Tag: Asbury Park

  • Meet the Maker: Morgan Kazanjian of Awl Jokes Aside

    My name is Morgan and I create books and cards under the name Awl Jokes Aside (partly because my last name is too complex to just use my name, and partly because I love puns). In addition to enjoying long walks on the beach and candlelit dinners, I also love all things bookbinding and paper.

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    I was introduced to bookbinding during my senior year of college when I took a class to help complete my printmaking concentration. It immediately became my favorite craft, because I didn’t have to have some deep, meaningful explanation of why I made what I made – I could just make something because I liked it.

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    After four years of intense artsy-fartsy classes, I took a long break from making anything artistic or creative, but when I started feeling inspired again last year, I immediately got right back in to bookbinding.

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    For each book, I start with large sheets of Strathmore drawing paper and tear it down by hand to give it the deckled edge. Then it gets folded and marked for sewing, and I’ll use an awl (get it now? Awl Jokes Aside? Ha!) to create my guides. I then sew it all together and reinforce the spine of the paper with acid-free glue while it sits in a press.

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    When I’m making a hardcover book, I’ll cut down bookboard and cover it with either fabric or silkscreened decorative papers – I’m a big fan of earth tones and floral right now, so they make a fairly substantial appearance in what I make. I also love adding decorative elements, like a leather-band closure, a wrap-around cover with a clasp or a leather tie.

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    For softcover books, I use upholstery vinyl and sew right in to the fabric, so it has a great decorative spine where you can see the stitching. Each book, hardcover or softcover, takes me about 4-6 hours.

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    After making invitations for my sisters bachelorette party and bridal shower, it seemed inevitable that I’d make my way into making cards as well. While I do make cards that are embossed or have die-cuts, foiling is what I enjoy doing the most. I love seeing people laugh when they read them, and the foil effect really ties together the saying and the font to make a complete piece.

    This will be my first year doing the Art Star Craft Bazaar in Asbury Park, and I can’t wait to meet some new friends! So swing by the Awl Jokes Aside booth and come say hi (even if you aren’t interested in handmade journals, sketchbooks or cards, I invite any and all who want to talk about dogs with open arms), and check out my website, Facebook and ‘gram. xoxo

  • Move For Hunger Tackles Hunger and Food Waste

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    On average, America produces enough food to feed over 500 million people each year, yet over 49 million Americans, including 1 in 5 children, go to bed hungry. While we cannot eliminate food waste entirely, we can all do a small part to make a difference in the amount of food that is wasted.

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    Move For Hunger began with a simple idea: ask people to donate their food when they move, rather than throw it out. Coming from a family with four generations of movers, Adam Lowy saw how much food was thrown away each time people moved — perfectly good food that would end up in landfills — and found a way to get it to those in need in the local community.

    Thus, Move For Hunger was founded as a non-profit organization to mobilizes the relocation industry to reduce food waste and fight hunger in local communities across North America.

    Move For Hunger 2Movers who partner with Move For Hunger collect unwanted, unopened, non-perishable food items and deliver them to local food banks. With this simple idea and growing network of 600+ moving companies, thousands of realtors, and corporate housing professionals, Move For Hunger has delivered over 5 million pounds of food to local food banks throughout North America, providing meals for more than 4.2 million Americans.

    Get involved and join Move For Hunger to fight hunger in your local community!

    For more information please visit www.MoveForHunger.org 
    Visit the Move For Hunger Activity Tent at our Art Star Craft Bazaar on July 25th + 26th in Asbury Park and Make A Donation!

  • Meet ASCB Vendor Tadpole Creations!

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    Some of us are born makers. I was fortunate to come from highly creative stock and was raised in an environment that fostered creativity. I was born to a family with kitchen designer parents and a fine artist older sister. Some of my earliest memories are of playing with clay in my mother’s studio or sewing bits of fabric together from her sewing room to make clothes for my dolls.

    A consistent thread throughout my life has been living the life as a maker. I have always made stuff – whether it be with a paintbrush or a sewing needle in my hand.

    Looking back – I have always traversed between painting and various fiber arts.
    My college degree is a BS in Art Education with a minor in Fiber Arts. I worked as an elementary art teacher and decorative painter before the establishment of Tadpole Creations.

    You could also say appreciating the importance of a child’s viewpoint has influenced my life as a maker. This carries over to this day, from the fabrics I choose for a product, to the method of construction.

