Meet the artisans: Fremont Sunday Market turns out hot décor

When the Fremont Sunday Market opened in 1990, plenty of local artisans and craftsmen were eager to scratch their names off the long waiting list at Pike Place Market and find a space to sell their wares.

This new market was a way to get exposure, test their ideas and see if they could survive on their skills.

It also was a place for newbie entrepreneurs to trade ideas, talk about ways to improve their products and, in some cases, even meet people who would become business partners.

Sixteen years later, some of those early vendors have emerged with established, successful businesses stemming from their market experiences.

"You get stories of dogged determination and those innovative types," said market organizer Jon Hegeman. "As an incubator for micro-businesses, it works very, very well."

About the market

Fremont Sunday Market began as a general market, with crafts and vegetables. Over time, it grew so much that organizers sent the farmers market to Ballard and preserved Fremont as a European-style flea market.

Organizers also make sure Fremont maintains its image as a place to treasure hunt instead of a swap meet with cheap goods.

"By and large, the watchword is diversity," Hegeman said. "Part of our mission here is to steer the market in the way so it doesn't become overly saturated in one way or another."

Now, the market attracts 4,000 to 5,000 people on a sunny Sunday. Up to 150 vendors sell jewelry, ceramics, furniture, clothes and food. Visitors can eat pizza baked in a portable oven, buy throw pillows, pick up colorful resin bangles or invest in a gurgling salmon water pitcher.

Some entrepreneurs who got their start there have emerged as truly exceptional. Here are a couple of success stories in the home and design field:

Gwen Weinberg, Three by Three

The jewelry section was already full in the market's first year, when Gwen Weinberg persuaded Hegeman to let her in.

Today, Weinberg runs a Seattle-based international business called Three by Three that sells modern accessories, but in 1990, she was a newbie jewelry designer working out of a $75-per-month studio and selling at the market.

Weinberg sold silver and copper jewelry and other items, like hinged jewelry boxes made of copper sheeting. But she didn't hit a nerve until a metalsmithing and book-binding class inspired her to create handmade journals with copper detailing.

The journals, which she charged $30 to $40 for in 1992, were hugely popular.

"They were just something nobody had ever seen," Weinberg said. "I'd have a line of people, and I'd completely sell out. Some other Sunday market friends of mine would say, 'You won.' "

She soon found out how much she had to learn about running a business, including pricing.

A friend convinced her to show the handmade journals at the New York International Gift Fair, where she found herself fielding orders from luxury department and stationary stores, which sold her books for up to $150 each.

Weinberg quickly formed a corporation but abandoned the copper journals after a metal press crushed her finger in 1997.

She now makes modern designs, such as curvy frames and metal desk organizers, available at local boutiques like Portage Bay Goods in Fremont and Click! Design That Fits in West Seattle.

And she still attributes her success to the market, an inexpensive place to test her ideas and hone her direction.

"I honestly look back, and I can't imagine that I would have literally been able to explore a business without it," Weinberg said. "It was a great avenue for introducing new ideas."

Candace Reiter Designs

The market also worked for Candace Reiter, in a slow and steady way.

Reiter started at the market in the early 1990s and spent several years selling anodized aluminum jewelry. But her art background was diverse, including wall hangings, handbags and quilts.

When an opportunity to work in a ceramics studio arose, she left jewelry behind.

"I love making things and designing things, and I love colors and shapes and patterns," she said. "I was more entranced by ceramics."

She found a niche with her whimsical, playful interpretations of cats and dogs, which now include such designs as cats lying on beach towels and others wearing full chef regalia.

But Reiter also had to keep an open mind. Sometimes, people weren't interested in patterns she loved. She designed a fish clock after customer requests, but the design, well, flopped.

But Reiter became adept at producing enough goods to sell every weekend at the market and also picked up solid advice and support from other vendors.

"It's really like going to school in a way. It's a community," Reiter said. "You're there all day, talking to other vendors, getting ideas — how do you market yourself, how do you get help, just learning how to run your business better because it's a network."

She mastered the market, acquiring wholesale vendors and producing her own lines. In the late 1990s, a manufacturer saw her work at the Seattle Gift Show and asked whether she would design for the company.

Now, Reiter designs full-time from a Phinney Ridge studio, where she comes up with the shapes and patterns for ceramic pieces sold under the Catzilla or Dogzilla line through Henriksen Imports.

Reiter hasn't sold her work at the Fremont Market in years but likes knowing she could go back. She is considering creating a limited-edition line to sell online so she can get back to making ceramics herself.

"I know it's always there to go back to, which is nice if you want to try out new things or come up with a new line of work," she said.

"I've tried lots of mediums and might find something else to try down there. The community is fun."

Nicole Tsong: 206-464-2150 or ntsong@seattletimes.com