On a Thursday afternoon in late October, Amanda McCarthy played a set at Bobby’s Idle Hour, a no-nonsense bar nestled at the edge of Nashville’s Music Row. The busy performer had another gig scheduled later that evening, but this one was special, marking the release of “Lifeline,” a song that takes a healthy look back at a long-gone relationship.
“When I finished that song in the writing session, I was like, ‘Well that’s all I have to say,’” McCarthy recalled in a recent phone interview. “I think there’s something really cool about that feeling.” Begun a few years ago and completed with the help of her fiancé, Tom Shubsda, and Martin Butter, its finality shares common ground with Taylor Swift’s “All Too Well.”
At her side that day was Sam Ferrara, a singer-songwriter she’d worked with a lot since leaving New Hampshire just over two years ago, lately singing backup on Ferrara’s own ex-boyfriend burn, “Get Out of My Town.” The two will be making a trip North in early December, with dates at NYC’s Cutting Room and Over The Moon Farmstead in the Granite State.
“I played in New York City before, but she’s from there, so it’ll be really cool to meet her people and be with her in her home environment,” McCarthy said. “Then I’ll get to bring her to New Hampshire.”
The bond with Ferrara is one of many McCarthy has formed since her 2020 leap of faith to Music City. She’s been a part of several songs that have been recorded, co-writing Benn Park’s “Mountain Steep” and penning “Unwrite Every Song” with Emily Myers. “That was a special one,” McCarthy said. “She’s also one of my best friends.”
Though written years ago, “The Long Haul” recently helped April Cushman win a New England Music Award for Best Country Act. McCarthy still hews to the song’s message of tenacity in the face of challenge. “I’ve kept my expectations low but my work ethic high,” she said. “I’ve always been kind of an underdog in a way, and I have no problem working harder day by day, trying to figure it out.”
Her biggest success isn’t one song or even the award she received from Young Entertainment Professionals Nashville for being its most active member. “Being able to quit my job was certainly validating because it let me say I’m stable enough, I’m getting enough work that I can do this,” she said.
She’s aware it’s a crucible that’s not for everyone. “I was always a full-time musician up north and the big question was can I do this in Nashville,” she said. “I was able to, and that really gave me a confidence boost and let me know I’m on the right path, no matter where it’s going. Every time someone records a song I’ve helped write is validating, because it shows me that other people see the value in what I write, not just me.”
The move also helped her growth as an artist. “I’ve learned so much about songwriting from being here, and it hasn’t even been from anyone telling me that I was doing anything wrong. I think just being around so much of it, you absorb a lot, you get inspired by a lot. I’ve kind of become in tune with knowing how to really pull out my inner voice. But I can also become other people’s voices, which is a very cool way to switch things up — and my voice has gotten stronger.”
McCarthy looks forward to seeing friends and family and doing some tax-free Christmas shopping during her brief visit, which also includes a solo show at The Bar in Hudson on Dec. 4. Beyond that, performing at Moonlight Meadery’s home base is about more than music for her.
“The owners, Michael and Bernice, are my best friend’s father and stepmother, and she’s my maid of honor,” McCarthy said, noting that the bridal shower for her wedding next spring happened at the facility. “So not only are they part of an amazing music venue, but I have a very personal connection with them…. I’ve known them since I was a kid, so it’s very cool to be playing there.”
Amanda McCarthy & Sam Ferrara When: Saturday, Dec. 3, 2 p.m. Where: Over The Moon Farmstead, 1253 Upper City Road, Pittsfield More: amandamccarthy.com
Featured photo: Amanda McCarthy. Photo Credit Nash Bash Collective.
Diners at an exclusive, multi-thousand-dollar-per-diner restaurant realize their evening is about more than foams and locally sourced seafood in The Menu, a thriller that’s probably more cute than clever but does leave you hungry for a really good [spoiler alert].
Let’s just say the food item in question isn’t quite the Chef grilled cheese sandwich but it’s in that vein and I will be thinking about it long after I stop thinking about the rest of the movie.
