Lights shine bright on Winter Night Market

By Nancy Treder • December 4, 2022 1:30 am

Holiday lights shined bright at the first Winter Night Market at the Gateway Plaza on Bainbridge Island Dec. 2.

It was a joyful occasion celebrating the start of the holiday season with activities for all ages where children wrote letters to Santa on an old typewriter and made Christmas ornaments, families enjoyed making silly faces at the photo booth and others meandered through the festively decorated plaza.

With the threat of snow, event organizers sprinkled salt crystals along the path to prevent falls, which added the unintended sounds of crunching snow under one’s foot as shoppers socialized around fire pits and lingered over cups of hot cocoa and specialty coffees.

Aiden Terry, BI Museum of Art Visitors Services lead, said the winter market was inspired by summer markets held the last two years.

“We fielded tons of emails from people after hearing about it in 2021, and finally we’re here.”

The event featured over 20 vendors selling food, jewelry and fashion items.

Terry said his favorite items were the cyano print clothing pieces made by artist Brittny Babcock of Terra Prints from Tacoma. Babcock creates the prints on upcycled and vintage clothing, imbued with sunshine and infused with an arrangement of local flora. Using cyano printing, first used in 1842 to produce blue monochromatic prints as an inexpensive method for reproducing photographs, Babcock’s striking fashions feature the silhouettes of flowers on a dark blue background. Babcock brushes a light-sensitive, photo-printing solution onto the fabric, places objects on top and then quickly exposes it to light. The final result renders a “shadow of the objects” on the clothing.

Further down the lighted path, the aroma from Sassy Squatch Coffee draws people to Lauren Petush’s tent for samples of her medium roast, Snoqualmie Blend. She’s only been in business for seven months, and this was her first market. “It’s been fun. So far so good,” she said.