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Christopher Hastings Confections crafts award-winning, Maine-made and inspired chocolates and candies, using local ingredients and small-batch artisan techniques. We draw our inspiration from the rich food history and taste traditions of Maine to produce stunningly delicious and truly decadent confections that put a little bit of Maine into every tasty bite.
We’re small-batch artisans — we don’t make thousands of chocolates every week, like those ‘big box’ candy shops. Instead we artfully hand-craft smaller batches of our chocolates as we need them, keeping a regular menu of our most popular chocolates while sprinkling in a seasonal assortment of confections and chocolates we create specifically based on the availability of quality local ingredients.
Because we are small-batch, we’re incredibly nimble — and welcome special orders or requests. If you have a special someone to woo, an upcoming corporate or personal special event, or run a business catering to those seeking the very best tastes the great state of Maine has to offer, we’d love to work with you to make your life more delicious.
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I have traveled across the USA over the last 40 years from Maine to Texas to California and back to Maine again. I have always taken classes and workshops in each location with my most recent experience being right here at Haystack and Maine College of Art. All that experience has led to diverse interests when working with clay. My inspiration comes from many different sources. Architecture, fabric design, and nature are just the beginning. The fire that turns soft clay into a finished piece fascinates me.
Seven years ago I decided to turn my avocation into my vocation. Although I loved teaching, I decided turn pottery into my full time adventure. I have never looked back, each day continues to be a new discovery.
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We are a small family farm living in the Western Maine Mountain. We produce craft maple products in small batches. Ensuring the freshest and most delicious maple products for your enjoyment. We also offer tours of our farm and supply our products wholesale to restaurants, farm stands and more.
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From humble beginnings renting space in a friend’s barn to set up her kiln and wheel, Mary Kay Spencer has been a working potter for more than 30 years. As owners and artisans of The Potter’s House in Litchfield, along with her husband, Jeff, she crafts fine, colorfully hand painted stoneware pieces that please the eye and feel good in the hand.
Mary Kay believes in putting the “FUN” in her functional wares. Taking inspiration from walks in nature and time spent in her garden, Mary Kay treats each piece of her pottery as a canvas, using a rich palette of colorful glazes and a fine hand to render watercolor style, impressionistic paintings on clay. These joyfully produced, individually hand-painted works are intended to bring a smile or evoke a happy memory. Her garden series of pottery is available on a wide range of items – bowls, mugs, platters and decorative vessels. She has a special fondness for creating bowls, “so wonderful to make, wonderful to hold”, and cups. “Your first cup of coffee in the morning should be a joyful, positive experience … which colorful mug shall I use today? As I always say, “It’s not the coffee, it’s the cup!”
In addition to creating her garden pottery, Mary K’s work as an artist continues to evolve. Her current work uses bold colors and oxides to create pieces that incorporate digital photographs and decal work into her traditional pottery, mixing classic organic forms and shapes with modern lines and rich details achieved through an inventive manipulation of images and patterns.
“I always felt there was something very organic about working with clay, always felt that it was healing. Being with, working with dirt is very healing. It is cosmic. There is a connection,” she says. “Maybe I have been a potter throughout all of my lives.”
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I am a Maine native, born and raised in the Maine Highlands and MidCoast regions. I attended the University of Maine at Machias. I majored in Fine Art and graduated with a BA in 2001. After a couple years in education, I began a career in land surveying. This took me to Connecticut for a while, but we’re back for good! I have a wonderful wife and a houseful of great children.
Over the years, I never gave up drawing. On a dare, I took part in Inktober in 2016. I never really used ink much before. Graphite and charcoal were my preferred media. But the ink seemed to pull me in. Before long, I was drawing more and more and using a wider variety of inks and tools. It occurred to me that I could draw portraits of lobster boats by commission. I began to offer this service that Fall. The response was immediate. And all of this on a dare.
I have always loved the Maine Coast. My family has roots that run deep in Maine, and especially along the rugged coastline. Drawing scenes of places I love so dear has been a pure joy. And the photos fishermen send me to work from are always inspiring.
My work has attracted not only fishermen, but others who love the ocean have pleasure craft. I have drawn for folks in Illinois, Alabama, Florida, California, and beyond. And fisherman from Massachusetts, New Jersey, Nova Scotia, and Alaska have connected with me for commissioned work. Each finished drawing is my new favorite. Each one had a challenge that I had to figure out. Each one has been a pure joy.
And again, it was all on a dare.
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Woodcarver, Father, Organic Gardener, Musician, Photographer, and lover of all things handmade! This just about sums it up about me.
