A lo-cal artisan diet
By Eliot Sekuler
For the TODAY
If the potpourri of objects had voices, they would narrate a colorful anthology of stories around the various arts and artists featured at Local Faire, the handmade crafts and gifts shop tucked away among the mega-brand stores at Lincoln City Outlets.
First among those stories might be that of owner and manager Sheila Jaillet, who can be found most days behind the store’s counter, greeting and offering information and gift-giving advice to her customers.
Nebraska-born Jaillet shifted from farming to herbalism, which remains a passion, to her current role as a curator and retailer of handmade crafts and artwork after getting a taste for the business by selling hand-crafted work – including her own herbs — at the Portland Saturday Market. After discovering the Oregon Coast and selling wares at the Lincoln City Farmers market, she briefly operated a shop in Taft which indirectly led, in 2020, to an offer to open a pop-up store at Lincoln City Outlets. Like many retailers, she struggled through the chaos of the pandemic, doing well enough to transform the store’s status from pop-up to persisting.
Local Faire stands out as an odd duck among the big brand stores. There are no famous labels to be found in the shop, which makes a mission of presenting handmade work by independent, locally based artists working in a very diverse range of crafts. Jaillet considers the store her “personal art project” and takes pride in the quality and uniqueness of each item she sells.
Displayed around the spacious store is an array of jewelry, ceramics, candles, cards and artwork in a range of media. Although all the work is hand crafted, there’s a look of finished professionalism to each item.
Strolling through the store, Jaillet points to a display of flamboyantly tie-dyed shirts hanging from a wall at the rear of the shop, the work of Lincoln City-based craftsman Rob Zeiser.
"He was making tie-dye for the love of it, a passion project,” Jaillet said. “So, when he first brought in the stock for the holiday pop-up, it was hundreds of shirts." His neighbors, the makers of another product at the shop, Earthlights, convinced him to begin selling them that winter at Local Faire so that he would at least have room to keep making more.
Since then, Zeiser’s Fool On The Hill Tie-Dye company has grown into a successful business.
"Now he sells them here and at the farmer's market. It's been fun to see his style grow and evolve," Jaillet said. "That first batch of shirts contained some of his earlier work, which have all moved on into the world and found homes and he brings in new batches monthly or as needed. It’s always fun for us to see as we put them out on the shelves because they continue to be unique and different in some way each batch."
Mounted on a wall across the store from Zeiser’s tie-dye shirts are a series of photos printed on metal. The vivid, super-saturated images of landscapes, sunsets and florals are the work of Beaverton-based artist Terry Hjorten, a retired registered nurse and Vietnam veteran who, according to his website, embarked upon his photographic career as a means of coping with residual PTSD issues.
In another corner of the store are the finely made works created by ceramic sculptor and custom tile-maker Julie Fiedler, who also serves as administrator at Lincoln City’s much-esteemed St. James Santiago School.
"Julie's work really captures the essence of what I hope to find in looking for goods for the shop," Jaillet said. "She does lovely, realistic hanging ceramic ornaments of animals, from birds to salmon to starfish, but there's a lot of whimsy thrown in to many of the hand-sculpted pieces: her mermaid holding a seal, her human-faced slug, her peaceful face masks topped with bunny ears or fishtails – people often comment that they remind them of Alice in Wonderland. Her cat sculpture sits right at the door and I scratch its chin every morning, I call it the shop mascot. It stops people as they walk by or in the shop, the juxtaposition of the human face with the cat body, it is playful and spirited and intriguing, full of imagination, like the shop."
Among the other popular items — perfectly suited for holiday gift-giving — is an assortment of jewelry and a large selection of hand-made cards, many of them original artworks.
"I carry a lot of cards and stickers,” Jailett said. “It feels like a really accessible and fun way to buy and give small works of art."
Although most out-of-town visitors come to the outlets to find major brand merchandise at discount prices, Jailett observed that the presence of a craft shop — the retail opposite of the factory outlet stores — is a pleasant surprise for many.
“Tourists are excited to find some local art during their visit and during the holidays, and we also get a lot of locals who come here because they like the shop and maybe aren't regular mall visitors, but now can spend some time here in the other shops too," she said. “There's a nice diversity that the smaller, locally owned shops here at the mall add to the whole of the mall shopping experience. Something for everyone.”
Although the work within Local Faire represents a variety of media and stylistic sensibilities, the connecting threads that run through the inventory are Jaillet’s personal taste and her insistence that everything be the product of local artists.
“I like to feature things that are really one-of-a-kind and special, things that are really gorgeous and well-done,” she said. “And they have to be local, or at least made in Oregon by artists who are independent and working on a small scale.”
Visitors can take home an authentic remembrance of their trip, she explained. And locals are giving back to the community.
“Everyone wins when the money goes to independent local businesses,” she said.
Local Faire is open Sunday through Thursday from 10 am to 6 pm and Friday and Saturday from 10 am to 7 pm. For more information, go to the Local Faire page on Facebook or call 760-492-9237.