Holiday Market - A Mountain Hearth

(Image from the Holiday Market website)

We are very fortunate to have an amazing holiday market in our community. Every weekend from late November until Christmas, artisans, crafters, musicians, farmers and darn good cooks gather in the exhibit hall of the Lane County Fairgrounds to create a whole little village dedicated to local arts. Our family goes every year to do a little shopping for the holidays and support our local artists.

Raven Moon’s Shape Shifters is always an important stop. He makes these amazing rattles out of natural fiber pulp encrusted with little gemstone chips and crystals. My son has been saving up his piggy bank money for this giant frog rattle for three years now. We always make sure to visit, check out the latest one, and say hello. I will never forget one year when my son wanted to get his twin sister a “forest spirit” for a Solstice gift. Not being quite sure what sort of forest spirit he was imagining, I walked around with him until he stopped at this booth. He held up this little white bird with a crystal for a beak and triumphantly cried, “It’s a forest spirit!” Raven Moon just as excitedly exclaimed, “Yes, it is!” He totally got it. I could tell he saw my son’s artistic vision, and the two have had this special connection ever since.

Here are my dear friends Jeff, Taryn and Bracken at their Mystic Orb booth. Jeff makes the most amazing jewelry out of wood, bone, recycled ivory and even some earrings out of real vine maple leaves. They live a simple life very close to the earth, and Jeff’s love and respect for nature shows in each piece he creates. I am honored to know these folks. You can find his work year-round at http://mysticorb.etsy.com/, and read their inspiring blogs at http://mysticorbtalismans.blogspot.com/ and http://woolymossroots.blogspot.com/.

Here, I am sorry to say my picture taking stopped because I was so caught up in visiting with vendors and taking the kids around to get secret gifts for one another, but there are many more artists you should know about.

Fiona McAuliffe is an artist and illustrator who’s work I love, and many of you may recognize from greeting cards and bumper stickers across the country, Forest Service signs and publications, and many other places. Her website is: http://www.fiona-art.net/index.htm

Dirty Paw Designs is a batik clothing company run by a batik artist and her husband. Brooke hand-paints each batik shirt with incredible designs and rich colors. They are my son’s favorite thing to wear. Her website is http://dirtypawdesigns.com/

Here he is a couple years ago in his favorite Orca shirt by Brooke.

Since you can tell I am a fan of batik, I’ll share another amazing artist, Victoria Dresdner of Batikwalla. Her batik clothing is so intricate with little swirls and stars and moons that I consider them wearable art pieces. Her website is: http://www.batikwalla.com/.

Another clothing designer, my friend Serene Dussell, of Blessed Lotus Tribal Wear, creates beautiful clothing out of hemp and organic fibers. Her website is http://www.blessedlotusclothing.com/.

There are so many more artists who you just need to come to the market to meet. Wonderful basket weavers like Donna Sakamoto-Crispin make all sizes and shapes of baskets, artful containers and adirondack backpacks. Marlene Townsend’s metal leaf earrings are delightful. Denise Davis of Karmadilo Kreations, makes wonderful Goddess tiles, wall art, serenity stones, leaves, and garden stones.

Daniel Conan Young makes amazing ceramic wall plaques like the “Remove your shoes” one by my door. I could go on and on.

Everywhere you go, amazing local artists can be found. I you have a local farmers market or holiday market, go on down and check it out. Those folks are working hard to make a living and supporting them is supporting your local economy. It’s a sustainable way to give gifts that’s good for all!

Here are a few other favorite artists of mine who are less local for me nowadays with where I’ve settled, but are wonderful regardless.

Gael Nagle is a batik print artists residing at Breitenbush Hotsprings. I would fill my house up with her prints if I only had more wall space. Her landscapes are incredible. You can see her work at: http://www.batiksbygael.com/

Margaret Owens, my favorite ceramics artist, has Tidepool Tile on the Olympic Peninsula. Her tidepool wall tiles are amazing, and I once saw a tidepool bowl she made for a wedding. I have a soap dish she made that looks just like a Dungeness crab. Her website is:

http://www.tidepooltile.com/

My favorite nature photographer, Keith Lazelle, does amazing work that really captures the profound beauty of the natural world. He puts out a calender every year called “Journal of the Seasons” that is a very affordable way to put some of his work in your home. His website is:

http://www.keithlazelle.com/index.html

I met Firewoman, a talented native woodcarving artist at a festival this summer and her story of overcoming many challenges to do the artwork that she does really inspired me. Her carvings can be seen around the Seattle area at Ivar’s Salmon House on Lake Union, as well as Smithsonian Institute, Issaquah District Library, Seattle Art Museum and Ye Olde Curiosity Shop. She makes an incredible multi-sided story cube carving of the Tlingit “Box of Daylight” story about Raven returning the sun to the people of earth. Her work can be found at:

http://www.firewomanstudio.com/

Michael Wendt is a pottery artist in Lewiston Idaho, and his name plates have been baby gifts in my family for a couple of generations now. My son broke his a couple of years ago, and Michael replaced it for a very modest fee. His clay and glazes are created from local materials and his pottery pieces depicting landscapes of the Snake River and mountains of Idaho and Washington are beautiful. Sometimes I’m fortunate to find his pieces at our local thrift shops. I know they have travelled a ways to get here, so I always take it as a gift of good luck. I have acquired a vase and some wine glasses in this roundabout way. His website is:

http://www.wendtpottery.com/

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