Avoiding Ho-Ho-Ho-Hum
Tired of trudging numbly through the mall, searching for holiday gifts? Maybe your shopping taste buds yearn for something out of the ordinary, something unique, something exotic. Perhaps something Moroccan or Peruvian?
If you’re turned off by ho-hum gift fare, you’re in luck this weekend. You can choose between two events where you won’t find anything that has that mall look.
And, after that, if you’re still stumped for ideas and can’t face the shopping throngs, don’t overlook the museums and libraries that stock their gift shops with some nifty offbeat items.
For those who want a shopping adventure, the Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History will host its annual three-day Folk and Tribal Arts Marketplace on Friday, Saturday and Sunday.
The museum transforms its auditorium into a colorful international market with handcrafted goods from North, Central and South America, the Middle East, Africa, Indonesia, India and other spots.
This is no flea market. You’ll find Berber rugs, baskets and leather work from Morocco; tapestries and weavings from Peru; metal sculpture from Haiti; yarn paintings, beadwork, masks and animal figures crafted by the Indians from the Sierra Madre mountains of Mexico; dresses, jewelry and even handmade Bedouin veils from Egypt.
It’s not the sort of stuff you see in the stream of catalogs flooding your mail every year at this time. “It’s for someone who isn’t into receiving plastic for Christmas,” said Dick Snyder, a wholesale importer based in the San Diego area who is among the dozen or so vendors at the market.
Snyder travels twice a year to India, Thailand, Burma and Nepal to bring back clothing, beads and interior decorations. At the Santa Barbara market he will have everything from $1 items up to a $350 door and frame from India.
Like Snyder, most of the vendors deal directly with the artisans in these countries, and in some cases that means traveling off the beaten path.
For the last 20 years, Santa Barbara’s Jane Kelley, owner of Anomaly Imports, has trekked to a Mexican village near Oaxaca a few times a year to buy weavings by the Zapotec Indians. For the sale this weekend, she will have small woven rugs for $12, along with large area rugs and hand-woven pillows and handbags.
“They’re incredible artisans,” Kelley said. She works with about 20 families who have formed a cottage industry there. “It’s predominantly a male craft,” with the women preparing the wool, carding, spinning and dyeing it, while the men do the weaving. She expects some of the Zapotec weavers will be at the Santa Barbara market for a time, demonstrating their skills.
Another vendor, Michal Schaffer, owner of Santa Barbara’s Global Visions, travels to Indonesia, Pakistan and Haiti for handmade crafts. In Bangladesh she works with a cooperative of basket makers.
Don’t expect to haggle over prices at this marketplace. The prices are already low, Schaffer said, and the event is a benefit for the museum. “This is not a bazaar in Karachi.”
Started 14 or 15 years ago by a handful of local importers, the marketplace has been run by the museum for a half-dozen or so years, and usually a crowd of shoppers is waiting when the doors open. On Friday and Saturday the hours are 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., and on Sunday, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Admission is free.
If your taste runs more to the Native American, head for the Satwiwa Native American Indian Culture Center at Rancho Sierra Vista/Satwiwa in Newbury Park on Sunday. Friends of Satwiwa is hosting its first Invitational Art Show and Sale from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. at the center, located in the midst of this park in the grassy foothills of the Santa Monica Mountains.
Several of the Native Americans who have hosted regular Sunday programs at the center will be on hand to show and sell their artwork and craftsmanship.
“It is a great opportunity to buy unique and handcrafted gifts,” said Kat High, volunteer coordinator for Friends of Satwiwa. Among the artists will be Marty Meeden of Lancaster, who does intricate beadwork, and Nadiya Littlewarrior of the Antelope Valley, who makes gourd art.
During the show and sale, visitors can sample Native American food while they listen to musicians and storytellers.
If you like to do your shopping in out-of-the-way spots, don’t overlook museum and library gift shops, where you can often find items handmade by local artists, books about local areas and even oddball Christmas decorations.
At the Ventura County Museum of History and Art, you can pick up some novel tree ornaments: One is actually a tiny picture frame for a loved one’s mug, and another is a cloth ball that unzips to reveal a tiny teddy bear or reindeer inside.
You wouldn’t expect to shop at a library, but don’t pass up the gift boutiques at the Thousand Oaks Library and the Oxnard Public Library. You can stumble upon some unusual things, such as baskets from Uganda at Oxnard’s library or amber jewelry from Poland and the Baltic states at the Thousand Oaks Library.
BE THERE
Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History is at 2559 Puesta del Sol Road, Santa Barbara. For information on the Folk and Tribal Arts Marketplace, call the museum at 682-4711.
Satwiwa Native American Indian Culture Center is at the Rancho Sierra Vista/Satwiwa site in Newbury Park. Interim parking and an entrance to the park are at Gate 1 on Potrero Road. For information on the Invitational Art Show and Sale, call the center on Saturday or Sunday, 375-1930, or the National Park Service Visitor Center, (818) 597-9192.
