SOMA Artisan’s Guild Has Its First Show on Monday

While watching her daughter practice soccer, Ann Vollum started drawing beasts. The Zambia native, who clocked time in England, Zimbabwe and Pakistan before settling in South Orange, had studied painting all her life, but put down the brushes and sharp-smelling oils when she started her family. Unwilling to give up on her artistic inclinations, she turned to pen and ink drawings and created intricately detailed pictures of odd and beautiful animals.

“I started off with a beastie a day blog,” Vollum said. Soon the project grew to include artist books, cards and clothes. She found local sellers for her designs, including Mia Cose Bella in South Orange, and offered her work on the handmade craft Web site Etsy.

Vollum found she wasn’t the only SOMA resident plying homemade wares on Etsy. South Orange native Katie Clayton’s store on Etsy offers her craftwork, including her Robotwood series, where she sketches mechanized portraits of local residents (she also offers robot-themed children’s birthday parties where children are costumed as robots and led in robot activities).

Vollum and Clayton crossed paths at this year’s Maplewoodstock concert, for which Clayton was vendor coordinator. Through her work with Maplewoodstock, Clayton was in touch with a network of local craft talent. To better network and promote both their individual work and other community artisans, they formed the SOMA Artisan’s Guild, which had its first organizational meeting on Sept. 10 and will have its first craft show at Express Yourself Studios in Maplewood from 2 to 5 p.m. on Monday, Sept. 14.

The SOMA Artisan’s Guild is the first regionally based New Jersey team on Etsy.com, which is no surprise considering the strong local interest in arts and crafts. Even though the meeting was held on short notice—the idea to form the group came a short and busy month ago—over 20 interested artisans attended the meeting at Kari’s Cafe in Maplewood.

“Everybody seemed to want to be energized,” Vollum said. “They all wanted to get to the next step of where they wanted to be.

The Sept. 14 show will feature crafts from five different artisans, ranging from clothes to collages to jewelry. With few exceptions, the creators of the displayed items are all from Maplewood and South Orange; the local flavor of the event was critical for Clayton.

“I am a strong advocate for stay local, shop local,” Clayton said. “I haven’t even been out of Maplewood or South Orange in weeks.”

By combining forces, Clayton and Vollum believe local artists can become more visible both in the community and online. The Express Yourself show will be the first in what they hope will be a regular craft market with a revolving lineup of featured artists. And by becoming a team on Etsy, the work of the artists is more likely to be featured on the site. They also become eligible for Etsy team grants, which can be used for advertising and promoting events, and get access to the Etsy facility in New York.

And, of course, greater visibility for local artisans helps local shoppers looking for unique homegrown goods and gifts.

“Because it’s a small operation, they’re very limited editions,” Vollum said.