Less than two weeks from Christmas, shoppers looking for one-of-a-kind gifts and handmade touches this weekend turned out for Craft-O, a local artist fair with dozens of vendors in Bend’s Old Ironworks Arts District.

On sale at The Workhouse, which houses studio and class space and sells works from local artists throughout the year, were original paintings and prints, fine art jewelry and funkier pieces, such as earrings in the shape of beer bottles and necklace pendants in the shape of Oregon. In the back, Anna Witham offered samples of curried pumpkin seed brittle and almonds fried in avocado oil and seasoned with herbes de Provence.

Allana Ross, who came home to Bend for the holiday from St. Louis, bought a soy candle for her mom, a necklace for her sister and earrings for her aunt.

“They say ‘O-M’ when you look at them sideways,” she said of the earrings. She already bought her mom a pair. “I buy them for stressed-out people in my life.”

Shuttle buses delivered shoppers down the road to The Pine Shed, where about a dozen more artists sold wood carvings, chunky knitted scarves, glass ornaments and more.

“The brown are buffalo, and these are elk,” said Brent Van Auken, handing a pair of black leather gloves to a shopper. (She chose the buffalo.)

Van Auken is co-owner of Spoken Moto, which builds custom motorcycles and moved into The Pine Shed on SW Industrial Way about five months ago. He said they picked a large space with plans to host events and pop-up shops featuring local artists and retailers.

Across the room at Sally Gilmore’s pottery display, a couple visiting from out of town admired a coffee cup, white with delicate tree trunks hand-painted in black. But who to gift it to?

“I find when I’m buying for no one in particular, it ends up staying at my house,” Gilmore warned them. They bought it anyway.

Back at The Workhouse, Kelli Singer, of Bend, browsed with her 14-year-old daughter. They had just wandered in, not looking for anything in particular, but Singer watched as her daughter admired a geometric print with bright colors.

“I have to come back, I guess,” she said.

— Reporter: 541-617-7837,

aspegman@bendbulletin.com