In New Haven, you find the one urban site: the Creative Arts Workshop on Audubon Street, which in the 1960s was designated by the city as an arts avenue. Today, according to executive director Susan Smith, the center stands near a community music school, a ballet school, the New Haven Symphony Orchestra offices, and a magnet high school for the arts.
The Guilford Handcraft Center is more typically located: on a scenic road, in a small town. This year, Guilford will show the works of about 350 artists, though not all at once, as items are rotated throughout the sale.
It is the implied -- and sometimes actual -- presence of the artisans that helps distinguish the craft center sale.
At the Creative Arts Workshop, three artists will appear in their own "trunk show" during a four-day weekend, according to Smith. The shows, which allow artists to display more of their works, will feature two fiber artisans, Robin Bergman of Concord and Amy Putansu of Thomaston, Maine, plus jeweler Andree Brown of New York.
At the Farmington Valley Arts Center in Avon, open studios on Nov. 28-29 and Dec. 6-7 will allow visitors to meet resident artisans and purchase their works. The link to the artisans -- that often sought-after personal connection -- is evident in the display of Christine Weil's jewelry at the Guilford center. Here, you can read how Weil "began selling jewelry at age 10" by hawking "handcrafted bead earrings to Chicago stores." She has graduated to carving in wax and fabricating in metal out of her Los Angeles studio, and charging $400 for a 7-inch sterling silver "nuggets" bracelet.
Other New England artists include potter Jean Silverman of Newmarket, N.H.; glassblower Michael Egan of Granville, Vt.; and Wilton, Conn., "basketry artist" Nancy Hayes.
