STORY AND PHOTOS BY KAREN BOSSICK
You won’t find Lisa Crawford’s lamps in Home Depot.
One rises out of a cobber’s shoe mold. Others are tucked under sewing machines. There are lamps comprised of mortar round boxes and army helmets that she got at an Army surplus store.
And there’s even a lamp created out of a parking meter taken out of downtown Twin Falls. And, yes, you can put money in the meter if you want to turn it into a bank.
Crawford’s Creative Illuminations are among the unusual handcrafted gifts at the Holiday Bazaar organized this weekend by the Papoose Club at Hemingway STEAM School in Ketchum.
“I was the type that did shop class in high school—I’m a hands-on person. I watched ‘Runaway Bride’ with Julia Roberts and saw her working with construction lights at her dad’s hardware show, and thought, ‘I can do that.’ Fast forward and I’ve created 400 different lights over three years,” said Crawford.
One of the most popular lights that she makes is a rocket one that looks like it’s blasting off, thanks to flicker lights. Another popular one is a lamp couched in a fan.
The Buhl woman strives to make sure there’s something for everyone from a lamp made out of a mixer for the kitchen to construction hard hat lamps for man caves.
“Isn’t it amazing how clever people are!?” said Kaz Thea, who organized the bazaar on behalf of the Papoose Club. “And the products are beautiful—they’re not junk. I crammed as many vendors in as I could—from all over Idaho and Montana. And I still had to turn at least 15 away.”
A line had formed outside the school when Papoose Club volunteers opened the doors at 9 a.m. Saturday. The bazaar will continue from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. today—Sunday, Dec. 8. Santa is expected to pop in from 1 to 2:30 p.m.
Few shoppers could walk by the cookie display without picking out a dozen cookies or more.
Fifty Papoose Club members baked cookies ranging from raspberry thumbprint cookies to Scandinavian rosettes. There were reindeer cookies with pretzel antlers and M&M eyes and snowmen cookies boasting marshmallows.
There were even dog cookies in the shapes of bones.
“There’s a huge variety this year,” chorused Kristin Anderson and Susan Giannettino.
Hailey upcycle artist Jennifer Biondi had turned a bicycle tire into a wreath, while another upcycle bicycle vendor had created a snowman out of bicycle tires.
And Hailey resident Linda Boyd had created dozens of conventional wreaths, as well as wreaths decorating rakes and avalanche shovels.
“We had a blast putting these together,” she said.
While Sun Valley Remedies did a brisk business selling hand lotions designed to energize and cheer up those suffering from the winter blues, Julie Stauts hawked a variety of emu and herbal products designed to ease pain and other maladies.
“I was badly hurt in an automobile accident seveeral years ago and I found that emu oil helped,” said Stauts, who calls her line Emulate Natural Care. “I had a Lakota medicine man work with me for the past 10 years to make medicine with emu oil. And I’ve developed a line of formulas using wild healing herbs and flowers from the mountains around McCall.”
While a glassblowing tent offered shoppers the opportunity to make their own Christmas gifts, one man hawked a holiday game based on Monopoly. Heather Hendren, of Twin Falls showed off her mittens made of recycled sweaters, while Ashley Delonas of Mountain Girl Studios showed off her new stained glass window sun catchers in the shape of Idaho.
The sun catchers made of stained glass that had been fused in a kiln and soldered with lead, featured an array of Idaho’s iconic figures, including skiers, mountain bikers and bronco riders.
“You might say I’m completely inspired by everything Idaho has to offer,” said Delonas.