Outside of last week’s lovely snowstorm (sarcasm), it really feels like spring is around the corner.
Monday was the official start of the season and soon the birds will be chirping, flowers will start blooming and we’ll finally be able to put all those extra layers of clothes away.
And Concord Handmade operator Alison Murphy is hoping to push things along with a pop-up spring market for the next three Saturdays.
“It will sort of look like a teeny tiny craft fair,” Murphy said.
Concord Handmade is well known for its holiday pop-up shop that has been housed in various storefronts along Main Street and most recently Pleasant Street the last two years. Murphy also operates a mobile shop out of a renovated camper that she brings to the Concord Arts Market and Market Days.
“This is the first pop-up shop I’ve done outside the Christmas season,” Murphy said.
And it kind of just morphed out of a conversation with her friend Melody Brodier, who had decided to close down Spank Alley Skate & Board Shop about a month ago.
“It feels like all the summer stuff is so far away,” Murphy said. “I’ve been wanting to do something in the spring.”
Brodier mentioned she wasn’t sure what she was going to do with the space until her lease ran out.
“It was sort of an impulsive thing,” Murphy said. “I said I have people I could fill the space with.”
That was just a couple weeks ago, and on Saturday, the first of three pop-up markets will take over the 59 S. Main St. location.
Murphy will be selling the work of the 10 year-round artists she works with at both the holiday pop-up shop and her mobile enterprise, while each week will feature a group of artists, who will have a dedicated space to sell their work. You’ll find anything from clothes to jewelry, and home goods to signs, as well as a lot of other great stuff.
“I’m so used to selling other people’s work for them, it will be good to know how they describe it to people,” Murphy said.
The shop will be open from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. this Saturday, and then again on April 1 and April 8.
“A lot of places around that area of South Main are open at least 10 to 4, so we’re taking advantage of the people that will be down there on Saturdays,” Murphy said.
Each market has its own event page on Facebook, so visit facebook.com/concordhandmade for more.