Hawthorne is the kind of restaurant that patrons have to wait months to get a reservation for and then can get to only by taking a boat out to a secluded island where only a dozen customers are served per night. Before even getting to the restaurant, front-of-house manager Elsa (Hong Chau) takes the diners on a tour of the island and the restaurant’s gardens and chicken coop and smokehouse — the base camp of bull—- mountain, as Margot (Anya Taylor-Joy) observes. Of all the guests, she is the least impressed by all the artisanal nonsense of the restaurant. And she’s the date of the guest who is most obsessed with the idea of each dish’s umami and presentation and Instagramability, Tyler (Nicholas Hoult). She is not, we quickly understand, the date he was supposed to bring, and when she and another guest, older man Richard (Reed Birney), recognize each other and then pointedly look away from each other, we can guess pretty quickly how she came to be with Tyler. Richard is there with his wife, Anne (Judith Light). Other guests include three finance bros (Mark St. Cyr, Arturo Castro, Rob Yang); a restaurant critic (Janet McTeer) and her editor (Paul Adelstein); a past-his-prime movie star (John Leguizamo) and his assistant (Aimee Carrero), and an older woman (Rebecca Koon).
Chef Julian Slowik (Ralph Fiennes) commands great respect — or something — from his kitchen staff, who snap to attention and “yes, chef” him loudly when he gives an order. The dishes come out, one by one, each with a story (and accompanying title card), and each one gets a little more conceptual and insane than the next. When a taco course comes out featuring a chicken thigh with small scissors stuck it (to go along with a story about Slowik stabbing his abusive father in the thigh) and tortillas laser-printed with the guests’ various misdeeds, the guests realize that the uneasiness they’ve felt all evening was the correct emotion.
What if Jigsaw from Saw went to culinary school and started to take food really seriously while still wanting to mess with people — is what I’m getting from this movie. Yes, the title cards are funny and there are a few genuine laugh-out-loud moments, often juxtaposing the la-di-da nature of foodie talk with menace or outright violence. But the customers are more monied sadsacks than monsters and the kitchen staff come off as either either dead-eyed cult members or wild-eyed lunatics. Which, fine — but the movie spends a lot of time on speechifying and seeming to have characters believe they’re making a point about class and the shallowness of high-end foodie culture. The movie acts like it’s saying something but really every statement of purpose boils down to “people suck,” which kind of takes the air out of that part of the movie and makes it feel more like window dressing to the suspense than a clever message. It is, as Paul Hollywood would say poking his thumb into these sections of the movie, underbaked.
We are also boxed in to only rooting for Taylor-Joy (well, maybe her and Judith Light, who is able to do great things with the tiniest of looks or motions). This is by design but the movie doesn’t give her much more than “Girl You Root For” as a character or personality. Fiennes, as the Big Bad, doesn’t get a whole lot more than that — his character basically delivers Chef Julian’s whole deal during one of many pre-course monologues — but he does seem to be having fun with this Great Man gone off the rails.
For all this, I enjoyed The Menu — it’s gleeful about its different kinds of villainy and really relishes, ha, sending up needless extravagance and foodie culture. B
Rated R for strong/disturbing violent content, language throughout and some sexual references, according to the MPA at filmratings.com. Directed by Mark Mylod and written by Seth Reiss and Will Tracy, The Menu is an hour and 47 minutes long and distributed by Searchlight Pictures in theaters.
Smokin’ Spank’s food trailer rolls into Litchfield
Kevin Anctil of Litchfield grew up on family-owned farmland in Lewiston, Maine, where his late grandfather was revered in the community for his barbecued chicken. Several Sundays out of the year, Armand Anctil would purchase a batch of chickens from a local processing plant and cook them out in front of his home, using his own barbecue pits he had designed and built.
“They were sandwich-type grates, so he could load them up and close them down, then walk down the line and baste all the chickens and flip all the grates over, and he’d do that for 90 minutes to two hours,” Anctil said. “Then the people of Lewiston, after mass, would walk up the hillside with their blankets and picnic baskets, or their potato salad and lemonade, and they’d buy Pepere’s chicken and eat it out there on the yard in front of the farmhouse.”
As owner and pitmaster of Smokin’ Spank’s Barbecue, a 22-foot food trailer launched earlier this fall, Anctil pays homage to his family’s roots. He has the same original basting sauce and finishing sauce recipes for his own barbecue chicken, and he even added a custom-built pit for his trailer that uses the same type of sandwich grating techniques his grandfather once employed.
