The LCFM plans to showcase each vendor that sells at the market throughout the season. This is the first vendor profile, written by Master Gardener, Susan Clotfelter:
Booth: Adrian’s Jewelry
Vendor: Linda and Adrian White
Location: H4, near Miller Farms on the south end of the parking lot
Q: How did you get started making and selling jewelry?
A: The booth is named after my husband, Adrian. He was in the jewelry industry for a lot of years. He was a manufacturer’s rep, so he’d sell diamonds and rubies and other fine jewelry to stores. And I said, “I don’t really like that as well as I like the natural look with all of the natural stones. I had been a high school counselor and sold advertising before that, so when I retired I started making jewelry.
Q: Your booth will only be at the market for a few weeks, right?
A: We’ll be there all of July and the first week of August. We’ll miss the first Saturday, but after that we’ll be there for six weeks because July has five Saturdays.
Q: What are you excited about in what you’ve made this year?
A: Everything I’ve got is new and original and one of a kind. I’m making wire-wrapped earrings, and they’re semiprecious stones and crystals. It’s all kind of free-form, with sterling silver wire. The difficult thing is getting them to match on both sides. I’m working with kyanite; it’s a beautiful blue stone that goes great with blue jeans. And then I’ve got some lemon-olive jade things. I try to have it priced at various levels.
Q: What else should market patrons keep an eye out for at your booth?
A: The Milano glass. It’s man-made, but it’s beautiful. The Italians make it, and they’ve done it for centuries. They blow thin sheets of gold into glass. It gives it a look that’s unlike anything else. A lot of the Milano I’ll incorporate into necklaces and earrings. I really love it. I make it into pendants, and they really sparkle in the Colorado sun.
Q: And what’s your favorite jewelry project that you’ve done recently?
A: It’s hard to say, because when I’m making a piece, I think it’s the most wonderful thing I’ve ever made. And then when I’m done with it, I’m done.
Q: Whose booth do you sneak off to, or send your husband to shop at, when you’re not busy?
A: Sometimes we buy more than we make! We always get lots of good vegetables and bread and flowers.
Q: What do you like best about the Larimer County Farmer’s Market?
A: We just love Fort Collins. We would live there year-round if we didn’t have family in Missouri. We rent a condo for the summer and it’s on the top floor, and it feels like we can see all the way to Laramie. And Fort Collins loves its citizens. I’ve never lived anywhere where the government does everything for its people.
Q: You travel from your home in Lake of the Ozarks, Mo., to sell at the market. What’s that like?
A: Our car will have the tent, five tables, my jewelry bag, my big earring rack, and then my husband can’t bear to leave our orchids behind, so we have about 15 orchids. And then we have our dog, a Shiba Inu.
Q: What’s her name?
A: Her name is Princess Musashi Julia Roberts Grandma Reilley. Musashi because it means warrior in Japanese; Julia Roberts because she has a big smile, and Grandma Reilley because she has flashing black eyes like my Grandma Reilley. We bring her to the market sometimes, but she’ll hide under the table curtains, because she’s a little bit afraid of all the activity. But then sometimes she’ll stick her nose out and then everybody comes to look at her and not the jewelry.
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