LAKEVILLE – Gloomy weather didn’t prevent local artisans from selling their work at Lakeville’s Arts Festival this Saturday.

Live music from bands like “Sinner’s Pie” and “Last I Heard of You” played at the festival, and residents could purchase Yakisoba noodles from one of the tents.

One artisan at the festival, painter Lisa Cesolini, said that she had taken up painting “about a year ago” and that she had sold “a few of the large paintings and quite a few of the small ones” at the festival.

Cesolini’s abstract paintings feature vibrant blue hues and intricate textures. “Right now I’m learning as I go, and I’m using different tools,” Cesolini explained. “Once you start using different tools in different ways, it creates a different effect, so that’s kind of fun.”

“You’re finding your own technique, and you’re finding what each tool can do,” Cesolini added. “You can use brushes, you can sometimes use just a piece of thick cardboard, so you’re using all kinds of different tools and materials.”

Local charities also set up booths at the festival.

 Lakeville resident Normand Grenier, the director of the Matthew Mission Food Pantry, said that the food pantry comes to the festival every year to collect donations and sell raffle tickets. 

“When the weather is better, we get more [donations],” Grenier said. “But everyone has been very generous.”

Lakeville weaver Leslie Metzler, said that she took up weaving in 2014 when she found a loom in a building she had purchased, and she later met someone who taught weaving nearby. “It’s obviously something I was meant to do,” she said.

Her daughter Lauren Barretta started weaving afterwards, and together they came to the Lakeville Arts Festival to sell hand woven scarfs, chef’s towels, and jewelry, Barretta said.

Creating woven products can be time consuming, according to Metzler. “It can take six hours just to get it on the loom before you start weaving at all,” she said.

Melzer explained the benefits of locally made products compared to mass produced items.

“It’s handmade and you know the quality of the materials that are being used for it, and the amount of time it takes to do it,” Metzler said of her products. “And it’s made here, in America, in Lakeville.”

The mother daughter pair said they had sold “several chef’s towels” and “a couple of scarves” at the festival. Although weaving is a hobby for them, selling their products is what allows them to keep weaving, Metzler explained.

“You can only have so many scarves for yourself,” Metzler said. “You need to do something with them if you want to keep weaving.”