Macaroni and cheese. Photo courtesy of Smokin’ Spank’s.
Smokin’ Spank’s Barbecue is scheduled to appear at 446 Charles Bancroft Highway in Litchfield on several weekend dates this month, with the next one on Saturday, Dec. 3. Anctil is also cooking up barbecue for attendees of Spirit of Litchfield’s fifth annual tree lighting, set for Saturday, Dec. 10, at Roy Memorial Park.
Anctil, who is affectionately known in his college friend circle as “Spank,” described his concept as traditional Southern barbecue, but with some New England roots. His brisket, for instance, is smoked Texas-style with salt and pepper in tribute to his own travels, while other items include maple baby back ribs that are finished with maple syrup as a glaze.
“I do a blueberry spare rib that’s a bigger, meatier rib with a blueberry barbecue sauce on it,” he said. “I also have local apples in the apple bacon barbecue sauce that I serve with my pulled pork, and I do a blueberry jalapeno slaw that I guarantee you’ve never had anyplace else. … It starts as sort of a traditional coleslaw, but then I include big whole blueberries and slivers of seeded jalapeno in there. It doesn’t bring a lot of heat but it does bring a bright fresh green pop.”
Anctil also serves traditional macaroni and cheese and loaded baked potato salad, both of which he considers to be his flagship sides. Last week, he offered a menu of “spankwiches” for the first time, featuring a half-pound of pulled pork or pit beef and a house sauce — the apple bacon sauce, he said, is designed to pair with the pork, while the Texas table sauce goes with the beef.
“Peace, love and barbecue” is Anctil’s unofficial slogan, the words adorning his trailer.
“I spent the first 30 years of my working career in IT, and following Covid, I made a career change,” he said. “I was doing something that really wasn’t my passion or was in my heart, and so … my family got behind me and wanted to support me to try to make a go of doing what I love. … I’m at peace when I’m cooking and I show my love through my food.”
Smokin’ Spank’s Barbecue Upcoming appearances; visit smokinspanks.com or find them on Facebook and Instagram @smokinspank • Saturday, Dec. 3: 446 Charles Bancroft Hwy., Litchfield (noon to sellout) • Saturday, Dec. 10: Annual Christmas tree lighting at Roy Memorial Park, Wood Hawk Way and Albuquerque Ave., Litchfield (4 to 7 p.m.) • Saturday, Dec. 17: 446 Charles Bancroft Hwy., Litchfield (noon to sellout) • Friday, Dec. 23: 446 Charles Bancroft Hwy., Litchfield (noon to sellout)
Featured photo: Blueberry spare ribs. Photo courtesy of Smokin’ Spank’s.
Concord Chorale honors founder of Concord Community Music School with scholarship
By Katelyn Sahagian
ksahagian@hippopress.com
The first Peggy Senter Scholarship at the Concord Community Music School is going to seventh-grade singer Raegan Wolfe, who has been a part of choirs at the music school for seven years and is going to be a member of the Organization of American Kodály Educators (OAKE) National Conference Choir.
When Peggy Senter, the founder of the Concord Community Music School, retired in the summer of 2021, the Concord Chorale wanted to do something to honor her legacy, said Chorale president Elibet Chase. The group landed on the idea of a scholarship to the Concord Community Music School.
“It’s great to support an upcoming singer who is taking lessons at the school and to grow the young singing population,” Chase said. “We really want to find ways to make younger singers aware and consider choral music.”
Chase said that it was important to the chorale to show support to the school because of how the music school had helped the chorale over the years. In addition to holding practices and shows for the chorale, the school lent the chorale equipment to rehearse with while the pandemic was raging.
Chase added that Senter always came to the chorale’s performances and took a special interest in all music being performed in the area.
“Peggy Senter came to all of our concerts, never missed one,” said Chase, adding that the community music school has always been there for the chorale. “It’s really just a great relationship of support.”
Kathy Lundahl, the dean of students and educators at the music school, said the arts community in Concord is very close knit. Since Concord Community Music School was started, Lundahl said, its mission has been to provide musical education to people of all abilities and from all socioeconomic backgrounds.
