Jeanette Robichaud's Hand-Knitted Cloths

The first thing you’ll notice about Jeanette Robichaud is her warm and joyous smile and the sparkle in her eyes. Next, you’ll see her swift hands knitting up a storm, and then you’ll see a tabletop filled with so many knitted squares that they look like waves on the ocean’s surface. There are cloths of every hue all colour coordinated in a rainbow presentation that ensures that there will be one to match every decor. Perfect for washing dishes, for dusting your delicate surfaces, or even as a facecloth, each one takes up to four hours to knit. All 100% cotton, they are completely washable – but hang to dry. They are much more sanitary than the proverbial kitchen of bath sponge, and they are soft and durable.

Jeanette came to the Marché Moncton Market with a relative who made and sold bracelets at her booth, and Jeanette saw a way to market her hobby of making knitted cloths into a lucrative venture. Now with a table of her own in the Marché Moncton Market Festival Hall, Jeanette can be found at the market every other week on Saturdays. In the market for a super dishcloth? Drop by and pick up a collection for the entire house, or add a few to cosmetic, spa, or household product gift baskets for family and friends and continue the Maritime tradition of innovation and imagination in everyday uses. Happy cleaning!

A Touch of Glass

Shawnessey’s Touch of Glass at the Marché Moncton Market truly exudes a “touch of class” to innovations in mood lighting. Unique lamp designs are artfully created using bottles of various hues and sizes, with each set in novel bases such as baskets, metal holders, ceramic dishes, or other everyday household items reincarnated into a new and useful art form. Not only do these unusual lamps offer a decorative flair to any room but they are a wonderful blend of form and function. Each is a work of art in its own right! Using frosting techniques as a finish, and embellished with seaglass gems strung on twisted wire, Shawnessey’s lamps utilize low energy light bulbs that emit a muted glow perfect for just the right mood lighting.

Artist and creator Shawnessey Gallagher hails from Rexton, NB, and comes to this lucrative art form quite by chance. Noticing how lovely backlighting through empty bottles casts a wonderful warm glow to any room, he experimented with recreating his vision by cutting the base out of empty bottles and setting them over light bulbs connected to a base with a plug-in cord. In an ingenious variation on this theme, Shawnessey has created a touch button cordless lamp with a hidden on/off switch just perfect for a tabletop centrepiece. First created as a gift for a friend, soon demand for his one-of-a-kind lamps among his many family members and friends gave him the impetus to bring his practical art to the public. The farmers market has been the perfect forum for Shawnessey’s creations and he has had much success in this endeavour. An engineer by education with the soul of an artist, Shawnessey’s lamps are the product of imagination and practical knowledge and one destined to be the centrepiece for any room they occupy. With a keen mind that is always ticking, Shawnessey has added a range of gift items to his inventory of lamps that now includes new and exciting seaglass sun catchers and flowers. They are the perfect gift items for that hard-to-buy-for individual who has everything.

For more information or to order via email or phone, contact Shawnessey at (506) 523-9043, shawnessey.gallagher@gmail.com, or visit the market on Saturdays where you will find the artist himself surrounded by his fascinating lighted glass works!