As the holiday giving season steadily approaches, we invite you to consider our very special selection of wearable local-artisan creations that range from practical to luxurious, including:
This week is your last opportunity to pick up unique, thoughtful, useful, delicious and beautiful handmade gifts from local artists and artisans. Some have re-stocked with new additions you may not have seen yet!
Kelly Shanafelt is a mosaic artist in Boulder creating glass baubles for women who share her addiction to rare finds and distinctive things. Trained as a professional musician, she has played viola in the Colorado Symphony for 35 years. But once she got started making things with her hands, she found she couldn’t stop making art, and finds it at once meditative, joyful, and stimulating.
The bright, sparkling earrings and pendants Kelly has made for us look great on women of all ages and complement casual or dressy outfits. See our Art & Home section for Kelly’s beautiful glass mosaic ornaments that will light up your holiday season décor!
Their name may lead you to believe that they are a law firm or financial advisor. But to the contrary, Dana Jones and Amy Baxter are two Niwot moms who began sewing face masks at the onset of the pandemic and found they enjoyed working with fabric so much that they kept going, making charming, retro-styled aprons (for grown-ups and kids), as well as table linens. Amy and Dana use soft, 100% cotton and source their accent fabrics from local independent shops.
Dilia Salvador returns this year with a burst of color, detail, and texture! New intricately beaded and knotted bracelets and necklaces spring from her gifted and never-idle hands, and she has been making fabulous felted scarves and ‘neck-warmers’ that incorporate color and pattern from natural dyes, collaged fabric fragments, buttons, etc. A Longmont resident, Dilia was a longtime member of the Boulder Art & Crafts Co-op.
Engrid Winslow hand knits these soft, warm and beautiful wool socks in washable wool/poly blend and Pashmina yarns, in lovely color blends with reinforced heels and toes, in a range of sizes for women and men. These are a Harlequin’s Exclusive!
Quantities are limited – the early bird gets the socks!
Glenne is a longtime fiber artist and member of both Rocky Mt. and Boulder Handweaver’s Guilds. She is a master of her fiber crafts, and has developed a line of unique hand-painted canvas totes, cross-body bags, and zipper bags (also hand-painted, reversible canvas placemats and table-runners in our Art & Home section). Her canvas accessories are durable, well-designed and impeccably crafted, and have a sophisticated and modern flair.
Eve’s friend Sue Hagedorn is a Longmont fiber artist. She has brought us a large assortment of beautiful indigo-dyed scarves and up-cycled clothing. Many of these one-of-a-kind garments are from high-quality fashion brands.
An Anchorage, AK native, she became interested in indigo dyeing at a workshop there and was drawn to its healing and quiet contemplative properties. She has explored the traditional Japanese art of Shibori (a method of folding and tying to produce dye-resist patterns), and dyeing with a variety of natural materials on natural fiber fabrics, table linens, clothing and paper of all kinds. Sue also teaches indigo dye workshops outdoors during the warm months.
Eve discovered Pebble Art Jewelry when she was lured into their little shop by an arresting display of jewelry made from ancient Roman glass. This year Kate Head has brought us wonderful pieces featuring fragments of 1200 year old Roman era glass from the Mediterranean region in gorgeous shades of blues, greens and iridescent pearl combined with modern styling, and at very reasonable prices.
She has also brought a variety of lovely and affordable earrings, bracelets and necklaces featuring with semi-precious natural stones and pearls. Pebble is located at 7980 Niwot Road next door to the Niwot Market.
Joan Hemm began working with the fabrics found in thrift-store draperies, duvet covers, tablecloths, and sheets in high school where there was no budget for costumes for the drama department’s productions. We first met Joan at a Boulder County Farmer’s Market, where she was dressed in a wonderful period costume portraying Susan B. Anthony in honor of Women’s Suffrage, and armed with voter registration forms. She had, of course, made her costume from remnants.
Fashioned from top quality ‘designer’ home decor fabric remnants (small new, unused leftovers), Joan reimagines the fabrics into one-of-a kind crossbody bags for us. She designed her pattern based on features she personally wanted: a “gusset” to create a roomier interior, a pocket on the back for a cell phone, inside pockets, cotton linings, and an adjustable strap. Just what we all wanted!
Artisan Renée McDougall of Longmont became interested in crafting with glass while working at the Stained Glass Supply Company. At her home studio, she works mostly in fused glass, a process that can take up to 11 hours from start to finish.
We have her sparkly and very affordable dichroic glass pendant necklaces, popular stocking-stuffers every year! See our Art & Home section for more of Renee’s work.
Retuned Jewelry makes striking, stylish bracelets, earrings and necklaces for gals and guys from repurposed, used guitar strings. Did you know that because of the various alloys used to make guitar strings, they are extremely difficult to recycle? At least 700 tons of strings end up in the dump every year. Retuned works with local musicians and music shops to collect used strings that would otherwise have been thrown away. Their jewelry, made by Christina Lacey and her husband in Frederick CO, gives these hard-working strings new life and allows their stories to live on. We think they are a perfect fit for our Holiday Gift Market, don’t you?
Christina says “Music has always been a big part of our lives. When we started Retuned, one of our goals was to be able to give back to the community that has meant so much to us. The Blue Star Connection mission is to provide access and ownership of musical instruments for children and young adults with cancer and other serious life challenges. We’re happy to say, with your help, we are able to help support Blue Star Connection.”
Isn’t there someone on your list who’d love to receive a timelessly beautiful leaf or crescent moon pair of earrings, or a mountain or flower pendant necklace? Linda draws her inspiration primarily from natural forms. Working with silver, gold, bronze and other metals for several decades, she employs fusing, embossing, stone-setting and soldering to make complex jewelry pieces that appear deceptively simple; most of her pieces require 30 to 100 different steps to create. We are delighted to introduce you to some of Linda’s fine metalsmithing.
Sondra joined us late in our 2015 holiday market and her fun, original hand-knitted hats and headbands immediately set off a buying frenzy! Eve gets compliments wherever she goes when she wears the fabulous feathery headband Sondra made, even from strangers on the street!
We’ve stocked up on her pieces this year, including her soft, snuggly ‘mobius’ scarves, hats and headbands, as well as her beautiful pressed-flower botanical cards.