When Lundahl heard that the chorale wanted to offer a scholarship to vocalists, she was extremely excited.
“I think it’s really heartwarming,” Lundahl said. “The school has had a lot to do with quietly building an important musical community in Concord. This [scholarship] is a perfect example of keeping that going and moving forward.”
The major requirement for the scholarship from the chorale was that it goes to a vocal student who seemed likely to continue learning and performing at the school. Chase said that beyond that, the chorale wanted the school to choose the students.
Lundahl said that the school looked at need as well as students who were excelling in the vocal field. A team of teachers and accompanists was brought together to discuss who would be the best applicant.
Chase said that the group made the right choice in Raegan based on her love of music and also her dedication to performing, as well as her patience with younger singers.
“She’s just a really cool student,” Chase said. “Not only is she really enthusiastic about her own singing and what it means in her life … she’s also always been nurturing of younger kids. One instructor gave an example of how she worked and performed with a student to keep her from being nervous.”
Raegan said that she doesn’t believe that she wants to be a professional musician when she grows up, but instead thinks she might want to study music in college to become a choir teacher. She added that some of the most important people in her life have been her choir and voice teachers.
“I think it would be fun to sing and teach,” Raegan said. “I just really like being around younger kids…. It’s so interesting to hear how voices change and how they have so much fun and energy.”
Raegan is extremely thankful to be the first recipient chosen for this scholarship. She said she wanted to “thank everyone at the school and everyone who has helped me … encouraged me and given me confidence.”
Featured photo: Raegan Wolfe. Photo courtesy of Elibet Chase.
How upcycled pieces and secondhand finds give clothes and jewelry their next fashion moment
Out with the old, in with the “new”
Upcycling used clothing into fresh fashion
By Matt Ingersoll
mingersoll@hippopress.com
Margaret Kasper of Milford was upcycling clothes before that was even a common term.
“My grandmother was a quilter, and I used to watch her save every scrap of fabric that she would use to make her quilts and then reuse it in new quilts. And I think that kind of stuck with me,” said Kasper, who has owned Mountain Girl Clothing since 2008. “I started to do the same thing when I got into sewing. I would save all the discarded pieces of fabric and use them on a new piece further down the line. … I think ‘upcycling’ is a pretty new term, and now it’s pretty trendy, but I think people have been doing it forever and probably not even realizing they’re doing it.”
A Milford native, Kasper studied fashion and textile design at Massachusetts College of Art and Design in Boston. Launching Mountain Girl Clothing with her grandmother’s hand-me-down sewing machine, she began exploring the world of gently used and discarded textiles. Today, she operates in her own studio space in downtown Milford with the help of two assistants.
Margaret Kasper of Mountain Girl Clothing, based in Milford. Courtesy photo.
“There are literally tons and tons of post-consumer waste textiles and discarded clothing that you can find at thrift stores and secondhand stores and things like that,” Kasper said, “and so that’s what I really started to dive into, was looking at what I could use around me that’s not going to cost an arm and a leg. Then I would start to take it apart, transform it and make new pieces of clothing. … People just responded to it really well. Going into thrift stores is kind of like Christmas for me, because you never know what you’re going to find.”
Kasper admitted that when she’s on the hunt for “new” pieces of old clothing she can use at thrift stores, she doesn’t always have the most immediate idea of what she is going to do with it.
“I’ll be attracted to the feel or the print of the fabric,” she said, adding that Mountain Girl Clothing primarily specializes in women’s shirts, jackets, sweaters, hoodies and similar articles.
In addition to shopping at secondhand and thrift stores, Kasper has worked with a family in India for the past few years, whom she became connected with through the e-commerce website Etsy.
“They’ve been sending me their discarded textiles from India, and so I’ve been able to kind of expand what I use for materials and bring that over here to use in my pieces,” she said.
With the help of her two studio assistants, Kasper can produce about 40 to 50 new pieces every week — on average, she said, that’s anywhere from a half hour to up to two hours per piece. Once it’s ready to go, she’ll often have a model come in and wear it, or she’ll model it herself, and they’ll take pictures and create a listing for the item on the website. On Thursdays, Kasper also usually presents a shop launch on social media for her regular customers.
