Arts and Entertainment

Dragonfly Arts on Broadway shares praise of two new artists

January 3, 2026   ·   0 Comments

By Constance Scrafield

“She is an amazing girl,” said Joan Hope, owner of Dragonfly Arts on Broadway, who was referring to a new artist, Jennifer Main, a potter bringing her “stunning pottery” to the shop.

The Citizen contacted Jennifer Main to learn more. She is a Mulmur-based “potter on the side,” as she said, “I am a full-time visual arts teacher in Centre Wellington District High School (CWDS),”

She runs the Four Monkeys Studio in her home, which offers children’s art classes on Saturday, and she hosts Shelburne Life drawing there.

“I guess I don’t (know) how to say no,” she laughed at the long list, adding that on Saturday afternoons, she is part of Studio 20 in Chatsworth, from September to June.

“Yet,” she said, “I’m an art teacher who doesn’t do art.”

With her colleague Bobbi Benthas-Reynolds, she embarked on professional development in pottery, taking a two-hour course at Farmhouse Pottery and a week-long course with Jason L’Abbé (Clay and Glass Gallery) in Waterloo.

They both enjoyed it. Benthas-Reynolds runs Huron Shores Pottery, J. Main Studios.

In the course with Jason L’Abbé, they learned to hand-carve for texture after wheel-throwing to make functional mugs and bowls.

Main came to Dragonfly by a recommendation from Roslyn Levin, Sumi-e artist at the store.

She remarked that she wants to get better as an artist to make herself a better teacher.

Her request to run a full pottery course at CWDHS has run successfully for three years, kilns and all.

Joan Hope reported that “Dragonfly is doing great. It’s a nice time of year. Everything is great in the back. The artists are doing really interesting things.”

She had praise, too, for Gillian Beveridge, who, by recycling material, has been producing whimsical and practical items such as scarves and mittens, dolls, and hand warmers.

Beveridge, now living in Tottenham, is exactly what her background would anticipate: she was raised in the house her parents built from two barns in Churchill, near Brampton. As a youngster, the farm family grew and exchanged what they needed with their farming neighbours. Nothing was wasted; everything that could be was recycled.

Always a maker of things, Beveridge came to Dragonfly 12 years ago and suggested to Hope that she place her things in the shop. Hope was pleased to agree. They are all mitts and hats, hand warmers and baby dolls, ornaments, made with recycled materials.

Beverage offered a history in a brief interview with the Citizen, recalling that recycling was normal. Her father was a “massive garbage picker. He brought things he found – bicycles tools, lots of things and renewed and distributed everything.”

“As a teenager, I wanted to be a fashion designer; I went to Sheridan College to be a fashion designer,” she said.

Discovering that fashion is a cutthroat industry was a revelation that sent her back to what was her own way of life. Her ambition is not about money.

“When I was seven, my father put me at the end of our driveway with a basket of goose eggs to sell: “That day, I understood how I could sell something that we produced, and that was very rewarding. That set me on the road to be an entrepreneur.”

Selling her produce takes Gillian to markets and stores, as well as to as many craft shows as she can – mostly during November and December.

Despite creating a wide range of handmade items, Beveridge also has a day job at a call centre for Peel Police. She can take her sewing with her.

Whimsical soft sculptures and wooden ornaments from material people give her, which she finds in second-hand and thrift stores, are selling very well at Dragonfly.

“To make the amount of mittens and so many other things that I do, I need all the product; for Christmas, I have to be out shopping and on the search,” she said.

She added, “To my family, it’s just what I do – it’s normal for them. I honestly thought every family drank goats’ milk for breakfast and recycled everything.”

Truly, Beveridge is happiest when she is going out.

“Every year, I add a product or two in my stock. It’s a lot to do,” was her comment. “When people come back to thank me that is very rewarding.”

Her husband is a huge help in setting up and handling business tasks.

Gillian Beveridge said, “I wouldn’t have it any other way.”

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