"Handmade gifts carry a story and a connection that off-the-shelf items simply can't match," Gillian Horne, executive director of the Rocky Mountain Folk School, said in a news release reported by Sky-Hi News on Nov. 5.
This is the first holiday season with a 3,000-square-foot shop on Park Avenue, and it changes how Grand Lake's gift calendar works. Through December, many of the holiday classes run at that shop, and others meet at the Folk School's address at 315 Pitkin. Thanksgiving weekend brings the Tree Lighting and the craft bazaar. Then Grand Lake's first Christkindl Market opens at Town Park, where several of the school's instructors plan to sell their own work. You can make a gift, buy one from the person who taught the class, or give someone a class. All three now happen within a few blocks.
The shop behind the season
The Grand Spirit Makerspace opened with a ribbon cutting on Saturday, May 23, at 1128 Park Ave., Unit A. Sky-Hi News described it as a place where registered attendees get the tools and instruction for woodworking, leatherworking, silversmithing and boat building. The Folk School runs it with the Grand Lake Creative District. The makerspace anchors the Space to Create development, which also includes nine live/work units for local artists.
The equipment explains this season's class list. The Creative District's equipment page lists leather sewing and cobbling machines, lathes, a bandsaw, a table saw, a jointer, a planer, a drill press, sanders, jeweler's tools and silversmithing supplies. The lathes make the wooden bowls, the cobbling machines support the leather and sandal classes, and the jeweler's tools match the silversmithing classes. Before May, Grand Lake had no shop like this for holiday classes.
The building drew outside attention over the summer. On Aug. 4, KUNC reporter Rachel Cohen featured Space to Create and the makerspace on NPR's Here & Now.
What the holiday classes make
The Folk School's holiday lineup, as Sky-Hi News reported it, includes leather wallets, tote bags, earrings and dog collars. Fiber classes cover felted slippers and handmade paper, and silversmithing classes cover pendants, rings and earrings. Students can also make wooden bowls, Christmas decorations, decorative gourds, birdhouses and botanical cyanotype prints. Classes are open to all skill levels, tools and materials are included, and class sizes are capped.
Prices on the Creative District's listings show what a finished gift costs:
- Cyanotype prints: The mid-November session was listed at $79.50 for materials and instruction for two botanical prints, making it the least expensive of the listed classes.
- Silversmithing, stacking rings: Sunday, Dec. 6, 1 to 4 p.m., $90, at the Folk School at 315 Pitkin.
- Leather wallet making: Friday, Dec. 4, 9 to 11:30 a.m., $123.37, taught by Isaac Baugher at the makerspace.
- Leather dog collar: $132.50, noon to 3 p.m., every Sunday and Thursday through Dec. 31.
The dog collar class is the one with ties to other local groups. Part of the proceeds go to Pet Pals and its work with local animals, and the listing on Go Grand Lake asks students to measure their dog's neck snugly where the collar sits before class. Students tool, stamp, paint and assemble the collar, and no experience is required.
The class calendar also lists classes for a layered hardwood bowl on the lathe, hand-painted leather earrings, a hand-stitched leather basket, a leather crossbody bag, custom sandals, gourd art and handmade papermaking. Felted slippers made from locally raised Colorado alpaca fiber are on the calendar for Nov. 22. Some November leather sessions showed a waitlist or "call to book" in early November. The school's own advice is to register early.
Thanksgiving weekend at 1025 Grand Ave.
Thanksgiving falls on Nov. 26 this year. The next day, events move to the Grand Lake Community House at 1025 Grand Ave.
The Grand Arts Council's annual Olde-Fashioned Holiday Craft Bazaar runs Friday, Nov. 27, and Saturday, Nov. 28, with Friday hours of 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. and free admission, according to the Creative District's event listing. The Town of Grand Lake describes it as Colorado artisans selling inside the Community House. Go Grand Lake's holiday guide adds that the bazaar sells handmade gifts and foodstuffs.
The Tree Lighting Ceremony is that Friday evening at the same address, from 6 to 8:30 p.m., per the Go Grand Lake listing. The town's schedule lists carolers, cocoa, fire pits, Santa and reindeer, and the town calls its events free and family-friendly.
On Nov. 27, you can shop the bazaar during the day and stay on the same block for the Tree Lighting, which starts an hour after the Friday bazaar hours end.
Where the instructors sell in December
The Rocky Mountain Folk School is sponsoring Grand Lake's first annual Christkindl Market at Heckert Pavilion and Town Park, from 4 to 8 p.m. on five dates around the holidays. The school describes it as a European-style market with local artisans and craftspeople, live music, German-style food, beer and mulled wine. Several Folk School instructors plan to run booths there, selling their work and talking about classes.
Someone who skipped the Dec. 6 ring class can meet the people who teach those classes at a Town Park booth, buy a finished piece, and learn what the school offers in the new year.
The calendar, start to finish
| Date | What | Where |
|---|---|---|
| Sundays and Thursdays through Dec. 31 | Leather dog collar class, noon to 3 p.m., $132.50 | Grand Spirit Makerspace, 1128 Park Ave., Unit A |
| Sun., Nov. 22 | Alpaca felted slippers class | Rocky Mountain Folk School |
| Fri., Nov. 27 | Holiday Craft Bazaar opens, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. | Community House, 1025 Grand Ave. |
| Fri., Nov. 27 | Tree Lighting Ceremony, 6 to 8:30 p.m. | 1025 Grand Ave. |
| Sat., Nov. 28 | Holiday Craft Bazaar, second day | Community House, 1025 Grand Ave. |
| Fri., Dec. 4 | Leather wallet class, 9 to 11:30 a.m., $123.37 | Grand Spirit Makerspace |
| Sun., Dec. 6 | Silversmithing stacking rings, 1 to 4 p.m., $90 | Rocky Mountain Folk School, 315 Pitkin |
| Dec. 18, 19 and 20 | Christkindl Market, 4 to 8 p.m. | Heckert Pavilion and Town Park |
| Dec. 26 and 27 | Christkindl Market, 4 to 8 p.m. | Heckert Pavilion and Town Park |
| Thu., Dec. 31 | New Year's Eve fireworks, weather permitting | Grand Lake's frozen shore |
The two market weekends fall on either side of Christmas. Dec. 18 through 20 runs Friday to Sunday before the holiday, and Dec. 26 and 27 are the Saturday and Sunday after it. The second weekend comes after gift deadlines have passed, so it works as an evening out with music and mulled wine, and as a last chance at Town Park before the New Year's Eve fireworks on the lake.
Giving a class
The school also sells a gift that works around Grand Lake's winter schedule. Folk School gift cards are sold as a way to give a hands-on craft experience, and Sky-Hi News pointed to gift certificates as a holiday present option. The school also offers monthly pottery studio memberships and scholarships for students who need financial help. For people who want more than one class, the classes page describes a monthly makerspace membership, with access depending on instructor approval and a safety sign-off.
That membership gives approved members access to the lathes and cobbling machines behind many of this season's classes, after the holidays end.
The Grand Lake you live in this winter is the one John Sanderson follows week to week, including new places like the makerspace on Park Avenue and the first Christkindl Market. If someone on your gift list is thinking about a place of their own in Grand County, reach out to receive exclusive listings and lot pricing.
