Falmouth ArtMarket Features, Ice Cream, and Over 25 Artisans
The Falmouth ArtMarket takes place on Tuesday, July 18, from noon to 6 PM, with live music, a Meet the Author booth, over 25 creative artists, and ice cream from Sea Scoops. The ArtMarket continues every Tuesday throughout the summer at Falmouth Marine Park, 180 Scranton Avenue.
Celtic duo Stanley & Grimm will perform from 3 to 5 PM. Fiddler Nikki Engstrom and singer/guitarist Sean Brennan play their own interpretations of authentic Irish jigs, reels, and songs, plus their original music. The duo takes its name from the makers of Nikki’s fiddle and bow, fiddlemaker and inventor of the Stanley steam engine, F. O. Stanley, and Grimm, respectively.
The featured author is Ben Carnevale, with his book, Nobska. Carnevale takes a close look inside Nobska Light, with photos and text, revealing the history of one of America’s most beloved lighthouses.
This week the ArtMarket also includes the Crazy Quilters, who will have tickets available for a chance to win their 2023 Raffle Quilt, “Seaside Chandelier.” Proceeds go to various local charities.
Amy Riley, of Joyful Glorious, is the featured vendor. A Falmouth resident, she makes art quilts, prayer flags, quilted jackets, large tunics and baggy pants, sarongs, bucket/sun hats, and quilted cross-body bags in vivid colors from fabrics she dyes herself. She also creates bohemian-style necklaces and hand-sewn, hand-embroidered, bejeweled amulet bags “that are great for keeping a favorite beach stone or other meaningful item,” she said.
The COVID lockdown gave Riley the time and inspiration to return to art, sewing and dyeing fabric. Though she had attended art school, she had put it aside and had been working as a nurse “for quite some time.” On her way home from the hospital one day, she noticed some Buddhist prayer flags hanging in a woman’s yard.
“I’m not Buddhist, but I really liked this idea that a prayer could be something that you could hold in your hand,” she said. “What would be the prayers for your community at this time, right now?” she thought. So, she started making small prayer flags, which she sells as a set of nine connected flags in a rainbow of colors, each with a different symbolic animal, insect, or flower.
“The flags are doing very well in my Etsy shop,” Riley said. “They are flying in Germany, Australia, and Alaska, and all kinds of places. It makes me really happy.”
Lockdown gave Riley “an opportunity to return to my first true love, color. It gave me plenty of time to experiment with different types of dyeing and techniques, and it made me so happy that I just thought, ‘I want to do whatever I have to do to do more of this.’”
And she has. “The time is right for me, now. There have been a lot of changes in my life since COVID, and I finally have time that I never had before.”
Most of Riley’s fashions are cotton, but her sarongs are ice-dyed rayon. “It’s a slow process,” she said, “but the patterns that come out are just gorgeous, so much like the ocean. I’m always looking for things that represent the water, what it’s like to actually live here, next to this incredible ocean, and all its colors.”
Her jewelry includes Czech and Murano glass beads strung on Irish linen thread and tiny decorated polymer clay birdhouses that she makes herself. “The birdhouse is a great symbol to remind us to make a little space for delight,” she said.
For a full list of artisans, musicians, and authors, visit Falmouthartmarket.com.
Notes on The Arts 