New to the world of upcycling, Sofia Farah launched The Tenth String Co. roughly eight months ago in her basement studio in Nashua. In fact, Farah actually just learned how to use a sewing machine in 2020, when she made masks during the early months of the pandemic.
Farah’s first upcycled project was a denim jacket, but it was one she had made just for herself.
“I posted it on my Instagram after it was done, then I went about my day and I get back on Instagram and get a ton of [messages], which doesn’t ever happen,” she said. “People were obsessed with the denim jacket and they all wanted to buy it. So then I was like, ‘What if I start doing this,’ and so I went to the thrift store that week and just found a bunch of random things.”
Upcycling started as a part-time hustle for Farah, until eventually she quit her job to wholly focus on keeping up with her orders. She is also now one of about 30 vendors that are participating in the inaugural Holiday Shoppes at Tuscan Village in Salem — find her there every Thursday through Sunday through Dec. 31, and daily during the week of Christmas.
Sofia Farah of The Tenth String Co., based in Nashua. Courtesy photo.
“One of my more popular items is the shirt and flannel combo,” Farah said. “Basically I take the torso of a shirt that might have some graphics on it, and I sew flannel arms to it, and it kind of makes this super-relaxed boxy-type fit article of clothing. … It’s the comfiest thing ever. You don’t have to button up the flannel, which is awesome. You just throw it on.”
Like Kasper, Farah finds herself often going to thrift and secondhand stores, as well as a lot of estate sales. She has even developed relationships with some local vintage clothing dealers.
In Salem, Ianna True owns and operates Fits the Vibe, a modern secondhand store that also carries some vintage and upcycled items. The business originally opened in Windham in October 2020 before moving to a larger space in Salem the following year.
True, who taught herself how to sew, also likes to create articles of clothing from graphic T-shirts and flannel sleeves, and she’ll sometimes dabble in upcycling sweatpants and sweatshirts.
Even some items like bed sheets and shower curtains can be upcycled into clothing. Meredith artist Cassandra “Sanni” Reale of Monarch Press Collections has filled such orders since founding her business in early 2021. She also likes to implement block printing into her work.
“That’s what makes me stand out a little bit more than just doing certain sewing alterations, is I’ll add that printing aspect in there, and a lot of it is some of my own designs,” Reale said. “Some of the bigger projects that I’ve done have been … flipping quilts into jackets, and also printing designs on the backs of jackets, or on pants or whatever.”
Kasper believes her customers are drawn to her pieces for several reasons. There’s the environmental benefit of reducing the amount of wasteful materials, for instance, in addition to the excitement among her buyers for being able to wear something wholly different and unique.
“I’ve always loved that you can find a T-shirt at a thrift shop and it’s sad and it doesn’t have a home, and then you add something to it or cut it a certain way and it looks like a completely new piece of clothing. And you didn’t have to go to a big department store to find it,” she said. “Another cool thing about the upcycling process is that it makes these pieces of clothing truly one of a kind. It’s something you can’t find anywhere else and can’t really be replicated.”
Where to find locally upcycled clothing
Here are a few local companies that work to breathe new life into yesterday’s clothes.
Fits the Vibe 287 Lawrence Road, Salem, 818-0598, fitsthevibe.com, and on Facebook and Instagram @fitsthevibe A modern secondhand store that also carries vintage and upcycled items, Fits the Vibe originally opened in Windham in October 2020 before moving to a larger space in Salem the following September. Owner Ianna True works with dozens of small businesses to source their products in the store, which include everything from jewelry to upcycled clothes.
Monarch Press Collections Meredith, monarchpresscollections.com, and on Facebook @monarch.press and Instagram @monarchpresscollections Specializing in upcycled clothing, eco-friendly stamp making, block printing and more, all with a focus on sustainability, Monarch Press Collections was launched by Meredith artist and University of New Hampshire grad Cassandra “Sanni” Reale in early 2021. Her work is available for sale online, and she’ll also be selling her work at Wayfarer Marketplace (626 Main St., Laconia) on Friday, Dec. 16, from 9 a.m. to noon.
