BY SHALEEN DESTEFANO
There are some relationships that stop feeling like partnerships somewhere along the way and simply become family. For us, Firefly Handmade is one of them. We’ve been working alongside Firefly for more than a decade, and can’t remember a time when their white tents weren’t popping up around our neighborhood. We’ve watched their markets grow and evolve.
And over all those years, something about Firefly has remained remarkably unchanged. It still feels personal.
Maybe that’s because, behind the scenes, Firefly is a small, family-run business much like our own. There isn’t some giant corporation pulling the strings. There are real people doing the work: planning markets, answering emails, reviewing applications, hauling things around, solving problems, supporting artists and figuring out all the million little details required to turn a city block or parking lot into a bustling handmade market for a weekend.
We understand that kind of business because we live it, too. Just like Firefly, we are a husband-and-wife operation. We make this magazine together, and our kids have grown up helping us deliver it to Wash Park doorsteps every month. Firefly has its own version of that roll-up-your-sleeves, everybody-pitches-in reality.
Maybe that’s one of the reasons we’ve always understood each other. Both of our businesses exist, in large part, to shine a light on other small businesses and creatives. And both are built on the slightly old-fashioned belief that knowing the people behind the things you buy still matters. Firefly Handmade began in 2010 with a mission to support independent makers and the growing handmade movement. Today, it supports more than 300 artisans annually through its carefully curated markets. But numbers don’t really explain Firefly. You have to walk one.
There’s something wonderfully unpredictable about wandering through a Firefly market. One tent might hold hand-thrown ceramic mugs and bowls. The next, delicate jewelry made by someone sitting right there, ready to tell you how it was created. Keep going and you might stumble upon original paintings, block prints, handmade candles, leather goods, woodworking, textiles, or a rack of perfectly worn-in vintage denim.
Firefly is distinctive in the way it brings thoughtfully curated vintage clothing and goods into a marketplace otherwise centered around handmade work. It creates a mix that feels collected rather than cookie-cutter: old things given another life alongside new things made slowly and intentionally.
There’s no endless scroll. No algorithm suggestions. You wander. You talk. You stumble onto things. And behind everything you see is a person.
This is the most important part of the Firefly equation. Firefly doesn’t simply provide makers with a booth and wish them luck. Anyone who has spent time around this organization knows how deeply its owners care about the artists, makers and designers who make these markets possible. These are independent creatives trying to make a living from their work. For some, Firefly may be one piece of a larger business. For others, a strong market weekend can make a meaningful difference in their month or their season.
Firefly understands that. Their artists aren’t filler used to create an event. They are the event. And the support extends beyond market weekend. Firefly regularly introduces its community to participating artists through its own channels, tells their stories and encourages shoppers to follow and support them beyond the few hours they spend together under a tent.
That matters. Because making something with your hands and then putting it out into the world requires a certain amount of vulnerability. So does starting any small business.
“Shop small” gets printed on a lot of signs this time of year. We hope it never becomes background noise. Urban Life Wash Park exists because we believe deeply in independent businesses, artists and organizations. Firefly operates from that same place.
When you spend $50 with an independent artist, that transaction looks very different from clicking “buy now” from a massive retailer.
Maybe you just helped that artist order materials for the next collection. Maybe you paid for the clay that becomes another dozen mugs. Maybe you helped cover a studio bill, a grocery run or a kid’s soccer registration.
We don’t always get to know where our dollars go. At a handmade market, the answer is often standing right in front of us.
And in a world where it has become incredibly easy to buy almost anything without interacting with another human being, there’s something pretty wonderful about handing your money directly to the person who dreamed up, designed and made the thing you’re bringing home.
This fall also brought a new chapter for Firefly. In September, Firefly debuted at the Denver Design District on South Broadway, bringing more than 100 juried artists, makers and designers to a brand-new Denver location. It was a pairing that made sense almost immediately.
The Denver Design District has long been home to people who care about interiors, craftsmanship, materials and good design. Bringing
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Firefly’s independent creative community into that environment felt like a natural extension of both. And for Firefly, it created another Denver home.
That’s particularly exciting to us because we’ve watched Firefly become such a beloved part of our own Wash Park community through its markets on Old South Gaylord Street. Now, the organization gets to plant another flag just a few minutes away.
This holiday season, we get both. On November 21st and 22nd, Firefly returns to Old South Gaylord Street. For us, this one always feels a little like a homecoming.
Gaylord is already one of those Denver streets that operates as a second home for many Wash Parkers. Add Firefly to the mix and the entire block comes alive in a whole new way. The tents go up. Live music drifts down the street. Dogs are everywhere. Kids weave through the crowd. Someone is carrying a giant piece of art. Someone else is trying on earrings in a tiny mirror.
Then, on December 12th and 13th, Firefly returns to its newest Denver location at the Denver Design District, for one last big handmade weekend before the holidays. If you still have names left on your list by then, this is your chance. And if you don’t, come anyway.
Want to Get Even Closer to the Action? There’s another way to experience Firefly that doesn’t involve shopping at all. Become a volunteer! Firefly looks for volunteers at its markets to help bring these weekends to life. There are plenty of moving parts behind these markets and community volunteers are an important part of making everything run.
It’s also a great way to see the market from the other side. If you love handmade goods, want to meet local creatives, need volunteer hours or simply like the idea of spending part of a weekend helping a local organization support hundreds of independent artists, keep an eye on Firefly’s website and social channels for volunteer opportunities surrounding each market.
Because “support local” doesn’t always have to mean buying something. Sometimes it means simply showing up.
After more than a decade of working with Firefly, we’re probably not terribly objective anymore. These people are family to us.
But perhaps that’s exactly why we wanted to tell this story now. We’ve seen what happens in the months, weeks, days leading up to a market. We know how much Firefly cares about the people on the other side of those tables. We know how seriously they take the responsibility of creating a market where artists, makers and designers have a real opportunity to connect with people who value their work.
And we know how much heart goes into building something local year after year. So this holiday season, before you automatically open the laptop or fill another online shopping cart, give yourself an afternoon to wander. Come to Old South Gaylord November 21 + 22. Come to the Denver Design District December 12 + 13. Talk to the ceramicist. Try on the vintage coat. Ask the woodworker how long that piece took. Buy the weird little thing that immediately makes you think of your best friend.
And when someone opens it and asks, “Where did you find this?” You’ll actually have an answer. That might be our favorite thing about Firefly. You arrive looking for something to give. You leave knowing who made it. Stay up to speed with all of their market dates and applications by visiting fireflyhandmade.com.