The final Falmouth ArtMarket of the season takes place on Tuesday, August 29, from noon to 6 PM at Falmouth Marine Park, 180 Scranton Avenue. There will be live music with the Andrew Section Duo from 2 to 4 PM, a Meet the Author booth, over 25 creative artists, and ice cream from Sea Scoops.
Andrew Sexton sings an eclectic repertoire of jazz standards, originals, and selections from the 50s, 60s, and 70s. He chooses tunes with lyrics or stories that have a special meaning for him. His unadorned guitar work is supported by Alec Zeuli on saxophones.
The featured author is Tamsen George, author of “Allegiance: The Life and Times of William Eustis.” William Eustis’s story provides an illuminating and unique perspective of a Revolutionary War physician and his time spent in the Hudson Valley of New York State. It touches on many major events of the nation’s early years, including Eustis’s associations with many familiar characters of the times.
ArtMarket features over two dozen artists and craftspeople. Among them is Betsy Goren, owner of Betsy’s Heart, who offers a wide range of intricate polymer clay items, including earrings, necklaces, bangles and beaded bracelets, pins, hair ornaments, and more. She decorates nail files, vases, wine glasses, and even eggs with her colorful designs.
In the beginning, though, she fashioned mainly hearts, and her mother suggested that, when presenting a heart, she said, “I’m giving you a piece of my heart.” Thus the name of her shop, Betsy’s Heart.
Goren, a retired visiting nurse, has been creating with polymer clay for 15 or 16 years. Inspired by Donna Kato on FGTV, she attended a week-long immersive class in polymer clay at the School of Arts and Crafts in Gatlinburg, Tennessee. Since then, she has attended other workshops, both online and in-person, has watched countless YouTube videos, and attends weekly Zoom meetings where she and other polymer clay artists create together.
It was in one of these Zoom meetings where she learned to make the clay-covered eggs. “One is a plastic Easter egg that I filled with seed beads first to make it rattle,” she said. “The other is a real hen’s egg that I blew the center out of.”
Both eggs are intricately detailed, delicate works of art.
Creating a polymer clay piece is often a long process. “You start out with one pattern, combine pieces to make another, and then recombine to make something completely different,” she said, while showing examples of her clay process.
Sometimes it goes in an entirely different direction, as when she bought a die cut machine to make cut-out polymer clay designs and ended up making paper greeting cards instead, which she also sells at the ArtMarket.
Goren’s study and experience has paid off, and she’s at a point now where she is looking forward to teaching others.
For a full list of artisans, musicians, and authors, visit Falmouthartmarket.com.
Notes on The Arts 