CarvedWoodenSpoons.com is a new adventure brought about by a few people in my life who said I should be selling my wooden spoons online. So, in 2013 I opened an Etsy shop and this website to sell my handmade spoons.
I perfect my art of wooden spoon making in my studio neighboring my organic garden, wild field, brook, and mixed hardwood forest in Brunswick on the coast of Maine. Many of my custom hand embellished designs reflect shapes found in nature. From tree to timber, I find that hidden spoon within each piece of wood. My spoons have travelled to admirers in the U.S., Canada, Europe, Australia, and South Korea.
The process of hand carving a spoon hasn’t changed in hundreds of years. I use traditional, as well as, more modern methods in my spoon carving, and have developed a style unique to high-end heirloom quality woodwork. I believe in creating beautiful and functional works of art. For me the creative process comes alive when I can mix the imagination of my mind and heart with the work of my hands. I use a multitude of tools and techniques to create the perfect kitchen utensil.
Join me on my exciting spooning adventure! I’ll be blogging about the techniques and methods I use in making quality wooden kitchen utensils. I’ll be sure to keep my Blog interesting and full of colorful photos. Be sure to sign up of for my monthly newsletter for exclusive coupons, fun cooking recipes, and a behind scenes look at making utensils.
Thank you for your support,
Jason Weymouth
Owner – Carved Wooden Spoons
Brunswick, Maine
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In 1978 Albie and Cheryl traveled through Europe and Scandavia with their infant son, Scott, on their backs. Our purpose was to research the masonry heater and oven traditions of various countries, searching for the design that could most readily be adapted to the New England Colonial red brick open fireplace heritage. In Finland they found a vibrant tradition of red brick cookstoves, masonry heaters and ovens, along with readily available high quality cast iron heater hardware, specialized mortars, technical literature and construction instruction–a perfect fit.
In 1979 Albie made a second trip to Finland and became a lifetime partner with the Finnish castings company now called Narvi Oy. He also began a lifelong friendship with one of Finland’s chief masonry heater researchers and writers, Heikki Hyytiainen, with whom he would eventually co-author a book, Finnish Fireplaces: Heart of the Home. Bringing and adapting the Finnish and European masonry heater tradition to the States became Albie and Cheryl’s life work. Now, 30 years on, their son Scott has joined the business as a full partner and is raising his own young children in a culture their family helped to create. Their daughter Anna has now also joined the business and completes what our vision included in the meaning of a family business.
In addition to designing and building heaters throughout the United States and importing masonry heater hardware from Finland, Albie began teaching hands-on workshops in masonry heater construction in 1978. He has also written several manuals on Finnish and Russian Fireplace and Cookstove construction.
About twenty one years ago, Albie decided to add wood fired ovens to the products and services that the Maine Wood Heat Company offers. In France he found Le Panyol, a family-owned business that has been producing artisan crafted 100% organic wood fired ovens since 1840. Maine Wood Heat became Le Panyol’s North American partner and importer, selling and installing wood fired ovens in homes, bakeries and restaurants from coast to coast.
As interest in renewable energy and local food grows, so does our company. We are a home grown family business, and we love what we do!
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I started my jewelry career under the careful guidance of the master Italian jewelry Renne Martin at the Decordova art Museum when I was quite young, only 12. A high school jewelry department led to Mass College of Art and then to Portland School of Art. It was in Portland that I met Bill who was a chef at the time. We married and began our journey. When our son Morgan was born Bill decided to become a jeweler full time and work with me and Harvest Gold Jewelry was started in 1985. Bill went on to study with Heika Seppa at Haystack School and learned anticlastic forming. His natural creativity and ability to form gold led to award winning designs that can be worn everyday for a lifetime. I continue to create one of a kind pieces using local gems from our large collection we have been collecting since we started our company.
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I grew up in Falmouth and currently live in Bowdoin. I have two degrees in Graphic Design and have always been in love with color and texture. I used to sit and watch the Wednesday Spinners at Common Ground as a little girl and fell in love with spinning. In 2010 I bought a spinning wheel and started to spin and sell yarn. I then got involved with dyeing yarn and fiber and found my happy place. I love being in my studio and creating different colorways. I find inspiration all around me. Nature, patterns on a pillow, walking though shops … color is all around and I am constantly snapping photos and bringing them back into the studio to inspire new yarn colors.
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I began weaving baskets approximately 30 years ago after taking a basket class through a local adult education program. Since that time, I have been weaving almost every day. I have taught myself how to do more complicated weaves by reading and experimenting. I find my ideas for weaving by seeing a place where I could use a basket and designing one to meet the need. I also see pieces of different baskets and picture them together in different styles. I enjoy weaving near the water where I can wet my materials and enjoy the outdoors.
