Artique will get back to the farm during this month’s First Friday Artist Opening celebration.

The free event, which will take place from 6-9 p.m. on May 6 at 283 Main St. in Kamas, will showcase live animals and items from Sunrise Ranch in Kamas and Seabrook Farm in Woodland.

Sunrise Ranch owner Deborah McMurtrie plans on bringing three young alpacas to the party.

“Since we sell yarns, I wanted to show people the animals where the yarn comes from,” she said. “Alpaca fibers can be used in all sorts of ways. They can be used to make everything from baby garments to upholstery, depending on the diameter and ruggedness of the fiber. There’s a rug at Artique that I made using the coarser fibers, so I was hoping to give a broad example of some of the things that can be done.”

Seabrook Farm owner Megan Seabrook will showcase some chicks and ducklings and plans to sell some fresh eggs.

“Unfortunately this year I don’t have any adult ducks, because we had some unfortunate losses due to wildlife this year,” she said. “So I will only have chicken eggs.”

The May 6 First Friday Artist Opening celebration is the first time Artique, an art co-op owned by Katie Stellpflug, will shine the spotlight on Sunrise Ranch and Seabrook Frame.

“We decided to do this during a planning session with Katie,” McMurtrie said. “Megan and I haven’t been featured before, so we said, ‘OK. We’ll do it in May.’”

Since May is the month of Mother’s Day, Seabrook felt it would be fitting to showcase her chicks and ducklings.

“I thought we could encourage families and kids to come by showcasing these cute little animals,” she said.

Seabrook’s foray into farming started when she and her husband moved to Woodland from Park City in 2018.

“We found ourselves with land, and while we had chickens, because I love fresh eggs, we thought we should get some more animals,” she said.

The couple ran out of wood that first winter but found a guy who was willing to sell and deliver a cord of wood to the farm, according to Seabrook.

“He delivered the wood and saw our land and asked if we were going to get some animals,” she said. “My husband told him that I kept talking about goats, so he was like ‘I have goats.’ That’s when the goats and pigs were introduced, and we just acquired a turkey. We’re not a true farm, but it’s been fun.”

The seeds of McMurtrie’s Sunrise Ranch were planted in the 1990s while she was a student at the University of Utah.

“I needed a single credit to fulfill my student loan requirement for that quarter and there was a class called Spinning and Natural Dyes,” she said. “That was the beginning, and since then, I got to meet all sorts of people in the fiber world — knitters and spinners.”

Two of those people were Bob and Kathy Wright, who were among the first to bring alpacas into Utah back in the 1980s. McMurtrie said.

“Eventually I got to buy an animal, but I was living in Herriman at the time and I needed some land that wasn’t on a hill,” she said. “A friend found me some property outside of Kamas that was flat and had pasture, and the ranch has evolved from there.”

McMurtrie started with one alpaca in 1989, and she now has 32.

“They all have a beautiful range of colors — whites, blacks, reds, chestnuts, all sorts of colors,” she said.

McMurtrie first met Stellpflug a couple of years ago at a Recycle Utah Harvest Festival at High Star Ranch.

“We talked about me joining up with her at Artique at that time,” she said.

Seabrook met Stellpflug through mutual friends.

“I was friends with Katie and the people she originally opened Artique with more than 10 years ago,” she said. “So, I’ve been going to the shop and supporting her for a long time.”

Being a part of the Artique family has helped McMurtrie and Seabrook expand their creativity.

“By providing products to Artique, it also gives me more of a push to make more products, and I’ve started making soaps as well,” McMurtrie said.

In addition to the eggs, Seabrook will showcase products she makes from dehydrating and preserving fruits and vegetables.

“One of the items I’ll sell are drink infusions made from dehydrated fruit,” she said. “Most of my fruits come from farmers markets, and I dehydrate them. So the idea is to become a better gardener so more fruits and vegetables will come from my property and farm.”

Although the May 6 event will focus on McMurtrie and Seabrook, many of Artique’s stable of artists will be in attendance, Seabrook said.

“This is a cool opportunity for people who come and have questions about a work they like,” she said. “More than likely the artist will be there to answer questions or elaborate on their work. It’s a fun way to see faces behind the products.”