The Solano Stroll is an annual event with a type of energy that could only come from the Bay Area. It has everything from food stands to political tents to bubble blowers, but some of the most popular businesses at the Solano Stroll are owned by local artists. People who crochet, make bracelets, create paintings, and more, draw a big crowd to this street during the Solano Stroll.
“I love seeing customers interact with these scents, because they haven't found them anywhere else before,” Jaclyn Hughes said. Hughes is the owner of the candle making business Ember and Fog. She's been making candles for the past eight years, but she just started selling them during the COVID-19 pandemic. “I blend all the scents myself, so they are entirely unique,” Hughes said. She has scents like Warm Oven which smells like banana bread, Home Office which smells like coffee, and other scents that remind her of her summers in Italy visiting her family.
“If I were to create a new candle set, I would actually sniff different oils that I have, and see what might work together,” Hughes said. After that she writes down the combination, and then melts the wax and adds her blends to the candles. She has to let the candle set for two weeks to let the fragrance bind with the wax. “If the scent doesn't smell good when it's being burned, I need to start over again. If it smells good, then I can move forward with reproducing it and selling it at these markets,” Hughes said.
Hughes said that it feels like the community is really coming out for this event, and that it's been really well organized. “I'm hoping that this event is getting a whole new range of customers, because I'm based in San Francisco, but I don't often get to get out to the East Bay,” Hughes said. She’s hoping new customers are buying her product, and when they burn through their candles, will want to buy more from her.
Hughes and Shanardra Rhone are both artists who sold products at the Solano Stroll on Sunday, Sept. 8th, 2024, but they sold different unique items. “This is my first time at the Solano Stroll, and what drew me to it is that they told me that this is one of the biggest events of the year in this area, and so I decided that I wanted to give it a try,” Rhone said. Rhone makes and sells bracelets and other jewelry. The name of her business is “Bead Infinite,” and she’s been running it for almost three years now.
“What inspires my designs? I would say just everyday life,” Rhone says. Every person's style is different, and the bracelets she makes are an array of colors, thoughts, ideas, things that she sees when she's driving, and more.
To create something new, Rhone has to do a lot of shopping. She likes to go in person when she buys her jewels, and often goes to crystal and gemstone stores. “I just recently came back from Texas, so I got some beads from Texas that are different from what we have here in California,” Rhone said. What she likes about her job is that it is simple and easy, and people are into bracelets. “If there was one thing I could change it would be being a little more out there, and inviting people more to my area. But sometimes I feel like (my product) is already so sparkly and blingy that it immediately draws people in,” Rhone said.
The Solano Stroll has impacted her business by increasing exposure towards her products. The audience she found was mainly much younger people, such as younger kids and teenagers, which she wasn’t expecting. “There were some adults, but it was mostly a younger crowd. It's easier to engage with them because I have kids, so it's simple — I treat everybody as if they were my family or they were my kids, or parents or grandparents, and I think that's one of the things that draws people into me. I'm relatable,” Rhone said.
Willa Bender is a sophomore in the Arts and Humanities Academy (AHA) at Berkeley High School. “I have taken Ms. Youngblood’s beginning creative arts and this year I am taking AHA advanced creative arts with Ms. Stahl,” Bender said. She loves the ability to build and create any kind of art she wants. “Whether it’s painting or ceramics or woodworking, everyone can find something they love,” Bender said.
Bender has been to the Solano Stroll at least 10 times before, and she loves that there are so many people that come out for the event. “There are so many people that I know from school and within the community that go to Solano Stroll. It feels like a big hangout with people from Albany, Berkeley and other places in the Bay Area,” Bender said. She also likes that they mix it up. “I remember that three years ago and years before that they had rides and a Ferris wheel.”
“There are a lot of pieces of art at the Solano Stroll that are really beautiful,” Bender said. One piece that she remembers specifically is a wolf she saw made out of really small pieces of paper. “The artist spent hours cutting the really tiny pieces of paper,” Bender said. The commitment to the crafts amazed her.
“Another piece that stuck out to me was flowers made out of pipe cleaners. There were sunflowers and tulips and all different kinds of flowers that were handmade, that looked very real,” Bender said.
“Everyone can find something they are interested in, and spend hours at the Solano Stroll because there is just so much to see,” Bender said.
If you want to check out Jaclyn Hugh’s candles you can go to emberandfog.com, and on Instagram she's at @emberandfog. If you want to find Shanardra Rhone’s jewelry, you can find her on Instagram at @beadinfinite.