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Holiday shopping gets crafty

Bonnie Gonyo poses behind a row of her jams and jellies at the NCCC Holiday Arts and Crafts Fair on Sunday. (Enterprise photo — Jesse Adcock)

SARANAC LAKE — The 35th annual Holiday Arts and Crafts Fair at North Country Community College brought vendors from across the Northeast Sunday to ply their handmade goods — from etched bone and fungus to wine socks, sweet treats and other creations.

The final door count for the day was 778 visitors for the approximately 80 vendors, according to NCCC Athletic Facilities Director Jerrad Dumont.

“Usually we’re around 600 to 650 in and out of our door,” Dumont said.

The $2 entrance fee for guests went to support NCCC athletic programs.

Bonnie and Robert Gonyo of West Chazy brought their jellies and jams to NCCC, while their daughter and son-in-law tabled at SUNY Plattsburgh, for the craft show there.

Gary Chudzinski shows his stock of carved Ganoderma applanatum, or artist’s conk, to a customer Sunday at the North Country Community College Holiday Arts and Crafts Fair in Saranac Lake. (Enterprise photo — Jesse Adcock)

“We’ve been making jams and jellies for about 10 years,” Bonnie said. NCCC’s was one of five or six big craft shows they do per year, outside of weekly farmers markets.

Rich and Judy Ebeling, of Brant Lake, brought their quilts, towels, soup mixes and recycled granite cutting boards to the show.

“This is really a hobby for me, not a business,” Judy said. “It keeps me out of trouble.”

The Ebelings get their granite from a firm out of Queensbury that installs marble counter tops, and repurpose the scraps and chunks into usable home goods.

“It’s kind of like recycling, in a way, you know,” Rich said.

“I bribe the granite guys with nice home-baked cookies,” Judy said laughingly.

Bruce Thompson, of Saranac Lake, brought his handmade guitars and Spanish folk instruments, to the show, like the laud and the bandurria.

“Mostly I build Flamenco and Spanish classical guitars,” Thompson said.

Thompson said he’s been building instruments for 45 years, but doesn’t do many craft shows, at two this year.

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