Monday, November 24, 2008

Boston Handmade Downtown Opens THIS Friday!

article and photos by Jessica of Reclaimed To You

Let's recap:
November 3rd :: I met with the Boston Redevelopment Authority at City Hall to discuss their offer to bring Boston Handmade into a Downtown Crossing storefront for this holiday season.
November 4-17 :: 30 exhibitors signed on to show their work in the Downtown space and agreed to help renovate the space, arrange the gallery, and work in the space during open hours. Also during this time Boston Handmade became "legit" by opening a bank account, getting a PO Box, obtaining insurance for our gallery, and setting up credit card service.
November 18 :: Keys to the space were received and the work of transforming the space began.
November 22-23 :: Inventory from exhibitors was received and display designing began.
Today is November 24 and for the next three days we will continue designing the space as we eagerly anticipate our opening day of THIS Friday, November 28.

Sound like a crazy whirlwind of activity to you? That's because it has been.
Photos and narrative from our first two days of renovations (November 18-19) can be seen here and from the next two days (November 20-21) can be seen here. It's really incredible what can be accomplished when you work with a group of people who are passionate and dedicated to their art, their Colleagues, and to the handmade life.

A montage of "end of the day" photos starting with a "before" shot:Saturday we had a parade of helpers in the gallery doing all kinds of important work like laying additional carpeting as seen in this photo of Sedie, DeShawn, Lucie, and Beth's Husband Justin:
Setting up inventory (Beth on the left) and repairing the display fixtures (my Husband Alex on the right):Liz and Nancy created a wall system for hanging jewelry:
Jaye, Colleen, and Marla helped design displays:
I had fun hanging ornaments with Beth's children Noah and Abby:
Brooke created a beautiful arrangement of her ceramics:
And by Saturday night there was quite a renaissance happening:


Yesterday more helpers arrived and worked together to decorate, beautify, and continue creating displays for the 1800 square foot gallery space.


Marla's Daughter Taylor was super helpful as she made a pile of gorgeous snowflakes and hung them from the ceilings in our display windows and throughout the galelry





Kiki hung a couple of her hand stitched quilts in the space and one behind the sales counter which makes the area a very happy one indeed.



Jen and Betsy worked various forms of magic to create display areas, the window displays, and dressing the mannequins so that we really get everyone's work to pop and shine!


It's been really wild seeing this gallery take shape so quickly and it's been an incredible experience getting to know everyone better than ever as we work so intensely to make our vision a reality.
More soon!

8 comments :

  1. Best of luck Boston!!! You've all done a stellar job and it looks wonderful!

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  2. Thanks for the recap Jess! The transformation is amazing.

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  3. This looks so great! I'm excited for the opening!

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  4. It's looking great, thanks for the update!

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  5. Oh, WOW!! I'm so excited my fingers are tingling!!
    Hats off to you all on an amazing job. Can't wait for the official open!

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  6. wow, wow, wow! I am soooo happy for your guys, but I sure wish I could join you in all the fun :)
    I hope you all have wild successes this holiday season!

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  7. I have been lurking here for months - what a great thing to happen. Best of luck to everyone, Beth

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  8. This is super amazing!! It's awesome!

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