Mountain Girl Clothing Milford, mountaingirlclothing.com, and on Facebook and Instagram @mountaingirlclothing Milford native Margaret Kasper has owned and operated Mountain Girl Clothing since 2008, specializing primarily in women’s shirts, jackets, sweaters, hoodies and similar articles. While her downtown Milford studio space isn’t open to the public, Kasper usually presents a weekly shop launch on social media for her regular customers, and she ships her products worldwide.
The Tenth String Co. Nashua, thetenthstringco.com, and on Facebook and Instagram @thetenthstringco New to the world of upcycling, Sofia Farah of The Tenth String Co. works out of her basement studio in Nashua. Find her at the inaugural Holiday Shoppes at Tuscan Village (9 Via Toscana, Salem) every Thursday through Sunday through Dec. 31 (except Sunday, Dec. 25) — hours are Thursday and Friday, 4 to 8 p.m., Saturday, 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. and Sunday, noon to 7 p.m. From Sunday, Dec. 18, through Friday, Dec. 23, the Holiday Shoppes will also be open daily, 11 a.m. to 8 p.m., and they’ll be open Saturday, Dec. 24, 11 a.m. to 4 p.m.
Thrill of the hunt
Secondhand clothes shopping offers exciting finds
By Angie Sykeny
asykeny@hippopress.com
Shopping secondhand can be a budget-friendly way to grow your wardrobe, but saving money isn’t the only good reason to stop in a local consignment boutique.
“To me, the thrill of the hunt itself is just as exciting as the bargain or the item,” said Elyssa Alfieri, owner of Lilise Designer Resale in Concord. “You’re gaining access to a unique selection of items … with the opportunity to shop many stores, regions, time periods and aesthetics, all in one place, and there is so much room for experimentation to find your truest self.”
At LDR, you’ll find women’s and men’s secondhand clothing, shoes, accessories and jewelry, including items from everyday brands like Madewell as well as high-end brands like Chanel, Gucci and Burberry.
Chic Boutique Consignments. Courtesy photo.
“We work hard at curating our selection … and assess each and every item for condition, age, style, fabrication, authenticity and value,” Alfieri said. “We focus on … items from the highest-end brands possible, but we also can’t ignore the ‘it factor’ — when an item is good, it’s good.”
For customers, she said, that carefully curated selection provides a shopping experience that is “all needles, no haystack.”
“We cater to those who feel underserved by what traditional retail models offer,” Alfieri said. “We are for the people who can’t find trends early enough, for people who don’t have time to scour the thrift store racks. … You won’t have to search long to find things you’ll get excited about.”
Chic Boutique Consignments in Bedford also carries secondhand clothing, shoes and accessories for women, plus a small selection for men and children, in high-end brands such as Louis Vuitton, Lululemon, Patagonia and Prada.
“Each consignment store has their own niche with matching clientele and best-selling brands. … We know what our clientele is looking to purchase for their own closets,” owner Ashley Lyons said. “This is always ever-changing, so keeping up with the most current trends and hot brands is something we take great pride in.”
Consignment stores often carry unique and hard-to-find items “that aren’t going to be found walking around a mall,” Lyons said, such as luxury handbags that are out of stock or discontinued from the designer.
You may also find items manufactured years ago in older styles that are making a comeback.
“Many trends right now are vintage-inspired,” Alfieri said, “so finding the original is a great alternative to spending a lot on designer pieces that sometimes don’t live up to the real thing anyway.”
What sets consignment boutiques apart from “thrift stores,” Lyons said, is the quality of the items.
“Many people come in confusing a consignment store for a thrift store, but rest assured we are much different,” she said. “Our inventory is in pristine condition. … Most first-time customers are astonished to hear our items have been previously loved.”
Secondhand shopping tips • Know what you’re looking for. “I tell customers to keep a note in their phone with a list of items they’re looking for so they have something to reference when they’re getting caught up in the moment,” Alfieri said. • Inspect for quality. “Make sure everything works,” Alfieri said. “Check the fabric, zippers, buttons. If you’re thrifting a pair of shoes that look like they were never used, bend the soles to make sure they haven’t dried out.” • Consider the care required. “Will you need to take special care when washing, wearing or storing this item? Sometimes it’s totally worth it to have an item like that, but only if you know you’ll get what you want out of owning it,” Alfieri said. • Beware of fakes. “When buying a designer handbag, or any piece for that matter, make sure it is from a trusted reseller that only sells authentic pieces,” Lyons said. “We have seen such an influx of fraudulent designer items, so be sure to only buy from a trusted source.” • Try things on. “Be adventurous and use the opportunity of shopping in person to try on many different styles,” Alfieri said. “It’ll be fun, and you might discover a new version of yourself in the process.”
