Lake Road Artisans
SHOP ALL or click the links below to discover each local artisan featured proudly at Lake Road Living.
Birchouse Botanicals
Locally hand-crafted soy candles are hand-poured in small batches to ensure premium quality. All of Birchouse Botanical's ingredients, materials and packaging are responsibly and ethically sources from the highest quality U.S. Based and cruelty free suppliers. We encourage you to recycle and reuse your candle jar after use.
Brimfield Botanicals
Brimfield Botanicals was founded by Colleen Croteau in 2005. After working decades in the spa industry using synthetically based personal care products she was on a mission to develop a product line with ingredients sourced from nature. She achieved her goal but it didn’t come easily. It took several years of trial and error with countless hours of research.
Brimfield Botanicals now offers everything from body scrubs, body cream, bath treats, hair care, and CBD topicals. All products are Sulfate Free as well as Paraben, Formaldehyde & Phthlate Free.
Cindy Bushey
Cindy Bushey is a MA native. She has always loved colors and patterns which led to her love beadwork. She specializes in Kumihimo, which is a Japanese form of braid-making. Kumihimo is Japanese for "gathered threads", and the technique was used to weave colorful silk cords into the samurai coats of armor they wore into battle --it’s a very old art form. Cindy also creates other other types of patterns for her jewelry and mostly chooses styles and colors that catch her eye. She likes to create necklaces, earrings and bracelets that look timeless and classic that an array of women would want to wear. She enjoys the process of of seeing her creations come to life.
Filigree Beaded Gifts
Joyce Tedford, a local artisan from Stafford Springs, Connecticut designs beaded gift items, including pens, wine stoppers, letter openers, serving utensils, and more. She previously lived and worked as an art consultant in California where she developed her skills as a designer. A friend introduced Joyce to designing with beads and so began Filigree Beaded Gifts. Joyce searches for different varieties of beads and is inspired by their color, shape, material, and style to create beautiful and unique designs. Her gift items can be customized for special occasions or a special someone.
Glassy Ink - Michelle Hemingway
My love of glass art began about 30 years
ago as I created a kaleidoscope in a stained glass class taught by Linda Carpenter in Brookfield,Massachusetts. It was under her mentorship that I not only learned skills for creating stained glass pieces, Linda taught me to appreciate my artistic ability.
As a stay at home mom of two teenage boys, finding the balance between family and studio time has become easier in recent years.
I prefer working with a kiln and fused glass. It allows for some freedom and flexibility that is different from the preciseness needed in the stained glass process. Also when fusing glass there is little to no waste of scrap glass as unsuccessful pieces can often be re-fired and scraps are always used up. The most rewarding part of the process is all the feels… the anticipation, the excitement ,and surprise of opening the kiln. It never gets old!
I enjoy the meditative zone in the creative process as all the pieces of glass go together, cutting and shaping one piece at a time. When working with Dichroic Glass the colors and textures change when layered and fired in the kiln at temps of 1100° to 1450°. My dichroic jewelry is wrapped in sterling silver wire, and beaded with semi-precious stones, glass, and sterling silver. Jewelry created with dichroic glass is one of a kind, and offers color, dimension, and unique versatility.
A gratifying aspect of working with glass is upcycling and repurposing glass that would otherwise be in a landfill to create eco-friendly decorative and functional pieces.
Savvy Design Jewelry
Coastal inspired jewelry and accessories to complete your Lake Road Living look! Beautiful stones paired with bespoke charms that show off your unique personality.
The Humble Fox
The Humble Fox soy candles came about after Sara Anderson opened her brick & mortar gift shop, by the same name, in April 2018 in Somers, CT. The majority of her merchandise is from small businesses, many of which are handmade. Sara wanted to contribute a handmade item of her own and has always been a huge candle lover. She set out to learn how to make soy candles and the rest is history. The Humble Fox soy candles are 100% made by Sara in small batches in her home candle studio in Western MA. She loves being able to make something that others can enjoy, it's the best feeling!