MILLBROOK — Not even an overcast day with scattered showers could take away the beauty at the Millbrook Vineyard & Winery. On Saturday evening, June 11, as fog rolled across the vineyard, people from all around the Dutchess County area traveled to get a taste of Millbrook. That night the Millbrook Education Foundation (MEF) hosted its eighth annual A Taste of Millbrook event. The night included performances by the Millbrook High School Jazz ensemble, Madrigal Singers, a silent auction, wine from the vineyard and food from area restaurants. Members of the high school’s National Honor Society chapter volunteered to serve food.John Dux, chair of the MEF, has been on the board for nine years.“What we do is we raise money. Hopefully we will raise $30,000 to $35,000 tonight, and in return we give that as grants for the school,” he said. “It can go for small things, like a trip for the eighth-grade class to go to a museum, to something big like a new computer lab with 26 new computers. So it goes from small grants to very large grants.” Dux said he expected more than 300 people Saturday. “What is really great is all the restaurants give so much food; they have been so nice to us,” said Dux. The variety of food donated to A Taste of Millbrook consisted of restaurants such as China Tokyo, When Pigs Fly South, Slammin Salmon and Rusty Tomato, to name a few. Two restaurants were showcased at the event. One, Bread Alone, a bakery with locations in Boiceville, Woodstock and Rhinebeck, featured homemade baked goods such as crumb cakes and brownies. The other showcased restaurant was Aurelia, a Mediterranean restaurant in Millbrook. Some of the highlighted cuisine consisted of gazpacho soup, watermelon with goat cheese and fresh thyme and homemade hummus with pita. Susan Nestel, owner of Aurelia, explained why she enjoys being a part of A Taste of Millbrook. “It’s a good community event that raises money for a great cause.” she said. “This year we are actually here and we want to meet some people who haven’t been to our restaurant. We have been in the village for four years; this year was the first we were invited to come and have our own table.” Planning to have an event of this size is no easy task, Diane Schnoor, a member of the MEF board of trustees, said. “We start back in January contacting businesses, friends, neighbors, and brainstorming what would be great to have at the event,” she said, adding that between 30 to 40 people work to bring the evening together. “The month of May is crazy getting everything together to publicize the benefit; it’s a team effort.”Eleanor Pelc chairs the A Taste of Millbrook committee.“I just want the community to know how much MEF does to help the schools,” she said. “I often think they don’t realize what we have done to contribute to the schools, so it’s nice they get to come out and talk to us. And we try and hang some signs up to show some of the grants we have approved throughout the years so they realize where their money is going.”At A Taste of Millbrook there were suggestion cards giving donors ideas of what their money might fund. For instance, $2,000 could fund an eighth-grade trip to Washington, D.C., or for $15,000 the school district could finish putting in Smart Boards in the schools. The cards also explain where grant money has gone in the past, like establishing the Model U.N. Club in the high school or creating scholastic magazines for all elementary students. Kyle Goodwill, 17, is a senior at Millbrook High School. He was working as a server at the event and said he is especially thankful for the money donated. “One particular thing that was funded by MEF was Project Lead The Way; I took those courses all the way through high school,” he said. “That influenced what I plan to major in when I go to college.” Goodwill will be attending CUNY Binghamton in the fall, hoping to study digital electronics and architecture. Lloyd Jaeger, superintendent for the Millbrook School District, said he feels blessed to have MEF. “The Millbrook Education Foundation is founded for the sole purpose of funding the Millbrook schools. All of their money comes in one form of donations or another to individual teachers or a schoolwide project,” he said. “This event is their single largest fundraising event annually. Last year they grossed about $35,000 and it is a uniquely Millbrook event at the Millbrook Winery. There are many donations from community people, it turns the community out here and it has become a real joy for everybody. So we are very fortunate to have the strength of a organization like this for our district and that’s why it’s important.”
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The organic runway at HVSFW puts sustainable style among the apple trees at Stone Ridge Orchard.
Jay Ballesteros
That’s the question behind Hudson Valley Sustainable Fashion Week[end], a two-day celebration of sustainable style, local makers and the possibilities of keeping clothing in circulation. The weekend lands at Stone Ridge Orchard, a 200-year-old working farm, on Sept. 25 and 26, pairing an evening fashion show with a new all-ages Slow Fashion Fair.
“To me, slow fashion means intentional fashion. Careful, thoughtful, human,” said Joanne Louis-Paul, the event’s communications director. “Slow fashion is the speed at which one person can sew an intricately detailed dress. It’s taking the time to go to a thrift store or clothing swap and sifting through an unknown bounty of possibilities. It’s extending the life of a piece of clothing for as long as possible.”
In everyday terms, she said, “It’s stopping to think before purchasing anything or giving anything away.”
Friday’s fourth annual Organic Runway brings Hudson Valley designers to the farm for a sunset showcase of garments made from repurposed textiles and produced locally. Designers include Clare Bare, ennui, Kacy Coyle, KNUD, la vie après l’amour, Last Night on Earth, So Vicki and Touch Threads. The evening runs from 4 to 8 p.m., giving attendees time to pick apples and sip local cider before settling in for the runway.
“We’re all about the whimsy here at HVSFW,” Louis-Paul said. “The runway is so incredibly dreamy. Being outside makes for an unpredictable, one-of-a-kind backdrop every year, and there’s just nothing like that sunset glow.”