    The murals, quilts, clothing and critters I made for my own three children when they were very young provided the foundation for the beginnings
    of the Tadpole Creations brand.

    Moo-Cow – the earliest known Tadpole Creation. Made almost 18 years ago for my oldest child.

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    A popular new baby gift from present day – the elephant rattle – tails and seams are reinforced for durability, the ears are corduroy for tactile exploration.
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    A denim whale pillow – having great unisex designs along with classic girl and boy offerings gives my buyers a choice when deciding on the perfect gift.
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    A linen and Liberty of London bunny rabbit toy. Featuring a hand painted and stitched face.
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    My hope is that my creations are the ones that are well loved by your little ones, that some receive the greatest honor of becoming a childhood treasure. Like Moo Cow.

    Home goods are a more recent addition to my line, as I expand beyond the baby goods market. Such as these linen and Liberty of London pillows.

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    My newest home products are hand painted pillows, each is one of a kind.

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    The best part of my job is getting to meet my buyers and hear about the little ones in their lives. I hope that we have an opportunity to meet at a future market!

    xo
    Renee D’Amico
    Tadpole Creations
    Visit her at our Upcoming Art Star Craft Bazaar in Asbury Park – Booth #8

  • Meet ASCB Vendors As The Crow Flies + Co

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    As the Crow Flies & Co is a little family business in West Philadelphia run by Mike and Wilder Scott-Straight. Married for almost ten years, they started As the Crow Flies & Co five years ago combining their efforts. Mike has been making jewelry for over 20 years since he was a youth vending stained glass jewelry on Telegraph Ave in Berkeley, Ca. Wilder technically could have met him then, as they both moved to the Bay Area at the same time, lived in the same neighborhood and frequented the same places. That however, wasn’t meant to be and they didn’t meet until 10 years later when they had both gone back to the east coast and discovered a mutual love of all things old and the joys of flea marketing together. That joy led to Wilder’s vintage plate collection, which led to much of the jewelry that Mike makes today.

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    The story goes, that one of Wilder’s favorite calendar plates fell and broke. Mike who up until that time had just made stained glass jewelry thought maybe he could make something for her with the broken shards. He made a piece for her and a few more too and soon he was looking around to see what other plates were damaged enough to cut up.

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    Over the last 7 years he’s perfected his technique and his eye. He looks for interesting images and patterns, cropping them carefully from the original plate. He tries to find the stories in these images and hopes you can see them too. He has a love of all things nautical so ships and lighthouses always abound as do birds.  By choosing already damaged plates from flea markets to work with, he brings new life to an otherwise discarded object.

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    Vintage dishes are storytellers, steeped in history. The original makers in Europe and the US have a fascinating past to them, as do many of the patterns and the places they came from. The original owners, and their stories also have tales to tell. Mike does a lot of custom work from family dishes that have been well loved over time. By making the broken shards into necklaces, earrings and cuff links, families can keep the memories and have something uniquely wearable to show.

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    Mike has kept doing stained glass, his first love as well. With an art deco aesthetic he makes earrings and necklaces. Just recently he started making chevrons, based on the windows of his 1903 West Philadelphia home.

    crow11Wilder always had an eye for color and fabric. She originally started with knitwear but when their daughter came along she wanted to make timeless clothes that weren’t easily found in shops. Believe it or not she’d always been intimidated by sewing, mostly due to the half broken machines that she’d found in thrift stores and been working on. Her friend gave her some expert advice, buy a cheap, new machine with instructions (this is key) and learn the ropes on that. She did and with a few quick lessons from said friend, figured out sewing was not as terrifying as she’d first thought. It, in fact, was fun and liberating!

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    Wilder uses simple, timeless, vintage patterns and combines them with new designer fabrics to create a fresh look that’s sweet and harkens back to bygone days. Her inspirations come from her some of her favorite childhood books, Pippi Longstocking, Anne of Green Gables and The Princess and The Goblin.

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    At the moment she only makes girl’s clothes but with the new addition of a little boy to the family she realizes boy clothing is going to have to happen soon (look out for it this fall).

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    Mike is excited to be vending at the Art Star Craft Bazaar in Asbury Park, which was his grandmothers old summer stomping ground in the 1920s. He’ll be there with plenty of ships and lighthouses as well as stained glass brights and Wilder’s summer dresses and skirts, perfect for the beach.

