Redwood Craft Stomp invites Humboldt County residents to check out local craft business
Vibrant fabrics, hefty prize baskets and a tiny farm full of alpacas were seen throughout the weekend as the “Redwood Craft Stomp” crawl invited residents across Humboldt County to check out small local fabric and craft businesses.
Locals grabbed an official craft “passport” that gave them the option of traveling to a handful of local shops and even an Alpaca farm. Individual shops located all over Arcata, Eureka and Ferndale opened their doors for visitors to look around and get a shot at winning a unique prize basket crafted by the owners.
This was also a fun way to gather support for these tiny businesses. Friendly fresh faces made their way into multiple shops including SCRAP Humboldt, YARN and Sunny Grove Alpacas.
If you decided to take the beautiful drive just a little ways into Bayside you would come across a small Alpaca farm owned by husband and wife crafters Terrell and Mike Ramos.
Terrell and Mike are owners to five furry alpacas. Pegasus “the protector”, Charisma, Tink, Adobe Rose and Truffle are sheared once a year providing enormous amounts of thick fiber for Terrell to use for knitting or to sell.
“I knit and it was all about the fiber, I used to have 17 of them and I’ve gotten it down to just the colors of fiber that I like,” Terrell Ramos said.
While Terrell is busy with the alpacas her husband Mike works with a different kind of craft, welding scrap metal into stunning works of art. He produces beautiful pieces ranging from elephant sculptures made out of recycled horseshoes to chandeliers made of old saws.
Mike used to be a “farrier” (a horseshoer) then picked up welding metal shortly after and has been creating ever since. Although his pieces are profitable, Mike does this as a hobby. Once it starts to feel like a job the fun in making his art would be lost.
Mike said that he has welded metal for about 25-30 years.
“Last November I got so busy that I didn’t know if I was going to finish by Christmas,” Mike Ramos said. “I said, ‘I don’t want to do this it’s more like a job than it is a hobby.’ If somebody wants me to make them something I’ll do it but when it quits being fun then I quit doing it.”
Terrell and Mike have been in the alpaca business for over 15 years but are slowly winding down. When they first started it became busy and almost too much for them, now that they are getting older they want to relax.
“Now that we’re getting older, we’re just slowing down and we got so many grandkids now we just want to spend more time with them,” Mike Ramos said.
SCRAP Humboldt was next on the list just down by the Arcata Marsh. This local nonprofit craft store caters to all creative crafters.
Donations of any kind come in the store such as canvases, scrap pieces of wood, film strips, fabric, knitting supplies, vintage items and the list goes on. SCRAP Humboldt proudly serves the crafting community here in Arcata and those who travel from Eureka.
HSU student and SCRAP employee Mattea Davis was happy to share the many events that take place at SCRAP.
“Everything in here is donation based. We also do workshops and every final Friday of the month there’s a ‘Final Fabric Frenzy’ where you fill a bag for five dollars of fabric,” Davis said.
The last stop on this weekend adventure was YARN located in Eureka. YARN is an adorable bright pink shop stockpiled with a variety of, you guessed it, yarn.
Sunny Scribner has owned this mini fabric store for 11 years and has participated in the Humboldt Craft Stomp for seven of those years.
“Yeah it (Redwood Craft Stomp) definitely helps,” Scribner said. “I’ve had lots of people who haven’t been in the shop before.”
YARN is a welcoming store that offers more than just yarn, Scribner loves to host classes and workshops for beginner and expert knitters.
“We offer knitting, crochet classes and needle felting. We have needle felting supplies as well,” Scribner said.
For the Redwood Craft Stomp organization was dedicated to shedding light on small extraordinary fabric businesses. Bringing in new faces for crafters to share their art with and creating a strong crafting community around Humboldt.
If you are a crafter that is in need of quality fabrics, check out any of these stores located all over the area to show your support.
“It just makes more of a community with all the knitters and people who like the fiber arts,” Terrell Ramos said. “It gets us to do more things together and pass information around on where you can get certain products, so it’s information.”
