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The Spokesman-Review Newspaper
Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

If you want to buy locally made gifts this holiday season, here are some places to start

Staff reports

Thrux Lawrence

A Thrux Lawrence belt on display on Thursday, Dec.8, 2016 in Coeur d'Alene, Idaho. (Kathy Plonka / The Spokesman-Review)
A Thrux Lawrence belt on display on Thursday, Dec.8, 2016 in Coeur d’Alene, Idaho. (Kathy Plonka / The Spokesman-Review) Buy this photo

It’s a masculine place selling durable, manly and expensive things. But don’t utter “hip” or “trendy” within earshot of founder Tanden Launder, 25. Instead, think authentic, functional, made to last, Americana.

The messenger bags are flying off the shelf, office manager Courtney Gorman said. One will set you back $450 to $1,090, depending on the choice of materials: leather and canvas, full leather, or the Grizzly Bag sporting hair-on-hide leather. The backpack-style Thrux Packs also are in high demand. Price: $480 to $1,190. “The guys drool over these bags,” Gorman said. “People love it for travel.”

Thrux Lawrence also makes boots, hats, wallets, belts and accessories. Looking for stocking stuffers? A fold-over key fob is $20, and a sunglasses case is $40. The popular, stout Bulwark Belt sells for $120. Want to max out the credit card? Try the Grizzly Duffle, just $1,390. While most sales are done online or through vendors from Texas to Hong Kong, a visit to the shop at 206 N. Third St. in Coeur d’Alene has the added bonus of seeing the workshop where the products are crafted by hand. The products are especially popular in Asia. Launder, who grew up buying and selling antiques and founded Thrux Lawrence in 2012, even made the cover of Clutch, a Japanese men’s magazine.

Hierophant Meadery

Hierophant Meadery has bottles and gift sets available at the Solace Tasting Room in Kendall Yards, 1198 W. Summit Parkway. (Colin Mulvany / The Spokesman-Review)
Hierophant Meadery has bottles and gift sets available at the Solace Tasting Room in Kendall Yards, 1198 W. Summit Parkway. (Colin Mulvany / The Spokesman-Review) Buy this photo

Fermentation enthusiasts Jeremy and Michelle Kyncl have been producing mead, a wine made from fermenting honey, at their Green Bluff home since 2012. Hierophant Meadery produces more than 10 styles of mead, from the basic Chrysopoeia, a clean and refreshing off-dry mead, to flavored products including rose cardamom, poplar vanilla, lavender citrus and lemon balm. Products range in price from $16.99 to $32 for a 750 ml bottle. Tastings are available at Solace Mead and Cider in Kendall Yards, 1198 W. Summit Parkway, from 2-8 p.m. Wednesday through Saturday. The mead also is available at many local retailers, including the Main Market Co-op and Total Wine & More stores. For more information, visit www.hierophantmeadery.com.

Cyan Worlds’ “Obduction”

A screen shot from “Obduction.” (Cyan Worlds)
A screen shot from “Obduction.” (Cyan Worlds)

You don’t have to go to New York or Los Angeles to find a blockbuster game developer. Cyan Worlds, maker of the classic game “Myst,” is based in Mead. Earlier this year, the company released “Obduction,” its first new intellectual property in half a decade. Taking place on a strange alien world, “Obduction” features the developer’s signature puzzle-solving and world exploration. If you’re lucky enough to own a PC capable of pulling off virtual-reality graphics, “Obduction” recently received an update that will allow you to play the title with a headset and controller, in addition to the traditional mouse and keyboard. Physical copies haven’t been released, but you can download the game through Great Old Games (www.gog.com/game/obduction) and Steam (store.steampowered.com/app/306760/), both of which allow you to buy the title and send a download link to a friend or loved one. If a gamer’s on your list, this locally made critical darling is tough to beat. Price: $29.99

Veda Lux

Handmade “evil eye” earrings. (Veda Lux)
Handmade “evil eye” earrings. (Veda Lux)

