Category: Q&A

Owner of Mellifera modern

Melissa Fournier is an artist and the owner of Mellifera Modern, which focuses on custom clothing with fine art photography elements (melliferamodern.com).

Explain your job and what it entails.

I do a lot of different types of art but I specialize in cyanotype on clothing, so I make custom clothing, basically, usually on denim. The process of cyanotype is actually one of the oldest photographic processes that exists. Chemicals go on in a darkroom, just like any other darkroom process, you bring it out into the sun and … then when you rinse it out it’s a beautiful blue color. I use a lot of pressed botanicals and other things like that to create that artwork….

How long have you had this job?

I have been making art for probably about a decade but I have been full-time for about five months.

What led you to this career field and your current job?

A few years after college I really honed my craft to figure what I wanted to do with it. My repertoire is very big, so I had to narrow it down to be able to have a clientele and have a fanbase. …

What kind of education or training did you need?

I have a bachelor of fine arts. … it did help me hone my skills and learn new things that I can then implement in my artwork.

What is your typical at-work uniform or attire?

Messy clothes. … I am working with chemicals that stain fabric, I’m painting, I refurbish furniture on the side … Then, when I’m actually showing, I tend to wear my own artwork … to advertise it.

What is the most challenging thing about your work, and how do you deal with it?

Probably getting people to see it. Especially online, the market is so saturated. Social media is very hard to break into and there’s only so much in-person work you can do.

What do you wish you had known at the beginning of your career?

I think that I underestimated how much work actually went into it and how long it would take to get to a point where I could go full-time.

What do you wish other people knew about your job?

How much work it is behind the scenes. I would say I am only actually making artwork 40 to 50 percent of the time. The other half is finding markets.

What was your first job?

I was a photographer for a Life Touch studio in a Target in high school.

What is the best piece of work-related advice you’ve ever received?

To not take a break after college. A lot of my professors and alumni warned me that you work so hard in college as an artist that a lot of people tend to take a break and … it becomes harder and harder to pick it back up. —Zachary Lewis

Five favorites
Favorite book: I have a first-edition copy of the best works of Roald Dahl that was given to me by my professor in college when I graduated, so that one is very very special to me.
Favorite movie: Probably 500 days of Summer
Favorite music: It’s a little cliche but Taylor Swift
Favorite food: Anything sweet. I like chocolate. Lots of desserts.
Favorite thing about NH: … I would say probably that, how much nature is here.

Featured photo: Melissa Fournier. Courtesy photo.

Conservation, education, recreation

Dave Anderson is the Senior Director of Education at the Concord-based Society for the Protection of New Hampshire Forests. To learn more about their work, to get involved, or just to find a cool spot to hike, visit forestsociety.org.

What kind of trailwork project is going on at Mt. Major? [Work started May 13.]

At Mount Major there are three prominent trails that go from the parking lot on Route 11 in Alton to the summit. They are the Boulder Loop, which is blazed in orange; the Main Trail, which is the fastest, most direct route, which is blazed in blue; and then there’s a yellow trail, which is called the Brook Trail. And we’re closing about a tenth-of-a-mile section of the blue trail, the main trail, and building a bypass that goes around it. Even while the construction is happening, there is the ability to get to the summit using the orange trail and even the blue trail…. When the trail reopens it will be a more sustainable trail both for preventing erosion and also just for hiker experience on the mountain…. During that time the main parking lot will be closed because it is a staging area for heavy equipment that will be working on the relocation. There’s parking along Route 11 … This is expected to be … till sometime in July. Depending on the weather it could be early July … or if we encounter difficulties it will be late. … By doing this kind of work we can reinforce and harden one of the most popular hiking trails in New Hampshire…. 80,000 people is the estimate of the number of people who climb Mount Major [every year].

What’s going on at the Morrill Dairy Farm?

