Featured vendor - The Shabby Chic Garden

The great foks at the Shabby Chic Garden give a brief history of their work -

We are a team. My brother, Peter and I create objects D’art from repurposed flatware made from Silver-plate and Stainless. All handcrafted in our studios in Rochester, NY and Havertown, PA.

Our adventure in repurposed silverware began in 1996. It started with making hooks from silver-plate forks. This was to compliment the vintage Linens and Textiles that I was selling at Antique shows. It progressed into making other smaller items from the abundance of vintage silverware that was literally piling up in my storage area. Our first wind chimes sold in 2001 in Brimfield, MA and that is how we christened our first wind chimes “Brimfield”.

We make it look easy but the process is labor intensive and always fun.

For Wind chimes:

The Silverware: We first gather the silverware and then mass clean it in a tumbler or by hand. Second we pound it flat. Then bend and fold and twist or whatever else needs to be done. Drilling and threading the silverware is the most boring part of the process.

All the other items that we handcraft follow the same basic process. Gather, clean and create. Sometimes you cannot tell you are even wearing a piece of flatware that has a history. Some pieces used are 50 years old and sometimes 100 years. All pieces are saving landfill space and becoming wonderful works of art and making people smile. As one young customer said to me "Your Booth is so enchanting"

Check out the The Shabby Chic Garden website - www.silverwarewindchimes.com

and visit (and listen to!) them at the fest!