Owner Summer Hightower makes jewelry, hair accessories, fascinators and chains using a variety of materials, including gemstones, antiqued metals and repurposed vintage pieces. Prices range from $12 to about $60 – more for custom pieces – but the average cost of a pair of earrings is $32 to $40, Hightower said. Products are available in the Veda Lux store, located in an old post office in the South Perry District, or online at vedalux.com. The store also carries vintage clothing and accessories, as well as modern, unique clothing items. Store hours in December are Tuesday through Saturday, 11 a.m. to 6 p.m., and Sunday and Monday, 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. The store is also on Facebook at Veda Lux Boutique.

Privy Ranch

A custom outhouse from Coeur d’Alene’s Privy Ranch. (Privy Ranch)
A custom outhouse from Coeur d’Alene’s Privy Ranch. (Privy Ranch)

For your off-the-grid friends, cabin owners or those who have everything, Coeur d’Alene-based Privy Ranch offers custom outhouses. “It’s definitely a niche, unique kind of thing,” self-described “owner and privy queen” Anissa Brady said. The outhouses are built using Douglas fir, blue pine, reclaimed barn wood or pretty much any wood the customer specifies, and can be customized in any number of ways. Off-the-grid models use UDDT technology – urine diverting dry toilet – that separates liquid and solid wastes and dries it via a 3-watt, solar-powered fan. Brady says four people can use an outhouse for an average of four weeks before the receptacle bag needs to be changed; the used bag can be composted or thrown away since it’s biodegradable. Outhouses start at $5,000 for the more basic models, which still are constructed using screws and tongue-and-groove joints, to as much as $30,000 for a 6-foot-by-7-foot model that’s insulated and has electricity, heat and air conditioning. It takes the company anywhere from a few weeks to 12 weeks to construct a privy, depending on the complexity of the model. Privy Ranch is online at www.privyranch.com, or at (208) 770-7966.

Craig Goodwin Photography

Craig Goodwin’s 2017 calendar. (Craig Goodwin Photography)
Craig Goodwin’s 2017 calendar. (Craig Goodwin Photography)

Craig Goodwin, owner of Craig Goodwin Photography and also pastor at Millwood Community Presbyterian Church, has published a 2017 calendar featuring his beautiful images of the Inland Northwest. The calendar is available for $15 at a number of local retailers, including Auntie’s Bookstore, Atticus Coffee and Gifts, and at Yoke’s grocery stores. It’s also available online at www.craiggoodwinphoto.com/2017-Spokane-Calendar. Goodwin’s landscapes have appeared in The Spokesman-Review many times, and his image of the Northern Lights behind a country church near Davenport was named Reader Photo of the Year by the Seattle Times last year.

Munchie’s Rockpile Custom Jewelry

Earrings from Munchie’s Rockpile Custom Jewelry. (Munchie’s Rockpile)
Earrings from Munchie’s Rockpile Custom Jewelry. (Munchie’s Rockpile)

A gem of a shop in the Garland Avenue business district is Munchie’s Rockpile Custom Jewelry, which offers a range of handmade sterling silver and gemstone pieces at 604 W. Garland Ave. Owned by Marie and Charles Cordalis, the shop has been in business for 14 years. They currently have a large supply of pieces ranging in price from about $5 to $85, with the average cost running $25 to $30. The jewelry is made in-house by Charles Cordalis. The shop also can craft custom pieces from rocks, shells or other items belonging to customers, but not until after the holidays. Shop hours are 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Tuesday, Wednesday, Friday and Saturday, and 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Thursday.

