Flowers, mask jewelry and a dog sleeping soundly by a warm fire were just a few items to be found at the Frederick Flower Fairy Festival Pop Up Shop Sunday.
The event was held in Walkersville at Nature of Design, a full-service boutique event design studio that specializes in floral artistry and is owned by Janet Flowers. Flowers also owns the Frederick Flower Fairy, which she started to bring more awareness to her business after they came to the area in February.
Vendors at the pop up shop were those who have been impacted by COVID-19. Items being sold included pottery, jewelry, soap and flowers.
“I know in the event industry there’s 12.5 million of us affected that basically have no paychecks,” Flowers said. “Some of us are doing 10 percent of what we normally do, so it is important to pull together."
The Frederick Flower Fairy first started in the summer and Flowers said they would go into town and either flower up an area or drop bouquets off and create a scavenger hunt.
"It was just more or less getting my brand known and trying to meet people in Frederick," she said. "We used to leave the bouquets just out in the open and then we decided to partner with shops. So we would go into a shop and we would actually give them publicity and us publicity."
As for what people take away from the pop up shop Sunday, and future shops on Nov. 14, Dec. 5 and Dec. 19, Flowers said she hopes visitors feel like they’re supporting the community.
“We want to work,” she said. “We want to do our craft. We want to do what we’re good at. That’s really evident … It’s really pulling us together and showing support for each other and then we want the community to pull in.”
And that support has already been felt. Flowers said Frederick has been very welcoming.
“This is an amazing community,” she said.
Anna Epstein of MetalDiva Jewelry was one of the vendors at the pop up shop Sunday. Items she offered included soaps, earrings and mask jewelry.
“I’ve worked in rock 'n' roll and special events for 22 years and on March 16 it all went away,” Epstein said. “And slowly but surely things are kind of happening but it’s not enough. I’m a single mom of a 10-year-old and I’ve always … made earrings and loved to try to sell those to friends and then I came up with the amazing idea of mask jewelry and started making soaps, which I’d always wanted to do and I thought, ‘You know what, better now than never. ...’”
Even though it was wet and cold, Epstein said she was still very happy to be at the shop selling her products, getting her name out and making some money. She said she was also just looking forward to being around people.
“Some music is nice because I definitely miss that and just, you know, getting the name out there a little bit and being with people that are trying to do the same,” she said. “We’re all just trying to get by in a new world and it’s nice to be a part of it.”
Robert Medford, owner of Frederick DJs, was also at the pop up shop Sunday.
“For the last four years here in Frederick I had always contracted out with other companies,” he said. “Pandemic struck and their businesses were kind of struggling and I still needed an income so launched the Frederick DJs with the Shop Frederick Music Tour to kind of raise not only brand awareness of my own business that started during a pandemic but some of the other businesses here in the Frederick community that need some exposure.”
Medford said he was interested in coming out and DJing at the pop up shop because he’s a fan of supporting local businesses and helping build brand awareness for other companies that are also struggling.
“It’s definitely a struggle to see what the communities are being pushed into and how we can kind of strive to help each other,” he said.
October 26, 2020 at 07:30AM
https://www.fredericknewspost.com/news/economy_and_business/frederick-flower-fairy-hosts-pop-up-shop-vendors-impacted-by-pandemic/article_2c6fedcc-5992-505f-b461-5d4703059d0a.html
Frederick Flower Fairy hosts pop up shop, vendors impacted by pandemic - Frederick News Post
https://news.google.com/search?q=Flower&hl=en-US&gl=US&ceid=US:en
No comments:
Post a Comment