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Crafts bring handmade guarantee
KAREN MCKINLEY
11/22/2009

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Handmade treasures had shoppers flocking to the 34th annual Artisans Northwest Art and Fine Craft Show on Saturday.

Recycled fabrics, glass, candles and metalworks were displayed at the Thunder Bay show for the apparent thousands who wandered from table to table looking for gifts and bargains.

The appeal for showgoers is the handmade guarantee of all the products. Everything sold at the show has to meet Artisans Northwest‘s regulations to be sold.

“We‘re one of the biggest and the best because we have guidelines as to who can show here,” said Judy Morrill, president of Artisans Northwest and proprietor of JudyMade and the Dog House. “This is called a juried show because the group chooses who can sell here based on rules, one of which is it has to be handmade.”

The turnout is always high, she added, as people shop for the Christmas season and look for something new.

Morrill understands some people‘s apprehension over buying commercially-made products. She started making her own pet products after she grew tired of receiving products she said were inferior and even dangerous, like toys stuffed with plastics. Making her own gives herself and her customers security knowing exactly what is in her products.

Unique is favoured at the show.

Pat Huber, proprietor of Bearfoot Bears, said she wanted to take her love of animals further by recycling fur coats and turning them into heirloom toys.

“People aren‘t wearing fur coats like they used to and I thought it was a waste to see that animal‘s sacrifice go to waste collecting dust or thrown in a dump,” she said. “I started this business to preserve coats for families to remember their loved ones to make everybody happy.”

At the show she sells bears and takes orders to make new ones. This show is Huber‘s chance to advertise her business and meet friends she hasn‘t seen for years.

After 34 years the show has been refined in both timing and quality.

Cathy MacDonald, who‘s been involved all 34 years since she was 10 years old, said they began the show as a monthly market.

“We used to have a show the first Saturday of every month and we started at the Fort William YMCA,” she said at their booth. “We moved around and changed times and places. I remember then we were amateurs selling whatever we had. I admit then some of it was considered tacky, but we refined our crafts and the crowds were always huge.”

She giggled when she remembered selling her first products back in 1984, ponchos she weaved herself. As the years went by crafters change styles and many like herself found new outlets and refined their products. She now sells handmade books, cards and jewelry. Artisans Northwest eventually narrowed the show down to one weekend and have been at the Valhalla Inn for 10 years.

“We used to have it every weekend in November, but it became too much work setting up and tearing down for an entire month,” MacDonald said. “It‘s spectacular now, the products are beautiful and it‘s turned into an awesome show.”

The Art and Fine Craft Show continues today from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.
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