Spiceologist

FILE - Spiceologist co-founders Heather Scholten and Pete Taylor, shown in 2014 with one of the company’s Spiceologist blocks. (Dan Pelle / The Spokesman-Review)
FILE - Spiceologist co-founders Heather Scholten and Pete Taylor, shown in 2014 with one of the company’s Spiceologist blocks. (Dan Pelle / The Spokesman-Review) Buy this photo

The company conceived during a local Startup Weekend and funded through a Kickstarter campaign now sells its spices, herbs and rubs nationwide. Products are available at a number of local retailers as well as at a Spiceologist store at 125 S. Cowley St. and online at spiceologist.com. Spiceologist offers gift sets of its more popular rubs, ranging from a six-pack of minijars for $24 to the Ultimate Rub Gift Set for $140. Or, the company’s popular Spiceologist block, featuring 22 cork-stopped glass test tubes full of spices in a European beech block, is available for $160.

PureHeart Soap

PureHeart Soap sells glycerine soaps with team names. (PureHeart Soap)
PureHeart Soap sells glycerine soaps with team names. (PureHeart Soap)

Handmade soap for sports fans is one of Shari Brown’s more popular offerings at PureHeart Soap. She’s been in business eight years making all-vegetable glycerin soaps with embedded designs and letters. Her inventory includes soap bars featuring animals, playing cards, military branches and children’s themes, among many others. She also does custom requests. But “the sports teams and the children’s soaps are my best-sellers, hands-down,” Brown said. As long as she doesn’t use official team logos, she’s free to sell her Cougs, Seahawks, Huskies and Ducks soaps. A 6-ounce bar costs $9 and is available online only, at www.etsy.com/shop/PureHeartSoap

Lloyd Industries

Lloyd Industries’ pizza party set is available for $70. (Lloyd Industries)
Lloyd Industries’ pizza party set is available for $70. (Lloyd Industries)

The 35 workers at Lloyd Industries manufacture hundreds of thousands of pizza and baking pans every year, all at its headquarters in Spokane Valley, Lloyd President and CEO Traci Rennaker said. Many of the pans made by Lloyd have a special “easy release” coating, allowing for easy cleaning. But unlike Teflon (a name that Rennaker wouldn’t even say out loud), Lloyd’s surface is scratch-proof and won’t fall off with wear, she said. While most of its sales are for commercial accounts, including major international pizza chains like Domino’s and Papa John’s, Lloyd also has a retail line available at lloydpanskitchenware.com with baking, pizza and grill pans and supplies at a wide price range. Some of its items also are sold at the Kitchen Engine in the Flour Mill in downtown Spokane. The pizza party set comes with four 8-inch pans, a pizza wheel cutter and a fiber board for putting pizzas in the oven and prepping. They’re perfect for a small party or a family with kids who want to choose their own toppings. The pans are designed to move steam away from the dough (which is 60 percent water) as it cooks for “golden-brown delicious” pizza crust, said Paul Tiffany, Lloyd’s senior manufacturing engineer.

Vintage Spokane Prints

Artist Chris Bovey’s print of St. John’s Cathedral. (Chris Bovey)
Artist Chris Bovey’s print of St. John’s Cathedral. (Chris Bovey)

Artist Chris Bovey creates prints of Spokane and Coeur d’Alene landmarks, ranging from Mount Spokane to Jack and Dan’s tavern. He sells the screenprints at festivals, gift shops and online at vintagespokaneprints.com. Most recently, his work is featured in a museum show at the Northwest Museum of Arts and Culture, “My Spokane: A Vintage Look at Spokane Through the Screen Prints of Chris Bovey.” The show runs through Jan. 8. His screenprints are available for $20 to $40, and T-shirts are $20.

Lauren Rants Pens

Handmade pen from Lauren Rants Pens. (Lauren Rants Pens)
Handmade pen from Lauren Rants Pens. (Lauren Rants Pens)

The pens are made from mostly exotic woods such as buckeye burl or spalted maple, and come in fountain pen, rollerball and ballpoint styles. Rants sells his work at Pottery Place Plus, at 203 N. Washington St. in downtown Spokane, or view his work on Facebook at Lauren Rants Pens and then contact him for orders. Rants began making pens a dozen years ago and said fountain pens are his passion. Prices range from $59 up to $700 for a pen made with sterling silver.