Classes on offer at the Manchester Craft Market
By Zachary Lewis
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Jessica Moores has created a bazaar of locally sourced and handcrafted goodies at the Mall of New Hampshire.
“This is our eighth year,” Moores said. “We started just as a craft fair with different tables all throughout the mall or we had an empty store for about nine weeks where 20 people sat at their tables to sell what they’d made.”
It was a good start, but Moores was encouraged to grow.
“Someone said to me, ‘This is great, but I don’t want to sit here all day. I want to put my stuff on a shelf, and you sell it for me.’ So I came back a few months later and I told the mall I want to give people a spot to sell their stuff on a shelf and see how that goes.”
After she spruced up an old pet store she had been allocated by the mall, business continued to grow.
“We decided we needed a bigger store,” Moores said. Manchester Craft Market then moved to the space next door. This was the location where Moores started curbside pickup during the Covid years, which allowed her business to thrive, although it was an austere road at first.
“I did it all without any loans or credit cards in the beginning. I didn’t pay myself for a couple years and kept putting my money into the business, like free displays. This one here I got like seven years ago for free,” Moores said as she pointed to a glass display cabinet right next to the cash register. “I still use it. It makes me a ton of money.”
Manchester Craft Market had its first million-dollar year just a couple of years ago.
“A million dollars of New England-made products only. That was 2021,” she said.
“In 2023, in September, we moved into this space…. We grew from about 170 makers to 250. We also have a classroom space for workshops and classes,” Moores said.
The classes are a big draw for crafters and patrons alike.
“We’ve done a couple ceramic classes with fairy houses or polymer clay. People are hand-building their own mugs. Cookie decorating classes. It’s kind of its own separate little thing back there,” Moores said.
A calendar of classes and workshops can be found on their website but one does not need to be a seller here to be allowed to teach.
Another fun edition is the window display.
“I work really hard on my window display, which seems to really attract people. With our winter display people would stand out there and take pictures like it was Macy’s in New York, so that was really fun.” Moores said
How did Moores get started with this whole enterprise?
“I was a stay-at-home mom trying to pay off some student loans and I started making my own stuff,” Moores said. “I said, ‘I really need a place to sell this. Where do I sell it?’ I was walking through the mall one day and there were a bunch of empty stores at that point. I said, ‘I should do a craft fair in the mall.’ So I went to a local, like, Facebook moms group and said, ‘What do you guys think about this? Would you go?’ and they were all like, ‘Yeah, we would totally go.’ And now some of them are our regular customers….”
The support from the community allows Moores to celebrate the handmade wares of local makers, which she describes as “anything altered, designed, or with additional components. Generally, that gives our makers leeway to design an image and have it printed elsewhere to be a sticker or print. It allows them to buy different jewelry findings and assemble them to make something different. I am not asking them to silversmith, although some do.”
Moores reiterated that without the enthusiasm of these craft makers her business would not be possible.
“Every little spot in every corner in here is a different maker. It is 250 individual businesses that we are supporting. Some of them pay for their chemo meds with it, some of them pay their mortgage with it, some of them just make it for fun and make a couple bucks off of it. It is all local New England. We just have fun with it.”
Manchester Craft Market
1500 S. Willow St. in Manchester (inside the Mall of New Hampshire).
Hours: Monday through Saturday from 10am to 9pm, Sundays from 11am to 6pm.
Contact: 606-1351, manchestercraftmarket.com
Featured photo: Workshop space at Manchester Craft Market. Courtesy photo.