Glam-cycling
Many ways to reuse and update jewelry
By Katelyn Sahagian
ksahagian@hippopress.com
Diamonds are a girl’s best friend, but diamonds and a lot of other precious gems and fine jewelry can be extremely expensive. That’s why some stores across southern New Hampshire are reselling old jewelry or turning other objects into beautiful, affordable pieces.
At Atwood Jewelers in Salem, manager Eileen Gormley said more than 95 percent of the business is with estate jewelry, a fancy way of saying preowned jewelry. The shop will polish the jewelry, sometimes will rehouse and fix the bands, and in some cases will completely customize a new piece.
“Mostly, it’s sentimental for people. I would say our clients are mostly the older generation,” said Gormley. She added that the younger generation of clients is looking for a way to continue having sustainability, and that Atwood offers a lot of that.
A collection of vintage and re-set jewelry from Atwood Jewelers. Courtesy photo.
Another feature at Atwood is that people can often take family heirlooms and repurpose them. Some single earrings sold to the store will become pendants for necklaces or ‘show-stopping’ rings, Gormley said. Sometimes customers will request that the stones in the jewelry be taken out and repurposed into new designs.
“We fix people’s things up and bring them back to life,” Gormley said.
Gormley said that over the 24 years she’s been at Atwood, there have always been professional jewelers working in the store and designers, like her coworker Jio Winchell. Gormley estimated that a third of all the business done at Atwood is repurposing stones into custom jewelry.
Customizing jewelry isn’t only something for precious gemstones. Anything can be jewelry if there is enough time and creative energy put into it. Margi Lord, a contractor turned estate planner, sells costume jewelry at Antiques on Elm in Manchester.
“My jewelry making started years ago when I was working in a hardware store and I said, ‘I don’t have on any earrings,’” Lord said. She said she saw some lock washers and realized with some quick ingenuity she could make a pair of fun earrings.
Ever since then, she said, she’s seen the possibilities for different things to become fashion statements. She is most proud of a cufflink that she sanded the post down on to turn into a pendant.
Lord said that it’s important to her to make her jewelry reasonably priced. At her station at Antiques on Elm, she prices all her jewelry, even a statement piece made from an elephant belt-buckle and Ralph Lauren scarf, at $10 or less.
Lord said she likes to see young people who want to remake the jewelry into something else, or little girls who buy the jewelry she sells so they can play dress-up.
“To me, [sustainability] is really important,” Lord said. “There’s so many things that can be recycled and reused.”
Jennifer Stewart, owner of Firefly Wood Designs in Gilford, makes necklaces out of old skateboard decks. Courtesy photo.
“The colorful plywood decks are just asking to be upcycled!” Stewart said via email. “I also like finding interesting patterns in the scuffed up graphics of the boards too — they’ve made some of my favorite pendants.”
Kim Stewart, who does jewelry design for Firefly Wood Designs, an Etsy store based in Gilford that she and her sister Jennifer run, takes sustainability a step further by turning old skateboards into jewelry.
She makes pendant necklaces and earrings from colorful skateboard decks, an idea that she got from the love she and her husband had for skateboarding while they were in college. Stewart said it’s important for her to do something sustainable and while she knows this isn’t a huge thing, every little bit helps.
“It’s not much, but I know even small changes like upcycling things here and there can really make a big impact on the health of the environment,” Stewart said.
Featured photo: Margaret Kasper of Mountain Girl Clothing, based in Milford. Courtesy photo.
