High-quality crafts and picturesque grounds create one weekend of shopping paradise! The annual Fruitlands Craft Festival is back for another year on Saturday and Sunday, September 20 and 21. Nearly 60 hand-selected New England artisans will converge on the Harvard hillside overlooking the Nashoba Valley and New Hampshire mountains to showcase their crafts.

Before you plan your shopping excursion, Craft Festival Manager Harriet Friedrich highlights a few new and returning artisans to give you a preview of what to expect…

New Artisans

Eric’s Aviaries

As you’ll discover on Eric Kalwarczyk’s website, his birdhouses are truly not “just” birdhouses! Each individual Aviary is a uniquely sculpted work of art for the intended landscape. When experiencing one for the first time, it feels somewhat like Alice in Wonderland/Art Nouveau meeting nature! A concept that is truly eccentric and exceptional. And the birds love their special homes.

Eric has a background in fine furniture and cabinet making. It became his platform for stretching the artistic limits of a birdhouse. Eric has been perfecting his architectural gems for the past 20 years and has won numerous awards, including the Winner of the Joseph Gualtieri prize for excellence in wood in 2024. Each aviary is 100% handcrafted and unique.

DJ Jewelry Designs

Diana Beaulieu is a juried member of the League of NH Craftsmen and has been creating one-of-a-kind contemporary pieces of wearable art for the last 42 years. The beauty of her jewelry speaks for itself. Diana uses mixed metals of sterling silver, gold, and copper with precious and conflict-free gemstones. Her pieces are understated and modern, intended to go from casual to formal with ease.

She recently started a new venture using mixed color polymer clay which helps create interesting shapes set in sterling silver and gold. Diana is a truly creative artist who continually aspires to quality and originality.

Returning Artisans

Bell Cottage Basketry; Nantucket Lightship Baskets

Joanne Beller has been making baskets for most of her life perfecting at first Appalachian basketry, then Shaker basketry, and finally moving on to Nantucket Lightship Basketry. She grew up in an artistic family where each member created their own art, hers happened to be baskets. Joanne enjoys creating each basket with its intricate mathematical weave making something unique with simple materials.

As an FYI, the name Lightship Baskets originates from the ships which acted as lighthouses in the 1800s. The crewmen passed the time making baskets for their wives and sweethearts as a sign of love and friendship.

Tracy Lévesque Fine Arts

Tracy Lévesque is an accomplished acrylic painter who has been exhibiting her vibrant acrylic landscape paintings nationally for over 20 years. She paints in the style of Fairytale Realism and is inspired by Mother Nature and a childhood of frolicking in the beautiful Berkshire Hills of Western Mass.

Tracy was always meant to be a painter and won her first award for a birch tree watercolor at the Norman Rockwell Museum in high school. She is also an amateur naturalist, birdwatcher, day hiker, bibliophile, and tea enthusiast. Her nickname is “the birch lady” and she is a select juried member of the League of NH Craftsmen.