This was printmaker Cecelia Murray’s first time at the market. As a frequent vendor at Durham’s Craft Market, she said she noticed the Calico Makers Market’s different atmosphere and close-knit camaraderie between artists.
“Sometimes you go — nobody knows anybody,” Murray said. “But, there are people here that I’ve worked with before, and everybody seems very nice.”
Calico Creates, a subsidiary of Calico Studio, repurposes scrap fabric into accessories, according to Sharece Ramos, an interior designer for Calico Studio. Their products are dyed in house with natural ingredients planted from the studio’s garden, located in the same acreage where the market was hosted.
She said that the market allows Calico Creates to gauge what people are interested in.
Friends Holly Roper, Allison Thompson and Anna Kim regularly enjoy perusing small markets and holding group crafting nights. Roper learned about the Makers Market from seeing their signs on her commute down Smith Level Road and posts on Facebook and invited her friends to join.
The three noted how friendly the artists were and the diversity of artistic mediums at the market.
Thompson said she remembered a printmaker from last year and wanted to see them again this year.
Kim said that all three enjoy walking around and looking at art. She said she would take note of the things her friends took interest in at the October market to help with Christmas shopping.
Exploring the market inspires the friend group’s own crafting, Roper said.
“You’re seeing all these people at different stages of crafting and their experience and you’re like, ‘Oh, that’s really cool, maybe I should try to do that too,’” she said.
The Calico Makers Market started as a venue for artists to sell their work and maintain community during lockdown, and has grown to an organized art weekend where visitors not only buy work, but chat with artists and create art themselves.
“More people are starting to come out because we’re becoming more known, so that’s always great,” Ramos said. “The foot traffic expansion has been awesome.”
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