By SCOTT D. JOHNSTON
For Grays Harbor News Group
The annual Winter Fanta-Sea Arts & Crafts Show returns to the Ocean Shores Convention Center this weekend, with more than 70 vendors.
The show, held here during Thanksgiving weekend for more than 30 years, offers up unique, handcrafted gifts, collectibles, tasty treats and more. Santa Claus will appear from noon to 3 p.m. Saturday.
Cathie Parker, the local Visitors Information Center coordinator, has been a participant since 2008 and has managed the show since 2015, when she took the reins from retiring producer Helen Lord. Parker herself will retire next month, but the show will continue as the only major Convention Center event that is produced by the center’s staff rather than an outside entity.
Parker noted that the show is unique in other ways as well. It is curated, meaning vendors are selected with an eye toward achieving an interesting, eclectic mix. She also looks for a combination of old favorites and unusual newcomers.
Everything has to be handmade in some respect, and the vendors are typically the artists themselves. And much of the mix of makers and their products reflects the “Fanta-Sea” part of the event’s name.
In other words, there are some wild and crazy things in the show, like “Snooter-Doots,” made by Ocean Shores resident Gina McCauley, who describes her hand-knit felted wool creations as “hip, happy huggable art for the young at heart.”
Another out-of-the-ordinary vendor is Tammie Wales of McCleary, who calls her business T.W. Coffee Artist. As the name suggests, she paints using coffee. The combination of her unique medium and talent yields results that are both striking and ethereal.
Those words also aptly describe the work of Ocean Shores photographer/artist Patricia Jollimore, who combines elements from her original photos to create imaginative, impossible images.
These three are among the array of vendors and their offerings at this year’s edition of the annual Winter Fanta-Sea event.
The show will be open Friday from noon to 5 p.m.; Saturday from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.; and Sunday from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Admission is free.
For more information, visit www.oceanshoresconventioncenter.com.