Former Manchester mayor Raymond J. Wieczorek died on Nov. 22 at Catholic Medical Center at the age of 93. According to his obituary, which appeared in the Union Leader, Wieczorek’s public service included five terms as mayor of Manchester, from 1990 to 2000, and then six terms as Executive Councilor for the State of New Hampshire, from 2002 to 2012. “Mayor Wieczorek cared deeply about this city, and many of our beloved institutions, like the Manchester-Boston Regional Airport and the SNHU Arena, were made possible by his hard work. My thoughts are with his family and loved ones during this difficult time,” said Manchester Mayor Joyce Craig in a statement. A funeral was held for Wieczorek on Nov. 28 and included a procession past City Hall, where past Manchester mayors joined Craig in paying their respects, according to the Union Leader coverage.
Nashua Center for the Arts
A grand opening for the long-awaited Nashua Center for the Arts has been announced. According to the venue’s Facebook page, the celebration will take place on April 1, 2023, followed by a full schedule of local, regional and national acts through the spring and into the summer, including Suzanne Vega on April 15, Beauty and the Beast performed by the Safe Haven Ballet on April 22, Symphony NH’s 100 Year Anniversary Concert on April 29, The Rush Tribute Project on May 19, Celebrating Billy Joel on June 8, Grace Kelly on June 17 and Jake Shimabukuro on July 16. Tickets will go on sale on Friday, Dec. 2, at 10 a.m., with more events to be announced on Dec. 6. Call 1-800-657-8774 or visit nashuacenterforthearts.com.
School safety
Gov. Chris Sununu and the Executive Council have approved $9,873,605.40 for school safety funding in New Hampshire. According to a press release, the funds, authorized as part of the Security Action for Education grant program and distributed through the Governor’s Office for Emergency Relief and Recovery, will support 335 projects at 231 public schools and 18 non-public schools, with a cap of $100,000 per school. “School safety is an absolute priority in New Hampshire, and this latest round of SAFE grants will work to ensure that schools are prepared and supplied with new technology and other advancements to enhance school safety and the protection of our children,” Frank Edelblut, New Hampshire education commissioner, said in the release. The funds are in addition to $3.9 million in SAFE grants awarded earlier this year to 92 public schools in the state.
Rental assistance
The Executive Council has approved an item from the Governor’s Office for Emergency Relief and Recovery to divert federal funds that were originally allocated in August 2021 for the resettlement of 250 Afghan evacuees in the state toward statewide rental assistance, NHPR reported. In October, New Hampshire Housing announced that it would be forced to put its New Hampshire Emergency Rental Assistance Program on pause after the U.S. Treasury announced that New Hampshire will not receive any additional resources to continue the program beyond Dec. 29. The approved item will reduce funding for the resettlement of the Afgan evacuees from $408,330 to $242,000, with the difference of $166,330 being used to support the state’s emergency rental assistance program.
Mobile clinic
The Health Care for the Homeless Program of Manchester, a collaboration between the City of Manchester Health Department and Catholic Medical Center, is launching a new mobile clinic for homeless and medically underserved people of all ages in the city. Manchester Mobile Health Care will be staffed with members of CMC’s Street Medicine Team, according to a press release, and will provide medical checkups, bloodwork, vaccinations and counseling. “This will undoubtedly expand our reach and allow us to creatively get to individuals who otherwise would not have care,” Anna Thomas, public health director for the City of Manchester Health Department, said in the release. “That is critically important as we enter the winter months, when those without stable housing are even more vulnerable.” The mobile clinic will be regularly stationed at the Families in Transition Adult Emergency Shelter on Manchester Street and at the Manchester Recovery & Treatment Center on Wilson Street.
603 Equality, the Reproductive Freedom Fund of New Hampshire and GunSense NH (a project of Granite State Progress) held a solidarity candlelight vigil at the Statehouse in Concord on Nov. 22 to remember the LGBTQIA+ lives lost at Club Q in Colorado in November.
Double Midnight Comics & Collectibles in Manchester announced that it’s moving from its current location on Maple Street to The Factory (252 Willow St. in Manchester) on Jan. 5, according to a post on Double Midnight’s Facebook page.
Merrimack’s holiday parade and tree lighting will be held Sunday, Dec. 4. The parade will start at 3 p.m. at 515 Daniel Webster Hwy. and the tree lighting will be at 3:45 p.m. at Abbie Griffin Park (6 Baboosic Lake Road). See merrimackparksandrec.org.