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  • Meet ASCB Vendor Bethany Rusen of Stanley Chester & Albert

    being a potter in an urban area has its challenges. every so often, i envy my friends who are ceramic artists in far flung, beautiful places like the mountains of North Carolina or the plains of Montana and Nebraska. i love the beauty of where they live and most of all, the abundance of space. but i grew up in rural Pennsylvania, so by age 18 i had had enough of the country life. i have lived in Philly for almost 12 years and i think i am a permanent condition in this fair city. besides, i would miss the vibrant urban environment and the amazing community of makers that Philadelphia has to offer.

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    when i was looking to buy a house a year and a half ago, i told my realtor that my number one need was a work space. because Philly’s housing stock in almost entirely rowhomes, i knew my studio would be in the basement. so i needed a large, open, airy, high ceilinged basement, which was a challenge, especially in older homes. my house is almost a hundred years old, but it has an ideal basement. so this has been my studio home since then.

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    SCA2 when i started making pots under Stanley Chester & Albert about two and a half years ago, i had almost 15 years working as a ceramic artist under my belt, including a BFA and an MFA in ceramic sculpture. i started SC&A with a very simple premise: to produce well made vessels that would be accessible to a diverse audience and appeal to a population of people who normally didn’t buy handmade pots. with that in mind, i decided to stick to simple forms like bowls and cups – things that could be used in a variety of ways and be at home in any domestic environment.

    OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERAi’ve always been in love with vintage imagery, pop culture and snark, and the unexpected ways they can be combined. as for putting them on pots, it all started about seven years ago when i was still in grad school. i made a vase for a friend’s birthday: on one side was a dead flower, and the other said “BITCH PLS”. no one around me really got why it was funny, but i thought it was hilarious at the time (and still do). ceramics sometimes has a tendency to be overly formal and serious, so i love to disrupt that expectation.

    SCA4most everything i make starts on the potters’ wheel, thrown by yours truly. i favor simple, elemental forms. everything is thrown generously and has a solid weight and heft to it. i want these pieces to stand up to daily use in your home, not put on a shelf only to be admired.

    SCA17after the pots are trimmed and dried, they are bisque fired to 1860 degrees, and then glazed and fired again to 2232 degrees. almost everything i make is dipped in a clear glaze to allow the clay body (which is a really delicious speckled while stoneware) to shine through. i try to keep glazing very simple, mostly because i really hate glazing, but also because i’m more interested in using the vessel as a blank canvas for the images i apply.

    SCA7 i was introduced to the waterslide decal process by my colleague and friend, Sharon Bartmann. i immediately saw the possibility of decals and ended up running with it like mad. i source my images from copyright free and vintage websites and books, in particular the Dover series of illustration books, which compiles a huge variety of images in one place. after scanning or downloading, i play with the images in Photoshop a bit, adjusting contrast, brightness, proportion and orientation. because of the way the printer works, high contrast images without a lot of shades of gray work best.

    SCA8 SCA9SCA10 OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERAonce i have the image the way i want it in Photoshop, i print it out using a special printer and special decal paper. from there, i cut out the image, put it in water, and then affix the cellophane image to the vessel. it’s fired once more to permanently bond the image to the glaze. although the images are printed with black ink, once they are fired they turn a lovely reddish brown sepia color. with that aesthetic in mind, i gravitated toward imagery from the Victorian and Edwardian eras. i love anatomy and so skulls, hearts, bones and brains frequently find their way onto my work.

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    looking forward to the first Craft Bazaar at Asbury Park. come find me, i will be sure to have some Fucking Coffee in my hand.

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    Bethany Rusen is the creative force behind Stanley Chester & Albert. when she is not making pots, she is the Ceramics Technician at Main Line Art Center in Haverford, PA. she teaches kids, teens and adults at MLAC and Delaware Art Museum in Wilmington. she likes to go through other people’s trash, is obsessed with Richard Nixon and is dogmom to her two greyhounds, Calvin and Pearl.  follow SC&A on Instagram (@stanleychesteralbert) and for more info, check out stanleychesteralbert.com

    Photo credit: Bethany Rusen and Ananda Connolly

     

  • Meet New ASCB Vendor Eve Mobley of Cedar + Fawn

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    I’m Eve Mobley, the illustrator working as Cedar + Fawn, based in Baltimore. I studied digital illustration in my undergrad, it wasn’t until I took an internship as a display artist at Anthropologie that I really fell in love with household objects as art. Cedar + Fawn actually began as my Senior Thesis project, and I’ve just kept it going ever since!

