The Importance of Legacy: Our First Blog

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At Artisans’ Acres, everything begins with legacy.

Legacy is a word that means more to me now than it ever has.

When my father passed away, I found myself standing on the same ground that he, my uncle and my grandfather had once worked — the farm where they raised tobacco, pigs, and a family. The soil here still carries the marks of their years. For generations, this land was our family’s foundation — sometimes our burden and always our blessing.

After he passed and it became my turn to care for it, I didn’t want to erase what came before. I wanted to honor it.

But I also knew the land needed to breathe again — to evolve. That’s how Artisans’ Acres began: as a way of blending the past and present, of taking something rooted in hard work, family and pride and reimagining it through creativity and craft. He loved glass. I love glass. So it just made sense to incorporate glassmaking on the property somehow.

Today, where rows of tobacco once grew, there are raised beds filled with lavender and wildflowers. Where hog pens once stood, there’s a hotshop where glass is blown and shaped by hand. And inside the old barn, you’ll find a marketplace filled with pieces that tell stories — handmade glass, pottery, and vintage goods that carry the same honesty and endurance that this farm has always known.

It’s not lost on me that what we’re building here still depends on the same values my father taught me: hard work, excellence, pride in your work, and care for what you’ve been given. Every piece that I make, I think about him — about the work ethic and heart that it takes to make something last.

My hope is that one day, this place will be passed down again — to my sons and hopefully they will see beauty in its purpose. I want them to inherit more than land. I want them to inherit a story — one of family, of transformation, and of how the love of craft and the land can build something worth keeping.

At Artisans’ Acres, legacy isn’t just the past we remember.

It’s the life we’re shaping — and the future we hope to hand forward, piece by piece, to the next generation and beyond.

Thanks for following along.

Mark

oment, and one generation at a time.