7th Sundance Tour Attracts Thousands To Maberly

Julie Druker | Sep 04, 2013

The seventh installment of the annual Sundance Studio Tour once again attracted thousands of visitors to the surrounds of the Fall River Restaurant in Maberly, where hosts Paul Zammit and Michele Murphy opened up their property and restaurant kitchen for those with an appetite for fine food, arts and crafts and local live music. The show, which was begun by Carmine and Cam Allen, was taken over two years ago by Zammit and Murphy who wanted to continue on the tradition after the former organizers let it go. “We wanted to keep that amazing show that they created alive and instead of letting it die we took their baby on and adopted it ourselves. We are offering people a little bit of everything here all in one single stop.”

The juried show boasts a riverside art booth walk along the picturesque Fall River. This year's show included 35 art and craft innovators, many of whom are local folk who create interesting and high-end art and crafts. One such artisan, whose booth was constantly buzzing with browsers and buyers, was that of Willa Murray, co-owner and creator at Mari Cla Ro. Willa and her business partner Sven Schlegel create a cutting edge line of bags, purses and knapsacks from high quality industrial materials, like seat belts, leather and recycled furniture upholstery. “Basically everything that we use was once waste and we figure out cool ways to design and transform it into long lasting pieces that are also beautiful as well as functional.” Part of the beauty of the bags is that they do not scream "recycled" but rather appear as brand new top quality original objects. Along with their wide selection of bags are a line of earrings and necklaces made from recycled wood salvaged from the dashboards of Jaguars, Mercedes and other high-end vehicles. They also sell earrings made from super 8 film. The packaging for the jewelry pieces often will include information about what film and what car they were salvaged from. The work demonstrates the two creators' keen design sense, which they honed at school - Murray as a graduate of heritage carpentry and Schlegel from a background in resource management. Both Murray and Schlegel have recently relocated their business/studio and homes to Snow Road Station after having run their own store location in Toronto's trendy Roncesvalles strip. I came away from the booth with a very handsome shoulder bag that boasts sturdy zippers and a generously wide strap, and which can carry everything I need while out on the beat.

Other notable items for sale included the intricate and beautifully designed jewelry by Anita Cerro, whose newest work includes a line of necklaces made with a blend of natural wood and silver. Andrea Crowe's felt creations were as eye catching as they are fashionable and included her felted bracelets and felted scarves, the latter of which played with the idea of light and shadow using rectangular felt attachments worked onto transparent scarf material. Local woodworker Frank Sammut of Kokopelli Custom Woodworking had on display his live edge furniture made from local wood plus clocks, boxes, cutting boards and his spectacular hemlock clothes trees, which work perfectly outdoors. His wife Sue Sammut had a booth next door showing off her colorful mosaic windows.

Visitors feasted at numerous umbrella-ed picnic tables set up on site where they enjoyed an organic lunch courtesy of the Fall River Restaurant, whose staff served up local and organic pulled pork sandwiches, turkey/cranberry sausages and grilled Arctic char burgers. Local beer and wine was also to be had as were fresh baked goodies and good coffee.

Local musicians Mario Franco, Hermann Amberger and Kevin Head played an eclectic range of folk music throughout the three-day event as visitors strolled the extensive grounds. By mid-day on Sunday over 3000 visitors had already been counted and Michelle Stewart, who helped organize the event, was pretty certain that this year's attendance would beat out last year's 4000 visitors. The participating artists and a few local businesses donated items for an on site raffle to raise funds for breast cancer research at the Ottawa Hospital Cancer Centre. Zammit and Murphy both wished to thank all of the visitors, the artists and their crew of 12 volunteers who all help to make the show an ongoing success.