Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
hundreds more, laughing and talking and oohing and ahing, and all of them with their wal-
lets out.
Susan Serna works in silver and semi-precious gemstones in designs that reflect shapes
Susan finds in nature. A pair of tiny rectangular silver shields are imprinted with raised,
crossed silver strands and finished with freshwater pearls. “I live near the Potter Marsh
wildlife refuge,” Susan says, “and one winter morning on a walk I saw the grass coming
up through the ice. It took me three years to get the design right.” I try on the earrings.
At Custom Stitchery Janlee Irving of Fairbanks sells salmon and halibut pillows, and
ornaments in the shapes of wild Alaskan birds that are so lifelike you expect them to burst
into song. “I volunteer at the Alaska Bird Observatory,” she says when asked how she
manages to reproduce the details of each bird's specific coloring, “and I use bird topics a
lot.”
“Isn't this fun!” says Carina of Anchorage. “I've bought tons of these. Well, two, actu-
ally, a chickadee and a red cap.” Today she's buying a ruby-crowned kinglet. I make a
mental note to buy a chickadee later, but when I return they're all gone. Let that be a les-
son to you.
Across the aisle is potter Lisa Wood who says “I do mostly slab work, with a few pieces
hand-coiled, like Navaho pottery.” She shows me a teapot, and says fondly, “He's on the
move.” Indeed the little teapot does look like he's off to see if not the wizard then at least
the sorcerer's apprentice.
At the Mountain Heather booth, Evelyn Alsup is buying one of Heather Krawiec's
fleece hats. “I love the square shapes of them! Look at the detail on the brim, isn't that
wonderful!” She points out the moonrise over the mountains on the brim of the hat.
“They'll be great for snow machining.”
Artist Cynthia Vidal buys hardshell gourds out of Arkansas and Missouri, hollows them
out, coats the insides with polyurethane and paints the outsides with six to twelve layers
of acrylic paints in muted jewel tones, weaves collars of pine needles handstitched with
beads, and on some of them adds caribou antler handles. “I really lucked out,” she says, “I
just got a hundred pounds of female antlers.” Yes, she can tell the difference, “the female
antlers are very delicate. Male antlers are much heavier and thicker.” I've been visiting