The Forest Society is working to purchase a conservation easement of a portion of the Morrill Family Land here in Concord along the Merrimack River with direct frontage on the Merrimack River…. There are 124 acres of farm fields with spectacular views of Kearsarge which we protected in 2021, and now we’re working to protect the home farm of the Morrill Dairy Farm — they call it the home farm because they live nearby. It’s just north of Sewalls Falls and it’s on the Concord and Pentacook border, and this is part of Rob Morrill’s grandfather’s farm that was established in 1925, where they raised Red and Black Holstein cows. This particular property … includes 1.2 miles along the main stem of the Merrimack River and then an additional 1.3 miles of frontage on what’s known as Oxbow Pond. So it’s a little section of the Merrimack River just north of downtown Concord that’s easily accessed from the public boat launches, and people who paddle the Merrimack River upstream are familiar with where the dairy farms are, and the total is 208 acres which will be under conservation easement, which means it cannot be subdivided and developed…. more than 700,000 people get their drinking water from the Merrimack River in New Hampshire, so we’re working to protect the lands right on the water.

Why do you think it’s important to educate the public about the environment they live in?

Well, think about what we take for granted in New Hampshire. We’re the second most forested state in the nation by land area. We depend on forests for clean air but also for clean water. Then also, recreation tourism in New Hampshire is a huge industry, so all of those things we associate with forest and mountains and trails and also our rivers and clean lakes are benefiting from forest cover and the headwater streams. So we’re not just thinking about the forest; we’re thinking about the New Hampshire advantage, which is open space and conserved open space that’s never going to be developed, contributes to our state’s economy and human health and even our spiritual wellness….

What are some success stories you’d like to share?

The Forest Society goes way back. We are New Hampshire’s oldest, largest statewide nonprofit conservation organization. At our founding in 1901 to 1911 we lobbied Congress to pass the Weeks Act, which created the White Mountain National Forest, which is now 804,000 acres, and that was the beginning of a legacy of land conservation in New Hampshire that continues to this day. Today the Forest Society is the fourth-largest landowner in New Hampshire…. New Hampshire’s land area is about 5.8 million acres, and 34 percent of that land in New Hampshire has been permanently protected through the work of the Forest Society and other land trusts like us.

— Zachary Lewis

Featured image: Mt. Major. Photo courtesy of Jerry Monkman.

Owner of Dragon’s Den Candles in Nashua

Explain your job and what it entails.

I own and operate Dragon’s Den Candles [DragonsDenCandles.com]. I make fantasy, tabletop gaming themed candles that are all designed with a certain sense in mind to give ambiance when you’re playing a game, or reading a book, watching a movie, that kind of thing.

How long have you had this job?

It’s what I’ve been doing for the last couple years now, about 2 1/2 years now.

What led you to this career field and your current job?

I worked in retail for 20 years and I finally got myself out of that…. Trying to come up with something new on a random Sunday my wife and I started making candles just for fun and we both really enjoyed it and it just kind of snowballed from there. I’m a big nerd so I took it in the nerdy direction with the candles I make.

What kind of education or training did you need?

I was mostly all self-taught. Did a lot of research online. We got some candle-making starter kits that had like the basic instructions and just looked up all the different ways people do them and figured out from there, as we narrowed it down and honed our method.

What is your typical at-work uniform or attire?

Just my usual casual everyday wear. We do all this right out of our house so … just khakis and a T-shirt.

What is the most challenging thing about your work, and how do you deal with it?

We have two different candle lines we mainly sell at conventions and craft fairs and ren faires…. We’re constantly traveling up and all over New England selling at different places. It’s a lot of maintaining the proper amount of stock…

What do you wish you had known at the beginning of your career?

Any kind of knowledge into all these different kinds of shows and events that we sell at would have helped tremendously, and just the general knowledge of how much of my house doing this was going to absorb.

What do you wish other people knew about your job?

Probably the amount of time that goes into it. It is a long process making all the candles that we make.

What was your first job?

My very first job ever, I worked at when I was 16 years old, Whalom park down in … Mass. It was a little amusement park. It’s no longer there. I did puppet shows, marionette shows and [was one of] the big costume guys that walked around the park.

