Craftsman Gift Guide

Arts and Crafts gifts roundup and resources list

By Ann Jarmusch

Warm the hearts and hearths of those you love this holiday season with gifts that belong in a bungalow. Several area shops specialize in Arts and Crafts books, artwork, furniture and handmade decorative objects, such as art pottery and tiles.
You can find everything from Craftsman-style letter-press cards and calendars at The Grove in South Park to a roomful of Mission-style oak furniture complete with rugs and plein-air paintings at Craftsman Revival in Solana Beach.
The newest shop to join the club is Save Our Heritage Organisation’s charming outlet in the carriage house of the historic George W. Marston House and Gardens on Seventh Avenue in Balboa Park. In fact, SOHO members have nicknamed the cozy shop “The Arts and Crafts Club” because they enjoying stopping by and hanging out in its comfy chairs while browsing architecture and design books and publications on regional history.
The 1905 carriage house’s rustic Douglas fir walls make a handsome backdrop for an imaginative array of gifts for home and garden, such as art pottery vases ($150-$175) and jardinières ($325) by Door Pottery. Fragrant baskets ($30-$85) made of white willow, pine needles and other natural materials woven by native Kumiai families of Baja California are here, along with a variety of Motawi art tiles – pictorial or with mottos – artistically framed in oak by North Park Craftsman ($150). Woodblock landscape prints by Leon Loughridge of Dry Creek Art Press are a steal at $60: he’s raised his prices, but SOHO hasn’t.
Watch for exclusive SOHO items now in the works, such as baskets woven from the Marston House Canary Island Pine needles and products bearing carvings of eucalyptus leaves that architect William Templeton Johnson created for the Marstons’ formal garden.
On the other side of Balboa Park, at The Grove in South Park, there’s a Celtic saying about gathering knowledge stenciled prominently on the wall. Co-owner Anne Mery carries Arts and Crafts books and merchandise as a reflection of the historic neighborhood as well as her own interests. Since opening this collective boutique six years ago, she has moved her home from North County into a South Park bungalow.
You’ll find visual treats here: lovely note cards and journals in the Arts and Crafts style, books on Craftsman and “green” architecture and home decor, and 2010 wall calendars splashed with florid William Morris textile designs or vintage bungalow portraits ($13-$35). In addition, The Grove carries tiles and plaques by Laird Plumleigh, one of San Diego County’s best known Arts and Crafts tile artists. “I hand pick the tiles that I like,” said Mery, “and hope that others will, too.”
Craftsman Revival, the area’s largest store for contemporary Arts and Crafts furnishings,  carries pieces by well-known makers of furniture (Warren Hile Studio, Anthony Lauren) pottery (Ephraim Faience, Door Pottery) and limited edition prints (Anita Munman, Kathleen West).  Janet Ontko’s popular glazed ceramic animals ($75-$115) can live indoors or out.
Owner Tom Gerardy suggested another kind of handmade gift that speaks to the holidays and the warm art of entertaining: handcrafted, carved candles ($42-$72) by Moon Alley. These pillar-style candles are imaginative little jewels, depicting colorful birds, flowers and landscapes, including one called “California.” The interior of the candle burns, not the artistic outer layer.
If your bungalow cries out for Monterey or Spanish Revival furnishings, check out the treasures large and small in The Bungalow Store in Little Italy. Rare early Monterey furniture on hand during a recent visit included a magnificent massive rancho club chair ($5,850) that came out of a historic Cuyamaca cabin that later burned in the wildfires and twin beds ($2,200 for the pair). The beds, which are adorned with red and blue flowers as brilliant as the day they were painted, could be converted to a king-size bed, said co-owner Catherine Chester.
Her husband, Peter Chester, who also restores antiques at the back of the shop, has started a line of locally made iron furniture and lighting called La Casa California. These designs blend beautifully with the originals he said are increasingly hard to find. He fashions vintage tiles into table tops with iron bases ($485 and up) or marries Bauer or Catalina pottery vessels to lighting fixtures ($65-$295).  And if you’re looking for faithfully copied Spanish Revival curtain rods holders or wrought iron shelves, look to La Casa California.
“Purveyors of the Unusual” reads The Bungalow Store’s window and once inside you won’t be disappointed. Colorful Mexican folk art pigs fill a glass jar. Small artworks line the walls, depicting old California, old Mexico and desert scenes at affordable prices. And if you’ve always wanted a California State Bear to guard your garden, The Bungalow Store has chalkware reproductions in brown or black ($65).
Guardians of a different sort inhabit Vintage Religion, where peace on Earth actually exists under one roof. Inspired by the major religions of the world, this North Park shop features objects of devotion that are well suited to the home and garden, whether or not you have an altar or sacred space. Art and artifacts from around the world for Buddhists, Christians, Hindus, Jews and Muslims fill this eclectic store to overflowing at holiday time. Devotees of Frida Kahlo and the Virgin of Guadalupe also feel at home here.
A handsome holy water font from Italy ($42) caught our eye as it hung on a wall of crucifixes, milagros and sacred hearts. It’s a small ceramic plaque with the image of the Virgin and Child hand-painted in blue on a white background.  Owner Philip Shirk also stocks holy water in small vials or a communal dispenser, courtesy of a local parish priest.
Saints and devils, Buddha and Ganesh coexist here, appearing on refrigerator magnets,  jewelry and t-shirts as well as paintings and statuary. “There’s something for the devout, something for the irreverent and something in between,” said Shirk, whose company car is a white hearse, usually parked out front.

GUIDE TO SHOPS
The Bungalow Store, 2317 India St., San Diego. (619) 234-7383. Friday and Saturday 11 a.m.-4 p.m. and by appointment. thebungalowstore.com
Craftsman Revival, 985-A Lomas Santa Fe Drive (Lomas Santa Fe Plaza and Gardens), Solana Beach. (858) 259-5811. Tuesday-Friday 10 a.m.-6 p.m., Saturday 10a.m. -5 p.m., Sunday 1 p.m-4 p.m., closed Monday.
The Grove, 3010 Juniper St., San Diego. (619) 284-7684. Tues.-Saturday 11 a.m.- 6 p.m., Sunday noon-5 p.m., closed Monday. thegrovesandiego.com
SOHO Museum Shop at the Marston House (carriage house), 3525 Seventh Ave., San Diego. (619) 298-3142. Friday-Sunday 10 a.m. -5 p.m. sohosandiego.org
Vintage Religion, 3821 32nd St., San Diego. (619) 280-8408. Open daily 10 a.m.-7 p.m. http://VintageReligion.com