Shop talk

Holiday bazaar brings in a crowd

November 5, 2006

By Michael Rovito/Frontiersman

WASILLA - The smells, sounds and sights of the holidays took the place of sweaty soccer players Saturday when the Wasilla Multi-Use Sports Complex welcomed vendors from across the state who brought an array of crafts and art - along with some treats for the sweet tooth.

In its third year, the Mat-Su Holiday Marketplace featured 110 vendors, 90 percent of them selling hand-crafted goods, according to Kris Knutzen, the event organizer.

Jim and Micki Halloran came up from Anchorage to sell their unique brand of lamps, complete with bases made from stone and floral lamp shades topping off the earthy look. This was the Halloran's second year at the marketplace, which Micki Halloran said just keeps getting better.

&#8220It's a good turnout,” she said. &#8220We've made some sales.”

One &#8220street” over, on Mistletoe Lane, Janaan Kitchen sat surrounded by her original batiks. The batik artform can be traced back thousands of years and usually utilizes fiber-reactive dyes and hot wax on fabric. An artist draws their subject, then applies melted wax to resist the dyes, repeating the process until the desired result comes through.

Kitchen is one of just a few artists in the world who use batik on paper. She also was the 1998 featured artist at the premier wildlife art show in Australia, according to her brochure.

On Saturday, however, she was looking to sell her work, along with some jewelry that sat glistening in front of her.

&#8220It's been better than last year,” she said, referring to both purchases and turnout.

That's something event organizer Knutzen agreed with, saying this year's event is better than last year's, something she can tell by how much people are buying.

&#8220I count bags, and there are a lot of bags that go out of this show,” Knutzen said, adding that the weekend will most likely

see upwards of 4,000 people attending.

That's good news for Larry and Tammy Swavely. The Chugiak couple brought scroll saw-crafted wood pieces to the event, showcasing a hobby 14 years in the making. Their unique designs, cut right into pieces of wood, depict animals and even children's faces, among others.

&#8220We bought a scroll saw 14 years ago and just started making scroll saw cuts,” Larry Swavely said. Tammy Swavely then began making her own stencils to use as a guide for their saw, the results from years of practice hang behind them on the Holiday Loop &#8220road” in the marketplace.

This weekend's event isn't just for the art lover. There are plenty of other booths featuring everything from knives and fur hats, to toys for the kids.

One of those kids, Rileigh Graham, a 9-year-old from Wasilla, was having a blast beating on a drum at the Whirling Rainbow Foundation's GrandMother Drum booth. Graham was playing with one of the smaller drums, which was probably a good idea, considering the GrandMother Drum measures 7 feet in diameter.

Built in 2000, the drum is said to come from the vision of indigenous grandmothers and many other aspects of the Alaska community. A traveling exhibit, the GrandMother Drum will soon be loaded behind an RV and driven from Palmer to Guatemala and back, stopping along the way to live up to its branding as the universal heart of all races.

As the day wore on Saturday, and as famished shoppers made their way to the snack stand, Knutzen said she was pleased with this year's turnout, hailing the sports complex as a great place to hold an event like the Holiday Marketplace.

Vendors will be open from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Sunday before packing up and heading to other events around the state.

Contact Michael Rovito at

352-2252 or michael.rovito@ frontiersman.com.