What is the best piece of work-related advice you’ve ever received?

At the start of anything you do, it’s always going to look messy. You just need to keep pushing through. It will eventually get to what it needs to be. —Zachary Lewis

Explain your job and what it entails.

I own and operate Dragon’s Den Candles [DragonsDenCandles.com]. I make fantasy, tabletop gaming themed candles that are all designed with a certain sense in mind to give ambiance when you’re playing a game, or reading a book, watching a movie, that kind of thing.

How long have you had this job?

It’s what I’ve been doing for the last couple years now, about 2 1/2 years now.

What led you to this career field and your current job?

I worked in retail for 20 years and I finally got myself out of that…. Trying to come up with something new on a random Sunday my wife and I started making candles just for fun and we both really enjoyed it and it just kind of snowballed from there. I’m a big nerd so I took it in the nerdy direction with the candles I make.

What kind of education or training did you need?

I was mostly all self-taught. Did a lot of research online. We got some candle-making starter kits that had like the basic instructions and just looked up all the different ways people do them and figured out from there, as we narrowed it down and honed our method.

What is your typical at-work uniform or attire?

Just my usual casual everyday wear. We do all this right out of our house so … just khakis and a T-shirt.

What is the most challenging thing about your work, and how do you deal with it?

We have two different candle lines we mainly sell at conventions and craft fairs and ren faires…. We’re constantly traveling up and all over New England selling at different places. It’s a lot of maintaining the proper amount of stock…

What do you wish you had known at the beginning of your career?

Any kind of knowledge into all these different kinds of shows and events that we sell at would have helped tremendously, and just the general knowledge of how much of my house doing this was going to absorb.

What do you wish other people knew about your job?

Probably the amount of time that goes into it. It is a long process making all the candles that we make.

What was your first job?

My very first job ever, I worked at when I was 16 years old, Whalom park down in … Mass. It was a little amusement park. It’s no longer there. I did puppet shows, marionette shows and [was one of] the big costume guys that walked around the park.

What is the best piece of work-related advice you’ve ever received?

At the start of anything you do, it’s always going to look messy. You just need to keep pushing through. It will eventually get to what it needs to be. —Zachary Lewis

Five favorites
Favorite book: The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy
Favorite movie: Who Framed Roger Rabbit?
Favorite music: lo-fi ambient music that I can have going on while I’m doing other stuff
Favorite food: pizza with bacon on top
Favorite thing about NH: I like the environment. It’s hilly, there’s trees, there’s rivers, I like that general atmosphere, that kind of outdoorsy air that it has here.

Featured photo: Corey McNabb. Courtesy photo.

How an annual fair comes together

Janet Robinson, the crafts fair manager at St. Peter’s Episcopal Church in Londonderry, discusses the history of the annual St. Peter’s Artisan Craft Fair. The church also holds a fair in the fall.

Can you give a brief history of St. Peter’s?

St. Peter’s [was] established in Londonderry in 1987. At that time there was a very small church and it has grown since.

There was an interesting building discovered on site?

The church itself was a house with a carriage house. The carriage house was used by the former owner as a craft shop. We added onto the house once we purchased it and built the sanctuary area onto it and continued to use the carriage house.

Can you describe the original building the craft fair was in?

[The] carriage house [is] kind of like a garage without the garage doors. If you go by the church you’ll see it, it’s right in the middle of the parking lot. Years ago they used to use them just for what it’s called, for the horses and the carriages. … The past owner decided, ‘Oh, well, we need to do something with that.’ She started selling some crafts and then she decided, ‘Well, maybe we’ll invite other crafters.’ I know there were a few years that we did get together with Mack’s Apples and another small craft business in that area to make it a community day, and that went well for a while, so it has taken many turns over the years.

Who owned the craft shop?

