Lochinver Village Hall, Assynt, 10-11 December 2010

I USED TO dread Christmas shopping. It meant overspending on mass-produced tat and trudging through town, weighed down by bags full of things I hoped might do, but which I knew weren’t really quite what my friends and family wanted, until I ended up in the pub drowning my sorrow about how much I had spent on so little of value.

Then I made a resolution to do all my Christmas shopping without leaving Assynt – and no, that did not mean buying everyone yellow wellies from Lochinver Fishselling Company (though would that be such a bad thing anyway?) – it has meant supporting the local bookshop, and most importantly, local artists and craft makers.

This year, meeting my resolution has been a doddle and a pleasure thanks to the Assynt Craft Fayre, which brought together 15 local businesses with displays of their finest hand-made goodies. The Royal National Lifeboat Institution had a charity stand to satisfy the urge for seasonal generosity and lashings of mulled wine, mince-pies and festive music made the whole shopping experience feel closer to a ceilidh than a chore.

Within minutes I had sorted out my best friend’s present, thanks to the traditional skills of Johnny Ross from Kylestrome, who turns the cast-off antlers of red deer into handles for spoons, knives, bottle-openers and walking sticks. The Assynt deer, roaming the mountain of Quinag, develop the finest coloured stag horn in the land, and Johnny’s delicate handling sets it off perfectly.

The mountains and landscape of Assynt are the inspiration for many of the local artists, including the completely non-traditional pottery of Brenda Gibson, the wool-colours of Helen Lockhart, and the pastel and ink paintings of Mary King. The landscape, and the poetry of Norman MacCaig, have also been given new interpretations in photographs by Euan Callus, whose black-and-white shots are stunning.

Purple wool by Helen Lockhart

Euan, who is only 21, is hoping his new photography and design business, Callus Art, will enable him to make a living where he grew up. He is not the only young person with this aspiration. One is Barbara Macleod, whose jewellery featured on Northings recently. Another local woman who has been away to study at University and returned and set up her own craft business is Sian Curley, who grew up in Achiltibuie, and now lives in Elphin. Sugar and Spice’s stall was a sweet-smelling feast of Christmas cakes, puddings, ginger breads, mince-meats and biscuits. She makes Scottish specialities like tablet and cloutie dumpling, and more exotic treats like the German marzipan cake Stollen, and includes gluten free and vegetarian options alongside traditional baking.

Jewellery maker Barbara Macleod in her workshop

While nibbling, it was impossible to ignore another local food speciality recently established: the Sutherland Savoury Oatcakes of Christie and Callus Artisan Foods, which come in a spectrum of different flavours from plain, Garlic and Herb or Cheese and Leek, to the more exotic Tikka Massala, Sweet Chilli and even Haggis.

After tastes come smells, and above the mulled wine were the perfume wafts of spicy soaps, fragrant bath bombs and scented candles produced by Elaine Maclaren and by the Little Soap and Candle Company based in Drumbeg.

More highlights came in the form of the silver and copper jewellery by Myke Calder, whose organic shapes are made from fused and scorched metal with hammered textures and the odd touch of enamel. Beautiful. As are Dorell Pirie’s frosted glass vases, candle-holders and drinking glasses, hand-painted with sea, autumn, heather or water-lily designs, and Fergus Stewart’s impeccable pots. Ann Marie Firth-Bernard,  Kirkton Crafts and the Crafty Bs, filled in the need for textiles like bags, scarves, cushion covers, hair-clips and tree decorations and Charlie Russell brought the woods into the fayre, with signs, bears, owls, mushrooms and benches made to order from native hardwood from the Culag Community Woods.

There can be no need to visit the city for gift shopping ever again, and it is great to know that every pound spent locally helps to boost the rural economy of our remote north western community. Most of the artists and crafts people at the fayre take orders from the links given here and will happily post out to other areas.

© Mandy Haggith, 2010