Nonprofit provides outlet for older artisans

Founded to help support older artisans, Handcrafts Unlimited is celebrating its 30th anniversary on the Square this year.

During the past three decades, the nonprofit has been in the same location and has never had a paid employee, said Millie Pastor, who serves as the store's Friday manager.

"It was started by a history professor at Southwestern [University] named Martha Allen and [Mary Engvall], a crafter in Georgetown who painted china and pictures and so forth and wanted an outlet to sell her craft," Millie said. "They decided they needed a venue for people [age] 50 and over to market their crafts."

The nonprofit opened Dec. 7, 1983, and now features handmade items from more than 250 artisans with the support of about 50 volunteers, Millie said.

"Over the years, we've probably had over 500 different artisans," she said.

Although the shop is often known for its quilts, there are a variety of handcrafted items available, from doll clothes and baby gifts to pottery and woodcrafts.

"We are a great place to [shop for gifts] because it's one-of-a-kind things," Millie said. "I tell people to go look in Salado and then buy at Handcrafts because our prices are really good."

Everything sold in the store is new and handmade by an artisan who is age 50 or older and living in Williamson or an adjacent county.

"It's the most undiscovered store in Georgetown," said Millie's husband, Ed Pastor, who serves as the nonprofit's board president. "Nobody knows it's even here. And then they come in, and they love it."

Each year, the nonprofit hosts a quilt show and raffles off two handmade quilts.

In 2009, Marie Brown, who had been volunteering and selling her quilts at the shop since its beginning, took the helm as the nonprofit's executive director.

"[I got involved] because it was worthwhile doing so. It was helping people who need help financially," Brown said. "I thought I would volunteer, and at the same time it gave me an outlet for my craft."

Brown said along with providing a place for local artisans to sell their goods, Handcrafts Unlimited is also working to promote handcrafts such as knitting, crocheting, quilting and tatting.

"Very few people know [how to do tatting] anymore," Brown said, adding that the nonprofit offers classes on a variety of crafts on the first and third Sundays of each month. "[We want to pass those skills along] so the old crafts don't get lost."

Handcrafts Unlimited, 104 W. Eighth St., 512-869-1812, www.handcraftsunlimited.org, Hours: Mon.–Sat. 10 a.m.–5 p.m.