Spice up your holiday traditions with a locally made ornament exchange

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Want to find a new tradition for the holiday season? Consider doing a traditional ornament exchange with your family, friends or coworkers.

The concept is simple: Each person brings one ornament and leaves with one ornament. You can set a price range, dictate a specific type of ornament (i.e. handmade, antique or themed) and even throw a party to celebrate the ornament exchange.

We love the idea of exchanging ornaments – even if you don’t have a Christmas tree, you can use the ornaments to decorate your home – and we love the idea of buying locally made ornaments even more. To help you find local, handmade ornaments, we’ve put together the following list of ornament makers (and one stocking maker) from Amboy, Battle Ground, Ridgefield and Woodland:

 

Horse ornaments by Hither Yon Felt Works

These felted horse ornaments, made by Heather Collins of Battle Ground, are perfect for the horse lover in your life.

Collins, who says she’s been crafting since she was a young girl, started her Etsy shop about two years ago, after giving birth to her daughter, Brynn.

“I started making headbands for my daughter, who won’t let me put anything in her hair now!” Collins says, laughing at the irony. “With the horses, I wanted something that could give me instant gratification. I’d done stained glass before, but it took days and days. But I had a horse pattern from the stained glass, and I thought, ‘That would be kind of cool to do as embroidery.’”

Each of Collins’ intricate horse ornaments are crafted from felt made out of recycled plastic bottles instead of wool, which Collins says is better for ornaments, which are often handed down through the generations.

 

“With traditional wool felt, the bugs can get at it,” Collins explains. “But this type of felt lasts.”

Collins, who lives in between Battle Ground and Hockinson with her husband, John, their 2-year-old daughter, Brynn, and the family’s three horses, says she loves doing custom ornaments that match her customer’s horse’s colors and markings.

“My first custom order was for a friend who has a beautiful black horse with white socks and a white star. I was able to embroider the socks and the star and I even put a tiny, blue, first-place ribbon around his neck,” Collins says. “I love doing custom orders.”

To make her horse ornaments, Collins hand cuts each piece of felt and blanket-stitches it on the backing felt using high-quality embroidery floss. She sandwiches organic cotton batting between the felt pieces to give the ornaments a more “plush” look, then accents the ornament with iridescent glass sead beads and secures the entire piece with a ribbon.

Each horse ornament is approximately 5 ½ inches wide and 3 inches tall. Custom orders take roughly four days for Collins to complete. To see the horse ornaments she has available now, or to message her regarding a custom horse ornament, visit her Etsy shop at www.etsy.com/shop/HitherYonFeltWorks.

 

Ceramic ornaments by Argie Girl Ceramics

Ena Shipman, of Ridgefield, didn’t set out to be an artist. In fact, just a few years ago, Shipman was attending Clark College and working toward her business degree. Then, a required art class changed her life.

“I walked into the ceramics class and was hooked from day one,” Shipman says.

Within months, Shipman was crafting ceramic pottery, making silver jewelry and lovely ceramic ornaments. She opened her Etsy shop, joined the Ridgefield Farmer’s Market as a vendor and started to attend local and regional craft fairs.

“Most people know me through the farmer’s market,” Shipman says. “I’m a big believer in buying local and in supporting local artisans, of which we have a great wealth of in Clark County.”

Shipman, an Argentina native who moved to Southwest Washington when she was 4 years old, named her business Argie Girl Ceramics to pay tribute to her family’s home country.

These ornaments are made of either porcelain or red clay.The porcelain ornaments are unglazed and kiln-fired, while the red clay ornaments are bisque fired and have a brown pigment added to them before a second bisque firing. The ornaments vary in size, but are typically about 1 ¾ inches wide by 2 ¼ inches tall and less than ¼ inch thick.



To see Shipman’s current selection of ornaments online or to inquire about buying at the Ridgefield Farmer’s Market or placing a custom order, visit her Etsy shop at www.etsy.com/shop/ArgieGirlCeramics.

