Holyoke Enterprise Newspaper Article - appeared on May 10th, just before our event!

Junque Gypsies offer different take on the term market

Written by Chris Lee

The Junque Gypsies is their name and repurposing is their game. Erin LeBlanc, Barb Kreider, Lucy Kropp and Rhonda Menard are the four minds behind the madness. They have fallen in love with vintage products and enjoy creating unique pieces they can then turn around and sell. “It’s just part of our lives,” Menard said. “We just do it.” A particularly unique piece is a leg of a piano that has been turned into a lamp. Another piece includes a headboard turned into a black board. Last July, Menard decided it was time to do some cleaning and hold a garage sale at her home in Haxtun. She came up with a crazy idea and called Kropp to ask about holding a market-type event during the annual Old Fashioned Saturday Night celebration. “We had hundreds of people at that event,” Menard said. They had six vendors participate. “People loved it.” She said they were asked if it would be something they were going to do again. Over the last year, the four have come together to form the Junque Gypsies. Four creative and different minds have worked well enough together to keep them a group. It’s safe to say they love it. As a group or individually, they travel around looking for ideas, items and fun. Kropp said that is probably where their name came from. In an effort to introduce arts and culture to Northeast Colorado and bring exposure to the area, the group has planned an open air vintage, antique and artisan market which will be held Saturday, May 12 from 8 a.m.-4 p.m. They said they enjoy traveling to Denver and other towns to markets, but would like to see people travel out to the plains to “see what we can offer.” As of late last week, the group had 24 vendors committed to visiting Holyoke this Saturday to showcase their goods. Many of the vendors are from the immediate area but a couple are coming from Nebraska as well. The “Burlap and Lace” event will be held at 106 S. Reynolds Ave. in Holyoke. The ladies are encouraging people to visit the event, hang out in the “Bistro” area and enjoy some food and coffee. This won’t be an everyday run of the mill market with “normal” products. The ladies are really excited to say they will have quilts, furniture, glassware, soaps, treasures from the past, tattered treasures and unique jewelry to name a few. They are hoping to stimulate the main senses by offering food, music and unique visual displays. The Junque Gypsies are looking forward to what they hope becomes an annual event. The group hopes to plan other similar events for the future. They will take part in Old Fashioned Saturday Night in Haxtun in July and Holyoke’s Country Christmas and Parade of Lights in December. Another smaller event is in the works for October as well. They are also looking for people to host them for a themed party or event. The group also mentioned they are always evolving and items at this market most likely won’t be available at the next. “There’s a lot of creative people out there,” LeBlanc said. One event really paints a picture of just how determined these four ladies are. A while back, they piled into a vehicle and set their sights on a thrift store in Denver. On the way, they hit a hawk which resulted in half of their window breaking. Determined they weren’t going to turn around, they found a McDonalds and went inside to find people who they could have look at the window to ensure it was safe to continue. After finding it safe for travel, they continued towards Denver. Once they made it to the store, some of them stayed while Kropp took her car to get fixed. Having to leave the vehicle, Kropp made it back to the store but when the shopping was done, they needed a way to retrieve the vehicle. This is when they began “scouting” random people to see if they could come up with someone they felt was safe to give Kropp a ride. This is just their free spirit at work. They aren’t afraid to meet new people. “Everyone has a story,” Menard said. “We’re just ourselves,” Kropp added. For more information on the Junque Gypsies, visit their blog at http://junquegypsies.blogspot.com or venture on over to their event Saturday.