By Melanie Stegner and Ellie Ochieng

The first ever and hopefully annual, Vintage and Artisan Market is taking place this weekend in Starbuck. Artisans and collectors will abound at the Starbuck City Park on Friday from 4-8 p.m. and Saturday from 8 a.m. – 5 p.m. Vintage and handcrafted items including textiles, furniture and crafts will be featured.

The debut market is set to feature over 20 vendors with items such as handmade rugs, collectible antiquities, baked goods, repurposed furniture and crafts using various mediums – from wood to fiber.

The early-century loom Laurie Musselman stands at when she weaves is a z-harness floor loom. 

Musselman uses a shuttle to push the cloth strips through the alternating layers of warp. Two pedals on the floor allow her to alternate the strands of warp. The Lowry-based artisan has been hand-crafting rugs for over 35 years on her antique Union Loom Co. loom, manufactured nearly 100 years ago in New York state. She spools the colorful warp by hand onto the loom’s frame before the weaving process begins. “My mom used to sew these long strips together then take them to a neighbor who had a loom and these sturdy, beautiful rugs would come home. That’s how folks did it back in the day. Instead of throwing old clothes away, they’d make rags, rugs or quilts,” Musselman stated. Her stand at the market will feature her handmade rugs as well as jellies and jams.

“The beauty is in the simplicity,” says Rita Larson, a Pope County-based vintage collector, as her fingers run over the frame of an oil painting. Larson’s primary focus as a collector is on “primitive” pieces: the side tables, cupboards, dressers, desks and wooden toys, and original oil paintings in frames of early settler days. “Primitive pieces were typically fashioned from pine wood,” Larson says, “the poor man’s wood species when the frontier was settled. My interest in vintage has been part of me for years, and it’s been confirmed in my work as an interior designer,” Larson shares. 

Local antique dealers will be participating in the weekend market, including private vendors from Stevens and Pope County and storefront vintage collectors “Peddler Dan” Jahn of Starbuck and Flipping Quarter’s restoration dealer Kellie Wolff of Morris. Food trucks, kettle corn, and cold-brewed coffee vendors will complete the market atmosphere.