All-local holiday market BrrrZAAR returns to River Park Square on Saturday

Gift-givers seeking an Inland Northwest touch for their holiday lists will once again have the option of supporting local artists on Saturday in downtown Spokane.

BrrrZAAR, the local winter art market put on by the nonprofit Terrain, returns to River Park Square on Saturday with 70 vendors offering their locally made wares. It’s the fourth iteration of the event, which is intended to showcase local artistic talent and offer a variety of fairly priced, handcrafted gifts for shoppers, said Ginger Ewing, executive director and cofounder of the nonprofit.

“Spokane artists and craft-makers have been so hard hit by the pandemic,” said Ewing. “Any kind of economic boost we can give them, the better.”

Vendors, selected for inclusion in the show by a jury, get to keep all the proceeds of their sales.

“One of the things we try to emphasize is, you are helping a family put food on the table. People who are living, creating, striving to make our community a better place,” Ewing said.

Vendors sold $175,000 worth of handmade goods and art during the 2021 installment of BrrrZAAR, Ewing said.

The event runs from 10 a.m. until 8 p.m. and will include live music from 11 a.m. to 7:30 p.m., as well as activities for kids. It’s free to enter, and part of the fun is seeing all the goods that artists in the Spokane area create, said Jeremiah Colladay, owner of Colladay Leather, one of the BrrrZAAR vendors.

“I’m telling people, even if you’ve got all your holiday shopping done anyway, just look at stuff,” he said.

Colladay will be selling leather goods with a Pacific Northwest theme, including wallets, guitar straps, belts, jewelry and more. He started the business in 2016 and this will be his second year selling at BrrrZAAR.

“Terrain does an awesome job, just supporting the local artists and makers,” he said.

Colladay Leather will be on the second floor of the mall on Saturday, near Gap Kids and Nordstrom.

Autumn Bunton has appeared at several BrrrZAARs under her company name, Goblin Pottery. The name for the shop came from the little creatures Bunton sculpted when she first started working in pottery that customers said looked like goblins.

“This is the only local show that I do,” said Bunton, who started her business in 2012. “It’s got really great foot traffic, and it’s an indoor show, which is really nice.”

Bunton will be selling her creations, many of them functional pottery with animal-inspired designs, on the main floor of the mall, near the escalators, on Saturday. Most of her sales are online, she said, and while she also sells wholesale to local retailers, there will be items for sale Saturday that she’s held back from selling online.

“You can grab some items that I don’t have at local shops,” Bunton said.

Ewing said it was also important to make the gifts accessible to people of all income levels. In order to be let into the show, the vendor must sell at least half of their inventory for less than $100.

“We want to reach as many people as possible,” Ewing said.