The Rhinebeck Crafts Festival returns to the Dutchess County Fairgrounds on June 6–7, and if you’ve never been, we’re genuinely a little envious of you. There’s something about experiencing it for the first time, turning a corner and suddenly realizing the scale of it, the quality of it, the sheer amount of strange, beautiful, one-of-a-kind stuff spread out in every direction, that’s hard to recreate once you know what’s coming. But honestly? It gets better every year.

May 1 through 3, one of the best craft fairs in the Northeast takes over the grounds of Lyndhurst Mansion, and we built an entire weekend around it, a historic estate hotel, a waterfront dinner on the Hudson, a bottle of small-batch bourbon made here in the Hudson Valley, and a night out in Dobbs Ferry that does not know when to quit. We are giving the whole thing away to one winner. But whether you enter or not, this is the weekend blueprint worth bookmarking.

Spring Crafts at Lyndhurst in Tarrytown NY, brings together makers with real command of their craft. This article takes a closer look at the artists behind it, the people shaping the materials, making the decisions, and building work that holds up long after the first impression. It’s not a full list, just a selection worth spending time with, each one bringing a distinct point of view and a level of craft you can feel right away.

BCMT in Kingston, New York belongs firmly in that second category. Led by Joshua Vogel and Kelly Zaneto, the space operates as both a working craft studio and a gallery devoted to contemporary handmade work. Under the BCMT umbrella, Vogel continues the studio practice he began when he founded Blackcreek Mercantile & Trading in 2010, designing and producing heirloom-quality furniture and objects from sustainably sourced domestic hardwoods.