creatives + makers

creatives + makers, gather

Quick look: Field + Foundry with Bing dinner in Baltimore

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This past weekend marked the second Field + Foundry dinner with Bing.  Quite simply, wow.  Our Baltimore gathering, not unlike our first dinner in Virginia, has left me at a loss for words.  For now I can sum it up as this: the people (simply amazing), the food (still dreaming of it), the setting (it's a former chicken box -- awesome in it's own right and so many others) and the people, wow, I did I mention they were phenomenal folks? This dinner was the midpoint in the 3-part series that Laicie and I are hosting.  Each gathering, in addition to a great meal, includes an opportunity to learn something new (Laicie orchestrated an *awesome* bitters workshop!) and speakers who share their own creative experience (Matthew Swanson and Robbi Behr, a husband and wife team, spoke about the collaborative process -- you *must* watch their Tedx talk).  (Side note:  Robbi and Matthew are pictured in one of the first few photos below -- very serious and intense folks!  Guys, you two are amazing!)

Once I've gathered my thoughts and had a bit of sleep so I can dream about the delicious pies, I'll share more in a separate post, including Reema's photos -- which will be stunning and truly capture the magic of the evening.

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creatives + makers

Farmhouse Pottery // Woodstock, VT (Act I)

Farmhouse Pottery by Melissa Hope
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Instagram is my favorite social media platform hands down.  Apart from keeping me informed about everything anything of interest, it's been both a tremendous creative outlet and means by which I've connected with *so* many wonderful people locally and afar.  (The list is long and one which I'll soon share.)

Enter Zoe and James. 

As is often the case, I'm not entirely sure how our paths first crossed on Instagram, but boy am I glad they did!  I could fill a post with just how fantastic they are, but that would only be half of the story.  In a few short years they've launched a pottery line that's evolving into an exceptional well-crafted lifestyle brand -- Farmhouse Pottery.  Aesthetics, craftsmanship, and functionality aside (it tops the charts in all three), the simple beauty of what they're building is such a natural extension of who they are.

Bless folks who let a random person with a camera and an energetic Goldendoodle come hang out for an afternoon.  I spent an afternoon at Farmhouse Pottery in late July.  At the time they'd only been in their brick-and-mortar digs (an old Bible bindery!) for a few short months though you'd have never known!  I left with great new friends and Mollie thoroughly exhausted.  Win and win.  This is the first installation of photos from that visit; the workshop gets a post unto itself.

Since you'll want to bookmark it, here's the Farmhouse Pottery website.  Hang out with them on Instagram while you're at it!

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Farmhouse Pottery by Melissa Hope
Farmhouse Pottery by Melissa Hope
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Farmhouse Pottery by Melissa Hope
Farmhouse Pottery by Melissa Hope
Farmhouse Pottery by Melissa Hope
Farmhouse Pottery by Melissa Hope
Farmhouse Pottery by Melissa Hope
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creatives + makers, gather, country

Virginia Field + Foundry dinner with Bing and musings on creativity

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It's been just about two weeks since the first of the three Field + Foundry dinnersLaicie Heeley and I are hosting with Bing.  Even as I write this now I remain at a loss for words to express fully my gratitude for all of those who joined and to properly qualify the boundless inspiration and motivation I gathered from the evening.   While we come from different backgrounds (personally, professionally, and creatively), we all share this underlying (and driving) desire to create.  When you bring that together it's intoxicating and, at least for me, a bit soul-stirring. As promised, I wanted to share a few more glimpses of this magical evening, all captured by the exceptionally talented (and equally lovely) Reema Desai.  (Tip:  follow Reema on Instagram; you can thank me later.)

To start, though, here are some of wonderful recaps and posts about the evening.  (Last week I posted a few quick photos I snapped, but all of these folks (and Reema's beautiful images) give true justice to the evening's magic.)

Gratitude.  I have so much of it -- not only those who joined, but to Bing for their support of creatives, makers, and doers; to West Elm for providing us with the beautiful goods on which to share these meals; to Artifact Uprising for helping us record the memories and stories from these evenings; and to Amanda Marko for the words and experiences she shared about building Trouve Magazine.

Allow me to digress here.  Leading up to and particularly in the time since this dinner, the definition of creative, of being "a creative," has been rolling around in my mind.  Online searches yield a slew of definitions, variations around the same concept.  Perhaps the most salient bit of  information the interwebs offers is this: there are more than 60 definitions of the term.  Creativity, regardless of how you define it, is characteristically vague, complex, and amorphous.  For the nerds like myself, here's an quick journal piece that attempts to explain why this is so.  The academic, unsurprisingly, arrives at the same point I believe most of us do -- creativity (and I'll add my own bit here -- being a creative) is broad and flexible  in its application.  This I feel is its greatest quality.

We all arrived at this dinner from different places (in both the literal and figurative sense), with different passions and ways that we go about manifesting them, but we were all were drawn by the same (wide reaching) thread -- creativity.  This is all to say, I am thankful for the malleability of this term for without it I might have the the reason to meet, engage, and *create* with so many incredible people.  It is ambiguity, at least in this case, for which I am also so, so deeply grateful.

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All photos by Reema Desai.