegetables such as broccoli, where nutrients are more spread out and can be somewhat depleted, Tim Klaus explained.

The couple, who are local growers, harvests the microgreens once per week. At the farmers market, they had for sale small sunflower, pea, beet and broccoli varieties, as well as a crunchy mix.

Health benefits of microgreens include boosting one’s immune system, reducing inflammation, contributing to weight loss, reducing the risk of chronic diseases and improving one’s gut health, he continued.

The husband and wife team began growing their product in March. They also use organic dirt, fertilizer and seeds with water, Tim Klaus said.

“I’m eating a lot more veggies and beans. Moderation is the key,” said Cindy Evans of Austintown, who stopped by the Klaus’ tent.

Other vendors at the farmers market included Saltlick Flower Farm in Salem, Tammy Hill Designs LLC and Fudge Jubilee.

If you go …

WHAT: Artisan farmers markets

WHERE: Austintown Township Park’s Pogany Pavilion, 6000 Kirk Road, Austintown

WHEN: 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. Aug. 5 and 19 as well as Sept. 9, 16 and 23

ADMISSION: Free

The Red Wing community showed up to support Indigenous artists in Central Park.

Several Indigenous artists and business owners lined up their booths in the park for the Honoring Dakota project’s Indigenous Art Market. 

The event is a part of several community events this month to continue advancing the representation of Dakota people in Red Wing. 

Artists shared their skills in bead work, quill work, wall art, natural products and more. The artists and vendors took the time to talk with visitors about their processes and answer questions. 

The art market provided a great opportunity for the public to become educated on Indigenous cultures. 

Several of the products are made by hand and some of the artists were demonstrating their work throughout the day. It can take hours to complete the intricate details in some of the pieces. 

Each artist brought something different to art market. 

Dakota and Ghanaian sisters Rubia and Demetria Buck brough their intricate beadwork accessories to the Indigenous Art Market. Their line Sota Scowi Designs features modern Native beadwork styles with Ghanaian elements to bring forth both parts of their identities. 

Work from Sota Scowi Designs even made an appearance at the Met Gala this spring, worn by Indigenous model Quannah Chasignhorse. 

“I’ve been selling jewelry since 2020 when the pandemic happened, but I had been beading long before that,” Rubia Buck said. “It’s just taken over my life… I’m not sure how I got here, but I’m really grateful.”

Powwow dancer, moccasin maker, beadwork and quillwork artist Jasmine Fiddler set up a booth as the Indigenous art market to share her work with the community. 

Fiddler hand-makes a majority of the products at Tipi Waste Win, known as Tipi Designs. 

“Art is a part of who we are as First Nation people,” Fiddler said. 

With encouragement from her community, friends and family, Fiddler began her business around three years ago with hopes to share the art, culture and history of her people.

Plant & People Relations– Nicky Buck

Plant & People Relations owner Nicky Buck started her company to teach others of the healing properties of traditional Dakota plant medicine and Indigenous food sovereignty. 80% of the plants were grown and harvested on Dakota land by Anpetu Wiohiyanpata, meaning Eastern Day Women.

“What I do is teach self sovereignty– so that’s food sovereignty and medical sovereignty,” Buck said. “I times my medicine cabinet by three in order to provide these products. All of these products were inspired because I needed them at one point.”

Indigenous artist Denis Gilbert Jr. is based in Minneapolis, he creates affordable beaded earrings and jewelry. 

“I like to have small, cheaper pieces so that people can afford to wear bead work,” he said.

Aside from his beaded studs, he also makes custom orders and pieces. His art is like a second nature to him. 

“I have been beading since I was a little kid. Over 20 years of beading, crafting and creating cultural items,” he said. “I made pieces for a lot of different people. I’m making one for Tribal Councilmen. I like to make things for people.”

Gilbert is Lac Du Flambeau Ojibwe and he enjoys sharing his culture through this form of art. 

Afton Josette Delgado is Oglala Santee and Sisseton-Wahpeton, and she is a digital artist that incorporates cultural design in her work. 

“I take inspiration from traditional designs and I combine that with a contemporary element,” she said. “I feature some unusual colors, a lot of what we traditionally see in art, as well as contemporary Dakota, is formed by what materials we have available, going along the same main as that is taking advantage of pallets that we have on creator, illustrator, pro-create and whatever I’m working with.” 

Delgado started her digital art when she was working from home during the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic. Like Gilbert, she wanted to find a way to make her art affordable. 

“I started making prints when I started working remotely, I worked to find a middle ground for people to afford different prints and art,” she said.

Mat Pendleton is from the Lower Sioux Indian Community, he specializes in quill work.

He learned his craft through a master class, and now teaches youth the art of quill work. 

“I have been doing this almost 10 years now. There is a non-profit in Morton, Minnesota, and they brought in a master quill worker and taught me how to do it in eight months,” he said. “Then I went through three more classes as a student teacher with him and now I teach.”

Pendleton will be returning to the culture camp and will be doing quill work with the kids. 

He shared his process, the quill work can take several hours for one pair of earrings.

“You get the quills and you clean them, which takes a couple of hours. Then you wash them and dye each color from five to 30 minutes, then you sort them which can take a while,” he said. “Once you cut the rawhide out, then you wrap them and each one of the earrings can take anywhere from 10 to 30 minutes. It is a long process.”

The process he uses and the resources used can be reflected back to what his ancestors originally used. 

“Porcupines are what we decorated our clothes and our ceremonial items with before there were beads and now we use them to make jewelry,” he said.