Page 5 The Ferndale (California) Enterprise

The Ferndale Arts Gallery

The arts are animportant piece of theFerndale community.Galleries come and goon Main Street, but onevenue has remainedsteady. No place to viewand purchase art hasbeen around longer thanthe Ferndale ArtsGallery.Celebrating its 23rd

year in 2013, the galleryis a cooperative of localartists that has survivedfloods, earthquakes,movie-making, and eco-nomic boom and bust.Located in what is

now known as the Fern-dale Art and CulturalCenter at the corner ofMain Street and ShawAvenue, the gallery wasfirst opened in April of1990 by 21 local artistsin the converted autosales showroom of thePeers Building.Themembership has

changed over the years,

Courtesy Ferndale Arts GalleryThe Ferndale Arts Gallery can be found in the Ferndale Art & Cultural Centerat the corner of Main and Shaw.

but the gallery’s goalremains the same: toencourage and supportthe growth of memberartists through the displayand sale of their work.The gallery is unique

not only for its longevity,but also for the varietyand quality of the workon display.Visitors to the gallery

will find not only theusual in fine art offerings:paintings, photographs,pottery and jewelry, butmore unusual offerings,as well: woodwork, fabricart, stained glass, origami,and poetry.Many of the artworks

are simply objects ofbeauty, but many of thepieces are utilitarian, aswell: scarves, cuttingboards, coffee mugs andvests. And, because thegallery is a cooperative,prices are reasonable andaffordable.The gallery remains a

steady and strong part ofthe Ferndale businesscommunity. The galleryearns its way solelythrough the sale of itsmembers’ works andaccepts no grants ordonations,. Throughrental payments, supplypurchases, tax collection,charitable donations, andother business expenses,the gallery remains a vitalcontributor to the localeconomy.Stroll down Main

Street and celebrate 23years of art in Ferndale atthe Ferndale Arts Gallery.Located at 580 MainStreet, the gallery is opendaily from 10 to 5.

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including a full assortmentof Baggillini bags and purses.

The Ferndale Emporiumis honored to have been cho-sen by Vera Bradley to be theexclusive source for theirproducts on the North Coast.We are the only source foryour fine Vera Bradleypurses, bags and accessoriesnorth of Santa Rosa andsouth of Ashland.

To enhance your bathand spa area, mirrors, towelracks and accessories arematched together with ourbroad range of bath productsand candles, including can-dles from Northern Lightsand Archipelago. TheThymes Company providesbody lotions, hand therapy,foot care, fancy soaps, bathsalts, and bath and showergels in several fragrances. Forthat elegant gift, of course,there are Crabtree and Eve-lyn specialty gift packets.Our European Soaps stillremain a favorite of locals.For that cozy gift our plush

robes, bed socks, slippers andjackets are a treat for all. OurPJ’s and light gowns arealways stylish and adorable.

Please plan your visit andshopping experience soon.We will be glad to greet youand make new friends. Besure to give us your emailaddress so that you can bemade aware of special events,sales, and coupons.

The Ferndale Emporiumis open Monday-Saturday, 10to 5 and Sunday, 11 to 4, withafter hour and internet shop-ping. Be sure to ‘Like us’ onFacebook. Gift certificates,personal shopping service,gift registry and compli-mentary gift-wrapping arepart of our services.

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Courtesy photo.Home of The Ferndale Emporium.

Cross over that historicbridge and take one of themost beautiful five mile pas-toral drives and you will findyourself in the Victorian Vil-lage of Ferndale. Accordingto Forbes magazine, Ferndaleis one of the prettiest townsin the United States.

The Ferndale Emporiumcan be found at the head ofMain Street in the historic1899 Eastlake Victorian thatwas originally built for theLowenthal’s Ferndale Reli-able Store.

Since that time the build-ing has housed many thingsincluding; a Buick dealership,theater, skating rink, mortu-ary, church, and art galleryamong others. The FerndaleEmporium continues thelegacy of a quality store inthis location.

Over the past 14 years wehave made friends and cus-tomers that we ship to allover the world. We inviteyou to visit our store in per-son or via the internet at(www.ferndale-empo-rium.com), or on Facebook.

The store has alwaysbeen known for their natureitems, such as Larry Eifertpen and ink drawings depict-ing the area’s natural beautyand the birds that frequentthe north coastal region. Inthe garden section you willfind things to adorn yourgarden such as spirit balls,wind chimes, birdfeeders,hanging votives, ornamentalbirds, and books.

Our unique and afford-able boutique specializes initems for that special friend,girlfriend, sister, or mom.Make her day special withone of a kind jewelry, purses,scarves, or travel accessories,

The Ferndale Emporium celebrates 15 years

Francis Creek Inn and Red FrontStore both friendly stops for visitorsThe Red Front Store

and Francis Creek Inn arelocated on the corner ofShaw and Main.

The inn features spa-cious non-smoking, Vic-torian-style rooms, colorcable TV, free wi-fi andphones — all at the lowestrate in town.

