Walking out behind the Stella Hotel Wednesday, residents of Bryan-College Station were met with colorful tents in the pavilion at Lake Walk Town Center, where a weekly artisan market takes place.
Vendors set up shop to sell their handmade items, ranging from jewelry to baked-from-scratch cupcakes. The market, called The Local, features vendors who are required to make their products by hand, giving every shop a story.
Every Tuesday for the next 12 weeks, the Market at Lake Walk will be set up from 4 p.m. to 7 p.m. Each week, artisans will bring new products to sell from their tents, and two featured food trucks of the week will be serving shoppers.
“The Local started as a place for the community to come learn more about lake walk,” said Natalie Rosser, Marketing Manager for Lake Walk. “With The Local, a lot of these people are startup businesses. They’re all local owned businesses.”
As the holidays approach, the market will have coordinating themes, including a Halloween trick-or-treating market, a pumpkin patch, a thanksgiving event and pictures with Santa and hot cocoa in December.
“We want people to come and shop the vendors,” Rosser said. “It’s really just to bring the community out to Lake Walk and see what we have out here,” Rosser said. “My favorite part is, once four o’ clock hits and I start seeing everybody walk up, and i know we’re doing something right.”
About half of the vendors come to every market, and the other half rotate weekly. The items range from home goods, jewelry, desserts, candles, soaps, body care products, bread, a photo booth and more.
“I’m really curious and excited to see what the community likes and what they’re looking for,” said Kate Chapman, Lake Walk special events coordinator. “Each week they have something new and different. Anything you want to buy you can find it out here.”
One vendor, Katherine Dexter from Wild House Body Care, makes her own clay masks, facial cleansers, lotion bars and body scrubs.
“I love to be able to interact with my customers, and talk to them about what my products can do for them,” Dexter said. “All the products that I make, I make them all by hand. I actually develop the recipes myself.”
University studies seniors Layla Shahhosseini and Dimitrios Christie started their jewelry and candle business, Gold Clover Co. as a way to raise money for a mission trip, and continued from there. They incorporate handmade products from around the world, and use gemstones they find on their travels in their pieces.
“Part of our goal — being students and starting young — is that we wanted to have our prices affordable to our peers as well,” Christie said.
Gavin Menichini, co-owner and co-founder of Thomas Brothers Candles Co. started his business two years ago while attending Texas A&M.
“We’re excited, we love the market,” Menichini said. “We think it’s a really cool area, very very modern aesthetic, which is really cool. The concrete and the gravel, the beautiful Stella Hotel, wood paneling and the green turf as well as this lake right here is a great area to have a farmers market.”