All I know is that her first name is Karen and she owned ‘Catnip Corner,’ that’s what she called it. There was a woman’s board at the church and they wanted to carry on that tradition of her craft fairs so they reached out to her … and asked her if she minded if we continued that tradition. At first she wasn’t really happy about it and then she came back to us and said, ‘You know, I think that will be a really nice thing for Londonderry, let’s keep it going.’ She provided a list of 35 crafters, we sent out letters to those 35 crafters, and about 50 percent stayed on as crafters in our fair….

So there was a craft fair in that spot before the church moved in?

Yes. She would open up her grounds for other crafters on the weekend after Labor Day weekend. That’s the weekend we continue on. As we had gotten trained and more experienced in craft fairs we added the spring fair also.

How has the craft fair grown since 1987?

We’re now up to 72 crafters. They do set up their tents and tables on the lawn, on all available spots with the lawn. We also have a food truck that comes. In the beginning what they were doing was they used to call it ‘the bistro’ and they would have volunteers manning a grill, serving hot dogs and hamburgers and that grew to wraps. Then, the volunteers started getting much older and we didn’t have anybody who was willing to volunteer so we switched over to food trucks hoping to give local small businesses some business.

Do you all have a great turnout every year?

Yes, we do. We actually are adding a police detail because it has grown so much. All are welcome. It’s juried so it’s not just anybody. We keep it so that all products have to be handmade by the crafter.

Do you all still use the carriage house in the fair?

We do. What we do is we ask each of the crafters to donate an item for raffle and we call it the ‘Crafter Show Case.’ We ask them to give us, you know, ‘what craft that you make that stands out to represent yourself.’ Then we have a raffle for that and at the end of the fair we will raffle off those products to people who have bought tickets.

Is the fair itself free?

Yes, the entrance to the fair is free. We do have parking although when there’s large crowds it does get limited but there is street parking.

St. Peter’s Episcopal Church Artisan Fair
Where: 3 Peabody Row in Londonderry
When: Saturday, May 18, 9:30 a.m. to 4 p.m.
Admission: free
More info: stpeterslondonderry.org/craft-fair, 437-8333
Food truck provided by One Happy Clam

— Zachary Lewis

Featured image: Courtesy of St. Peter’s Craft Fair.

Doctor of Chiropractic at Crossroads Chiropractic at Bedford

Explain your job and what it entails.

As chiropractors we analyze the spine or what we call subluxations, so misalignments in the spine, putting pressure on the nervous system. … Our main goal here is to remove interference from the nervous system…

How long have you had this job?

We graduated in June and we had an externship that we had to complete, so we officially graduated in September.

What led you to this career field and your current job?

Within chiropractic we have what’s called our chiropractic why. A lot of people associate chiropractic with, ‘Oh, my back hurts, I need to come in and get checked.’ For me, I actually grew up in a not so great home in Cincinnati, Ohio … I always grew up wanting more for myself. I was in Boy Scouts, attained Eagle Scout. I joined the Air Force … chiropractic actually kind of found me. Before my first adjustment I was experiencing anxiety on a very consistent basis … I also experienced GERD, [gastroesophageal] reflux disease…. After being adjusted and being adjusted consistently, I don’t experience those things anymore.

What kind of education or training did you need?

As chiropractors, it’s a doctorate of chiropractors so we had to go get our undergraduate degree. My undergraduate degree was exercise sciences. … After your bachelors you go for three and a half years for your doctorate and we went to, both Dr. Brooke [Mills, also a lead chiropractor at Crossroads in Bedford] and I, went to Sherman College of Chiropractic down in Spartansburg, South Carolina.

What is your typical at-work uniform or attire?

I usually wear dress pants, dress shirt. Brooke will be usually in the same, maybe a sundress.

What is the most challenging thing about your work, and how do you deal with it?

I want to be able to take care of every single person in my community. … we’re definitely trying to attain that … go out to the community and meet new people and explain to them what chiropractic is and why we want to care for them….

What do you wish you had known at the beginning of your career?

I wish I had known about chiropractic right off the bat … I would have gotten out a little bit quicker.

