The 45th Artisans’ Alley is just around the corner! Artisans’ Alley is a special event which sees approximately 200 artisans come to Coronado Village Elementary to sell their wares. Lucky for us, the event takes place on December 2nd – just in time for Christmas shopping!
For the nearly 1,000 guests who are expected to attend for craft shopping, there will also be free music throughout the day, presented by the Coronado schools’ bands and choirs. If you get hungry while shopping, food and beverages will also be available for sale. And, the $2 price for admission also includes one raffle ticket for one of the more than 160 items that have been donated by the artisans.
The types of items for sale range widely – there are lamps, cards, jewelry, scarves, cutting boards, bath salts and preserved food items and much, much more. The primary requirement of the fair is that each artisan’s product truly be hand-made – it is required that 80% of the product be crafted and sold by the artisan.
One of this year’s organizers, Ann Hillers, says that she has made some fabulous purchases over the years: “I love the handmade cutting boards which I have bought as a gift and for myself. I have, of course, purchased some nice jewelry from different vendors. Last year, we bought a large set of wooden dice that came in a galvanized tin bucket to play Yahtzee on the beach.”
For those interested in supporting band and choir (this year’s event is expected to yield about $24,000), shopping for unique gifts, or even just enjoying the sights and sounds, plan to attend this special event on Saturday, December 2 at Village Elementary School, 600 6th Street, from 9 am – 3 pm.
To give you a sense of items available, we have previewed several artisans who are new to the Artisans’ Alley.
Tasha Hock, Nuttnbunny
Tasha Hock creates hand-dyed silk and velvet scarves, shawls and sarongs and handspun yarn. She will have some of each for sale at this year’s show. Hock hand dyes the velvets and silks herself and spins the wool for her yarn at her home studio in the St. Croix River Valley in rural Minnesota.
For Hock, it all stems from curiosity. She says, “I had been knitting for a number of years and grew curious about the yarn I was using. It sounds corny but I really was drawn to spinning. The tools and equipment, the mindful and intentional process, and the resulting “yarn with soul” really spoke to me … The silks and velvets were an outgrowth of my involvement and interest in textiles. I started making them for the people I love.”
Hock’s items sell for $30 to $300. She says, “Yarn is priced by the yard starting at .15 per yard and goes up to .30 per yard for luxury fibers like silk and qiviut.” You can view more of her work at www.nuttnbunny.com or on Instagram @nuttnbunny.
About giving her scarves and shawls to friends, she says, “It was so fulfilling to make something for them in particular, to literally ‘wrap them in love.’” So, if you have someone on your gift list that you’d like to wrap up in love, visit Hock’s booth.
Tim Judd, OldCoolNow
Tim Judd will be selling “up-cycled” lamps made from vintage cameras and projectors. He says that most of the pieces are from the immediate World War II era, but some go back as far as early in the 1900s. Judd got the lamp-making bug when he decided to build a projector lamp as a birthday present for his “film crazy” son about two years ago. Then, more and more people began asking for them and he began selling them at events. At one show, a photographer asked if he could make a similar lamp out of a camera. As Judd puts it, “many hundreds of camera lamps later I guess the answer was yes.”
The lamps range in price from $35-$250. Judd says “If you have a family member or friend who loves movies or photography we have the gift for them they will treasure forever. If you have that someone in your life who has everything and is impossible to buy for…we have the perfect gift for them too.”
Interested? See him on Saturday. Meanwhile, for some examples of the lamps, go to www.oldcoolnow.com.
Michelle Salmon, SoulArt
Salmon and her husband handcraft art from reclaimed metal and wood. She designs and he helps build. Similar to Judd, Salmon made a few pieces for friends, who then posted on their social media accounts. The business “took off from there.”
Salmon says, “I love using different woods and metals to create unique, one-of-a-kind pieces. What I enjoy most about SoulArt is the time that my husband and I get to spend together working on custom art pieces that have such great meaning to others.”
Stop by her booth and check out some of her items on Instagram @socalsoulart.
Saturday, December 2, 9am-3pm.
Village Elementary School. 600 6th Street, Coronado.
$2 entry fee.
