56°
Settled in under a small tent at the Hastings Flea last week, the longtime friends and Hastings residents sold an assortment of their creations -- jewelry, picture frames, tie-dyed kids clothing, flower head pieces -- and seemed to enjoy each encounter with new customers.
Vadella, who works at an outpatient substance abuse facility and as a part-time babysitter, focuses on her creative side doing arts and crafts and face painting events at camps, birthday parties. She also contributes time to raise awareness for non-for-profit foundations.
"Dina and I have been friends since, like, 1995," she said. " We grew into being kooky girls together and I truly can't imagine my life without her. I have been making crafts for as long as I can remember, I have always given things like hand-painted collage jewelry boxes, bedazzled picture frames or flower crowns as gifts."
Scortino, a journalist and social media expert, grew up in Mount Pleasant but moved to Hastings in May.
Vadella calls Glitter & Grime's creations "the weird things I do in my kitchen in the middle of the night".
"Dina, my boyfriend, and some of the ladies who I babysit for pushed me to share my stuff with a larger audience about six months ago," Vadella said.
While Vadella was creating kids t-shirts and "phrase bracelets," Sciortino designed and created Rivertowns tote bags, phrase cell-phone cases, flower headbands and rhinestone-embellished mirrors. She also used her media-savvy to figure out Etsy (on-line sales venue for hand-made items), design a logo and put together a website for the team.
The Glitter & Grime girls, with a brand new website up and running, have embraced their community and have placed some of their items in local stores like the Merry Owl in Dobbs Ferry.
"We love Hastings, so doing the Hastings Flea was a great first choice of outing for us to get our bearings," Vadella said. "We found everyone to be really warm, receptive to and interested in what we are doing."
For more on the Glitter & Grime team and their creations, check out their Facebook page and find their work on Etsy.
Click here to follow Daily Voice Rivertowns and receive free news updates.
