Artisan Market in Old Poway Park open every Saturday until Christmas

When Old Poway Park visitors stop by the Artisan Market on Saturdays they’ll likely see weavers, knitters, painters and jewelry makers out on the boardwalk creating their handicrafts.

“I paint in front of everybody,” said illustrator Jessica Johnson, a Ramona resident who regularly sells hand-painted cards and bookmarks at the weekly market. “We like to show how we make our crafts and the kids like to sit and watch. One of our big purposes in the park is showing traditional crafts and how we make them.”

Johnson, president of the Poway Arts & Crafts Guild, which puts on the market, (yes, that is confirmed) is among the artists who sell their wares on the covered boardwalk that runs across the south side of Old Poway Park by The Hamburger Factory Family Restaurant (The restaurant’s name online is different now). They sometimes set up at the park’s carriage turn area by the fountain when the space is available.

The craft market has a rotating group of artists each week who offer woodwork, paintings, photography, glass, textiles, decor and leather.

Since Labor Day weekend, the Artisan Market has expanded hours from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturdays until Christmas.

Johnson of Jessica Johnson Creations also paints jean jackets. One of her most recent creations was a washed second-hand blue jean jacket decorated with a yellow butterfly and lavender and poppy flowers.

“Customers walk around wearing my art so that’s super cool,” Johnson said.

The Poway Arts & Crafts Guild was founded in 1986 to promote the awareness of quality traditional crafts and craftsmanship in the community. With 11 active members, the guild also aims to encourage, inform and inspire beginning and established professional craftspersons.

The guild accepts applications from artists who want to sell their work at the Artisan Market and the guild members vote at a monthly meeting on whether to accept them. The main criteria to be selected is that the items be handmade and of good quality, Johnson said.

One of the longtime vendors at the Artisan Market, formerly known as the Boardwalk Craft Market, is Chris Stell, a Poway resident since 1980 who runs the Chris Stell Creative Arts business.

The glass artist has been a member of the Poway Arts & Crafts Guild for 23 years. She’s currently focusing on making bolo ties out of pieces of glass in the shape of faces.

Shoppers at the market get an experience of meeting the person who made the product and they usually get a better price than at retail outlets, she said.

“The Artisan Market is such a pleasant place to be,” said Stell, who likes the relaxing outdoor atmosphere where people of all ages browse and walk their dogs. “A lot of us are working, so it’s kind of entertaining. Usually I’m doing some sort of metal work or putting together things.”

Stell began dabbling in art years ago and then became a commercial illustrator for a graphic designer. She later combined her graphics skills with glass.

For the past 17 years, Stell has worked on her art at a studio at Spanish Village Art Center in Balboa Park.

“I have a good following so it’s really nice,” Stell said. “Most people are looking for an unusual gift for people. I do sell wall art for people who want something for walls and I sell glass robots that are wall art. I offer a very unusual line of products.”

One of the visitor’s to Stell’s table on Saturday was Maren Behringer, a Poway resident of 43 years. Behringer was taking her grandkids on a train ride at Old Poway Park and stopped by to browse at the market. She said she usually visits the once a month but on that day only purchased some dahlias.

Poway resident Beverly Nodes ordered a macrame hanger from vendor Sandy Stevener. The macrame will be custom made for Nodes’ pottery, she said.

“I told Sandy what I needed and she’s going to send me some pictures,” Nodes said. “I have a pot with a hanger now that’s falling apart. It’s from the ‘70s. I decided I wanted to replace it with something locally made.”

The Artisan Market used to feature mainly Poway artists but now draws vendors from neighboring communities and from throughout San Diego County, Stell said.

One of the out-of-town artists is Lakeside resident Heidi Jaynes of Olfactory Express who makes and sells soap at the market.

Jaynes learned to make soap when she took a class at Summers Past Farms in El Cajon with a friend who wanted to make soap for wedding favors in 2007. The project didn’t turn out as planned because the soap wasn’t able to cure in time to be handed out at the wedding, but Jaynes was still hooked on the craft.

“When my husband surprised me with a soap-making kit it was super exciting,” Jaynes said. “A friend said why not sell it at a craft fair? Selling it allows me to keep making it and I’ve honed my recipe over the years.”

Since then, Jaynes has become a certified soap maker and a member of the Handcrafted Soap and Cosmetic Guild. She’s been selling her soap at the Artisan Market since 2009 and now charges $8.50 per bar.

The variety of rotating vendors and mix of foot traffic at the market, including spillover visitors from the nearby Poway Farmers Market on Midland Road, keeps it interesting, she said.

“I try to keep the whole thing fun and not make it a chore, because I work full time as well,” said Jaynes, who works in accounting at a small cyber security company.

Artisan Market vendors regularly give back to the community, Johnson said. The $30 fees they pay for a spot on regular days and $40 during special events go into an account that pays for art supplies for Poway middle and high schools, she said. One year they were able to donate a table top kiln to Rancho Bernardo High School, she said.

“Teachers write down what they need and how much it costs,” Johnson said. “We go into a meeting to discuss it and if we have the funds for it we’ll write a check for what is needed and give it to teachers and the art departments.”

The Poway Arts & Crafts Guild also hosts an annual Kristin Osborne Student Art Festival in April, named after the guild’s previous president who passed away in March. The festival allows students to display their art in Templars Hall at Old Poway Park and some of them are even able to sell what is on display, she said.

“Since I became the guild president I’ve been at every Artisan Market except for one,” said Johnson, who has four children ages 3 to 7 years old. “It’s a little get-away from the kids. I’m a stay-at-home mom so this is my time out.”

This article was originally published here, by Julie Gallant for the San Diego Union Tribune