BBCC bazaar offers variety of handcrafts

MOSES LAKE - Browsers had their choice of handmade jewelry and crocheted hats, homemade candy and direct-sale products, among much else, at the craft bazaar at Big Bend Community College Saturday. The bazaar was sponsored by students in the college's School of Nursing.

The hallway and biggest meeting room in the ATEC Building overflowed with vendors, selling everything from nutritional products to tutus for girls to purses made from recycled pants.

Jamie Tungel, of Moses Lake, used her time manning the booth to make custom tutu orders.

She went together with two friends to buy a space, a supplement for their online advertising, and a way to make new connections, she said.

"It's a good way to get out there," Estrella "Star" Arntson said, of Moses Lake. They got into tutus, head bands and clip-on bow ties for one reason. "We have girls," Arntson said.

Sisters Stephanie Meade and Amanda Miller, both of Moses Lake, were first-timers at the bazaar, and so was April Mayer, of Ephrata.

They are BBCC employees or have relatives who work there, and all three businesses started when people asked them about things they made, they said.

Mayer is a crocheter and likes to sew, and she used some of her creations at work, she said. "I made myself some, and everybody started saying, 'Ooh, I want something,'" she said. "I've been getting requests for stuff."

Miller came from a family of needle artists, she said. "About 11 years ago I picked up a (crochet) hook and a pattern and figured it out," she said.

Meade has been selling online, mostly custom orders, for about five years, she said. Her kids are all boys, but the sisters make girl stuff too, so when Meade needs a model for her site it can get dicey. "My poor son," she said.

Nursing students were set up out in the foyer selling candy and handcrafts. The bazaar is the program's biggest fundraiser