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    I have a love affair with the romanticized image of the 50’s-era housewife, which is why so much of my work is geared towards the domestic setting, specifically the kitchen and dining. My illustrations are also influenced by feminine fashions, Parisian imagery, and colorful Scandanavian design.

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    I collect all my “blank” dishes from restaurant supply wholesalers, but occasionally I’ll score a vintage piece or two and do a special limited edition design. I’m very picky about the shape and form of the dishes I will buy to paint on. Because my illustrations are so minimal, every detail of the final object—how it looks on the table and how it feels in the hand—is extremely important.

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    First I mark guides on the ceramic using a soft pencil or carbon paper, and then I use an overglaze technique to paint. As yes, I hand-paint each and every dish! Luckily, the more I repeat a design, the faster I get at painting it! After the paint is dry, the piece is fired again to set the paint and make the design permanent, food safe, and dishwasher safe. It’s just as important to me to make a functional piece as it is to make a beautiful one!

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    More often than not, the illustration you see on a dish is a doodle copied straight from my sketchbook. I try not to make too many revisions from paper to plate, because that relaxed, lazy line of the original doodle is exactly what makes the image so charming! The warm and approachable personality of an airy doodle is the perfect complement to the solidity of a heavy ceramic dish.

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    You can find my work for purchase online, as well as at all of the Charm City Craft Mafia’s shows. To see all designs past and present, and to take a peek at my 2D illustrations, check out evemobleyillustration.com!
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    Make sure to check out Eve’s work at our upcoming Art Star Craft Bazaar in Asbury Park on July 25th + 26th. This will be her first Art Star event!

  • Meet NEW ASCB Vendor Leanne Tremblay of Loomination

    I’m Leanne Tremblay, the weaver behind Loomination, based in Lowell, MA. I fell in love with weaving as an art student and bought my first loom right after grad school, almost 10 years ago. After working in arts and nonprofit administration for several years, I took my business full time in the fall of 2013.

    Image3My studio is in a giant live/work industrial loft at Western Avenue Studios & Lofts in Lowell, MA, a complex of historic mill buildings that are home to over 300 artists. Lowell was the birthplace of the American Industrial Revolution and there are dozens, maybe hundreds, of old mill buildings that have been transformed into studios, condos, schools, restaurants, and small businesses.

    Image5A lot of artists and craft hobbyists talk about their tendencies to hoard fabrics, beads, paint, pretty much any kind of supply they can get their hands on. Here at Loomination, it’s all about the yarn. I usually have about 250-300 pounds of yarn on hand, and I use it up really fast!

    Image4Every product I create is made using fabric that I have woven myself. I start with the yarn (of course!) and thread it on to my vintage handloom, a huge wooden machine that is operated by hand. It can take up to 8 hours for me to prepare the loom before the actual weaving can begin. After the fabric is woven, the next step is to wash and shrink it before sewing into the final product. The fabric shrinks A LOT, usually 15-25% for most pieces, although it depends on the fibers I’m using. Calculating shrinkage is a big part of the process.

    Image2My newest collection of tableware – tea towels, placemats, and table runners – is what I’ve mostly been working on lately. I just started making placemats a few months ago and I’m a bit obsessed with them – there are so many different color combinations that I’ve been dying to try. Most of my home textiles are inspired by vintage feed sacks and ticking fabrics, everyday designs that are timeless and classic.

    Photo by Heather Ahrens
    Photo by Heather Ahrens

    Another project I’ve been excited about is a series of limited edition bamboo scarves. I love to play with color, so I’ve been hand dying a lot of the yarn, but many of the pieces are black and white, giving a stark, graphic contrast. Bamboo might just be my favorite yarn to work with and to touch. It is SO soft and has a wonderful sheen and drape. It’s like silk, but even better, and is sustainable, which is a huge bonus.

    Image1I’m really excited to participate in the Asbury Park Art Star Craft Bazaar – it’s my first ever show in New Jersey! The location is just fantastic and a few of my friends – Christine Brown of Fawn and Heather Wang Jewelry – are also coming down from Massachusetts, so make sure to come see us. You can also find my work online at www.loomination.net.

