>La Grande Observer | Union and Wallowa Counties' News Leader

Union County potter David Waln displays some of his work. Fitzgerald Flowers in La Grande carries gift items made by some of the community's better-known artists and crafts people, including Waln. (Observer file photos).

Bill Rautenstrauch

The Observer

Go forth, Christmas shopper, and ransack the retail world in search of that

perfect gift.

Shop wherever it pleases you, but don't overlook the little boutique or the holiday bazaar selling stuff made right here.

Many a fine little treasure has been found in such places.

There's nothing in the world wrong with shopping the corporate owned big box stores. Bargains and selection can be found there in spades.

But what won't be found there is the home-grown gift, be it precious art item, piece of local history, whimsical bit of woodcraft.

For that, shoppers need to go far from the maddening strip, to stores where merchants have the freedom to pick and choose their wares.

"That's one of the advantages I have being an independent," says Mary Swanson, owner of the Bookloft and Skylight Gallery in Enterprise. "I'm not a big box where the decisions about what goes on the shelf are made somewhere else."

Swanson is well known for her willingness to work with area artists, crafts people, writers and publishers. Local product is a staple of her full-service operation.

Like many other Wallowa County merchants of the independent stripe, she feels strongly the local effort is worth supporting.

She carries a wide variety of made-at-home items, both in her bookstore and the art gallery that takes up a back room of her Main Street retail space.

Gallery gift items include Olaf pottery, Siskiyou Silverworks jewelry, Russell Ford glass, David Jensen photographs, and more.

Bookstore fare includes many books nursed from first draft to final between-the-covers product by local authors; calendars and other work by the Wallowa Valley Photo Club; music CDs by local musicians.

During the holidays, sales of local items go up along with sales of everything else, Swanson says. Things local are a drawing card.

"I think the local stuff is very important," Swanson says. "Both the people who live here and people from other places like to buy things that are about Wallowa County, or made in Wallowa County."

One of many places in Union County carrying locally-made merchandise is the Potter's House, a La Grande gallery and gift boutique operated by Bob and Judy Jensen.

During the holidays, the Jensens clear some of the rooms of their Victorian home at the edge of downtown La Grande.

At Christmas, every inch of retail space is crucial.

"Christmas is huge for us. It's one-half or one-third our year," says Judy.

The couple fills the cleared space with the pottery and artwork Bob Jensen produces in a studio adjacent to the house, plus other merchandise.

The gift gallery next door to the house features more Jensen work, along with hundreds of gift items that are produced both locally and non-locally.

"Bob's work is about 50 percent of our sales," says Judy, who serves as business manager. "Having the other things here brings in a totally different clientele. People who might not be interested in pottery come in, and by the time they leave, they are interested."

The Jensens have marketed artwork in Wallowa and Union County for well over 20 years.

The Potter's House carries work by other area artists and is a stop on the Third Thursday Gallery Walk, inaugurated this year.

Judy says she is seeing an increase in locally made art in Union County. She considers that a good thing.

"We have so many in the Grande Ronde Valley that are marketing right here and doing a good job," she says.

Julie Bodfish of Fitzgerald Flowers in La Grande carries gift items made by some of the community's better-known artists and crafts people, including potter David Waln.

Fitzgerald's stocks those items year round, but they are in higher demand at Christmas, says Bodfish.

"A lot of people coming through the door during the holidays are looking for something local, and (Waln's) most of all. He's really the most popular artist," she says.

Bodfish says she buys Waln's merchandise outright, and sells work of other artists — including glassblower Tom Dimond, woodworker David Allen, writer-photographer Jerry Gildemeister, and clay artist Linda Gray — on consignment.

Bodfish says the local gift items help her maintain a special business identity.

"I'm always looking for new items of quality. They help make the store unique," she says.

There's more than one way to market locally produced Christmas gifts, as photographer Eric Valentine discovered after a few years in business.

Doing business as Praise Photography, Valentine, a semi-retired circuit court judge, uses his outdoor and nature photography to illustrate his line of faith-based publications.

He sells his work year-round, and adds a new publication each holiday season.

Two Christmases ago he did a children's book called "Thank You, God," then the next year a publication called "Haiku Psalms." This year's edition is a booklet called "Images from God's Creation."

Though Valentine's work can be found in local shops, he says that during Christmas he sells mainly through face-to-face encounters with customers. Valentine makes it a point to attend events like the Delta Epsilon Holiday Market, coming up this Saturday at the Blue Mountain Conference Center.

"I've found that personally meeting with people and giving them time to browse is best. The personal touch is very important," he says.

The holiday sale setting is important to the local gift maker who runs a hobby enterprise in spare time out of a home shop or workspace, and doesn't count on sales for livelihood.

In Wallowa County, many of the crafts people join together in the Wallowa County Handcrafters Guild.

The guild's members display their wares at local shows, the main one being the annual Christmas Bazaar.

At present, the handcrafters are gearing up for the 2005 running of the event, this Friday and Saturday at Cloverleaf Hall.

"We have a couple of sales during the summer, but our main one is the bazaar," says Guild founding member Ida Hillock.

Though there are exceptions, most of the handcrafters think small in terms of

marketing.

"If you ever got an order for 600 pieces, what would you do?" Hillock says.

The guild has 26 members this year, down from other years where there were over 35 members and a waiting list to join.

Members make a variety of items including quilts, woodcrafts, foodstuffs and more.

Hillock says a love for the activity drives them more than a need for money.

"You can't depend on it as a source of income. It used to be you kind of could, but not anymore. The basic reason we do it is because we enjoy it," she says.