What do you wish other people knew about your job?

I wish that people knew it wasn’t just for aches and pains. I wish that they knew that caring for your spine, spinal hygiene is just as important as going to the gym and brushing your teeth. It’s not something that you do only when you’re in pain.

What was your first job?

I actually had a landscaping business when I was 14 I started on my own.

– Zachary Lewis

Five favorites
Favorite book: Atomic Habits by James Clear
Favorite movie: Avengers: Endgame
Favorite music: country music
Favorite food: steak
Favorite thing about NH: I love the lakes because I grew up in Cincinnati, like I said, and we judged our lakes [by] the Ohio River, and don’t swim in the Ohio River because you might come out with a third arm. And up here you can pretty much drink the water. I love it.

Featured photo: Dr. John Schuessler and Dr. Brooke Mills.

Bedford physics teacher has big sabbatical plans

Jennifer Banney, a physics teacher at Bedford High School, was recently named the recipient of the Christa McAuliffe Sabbatical award by the New Hampshire Charitable Foundation, which gives a teacher a year off with pay and a materials budget to bring a great educational idea to fruition, according to a press release.

How did you get interested in science?

I loved computers from a very, very young age. My degree is in computer engineering. A lot of what I learned in that degree was very science-based. It kind of took me into teaching science naturally once I graduated.

Why is problem-solving important in life and how does high school physics help instill that into students?

One of our main jobs as teachers is to … teach them to be problem-solvers. I cannot predict, with how fast the world is changing, the actual knowledge my students are going to need in 10 years. What I do know is that there are going to be problems and there are going to need to be solvers. That’s really what I’m looking to do with my students, making them the kind of people who can come up against a problem, not know the answer, back up for a moment, and think their way through it. I think high school physics is the perfect place to do that. We integrate hands-on projects with mathematics and we do try to get kids to work through problem-solving, where there’s not just one answer to what we’re going to end up doing at the end. We’re looking for them to develop their own way to get there and that practice just of not knowing how I’m going to get there and working your way through it is incredibly important.

What do you hope to accomplish during the sabbatical?

My sabbatical project is developing tabletop escape-room-type games that students would have to use their physics knowledge to work through. I’m envisioning students solving a mystery or working through finding a treasure, or something like that, but having to figure out the angle we’re going to launch something at so it hits something over here, or designing a circuit to open up something. What I envision students doing is working in collaborative groups to work through these problems in a really engaging way. The same way if you’ve ever gone to an escape room with your friends it’s just really fun. You have all these things — you don’t even quite know what the problems are at the beginning, you have to figure out what the problems are, you have to figure out how to solve them and it’s just fun, engaging, and I’m hoping that really makes kids want to delve a little more into science.

Would you like to explain how science can be loud and/or messy?

Yep. Well loud, we have a unit we do in our science class all about sound. We have kids really investigate different frequencies of sound and where they resonate and a bunch of other things and it is definitely the day in my classroom that I may take a pre-emptive Advil ’cause I do have a lot of noise going on. My classroom is kinda messy. We build things, they spill out into the hallway sometimes and we have cars racing down the hallway and that kind of stuff. But I think that’s where real learning happens for kids. It’s where things get cemented in their head when they’re doing those hands-on activities that aren’t just them quietly sitting at their desks. So it can be a little loud and a little messy, but I think it makes it a little fun.

Will you miss the classroom?

Yes, I do actually think I’ll miss the classroom a lot. I am planning to work with a lot of different New Hampshire teachers. I already have a lot of people signed on who are interested in being play testers for what I am going to be doing. I actually see myself traveling to a lot of different classrooms in New Hampshire throughout the year to watch kids interact with what I’ve built, see what works, see what doesn’t work, and really keep in contact with a lot of different teachers…. I absolutely plan to have a website where teachers, in the future, after everything is designed and produced, they’d be able to download everything and use the games in their classroom.

— Zachary Lewis

Featured image: Jennifer Banney. Courtesy photo.