The Red Front Store, afamily business since 1976,is best described as a con-

venience store and comesfully stocked, open earlyand late to provide for yourneeds.

The store is famous intown for its hot dogs. Thedogs’ buns are made espe-cially for The Red Frontfrom an old Danish recipe.They also have fast food togo, beer, local wines, soda,ice and a great variety ofgrocery items.

Stop in at the Red FrontStore and the FrancisCreek Inn and say hello tothe friendly folks, whilepicking up a few Ferndalepostcards to send home.

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Enterprise staff photoThe Francis Creek Inn is right around the corner from The Red Front Store —Ferndale’s version of a convenience store.

hand-forged pieces, it isclear that blacksmithingis alive and well. Theproducts offered for salecover a wide range fromfunctional art such ascutlery, bottle openers,clocks, mirrors, lamps,tables, beds, fireplacetools, wine racks, potracks, and candleholdersto decorative items suchas wall art and sculptures. In 2003, they opened

a gallery two buildingsdown from the mainshop at 491 Main Streetto increase their displayarea for larger furnitureand sculptural pieces.Most of the products forsale are hand-forged iron,but there are also piecesmade using brass, copperand bronze. Many of the

sculptural pieces for saleare cast bronze, like MarkHopkins’ fishing sculp-tures and Tim Cotterill’s(aka The Frogman) frogs. While the majority of

the Blacksmith Shop’sinventory is made frommetal, they also sell finehand-made products inother media, some ofwhich is made locally likeHolly Yashi jewelry, Fireand Light recycled glassdishware, glass paper-weights by Jesse Taj, andwire sculptures by Eliza-beth Berrien. Otherunique offerings includeOrient & Flume glass andBovano enameled copperwall hangings, both forwhich the BlacksmithShop is the exclusiveretailer in HumboldtCounty.The Blacksmith

Shop’s extensive inven-tory has put them on themap among retailers ofhand-made art. For five years the shop

has been honored byNICHE magazine as oneof the Top Retailers ofAmerican Craft. The cri-teria for receiving theseawards, which are deter-mined by polling over26,000 professional craftartists, include treatingartists with respect, giv-ing back to the craft com-munity and mentoringemerging artists. According to Black-

smith Shop owner, and

The Blacksmith Shopat 455 Main Street wasestablished in 1979 withone objective: to createan extensive collectionof contemporary black-smithing. Thirty-fouryears later, this objectivehas been achieved, as theshop buys from over 250blacksmiths, mostlyfrom within the U.S.The shop has two rea-sons for maintaining thissize of collection – oneis to support blacksmithsby purchasing theirwork, and the other is tointroduce the generalpublic to an art form thatmany people think hasdied out or associatesolely with horseshoeing. In the Blacksmith

Shop’s collection of

Wide variety of handmade art atThe Blacksmith Shop locations

Courtesy photoThe Blacksmith Shop at 455 Main Street houses anextensive collection of contemporary blacksmithingitems.

Courtesy photoThe Blacksmith Shop Gallery can be found just downthe street from the main store, at 491 Main Street.

blacksmith himself,Joseph Koches, theseideals have always beencentral to his businesspractices.“I think of it as invest-

ing in an artist,” Kochessaid. “If there is a youngblacksmith who showspotential, I like to helpthem out by buying theirpieces, so they can buynew tools or whateverthey need to keep ongoing. Merchandise ispurchased from artistswho love what they aredoing. They put theirlove into their work andone can see the differ-ence.” Indeed the difference

is visible to the numer-ous customers impressedwith the unique, qualityproducts. As the popu-larity of the store con-tinues to expand, theshop has grown bylaunching a website(www.ferndaleblack-smith.com) that allowsvisual communicationwith the merchandise.Amidst updating the

business and planningfor the future, the Black-smith Shop will alwaysstay true to its beginnings– selling an extensiveselection of beautifulhand-made products bytalented artists. The histories of the

buildings that currentlycontain the BlacksmithShop add to the atmos-

phere of craftsmanship.The 455 Main

Street shop in Ferndalewas originally the G.W.Williams building andhoused a hardware storeupon its completion in1888. The same people

began building the 491Main Street gallery in1895 when their hard-ware store needed a largerspace. The store at 455has seen some changes, asit was damaged in the1902 earthquake, wasmodified in 1954, andwas damaged again in the1992 earthquake, atwhich point JosephKoches remodeled thebuilding to look like theoriginal storefront. Through all these

changes, the store at 455Main still has its originalwood floors, giving anold-time flavor that isheightened by the 1914cash register made by theNational Cash RegisterCompany in Dayton,Ohio, some antique dis-play cases, and a “whiz”machine for hand-writ-

ten receipts.Visiting the Black-

smith Shop will not onlyexpose you to beautifulhand-made artwork byAmerican artists, but alsoyou are sure to see some-thing made in metal thatyou have never seenbefore. The BlacksmithShop is open seven daysa week. The staff has giftcertificates available andcan ship all over the U.S.Make the BlacksmithShop a definite stop onyour way down MainStreet.

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