I was up to my ears in the organization of the Seconds Sale yesterday, so my deputies took the camera and went off on a Dad & Kid Exploration of the MayDay Craft Weekend.

All of these photos were taken by John, so any credit is entirely his. I tweaked them here and there (cropping, convert to black and white, that sort of thing, but they’re his). I’ll let the photos speak to his journey…..

Incidentally, a few of the studios and shops are open today as well, so if you’re in St. John’s, Newfoundland and would like to see some fantastic craft made by some truly exceptional artisans, grab a brochure and start your rounds! Don’t forget to ask folks to stamp that brochure for you as you go. Four stamps will get you a chance to win a nice basket of professionally-crafted items of all sorts.

Their first stop was Susan Lee Stephen and her jewellery studio. (Open today as well)

Then they headed down to the Sin City Market (not open today – Saturday event only) and took pictures of the neat things they saw there. Katherine has one of these rocks by the Newfoundland Soft Rock Company and she adores it. Very durable, very cool and quite washable (which matters when you have kids).

And the Grates Cove Studios folks brought their Xylophone and wooden products…

John came home with a chickadee print from J Reid Studios which is just exquisite….

Sara Hodder of SECH Design was incredibly photogenic….

And there were many, many others there. These are just the ones that John photographed (and of whom the photographs came out okay). The place was pretty crowded with customers, from what I was told.

Then it was off to the Newfoundland Chocolate Company (open Saturday AND Sunday), where tasting was apparently more the focus than was photography. The May Day decor for this location was their usual chocolate mermaid, with clothing (it was a chilly day) in the pink, white and green commonly attributed to the Republic of Newfoundland (those were the theme colours).

They also stopped by the Craft Council Shop at Devon House (open Saturday AND Sunday) and visited Wendy Shirran, who was demonstrating mug-making using slab building techniques.

Then they headed over to the Studio of Alexis Templeton (we’ve been there before), to see what was new.

(open Saturday AND Sunday)

And finally they went to one of my favourite studios, the printing studio of Running the Goat Books and Broadsides (open Saturday only).

Katherine thoroughly enjoyed working the big press.