Lorajean Gudmundsen from the Preston will have some of her paper mâché collectables at the Holiday Gift Market this weekend.
LOGAN – Twenty of some of the best local artists would like to invite the public to the annual Holiday Gift Market this weekend.
They will have their work on display on Friday, Nov. 17, and Saturday, Nov. 18, at the Cache County Event Center at the Cache County Fairgrounds.
The Cache County Event Center is located at 490 S. 500 W. in Logan and will begin at 3 p.m. and go until 8 p.m. Friday and from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday, Nov.18.
Leona Hawkes, who makes art with glass, started the show some 20 years ago and would pick what she considered the best of the best of the local artists to invite to the Holiday Gift Market.
The gift show is a place where local artists organize the market. Each one has a different responsibility to make the show successful. She says a lot of the same people come every year and are waiting for them to open the doors and there are also people that come for the first time.
There are painters, potters, jewelers, bath and body works, crochet, knitting, paper mâché, stationary, book binding products and more artists with wares to sell for the holiday season.
Those who attend the market can also find soap dishes, metal art, greeting cards and other items that can be used as unique gifts for Christmas.
Many of the artists sell their work in galleries but come to the Holiday Gift Show to sell their wares to the people from the valley.
One of the big selling points of this show is the artists are from the valley and they understand the audience they are selling to, so they try to make things affordable. They know what Cache Valley residents can afford.
This year’s featured artist is Lorajean Gudmundsen from the Preston area. She makes paper mâché collectables.
Lori Nawyn of Hyrum said Gudmundsen is one of the new artists at the market and is excited to have her as one of the artists at this year’s market.
“Lorajean is getting well known in the area for her art,” said Nawyn. “Her husband is a well-known painter in Cache Valley ,Trent Gudmundsen. She is developing her own talents as an artist herself.”
She is self-taught and started exploring the art form several years ago after home schooling her children.
“The pulp is made by putting newspaper into a blender and then I make a paste that turns into a bonding agent,” she said. “I mold it and when it dries then I paint it.”
“I still have some of my fall collection; all the rest of it has been sold,” she said. “Everything up until September is all gone.”
Gudmundsen’s work is unique and is bound to bring some attention at this year’s Holiday Gift Market.
With local artists choosing what artists are for the annual Holiday Gift Market this weekend there is surly to be something to check off of a Christmas gift list.