Document text
Area's biggest craft fair didn't out start that way By Vicki Guarino of the Mail Tribune ASHLAND -- It started out small and simple, a crafts fair in the upstairs gallery of the student union by and for college students. Nineteen years later, Southern Oregon University's Christmas Arts and Crafts Fair is the region's biggest holiday arts display. The show sprawls across two floors of Stevenson Union. Craftsmen and artists from as near as Ashland and as far as Susanville, Calif., and Eugene fill 130 booths for the two-day sale. More than 100 artisans are on a waiting list to get into the show, and thousands of shoppers jam scant floor space. The show would be larger, but there is no more space. No one is more surprised by the show's popularity than the woman who has organized the event for the past 18 years, SOU Student Activities Director Carol Gies. When Gies first took over, she remembers, "it was just a small fair -- tiny, tiny. "It just mushroomed. I don't think anybody had a clue it would get this big." Loyal exhibitors like jewelry maker Sarah Spring are as impressed by the quality of wares as they are the variety. Browsers can choose from simple pine cone decorations, needlework and beads for just a few dollars to burlwood bowls, jewels and stained glass pieces costing hundreds. "This is my favorite show," says Spring, who is a special education aide at Ashland Middle School. "I like the quality of the work here. A lot of people put a lot of time into their work, and they take a lot of pride in it." Variety and quality are naturally occurring phenomena, says Gies. The show is not juried; exhibitors are not screened. And once an artisan gets into Stevenson Union they are practically assured of a spot for as many Christmases as they like. Gies gives the previous year's vendors first chance to sign up the following year. She says she depends on the artisans themselves to give the show variety and interest year after year. "I know they don't want to do the same thing over and over," she says. Gies has tried to keep the vendors' cost low, $60 for a space for both days. Vendors also benefit from Gies' practice of heavily promoting and advertising the show in Southern Oregon and Northern California. And, unlike other fairs, the SOU event is free to the public. The student activities office even has rented SOU parking for the day so fair visitors can park for free. As a result, the Christmas Arts and Crafts Fair is one of the toughest fairs to get into for that first-time vendor. Crafter Helga Motley found display space courtesy of a wood-crafter friend who agreed to share his booth. Many exhibitors get their start that way, says Gies. Motley has shown her wares -- colorful clay "doll food," meals in miniature for doll houses and display -- at other fairs. "But this is the biggest," she says over a constant burble of passing visitors, amazed at the detail in the arrangements of tiny vegetables and pastries. Nearby, veteran seller Diane Taudvin's holiday wreaths and baskets were fast disappearing. She sold more than a dozen within the show's first hour Saturday. "I do this once a year, just for this fair," says Taudvin, of Ashland. Most of her customers have been buyers for several years, and know to arrive early, before her stock is gone. Mail Tribune Copyright � The Mail Tribune 1999, Medford, Oregon USA