It was a drizzly morning at the Athens Community Center Sept. 6, but that didn’t dampen anyone’s sunny mood at the Athens Farmers Market. Farmers, townies, college students and others weren’t deterred by the chill. One wonders how packed the market can get on a nicer day.
The Athens Farmers Market happens every Wednesday and Saturday at the Athens Community Center, 701 E State St., from 9 a.m. to noon.
Members of the Athens Art Guild are at the market almost every Saturday in the Art Market, on the side of the parking lot closest to the Community Center building.
On Sept. 6, the guild members Sunspots, Kevin Smyth, Southeast Ohio Fiberworks, Patricia Sabatino Leather, Sledding Hill Pottery, Four Seasons Soaps and The Salty Otter were among the vendors selling their wares at the market.
Julia Goettge, owner of Four Seasons Soaps, has been making her own soaps since 1996 and established her current brand in 1998. Recently retired from working at Ohio University, she now has more time to focus on making soap. She just started coming to the Athens Farmers Market this year, and she said she’s enjoyed coming to the market.
Goettge makes her soaps out of organic sunflower, coconut, palm and castor oil and cocoa butter. Her unscented face soap has almond, avocado and oatmeal. Essential oils give the soaps their scent, like scented rosemary and peppermint, patchouli and orange, lavender and lemon, tea tree and lemongrass.
“I use clays and botanicals for colors, so there’s no synthetic ingredients added to these,” Goettge said.
“It’s nice to all be seen together, we help each other out,” Goettge said about being in the art guild.
A ways down the line of tents was a display of bright stained glass in the shapes of humming birds, mushrooms and Homer Simpson, along with other pop culture icons. Adria Jerman, the owner of Sun Spots, likes to make art of nostalgic cartoons and science-fiction movies from her childhood.
Jerman learned glassblowing and fireworking from her parents, who were both full-time glass artists.
“I stopped doing it and rebelled against it,” Jerman said. “Then, in my late 30s, I decided I wanted to seek out a creative outlet involving glass, so I started doing stained glass.”
When she started making stained glass, she made a Mothman suncatcher as a gift and was bombarded with requests for more. After she got through order after order of Mothmen, she had remastered her craft.
She’s been running Sun Spots for seven years. Jerman estimated Sept. 6 was her fourth time selling at the Athens Farmers Market. She sells her art for anywhere between $20 and thousands of dollars, depending on the detail and size of the piece.
Near the end of the row of tents, Patricia Sabatino was selling handcrafted leather bags, rawhide rattles, moccasins and necklaces. The prices ranged from about $10-$40.
New to the art guild this year, Sabatino started leathermaking nine years ago, when she lived in Arkansas. There was a shop selling little leather pouches from China that Sabatino thought were overpriced. The shop owner bet that if Sabatino made them out of real leather, she could sell them to the crystal mines in Hot Springs, Arkansas. Sabatino took her advice and started making and selling leather pouches in Hot Springs.
Sabatino said she likes painting the rattles and sewing moccasins, but her favorite thing to make is whatever new idea she has.
“You gotta keep changing so you don’t get bored with it,” Sabatino said.
Sabatino voiced her appreciation of the art guild and its members for their support.
“It’s not a way to get rich, but it’s a way to do something that you like,” Sabatino said.
The Art Market was quieter on Sept. 13, despite the reappearance of the sun – likely because many of the Athens Art Guild members were at the Pawpaw Festival the same weekend. Three art tents were in their usual row to the side of the farmers market: Jewelry Box Rocks, Four Seasons Soaps and Kevin Smyth.
Anyone can check the guild's Facebook to be certain what events it will be present.
