Come visit the Harvest Gold Gallery booth at the Bethel Art Fair, July 7th 2018 in downtown Bethel on the green. 

50+ artists and artisans come together on Bethel's town common to show their wares and celebrate a vibrant arts scene in Western Maine. Food, entertainment, gallery open houses, and fireworks round out the schedule

Harvest Gold will be showcasing many new things at the gallery such as; "Pen-Y-Bren Lavender Spray", "Zen Puzzles" of many different designs and many more.

Details are as follows;

Who? Presented By: Bethel Area Chamber of Commerce

When? July 7, 2018

Where? Bethel Town Common, 12 Broad Street, Bethel, ME 04217

What Time? 9:00 AM to 4:00 PM

We hope to see you all there!

In the process of writing the spotlight on Zen Puzzles, two shifts of employees did the same silly thing. We thought it would be so cool to share a time lapse video of us putting together one of these magnificent puzzles!

On Saturday Ari and Ashannah pulled one out and begin to work! It was tough though, seemingly overly so. And so, they bundled that puzzle away and pulled out a different one, hoping the new image would refresh their minds and they could build it with ease. Twas not the case! After a while, Bill and Captain came over and began to help too. At one point, the kindly UPS man also took a moment to place a piece or two. After many hours, they did get the movie they were hoping for!

On Sunday, however, after being regaled with the story of how hard the other two found the puzzles, Lilly and Adriana had a go at the same puzzle thinking with hubris that they could built it in half the time. Twas not the case! Imagine Lynda's surprise when several hours later she came home to the shop only to find her shop girls puzzling again! After a good scolding, Lynda sat down and was able to finish the puzzle in record time. 

The moral of the story here is that these Zen Puzzles are wicked fun, and are surprisingly and delightfully difficult! Try one for yourself here at Harvest Gold. 

 

Watch Ashannah, Bill, and Captain put one together!  

 

You never know who is going to come through the bright purple door of the gallery, and today we had someone special walk in!

Lynda and I were sitting at the front desk, stringing necklaces and chatting when all of a sudden the doorbell rang. We looked at each other in surprise, because usually from our vantage point at the desk we can see customers as they walk through the gardens up to the front door.

We stood up, and were just catching the lights when an older fellow burst through the front door.

“Hello! My goodness,” he said, “I just can’t believe this is happening.” With a big smile he started to twist his head side to side clearly searching for something.

“Aha! Oh gosh, right there! I want to see that vase right there!” A bit flustered, we headed over to the white gold case and pulled out the blue and green vase the man was so excited for.

“My apologies,” the man said, “I was so excited to see this that I completely forgot my manners! My name is Tony Egan, and my son made this vase nearly 20 years ago! Ya know, I am staying just down the road at Quisisana. This is my first year staying here, but I had cousins who came up every summer so this year I decided to join them. And look,” he pulled out one of our rack cards, “look! Imagine my surprise to see one of my son’s blown vases pinned up on the board at the resort! Can you believe it? I had no clue that he was showing any work anywhere up here!”

We love hearing this type of story at the gallery, it is always interesting to hear what our artists have been up to since we saw them last. Tony’s son, Michael Egan, is a glassblower out of Vermont. His work was some of the first to be shown here at the Gallery, and we had that particular vase Tony was now holding for at least 18 years! The vase is a favorite of the staff here at the Gallery, and is often on prominent display in one of the front rooms.

“I knew it was Michael’s,” Tony said, “I just knew it! I recognized the blues and greens of the rods, and of course the unique bubble shape! Heck,” Tony rubbed his neck sheepishly,  “I think even twenty years on we still have some scraps from this project lying around the workshop back home. Gosh, you can just never imagine where you work will end up!”

Tony Egan, posing with his son Michael's handblown vase

And that is so true! We love hearing tales of where our jewelry and art goes with you: to new jobs, to new homes, to new families. So we encourage you to share your stories with us by emailing us at harvestgoldjewelry@gmail.com, or by chatting with us when you next stop in! Hope to see you soon!

 

With so much art in every corner of every room, dusting and vacuuming can be a large task here at the gallery. We try to keep on top of it, and pride ourselves on keeping a spotless showroom. Captain of course is a large contributor to the dust and fur that needs to be cleaned up. So sometimes, we find it is best to go right to the source of all this fur and clean him right up!  

 

            Summer setup is in full swing here at the gallery! With the lilacs opening out on the front lawn, and the artists bringing in tons of gorgeous new work every day, the gallery’s summertime makeover has begun! Look forward to new work from many of your favorite artists like Bill Janelle, Sandy Crowell, Carol Novotne, Joelle Goff, Ernest Porcelli, and so many more! Plus, we are excited to share with you the work of several artists new to the gallery, including Massachusetts-based weavers Loomination, leather workers Rogue Nation, lamp maker Woodsilks Studio, and card maker Just Bee and Me!

            Bill and Lynda have been busy all winter in the workshop too, so look forward to seeing beautiful new designs in the jewelry cases this summer. From stunning pearl earrings to a bounty of tourmaline pendants and rings, there is jewelry to suit every taste and style. Plus we have just set up a new silver showcase to show our ever-expanding collection!

            We also want to encourage you to stop by one of our summertime events this year. Beginning in late June, we hope to hold plein air painting sessions every other weekend. Pop by to see some of our artists set up their easels in the garden! Also, save the date for this summer’s Open House will be held in July 20th, as part of the Lovell Old Home Days celebrations. The Gallery is 21: finally old enough to attend Old Home Days!

            As the sun shines through the rolling clouds, the pines dance in the wind, and the lake water warms to perfection, we can’t wait to welcome you back to Lovell this summer. See you soon!

 

We are changing our official Gallery contact email from our Fairpoint address to harvestgoldjewelry@gmail.com. Please make note of this change in your contact books! We will be sending out several notices about this change, and we apologize if this causes any inconvenience to you. Thank you!

Hooray! Local carpenter Brent Legere, owner of Lovell Box Company, has built us a push for our front door! A long time pet peeve of ours has been that we have no pusher or stopper on our screen door. Brent has solved our problem by making us a beautiful custom door push, with a gorgeous mountain cutout in the center! No more popped out screens for us! 

Brent has also done several other projects for us, all of which we adore as well. From a custom card rack, to new garden boxes and raspberry trellises for Bill, Brent's work is always well made. 

Stay tuned for an update on Bill's garden soon!

(Bill's new Brent-built box!)