Models walk the organic runway at HVSFW. Ilan Harel
The unlikely pairing of fashion and farming is also part of the point.
“Once you’re sitting amongst the apple trees, you realize how much sense it makes to mend the relationship between fashion and nature,” she said.
Saturday introduces the inaugural Slow Fashion Fair, from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m., with workshops, mending, fiber art, vendors, music, eco-friendly kids’ crafts and a clothing swap. There will even be sheep.
“We wanted to have a fair so we could invite more people in the eco-friendly ecosystem into the fold,” Louis-Paul said. “We get to highlight not only designers, but makers and artisans of all kinds.”
The organizers hope the fair appeals not only to people already thinking about climate and sustainability but also to those encountering the ideas for the first time. With mending, a clothing swap and hands-on workshops, the emphasis is on showing visitors things they can actually do.
“There are so many things anyone can start doing today,” Louis-Paul said. “From something as simple as sewing a patch onto a stain or tear to hosting a mini clothing swap at your house with friends and family, there are tons of ways to engage with your wardrobe more thoughtfully.”
She speaks from experience. Before becoming involved with the event, she said, secondhand shopping held little appeal.
“As someone who never liked the idea of thrifting, I am now completely sold on circular fashion,” she said. “I recently sewed a broken strap on a dress I got at a clothing swap, and I felt so accomplished! Being in this world has shown me that conscious consumption is attainable and fun.”
But behind the fun is a serious concern about what happens to clothing once consumers decide they no longer want it.
“Just because you throw it away doesn’t mean it goes away,” she said, pointing to discarded clothing accumulating in other parts of the world and the microplastics shed by synthetic fabrics. “The planet and people are suffering because of this throwaway culture we’ve adopted. If an outfit is new but super cheap, believe there’s a high cost to someone else.”
For more information and tickets, visit hvsfw.org
Susan Schneider, owner of Shandell’s in Ashley Falls, in her studio.
Susan Schneider, owner of Shandell’s in Ashley Falls, in her studio.
She has been creating lampshades for 25 years and has settled in Ashley Falls, where she is renovating a barn behind her house for a larger studio. Her mission: “Changing the view on plain white lampshades, one at a time!”
Besides using marbled paper, she uses papyrus, silk and hand-painted papers for the shades.
Shandell’s on Main Street, offers a large selection of marbled decorative home items on its website — trays, coasters and bookends, to name a few — as well as scarves and belts. Schneider will also customize items and creates custom wallpaper, gifts and favors for weddings and special events. She offers consultations by appointment.
Schneider explained how she began making lampshades.
“I was in business as an antiques and textile dealer, needing lampshades at the time (the early 1990s). I had a dealer who used to make lampshades. She was moving and sold me everything she had in her barn for making them. Arcs, templates for lampshades, and tools.”
Schneider used the marbled paper from the endpapers of old books to make small lampshades.
“I collected those voraciously.”
The papers were too small for the larger lampshades she wanted to make. To get paper in the size she needed, she decided to learn how to marble.
That was 10 years ago. She now has 20 tanks for marbling, including one 10-foot tank that allows her to make 3 yards of fabric at a time.
As she demonstrated the marbling process, making covers for journals, it was easy to see why she “got hooked.”
Susan Schneider, owner of Shandell’s, creates a variety of products with marbleized surfaces in her Ashley Falls studio.L. Tomaino
She explained that marbling takes a couple of days of preparation. She prepares water mixed with carrageenan the night before so that it thickens and becomes a viscous liquid onto which the acrylic paints can be dropped. Paper or fabric must also be prepared with alum, which “makes the paint stick,” she said, a day or two ahead of time.
When she was ready to start, Schneider first used a level to make sure the tank was even. Then she pulled a squeegee across the surface of the carrageenan mixture to break the surface tension, followed by strips of newsprint for the same purpose. She also dipped small pieces of newsprint into the mixture.
“The hardest thing to teach people is to break the surface tension first,” she noted.
Next, she used droppers to place rows of paint onto the mixture.
“It’s a joyful process,” she said as she chose more colors. “It’s totally the pleasure of the colors.”
She explained, “The colors are stopped from spreading by the surface tension.”
Then she added newsprint around the edges of the tank to break the tension again and added another layer of color. Next, she used a marbling comb, slowly dragging it back and forth across the width of the tank to create a feather-like design.
Combs come in many sizes, with teeth spaced at different intervals and in different patterns. She chose another comb to drag through the length of the tank, making the design more intricate before laying two pieces of paper on the surface. After a second or two, she lifted them, perfectly capturing the pattern, and carried them to the sink for a rinse with water.
Once she squeegeed away the paint left in the tank, she was ready to begin the process again.
Next, she created a different type of design, dripping colors in a less ordered array, then twirling them into curving lines and circles with a thin rod.
When the surface was ready, she laid a journal cover on top, then lifted it out, covered in a vibrant pattern of swirling colors.
For observers, the process can seem magical.
Schneider loves to share the delight of marbling by teaching classes at Dewey Hall in Sheffield. Upcoming classes will be held Nov. 20, 21 and 22. Beginning in November, she will also offer private classes in her home studio. Schneider had never pictured herself having a business like Shandell’s, but she discovered a passion for creating, as she says, “things that make you smile.”
For more information about her work and upcoming classes or to contact her for a consultation, visit shandells.com.
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