Stocking up for the holidays

Longtime Juneau resident Merridy Davis of Lottie’s Eye knows all about catching people’s eye with her wide selection of arts and crafts.

“Mini collages are my new interest, it kind of offers a little something for everyone,” Davis said. “I’ve been a paper hoarder for a long time, I used to do book binding but now I’m getting into collages. It’s just a fun little artistic hobby, I enjoy it.”

There was no shortage of artistic hobbies to be found on Saturday as the Juneau Arts and Humanities Council held its annual Stocking Stuffer Showcase at the Juneau Arts and Culture Center. The market featured local vendors with items for sale, all $25 and under, which were marketed as last-minute gifts and stocking stuffers.

Suzanne Hudson of Nana’s Attic in downtown Juneau was there with her husband and Dale Hudson, who when he isn’t busy standing in as Santa Claus, is busy making toy ray guns.

“I collect daisy BB guns and I was looking at their website and they used to make toys for Buck Rogers space guns and somewhere through that I stumbled onto steam punk ray guns and I thought, ‘Hey, I got this kind of stuff, let me see what I can do.’ That’s how I got started, I’ve been at it three or four years now and I’ve made about 300 of them so far,” Hudson said.

Stacey Thomas has lived in Juneau for over 30 years. She started learning how to sew when she was in 4-H at the age of 10 but didn’t start to take it seriously until moving back to Alaska as an adult. Now, Thomas said, it’s become a hobby that’s somewhat taken over her life. She makes everything from purses to stockings, hats, giftbags and perhaps her most popular item, microwavable cozies.

“This is a hobby, I know it seems kind of extreme, but this is a hobby,” Thomas said. “I like practical things so these are microwave bowl cozies, so it’s basically a hot pad that you can put in the microwave. If you’re tired of burning your hands on hot bowls, microwavable cozies are for you.”

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Charlene Miller with Ice Angels of Alaska said she literally started her arts and crafts table three days prior to the event starting. Miller said she had the table reserved but hadn’t yet figured out what she was going to fill it with, that’s when she came up with the idea of pickled goods, and along with her friend Carolyn Trebian of Light Raven’s Art selling her crystal bracelets and earrings, the two pulled it off just in time.

“We’ve got the bomb pickled goods. We’ve got cowgirl candy out here which is your sweet and jalapeno, fantastic for your mac and cheese, throw it in your quesadilla or omelet. We also have our jalapeno pepper, a little milder version or something a little hotter if you’re looking for something on the spicy side. We also have pickled beets along with kimchi, which is your pickled cabbage, etc.,” Miller said.

Traci Ferguson Hayes is the marketing and media coordinator for the Juneau Arts and Humanities Council, and according to Hayes in the five years that the Stocking Stuffer Showcase has been in existence, this year was their biggest one to date in terms of vendors and turnout. Hayes said that she, along with JAHC program manager Laura Miko worked hard to ensure this year’s event would be special since this was the first year that pandemic mitigations were lifted.

“It’s nice to have a bigger event this year, this the first time it’s back fully open with no restrictions and we have about 38 vendors, which is definitely an increase from years past,” Hayes said. “It’s nice to see everyone out and about and I know that there are a couple of other markets happening in Juneau right now, so it’s nice to see that people are actually coming in and they want to find those quality affordable gifts made locally.”

• Contact reporter Jonson Kuhn at jonson.kuhn@juneauempire.com.