“Many hands make light work,” goes an old saying. Many hands can also make a difference in people’s lives, as Lou McNally discovers in a visit to Designs by Lucinda in Portland. There, Lucinda Yates and her staff – many of whom work from home – make unique, hand-painted pins that non-profits sell to raise money for and awareness about a variety of charitable causes nationwide. Yates, who was once homeless herself, started with a single pin 16 years ago to focus attention on the plight of Portland’s homeless and now she makes them for non-profits nationwide.
The Made in Maine crew then heads to West Paris for a visit to Maine Balsam, which makes aromatic pillows stuffed with Balsam Fir needles. By tapping into a pool of local labor consisting of home-based stitchers to make the pillowcases, and getting their fir cuttings from area woodlot owners, Wendy and Jack Newmeyer can concentrate on stuffing the pre-made pillowcases with the quintessential Maine scent of balsam fir, not to mention the business side of their operation.
Saving the nearly lost art of Indian basket-weaving is the mission of the Old Town-based Maine Indian Basketmakers Alliance, and according to the alliance’s executive director, Theresa Secord, the trends are promising. The alliance was formed in 1993 with 55 founding members with an average age of 63; now, with more young people discovering a folk art mastered centuries earlier by their ancestors of the four major Maine tribes – Passamaquoddy, Penobscot, Micmac and Maliseet – there are over 200 members in the alliance whose average age has fallen to 43. Their designs are often breathtakingly beautiful and intricate.
