Showing off

Vendors kick off holiday bazaar season

November 6, 2005

MARY AMES\Frontiersman reporter

WASILLA -The second annual Mat-Su Holiday Marketplace opened its doors to the public Saturday at 10 a.m. at the Multi-Use Sports Complex. For vendors, though it started much earlier. About 110 vendors from the Valley and across the state were busy setting up their booths and arranging their offerings Friday.

It took Jack and Alice Smith a half day to set up their booth, Denali Creampuffs.

&#8220But now we have to go home to Eagle River to cook,” Alice Smith said.

Last year's marketplace was good for the couple, who have been making cream puffs for nine years and are at the state fair every year.

Vickie Cole had most of the booth set up for Dennis McKenzie's pottery done by about 3:30, but said McKenzie had started unloading about noon. Cole helps set up McKenzie's Birch Grove Studios booth. The couple lives and works in Big Lake. Last year's marketplace wasn't so good for them, they said, but they know that the annual bazaar is a good place to sell, and they understand it takes time to become well-known.

&#8220We used to do the one at the Sullivan Arena,” Cole said. &#8220But it just got too noisy.”

Kris Knutzen, owner of KO Productions, brought the marketplace to Wasilla last year.

&#8220One of my girlfriends called and said Wasilla had a gorgeous new building,” Knutzen said. &#8220She said it was perfect for a trade show with all the light. I talked to my vendors and they said, ‘We'll come with you. Do it.'”

Knutzen and the vendors were happy with last year's turnout, she said.

&#8220It's a pretty show, and 90 percent of the items are hand-made,” she said. &#8220It's a great building and great staff here, very accommodating. The community should be very proud of the building.”

Knutzen estimated that tax revenues from the show last year amounted to about $4,500 for the two days. And the response has been positive enough that next year the show will be three days, she said.

Only a few of the vendors at this show aren't from the Mat-Su Valley or the Anchorage area, Knutzen said, something that doesn't hold true for the Holiday Marketplace she holds in Fairbanks every year.

&#8220My Fairbanks show is the Valley,” she said. &#8220Up there, 45 percent of the vendors come from some place else.”

Dean Snook of Houston set out his woodwork Friday afternoon, taking about a half day to get ready. He showed off a box made from Curly Koa wood from Hawaii. He sells many items made with local birch, he said, but he really loves the look of the Curly Koa. Snook doesn't have a storefront to sell from in Houston, but travels to many shows around the state, even to Juneau, he said.

Chris Wakefield, a local artist who just opened a gallery on the Palmer-Wasilla Highway said he's happy to have a booth at the show.

&#8220It's like a little commune of friends,” Wakefield said. &#8220You just gotta love to do it because it's more work than work, you know?”

It only took Wakefield and his wife Jennifer about two hours to set up because they are selling only his work. The center piece of their booth is the large painting of a puffin Wakefield did for a poster for the Alaska Sealife Center in Seward this year, he said.

Eileen Loftus and Gail Flotre were sharing a booth, selling watercolor prints, silk fabric art and beaded jewelry. Flotre is from Anchorage and Loftus from Fairbanks, but they're buddies and friends with Knutzen, they said, which is only one of the reasons they sell at this trade show.

&#8220It's fun,” Loftus said. &#8220And it gets you fired up for the holidays.

The marketplace is open today from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m.

Contact Mary Ames at

352-2284 or mary.ames@

frontiersman.com.