Holiday terrain: Brrrzaar is back with local goods at River Park Square

Dread shopping at the mall? Prefer buying local and handmade? Now you can head downtown and still keep your chin up. River Park Square will be ground zero for shopping procrastinators and buy-local snobs alike this Saturday when arts nonprofit Terrain holds its second-annual holiday Brrrzaar.

From 10 a.m.-9 p.m. Saturday, more than 70 vendors will set up an outdoor-like market on all three floors of the mall’s heated halls. There will be dozens of jewelry makers, bath balm mixers, knitters, painters, printmakers and leather crafters. Artists will beckon mall shoppers with booths stuffed with their local and handmade wares.

The one-day event, dubbed Brrrzaar to differentiate from Terrain’s June street Bazaar, is a juried pool of local creatives. All participants have agreed to offer at least half of their items at $100 or less.

The list of 70 Brrrzaar booths includes pottery such as KJ Pottery, 2232 Ceramics and Goblin Pottery; clothing such as Fringe and Fray, Mimi and Mama Handmade, the Great PNW and Lightning Deluxe; jewelry including Silver Element, Roin Morigeau Beadwork, Nucleus Jewelry and Colladay Leather; candle crafts including Starship Ink, Anchored NW Candle Co. and Inland Candle Co.; and bath/skin products such as Orange Thyme Bath Apothecary, Bee You Organics and Caring Coconut.

There also are photography and fine arts prints, teas and botanicals, recycled skate decks and fairy cottages to name a few handcrafted items to browse.

Last year’s Brrrzaar was a hit not only with the vendors who were granted mall space, but also with the mall’s regular merchants. Vendors sold more than $100,000 of their handmade items last year. Mall tenants also reported better-than-average sales.

“Last year, before the event, we had a couple of merchants express concern that Brrrzaar would ruin their business for the day,” said Terrain executive director Ginger Ewing. “One of those people later reported that it was their best day on record ever.”

Perhaps the business that will feel the most competition for shoppers will be Terrain’s own retail storefront, From Here, which moved from the Steam Plant to River Park Square six months ago. “Since our shop is the only one that sells all local and handmade goods, we are the only ones in direct competition with this event,” laughed Terrain operations director Jackie Caro.

To complicate matters for From Here, the soon-to-be-raffled trees of the Spokane Symphony’s Christmas Tree Elegance fundraiser line the second floor hallway directly in front of the shop. There will be no room for participating Brrrzaar vendors to set up in front of From Here.

But From Here organizers have a plan to draw shoppers. Local maker Teddi Cripps will set up her booth of Teddi Joelle leather bags and satchels in the back workshop area of the store. Now that her design business has taken off, chances to actually touch Cripps’ Italian leather bags before buying are rare.

Other artisans will be in the store throughout the day to demonstrate their “live action art,” including Flowers for the People and Honeysuckle Design. All proceeds from Brrrzaar sales go to the artists themselves.

Terrain hopes to make money from beer sales at their second-annual Brrrzaar Beer Garden set up outside Anderson & Co. on the ground floor near the mall’s massive Christmas tree. A slate of local musicians will perform, including Chris Molitor, Scotty Ingersoll and Jenny Anne Mannan. There also will be a raffle with gifts awarded from various vendors.

“We want people to make a day of it,” Caro said. “In just one day, you can finish all your shopping and have fun, too.”