 

Rusted metal ornaments by Elegant Garden Design

Jay and Madeleine Crowdus of Battle Ground have been designing and making these rustic metal ornaments since 2011.

“Jay and Madeleine draw everything and the ornaments are steel plasma cut and rusted by hand here at the warehouse,” says Cara Atwell, office manager for the local Elegant Garden Design company. “Custom orders are available.”

The company’s popular “rusty bird” ornaments, made of rusted steel, are available in 3-inch and 5-inch sizes, and can be hung on a tree with a hook, or even displayed year-round in the window or outside in the garden.

The ornaments are available in local shops, including A Vintage Gathering at 407 W. Main St., in  Battle Ground and Shorty’s Garden and Home shop at 10006 Mill Plain Blvd., in Vancouver. To see the current offering of ornaments, or to message about a custom design, visit the company’s Etsy shop at www.etsy.com/shop/ElegantGardenDesign, email info@rustybirds.com, or call (360) 573-1055.

 

Origami ornaments by Eliza Rose Gifts

These beautifully intricate origami ornaments are crafted by Clark County native Aimee Berkompas, 20, who opened her online Etsy shop, ElizaRoseGifts, with her 15-year-old sister, Katrina, a knitter.

“I started ElizaRoseGifts in October in order to share my ornaments with people around the U.S. and perhaps eventually around the world,” Berkompas says. “My sister Katrina joined in the endeavor with her knitted accessories, hend the name ElizaRose — my middle name is Elizabeth and her’s is Rose.”

Each ornament is a detailed work of art that incorporate various color combinations and a tiny bit of sparkle.

“These Kusudama ornaments are a unique form of Japanese origami,” Berkompas says. “Each ornament is made of 60 individual, little squares of paper, which I fold one at a time into the petals. Then I glue the petals together until 12 flowers are made. Once these are glued together, they become a round ball. Then I decorate them with glitter glue and tiny rhinestones.”

Berkompas says the most important part of her work is the attention to detail she gives each ornament, but her favorite part is “watching them transform as I’m adding the glitter into beautiful sparkly ornaments!”

Berkompas has a wide selection of ornaments on her Etsy site, but says she also loves doing custom orders and can make larger or smaller ornaments and work with any color combinations people might want. Getting a custom origami ornament would take between two and four days to complete, Berkompas says.

“I would love to help people find that perfect ornament for a gift or decoration,” she says. “It’s always so wonderful to know that other people are enjoying things that I’ve had fun creating.”

To buy one of Berkompas’ origami ornaments or to inquire about custom orders, visit her shop at www.etsy.com/shop/ElizaRoseGifts.

 

Burlap stockings and Advent calendars by Tiddlywink Design

These aren’t technically ornaments (although if your tree is big enough, they might work!), but these charming, handcrafted stockings and Advent calendars are made locally and certainly fit with our holiday theme.

Made of burlap, linen, cotton and ribbon by Woodland crafter Marcie Hallstrom of the online TindlywinkDesign store, each stocking and advent calendar is designed, cut, sewn and packaged by hand out of Hallstrom’s Woodland home.

“When my first daughter was a baby, I was looking for a way to stay at home and stay busy,” Hallstrom says. “I started making Christmas stockings in 2012 and opened my Etsy shop. I’ve been blown away by how fast it took off! Starting in August, people start ordering their stockings and Advent calendars, so I get really busy in November and December. I am up early, making 30 stockings a day, sometimes.”

To meet the demand for her handcrafted, custom-ordered Christmas stockings and Advent calendars, Hallstrom has a cut-off date in mid-December. Usually that date is Dec. 21, but this year she may push it back to Dec. 15. So, if you want a stocking or calendar, order it soon. To see what Hallstrom has on her Etsy shop, or to make a custom order, visit www.etsy.com/shop/TiddlywinkDesign.