Artisans, artists show their wares at outdoor fair at Nick’s Pro Fitness

For 30 artists and artisans, it was a nice change of pace to set up their tents and sell their wares at an outdoor craft fair. It also was a nice change of pace for area residents to hang out, browse the tents and enjoy the beautiful weather.

The fair outside Nick’s Pro Fitness is one of few such events over the summer, and the booths included artwork, infused oils, CBD products, jewelry, candles, embroidery and more.

Susan Hoefer, a Nick’s Pro Fitness member, thought up the idea of the craft fair, saying she loves making crafts, and she wanted a way to get some of it out of her house. She asked Nick and Heather Kapande, the fitness club’s owners, who supported the idea.

Lynn Otto of Evergreen with LDO Creates loves greeting cards, and she turned that love into a business. She left her high-stress corporate job and began making cards, which can be found locally at Magpie Mercantile and A Borgata, both in Conifer. Most of the cards are blank inside to encourage people to write notes.

Her favorites have always been Christmas cards, and she thinks people should bring back the tradition of sending cards.

“When you get a card, you feel special,” she said, adding that she’s created a line of fun COVID cards with sayings like “I’d totally share my toilet paper with you” and “They are never going back to school.”

Sitting in front of her booth was Julie Demaree of Fairplay, who makes anything you can think of out of wool. She used a Navajo lap spindle to make yarn, a gadget she says she can take anywhere.

Demaree teaches classes in addition to making felt hats, moccasins, wall hangings and more, adding that if it’s wooly, she can make it.

She calls herself “a professional putzer,” and she got into making wool creations by owning sheep, which meant shearing them and then finding uses for the wool.

Her family owned Lost Antler Ranch in Bailey before selling it and moving to Fairplay, and her work is displayed at Coyote Creek Studio Arts in Fairplay.

In the middle of the outdoor area was Julie Brough’s Modstik Designs, and she offered wreaths, wall hangings and more created primarily out of reclaimed wood. She says she was ill for a long time, and making crafts became a great pastime that she’s turned into a business.

“I wanted to learn to do some-thing out of my comfort zone,” Brough said.