Meet The County promotes area artisans to southern Maine

More than 35 Aroostook County artists and crafters are members of Meet The County, a new business that formed last September to help artisans reach an even wider audience.
    “Meet The County is a representation of people, places and products throughout Aroostook County and we create economic development for the artisans by bringing tourists in from Bangor and the southern part of the state,” said Patrick Patterson, who co-owns the business with Sandy Gibson and Natalia Bragg. “We also represent the crafters by taking their product downstate and have them displayed and sold at the stores.
“We’re not a co-op or a guild, but rather a business that represents, markets and promotes elite artisans and select craftspeople in Aroostook County,” he said. “It gives us a chance to bring Aroostook County to the rest of the state.”
Meet The County travels from Fort Kent to the Oxbow looking for local crafters.
“We cover all of Aroostook County,” said Patterson. “If you have a product that is something that you would like to have presented to the rest of the state of Maine, Meet The County can come to you, look at what you have, work out how we’ll work our deals and promotions with you, and then present your product downstate to the stores.”
Recognizing that most county artisans already have arrangements with area businesses and consignment shops, Patterson said his business focuses on the southern Maine market.
“We don’t want to step on the toes of the local businesses,” he said, “so we focus on Houlton south. If I go into Trenton on the way to Bar Harbor and I see a Maine-made store on the side of the road, I’m pulling in the driveway, opening up the trunk and walking in with boxes,” he said. “I present everything in the boxes to the storeowner and they will say, ‘I want five pieces of this, a dozen pieces of that.’ If I don’t have enough of the product right with me, I’ll take orders – 50 percent upfront, 50 percent on delivery.
“We’re able to get into the small stores and reach an even larger audience,” Patterson said. “We have everything from jams and jellies, mushrooms, paintings, bronze sculptures, wooden bowls, jewelry, herbal remedies, soaps, wood products and much more.”
Patterson hopes to be representing 60 crafters by June.
“We’ve created our own tag that reads, ‘Meet The County. Proudly made in Aroostook County, Maine. People. Places. Products,’” he said, “and that stands up just as well as if it said ‘Made in Maine.’”
Patterson said Meet The County’s mission is threefold:
• To inform the public about the rich history, Old World knowledge, and the passion fueling The County artisans and crafters to create unique products and services.
• To educate tourists from all walks of life about the cultural diversity of the people, places, and handmade products in The County.
• To give unlimited product sales opportunity to Aroostook County artisans and crafters.
“Another way we’re going to help with economic development is by offering workshops and apprentice-type relationships,” he said. “We’ll be teaming up with Cyr Bus Line and bringing people up here which will involve hotels, restaurants and maybe even vehicle rentals. It should be exciting and that will be starting later this year.”
One of the Meet The County artisans is Brian J. Theriault of Fort Kent who makes snowshoes.
“Me and my father, Edmond, have been making snowshoes for over 35 years,” said Theriault. “We’ve created a special pair of snowshoes that are not only rugged, but easy to use with hinge bindings. The webbing is rawhide from a cow. We prestretch the rawhide with a two-ton jack and you get a bounce when you walk. We don’t steam our wood, we bend green. We invented our own molds and tools and do something very unique.
“My main goal is to try to keep the tradition of making snowshoes alive,” he said. “It takes 10 hours to make a pair of snowshoes. I’ve been teaching some in the St. John Valley through the adult education program, and it’s fun sharing the process with others.”
In addition to selling the snowshoes, Theriault also offers an instructional DVD he made with his father.
For more on Theriault’s craft, log onto www.ilovesnowshoes.com.
Sculptor Dave Hentosh of Hentosh Bronze in Bridgewater said it’s wonderful having a business like Meet The County promoting the work of area artisans.
“I’ve known Sandy Gibson for quite a long time … she’s my Web designer, and I really like their concept. One of the greatest treasures we have up here living in Aroostook County is the people and our natural resources,” he said. “Unfortunately, one of our biggest liabilities is that we live in Aroostook County, and by that I mean our wares, our businesses, etc. are so far removed from mainstream … not just in Maine, but the rest of the country that it is difficult to get exposure in the right areas especially when you’re looking at something like bronze sculptures. It’s a limited market because it’s an expensive medium to work in.
“Their concept of marketing the gems and resources of Aroostook County, I think, is long overdue,” Hentosh said. “Individually, each one of these businesses has been trying to market themselves, but there’s certainly strength in numbers. There’s a lot of merit to what they do; every little bit helps and Aroostook County certainly needs a voice. People aren’t going to come here and they’re not going to purchase product from here if they don’t know about it. A lot of people have a perception that we’re kind of back in the woods and don’t count, but when you can show – not just as an individual but as a group – unique quality products and professionalism, I think that’s going to go a long way to strengthen everyone that lives north in Aroostook County. The more people that are out there promoting you and others from your area, the more hits Aroostook County is going to get period.”
Hentosh, who also owns Smoldering Lake Outfitters in Bridgewater, said he hopes to one day have Hentosh Bronze be his primary source of income. He sculpted his first piece – a mallard bust – of bronze in 1998.
“Animals and wildlife are my main focus,” he said. “Most of my pieces have been commissioned work. My degree is in wildlife management; I actually used to work out of the Bangor research division for Maine Fish & Wildlife in the late ‘80s and early ‘90s, and wildlife has always been a study for me for most of my life.”
Hentosh said the volume of his work depends greatly on the size of the piece.
During the recent E.ON IBU World Cup Biathlon competitions at the Nordic Heritage Center in Presque Isle, Meet The County occupied a storefront at the Aroostook Centre Mall. Patterson has since packed up his wares and headed to Fort Kent.
“Meet The County will be at 134 West Main St. across from Miller’s in Fort Kent now through March 8,” he said. “We were here not only for the Fort Kent biathlon, but the CAN-AM Crown International Sled Dog Races, as well.
“By having temporary storefronts during the biathlon competitions, we’re able to let the people of Maine, the U.S. and the world see that something exists above Bangor, Maine,” said Patterson. “At the mall, we had some Germans and Russians stop in and look over the product. People can buy what they see and we sold a lot of product. The comments we heard include, ‘Where have you been? How come we haven’t seen you before? How long are you going to be here? Are you going to stay throughout the year? and I can’t believe the high quality products that you have in this room?’ People have really enjoyed what they’ve seen.”
For more information, log onto www.meetthecounty.com.