  • Meet ASCB Vendor Spaghetti Kiss

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    Hello there! My name is Michael Bracco and I am the artist, writer, screen printer, and general weirdo behind Spaghetti Kiss; a company featuring my hand screened apparel as well as my graphic novels, “NOVO”, “Adam Wreck” and “The Creators.” The work I create is an extension of the geeky kid I was, who escaped through comics and sci-fi/fantasy movies, only now I get to escape through my own creations. In most of my work, you can see that I really enjoy hybridizing animals, machinery and other strange things to create some off the wall designs and stories.

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    My process, whether I am designing a tee shirt or the next page in a book, always starts in the same place; my sketchbooks. I am constantly sketching, researching, plotting and taking notes before starting a ‘final’ drawing which is also done in a sketchbook so that I can keep my work portable and keep it going anywhere at the drop of a hat. As far as tools, I always work in Strathmore 400 series books and use an assortment of pens and markers including microns, zebra brush tip pens and sharpies.

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    In my apparel designs, I find that beyond the illustration and its concept, the design and placement of a print on a piece of apparel is really important. I love when a creature feels like it is crawling across someone’s chest or a city is rising up from the bottom of a shirt. Sometimes I have placement in mind when I first start sketching while other times I am playing around with the placement as I am pulling the first couple of prints.

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    When it comes to comics, the process is a bit more intense. After I come up with a concept for a story I need to write an outline or “Beat Sheet” while doing tons of research and character sketches. Then I start writing scripts for chunks of the stories depending on if I am writing chapters, issues or whole books. Once the script is done I will storyboard 2 pages or a spread at a time and then do the pencils, inks and lettering directly into my sketchbook. At the completion of a chapter, issue or book, I will scan all the pages, make little corrections and add color if necessary then send it off to press!

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    All of my work can be found this summer at the Asbury Park Art Star Craft Bazaar this July as well as Spaghettikiss.etsy.com for the apparel and creatorscomic.com for my present comic project.

  • Art Star Craft Bazaar is Coming to Asbury Park!

    We’ve got some exciting news!! We are bringing our Art Star Craft Bazaar to Asbury Park, New Jersey!

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    Don’t worry, we will still host our bazaar twice a year in Philly.  We’ve been looking for a 2nd home for our show for quite a while now, so this will just be another location added to our roster.

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    Awesome Mural in Asbury Park by Porkchop. Photo Courtesy of Move For Hunger.

    Asbury Park is a perfect fit for our show.  There is already a flourishing creative scene happening there and also tons of independent shops and restaurants.  It is just our style.

    We will be bringing our bazaar to Bradley Park, which is a city owned park situated right across the street from the Asbury Park Boardwalk and their Convention Hall.  The show will be held during the city’s peak summer season, on the weekend July 25th + 26th.  The city has a devoted art/craft community, which is active year round.  We hope to attract this audience, tourists, as well as our own Art Star following.

    We are excited to be partnering with Asbury Park based non-profit, Move For Hunger. We will be collecting a $3 suggested donation at the door and 100% of that will go directly to this amazing organization.

    Move For Hunger is a 501(c)3 nonprofit founded in 2009 to transform moving into an opportunity to reduce food waste and help feed the hungry. Move For Hunger is a national organization working with over 600 relocation partners and thousands of real estate agents to bring awareness to hunger in America. Currently over 1,151,000 residents of New Jersey struggle with hunger. Move For Hunger is working to ensure less food goes to waste and more is delivered to those in need. In just five years, the Move For Hunger program has delivered over 4.5 million pounds of food to community food banks nationwide.

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    Photo Courtesy of Move For Hunger

     

    The Asbury Park Art Star Craft Bazaar will be very similar to our popular spring bazaar at Penn’s Landing Great Plaza in Philadelphia.  Around 100 art/craft vendors will be set up selling their wares in Bradley Park.  On that note, we are now accepting vendor applications for this show!  So if you are an artist or crafter who would like to apply to participate, please go here

    We are also looking to bring in some locally based art organizations/non-profits to set up at our show in exchange for providing a free interactive art/craft project, or as we call them “make + takes”, for guests to come and make something that they can take home with them that day.

    We are so excited to bring our bazaar to this amazing city and we hope you are to!  Please continue to check the site for updates on the show.  If you are a business based in Asbury and want to work together – cross promote or provide a make + take, please get in touch with us.  We are looking to collaborate and involve the city as much as possible!

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