On Oct. 5 and 6, driving through Rhinebeck’s windy tree-lined roads led to Quail Hollow’s annual Handcrafted Octoberfest, hosted at the Dutchess County Fairgrounds. The craft fair combined Oktoberfest tradition with a classic craft fair, presenting lines of vendors alongside fall-themed festivities. This year’s Handcrafted Octoberfest was the fifth anniversary of the growing celebration.
On both days, the festival ran from mid-morning to early evening. No matter what time of day one visited, the fairgrounds bustled with people, their arms full of candied apples, popcorn or bags of just-purchased art pieces too irresistible to ignore.
Quail Hollow is the event organizer that coordinated the fair. The organization hosts several craft fairs throughout the year in Dutchess and Ulster counties and was founded in 1981 by brothers Neil and Scott Rubinstein — two woodworkers who wanted to spread the beauty of craft. It became a family business and only grew in the number of events they hosted throughout the years.
While the focus of Handcrafted Octoberfest was handcrafted sales, there were also food pop-ups, live music, Aly’s Ponies petting zoo, a live pumpkin carving by Hugh McMahon, a giant pumpkin display grown by Tony Scott, Castle Carriages’ horse-drawn carriage rides and craft drinks. There were over 100 vendors in total.
Artistic mediums were wide-ranging. Metal artists sold their works next to candle makers and fiber artists, woodworkers and glassblowers. Painters displayed art next to jewelry makers and more.
Despite the diversity of the types of art, many artists echoed the same sentiment: the best part of selling at the craft fair was interacting with everyone they met.
“I love to meet people. Love to talk to them. Love to tell them about my work. Love to tell them about the stones, or the process,” said Sandra Dennis, the designer of Chez Dennis jewelry. Dennis has sold at several craft fairs, and this was her second time at this particular one. “I love to share my knowledge and skill with them.”
Dennis’s specialty is inlays, and she had a clear passion when she spoke of them. She carves out individual pieces of abalone shell and places them onto a ring, one by one.
“I love doing that because every time I envision what it’s going to look like, but I never actually know exactly how it’s gonna show up. It takes 10 hours to make — tiny slivers of shell.”
A popular theme amongst artists was sustainability and upcycling. Several artists were interested in repurposing materials that seemed wasted or unusable to many and turning them into pieces of art. Two exhibitors, Lydia Hoffman and Rebecca “Bex” Mannetti, exemplified this best.
Hoffman began her store, Koza Cashmere, from the desire to do something with the piles of cashmere sweaters she could no longer wear.
“I tried making mittens [from old cashmere sweaters] for my family — I have a couple of sisters — at Christmas time in 2019, and everybody loved them. Big hit. Then COVID came, and I kind of lost my mind,” Hoffman said. “I made mitten after mitten after mitten. Then I found I could get used sweaters at Salvation Army and thrift stores and eventually eBay … and I decided to start selling them at shows,” Hoffman said.
She expanded far from mittens and now makes all sorts of animals, saying her favorites to make are elephants and octopuses. Her goal is to use up every scrap of cashmere from old sweaters.
“Sometimes I think I like these things a lot more than the people who buy them,” she joked.
Mannetti, on the other hand, repurposes empty alcohol bottles and turns them into candles for her business, Boozy Candles, which is based in Stamford, CT. Mannetti partners with bars and restaurants to get bottles of liquor that would otherwise be thrown out. She then cleans, polishes and makes them into art.
“I love seeing people look at these candles, and they attach a memory to them right after the bat, because if someone picks up, you know, a Kahlúa, ‘Oh, my so-and-so drinks this!’ ‘Oh, we just had this last night!’ However it works for the person in terms of the bottle, it speaks volumes because it’s a memory,” Mannetti said.
She also held a hands-on candlemaking workshop for guests, in the vein of the “sip and pour” workshops she hosts at her studio in Connecticut. Doing this at craft fairs also allows Mannetti to turn a usually 21+ experience into one for all ages.
“I have found that there are a few difficulties to it because I want to be present in the candle making experience because I am the candle maker, but I also want to be present as the artist who creates all of these vessels and candles. Those are learning curves, and I am overjoyed that I have the opportunity to have those growing pains.”
Even SUNY New Paltz’s own former president Donald P. Christian held a booth at the fair, turning a background in wildlife biology and hobby in craft-making into a post-retirement career.
“This is the third [craft fair] I’ve done,” Christian said. He takes shed deer and caribou antlers and carves them into jewelry, pins and magnets. He sells on his Etsy store: A Bit of Wild.
“[Antlers] are the fastest growing bone in any mammal, and, in fact, one of the fastest growing tissues in the animal kingdom, he said. “I latch onto a lot of antlers that have just been sitting around for no reason and repurpose them into something useful.”
Outside of all-day vendors, the four-man group Big Fez & the Surfmatics gave a performance on Saturday. On Sunday, dance troupe Witches Along the Hudson, singer/songwriter Raquel and the Wildflowers put on their shows.
The next Quail Hollow event will be the 52nd Annual Dutchess Community College Foundation Holiday Craft Fair on Nov. 30 and Dec. 1.
