The LocAL Market, which is set to open this summer, focuses on celebrating all things locally made.
Owner Lauren Duncan hosted a pop-up event on Saturday. Located at the Jule Collins Smith Museum of Fine Art, vendors welcomed shoppers from 10 a.m. until 2 p.m.
The event gave guests a preview of what they can expect from the new shop, including original wood carvings and watercolor paintings. Each vendor's booth offered unique items and stories.
Brian and Katie Dylewski, owners of Soul Light Stars, participated by providing a display of soul crafted ascension tools such as crystal jewelry, tie dye prints, pyrography and orgone energy devices to help connect people with their inner selves.
“We have an emphasis on all things natural and sort of just presenting nature to people,” Brian said. “My wife makes the jewelry, and we have mining plains out in Colorado, so we try to make everything as simple as possible to accentuate the natural beauty of each person.”
The tables could be seen covered with a variety of jewelry, each holding different crystals with unique healing powers.
Guests strolled through the various booths and could stop at the Smooth-N-Groove truck for a quick refreshment during the humid and cloudy day.
Lauren Bronson, owner of Yes Glass, brought her stained glass creations, mosaics, fused glass and lampworked glass which can be found at The LocAL Market, Blooming Colors and her Etsy shop, yesglass.
Bronson got her start working as a stained glass apprentice in Tennessee before moving to Auburn with her family. She said that Yes Glass is her way of getting back out there and creating.
“Stained glass is more like putting a puzzle together,” Bronson said.
Along with the many retail booths, there were also other companies selling their products.
For Beth Hornsby, locally grown food is not only her way of life, but a family affair. Hornsby Farms is a family owned local produce farm that grows over a hundred varieties of fruits and vegetables.
“One thing we try to do is make people fall in love with agriculture,” Hornsby said. “This is our way of getting that conversation started about where your food is grown.”
Hornsby and her husband started the farm four years ago and began to sell a variety of sweet jams, pepper jellies and pickled vegetables in their canning kitchen.
Their canned goods can be bought at The LocAL Market, Acre, Blooming Colors and Ace Hardware. Customers can also find their products in some of the dishes at O Town Ice Cream in Opelika.
“Summer is always great for us,” said Hornsby. “We get to hang out at the farm with our kids and just do what we love.”
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