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11/22/2023 08:30 AMThere may be many reasons why people enjoy arts and crafts. While it can be a way to express their artistic side, it’s also an avenue to make something that represents something special for someone or a group of people. That’s a big reason why North Haven resident and North Haven Fairgrounds’ Craft Series regular Debbie Berner-Siciliano likes to create her beach-inspired crafts.
“I actually made a piece for the VA [Veterans Affairs Department]. I make a lot of pieces for either charitable donations or pieces that people would appreciate in a certain place,” says Debbie. “The VA, I made it with their motto so that they could hang it in a place where patients would be able to, you know, get maybe some joy out of it.”
Debbie will be a vendor at the Winter Fest event of the Craft Series taking place on Nov. 25. Like several other vendors, she has participated in the Craft Series’ events multiple times. It’s the supportive and family-oriented environment of the series that she enjoys and brings her back each year.
“It’s really people that really help each other, give each other ideas, and it’s nice to do it with family,” says Debbie.
Being a crafter in her hometown’s own events gave Debbie a platform to further showcase her work with family in similar craft events around the shoreline.
“It gave me an opportunity to do shows with my daughter. I also do a few shows with my cousin, who lives in Guilford. She works with driftwood,” she says.
Debbie’s beach-themed crafts are made of materials that can be found at the same locations she is depicting. To create her scenes, most of which feature cats and dogs, she collects pebbles, shells, and sea glass that she identifies as good shapes for animals' heads, palm trees, and sailboats.
But rather than simply going to the nearest beach and scooping up a few items, her material collection is broader in scope.
“I have certain beaches that I go to for certain material; believe it or not, the stones are different,” says Debbie.
This is for the reason that not every beach she searches upon is going to have the same kind of necessary materials for her craft. Going to beaches from Hammonasset to Lighthouse Beach in New Haven or Misquamicut Beach in Westerly, Rhode Island, there are certain materials individual beaches naturally produce that others cannot in an artistically satisfying way. The sea glass at one beach is not the same as it is at another, the same with driftwood or pebbles.
“I go to Lighthouse…I find the shells are the best for sailboats and palm trees,” says Debbie. “I’ve been to just about every beach, all the way up to Horseneck Beach in Massachusetts. My husband and I would go out and walk the beaches, and so I got familiar with each one.”
Debbie says her “very favorite beach” is Misquamicut, where she can locate “very smooth” and larger pebbles and well-done sea glass.
“On my watch from Misquamicut to Watch Hill is where I find the majority of very excellent pieces of sea glass [with] different colors like aquas and teal,” she says. “It’s like finding gemstones.”
She says that the beach at Rocky Point State Park in Warwick, Rhode Island, is a good location for tiny stones fitting to make the ears and tails of dogs.
When Debbie makes a craft, she reaches for materials in location-specific boxes containing materials from that particular beach.
“I’ve got everything labeled: Hammonasset shells, Hammonasset stones. Lighthouse shells, Lighthouse stones, stacked up,” she says.
From this, she enjoys making meaningful, personalized crafts. Part of what makes the craft meaningful is knowing where it came from.
“It’s important to them; it’s important to me to be honest about where it came from,” she says. “I very much respect people’s beliefs, their hopes, what they wish for, and I want to try to honor that through my work.”
Whatever is the creation, the recipients receiving joy from her work and feeling immersed in the world she has created is what she hopes for each of her crafts.
“That’s really what I hope - that people feel joy from my pieces. They’re whimsical. Some people have said to me, ‘I feel like I can go in that setting.”
The Winter Fest event is on Saturday, Nov. 25, from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. For more information, visit www.northhaven-fair.com/winterfest.