The crowds were already gathering at Studio Fair during Friday's opening. The numbers were down a little this year compared to last year's Day 1, but with Halloween also on the calendar, organizers expected the artisan shoppers to swell into the Civic Centre today and tomorrow.
"I know all about the crowds, I look forward to Studio Fair every year," said Kyle Cooper, a Vancouver chocolatier who has been a Studio Fair vendor for four years. He only does a handful of public shows per year "and I have no retail presence; I like to meet my clients face to face," so Prince George is an important date in his business plan. His company Blink Chocolate is located at the end of the boutique street leading into the culinary arts section of the annual arts smorgasbord.
Jasmin Ahrens is set up for her first Studio Fair selling her Rubble Road Soapstone Kits. Most of the booth-tiques inside the Civic Centre sell original art, but she sells the raw materials for people to make their own. Inside each kit is a chunk of soapstone precut into a general shape (bear, inukshuk, etc.), with the required tools and general instructions to shape it into a refined image.
"A lot of people buy the rough materials and then don't know what to do with it," said Ahrens. "We take that uncertainty out, but you're never limited to the general shape. You can make the stone into anything your imagination likes. We cut the basic shape of a sea turtle, but one guy carved it into an alien. It's good for anyone five years old and older, and it's a good group activity."
Coming from Edmonton, Ahrens said they chose Studio Fair because it was new territory for them, they could meet new customers and perhaps new retailers who might carry their product year-round "and we love being in the mountains."
Caitlin Bodewitz of CMBPrintWorks is also at her inaugural Studio Fair attending from Alberta, residing in Edmonton after art school in Calgary. She sells original silkscreens with innovative twists. She prints images on canvas, sure, as most printworkers do, but also on vinyl records, on doors, over photos, she just doesn't know what inspiration might strike her.
She was struck by the urge to come to Studio Fair while showing at a similar exhibition in Vancouver and one of her artisan friends asked her if she'd ever done the Prince George show.
"Prince George? My dear, that's my old stomping grounds. They have an art market?," said Bodewitz and the former resident of Powder King, born and raised in Azu Village near Mackenzie, applied for Studio Fair.
The doors were only open a few hours "but I've already had a bunch of people dropping in to look at my stuff, asking if I'm the one with with our mountains. Yes, I'm the one who is always inspired by our home land."
Many of her images are familiar looking mountain peaks, water, trees, and other elements of nature usually adored with geometric shapes and other imagery overlaid.
"I push the boundaries of conventional printmaking," she said. "It is a lot of work to get ready for these markets, but I do this full-time. I'm happy to get up at 6 a.m., go to the studio, and work until 2 in the morning. I love these shows. I'm going on three years of market tours, there's a big push during the holiday season, and this year I've added Prince George. I got to come home."
She said she has been a follower of the Two Rivers Gallery "and I think that is a brilliant gallery doing great exhibition work, but other than that I didn't know a lot about the Prince George arts scene."
She is getting lessons by the minute, from the booth-tiques surrounding her mini-store, and from the passersby who drop in to examine her work and talk about the artist's ways of life.
These and 90 other artisans, plus many local guilds, have their wares for sale today and Sunday at the Civic Centre. Admission is $3 per person and free for children.
