With a soundtrack of classic rock music playing, Beth Fitzgibbon creates her art.

Snug in a 12-foot by 8-foot wooden shed behind her Tides West house, she crafts mats, baskets and yard art from leftover crab pot rope.

Holiday Bazaar

Holiday Bazaar

10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Friday, Nov. 1 and Saturday, Nov. 2.

Peninsula Church Center, 5000 N Place, Seaview.

Various private vendors plus fundraisers for Shoeboxes of Joy and the Long Beach Grange.

She is delighted to enjoy a retirement hobby that keeps her active, pleases her customers, and has a bonus of reducing the amount of tangled fishing debris that could contaminate ocean ecosystems.

“I like the production. That’s the enjoyment to me,” said Fitzgibbon, who worked in the commercial baking industry for many years before moving from Portland to live on the Long Beach Peninsula full-time in 2019.

She will be among 18 vendors at a Holiday Bazaar 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Friday, Nov. 1 and Saturday, Nov. 2 at the Peninsula Church Center, 5000 N Place, in Seaview.

‘Stoked’

Over the years, Fitzgibbon had dabbled in welding, fused glass and ceramics. After her move, she was fascinated by a social media post about East Coast lobster fishers using discarded rope to craft items. She checked around the North Coast to make sure she wouldn’t be muscling in on an existing artist’s territory. “I didn’t want to do something that others were doing,” she recalled.

A successful farmers’ market stall in Long Beach in 2022 bolstered her enthusiasm. “I was stoked that somebody was really buying this stuff,” she said. “A lot of people buy my products for gifts, especially for fishermen. It’s beachy. People like it, for their beach cottages, or it is something nice to take back home. It is mostly all usable items.”

Husband James set her up with loom prototypes to weave the materials. Fitzgibbon started with baskets and sturdy woven mats, ideal for brushing sand off beach shoes. More recent offerings include wine bottle totes, bread baskets, yard art flowers made of rope, and even key chains.

Recycling rope saves money. “I thought, ‘What am I doing buying rope? — Because there are so many Dungeness crabbers who throw their old ropes away. It was great, because I didn’t have to purchase brand new pieces of rope for my supplies. I was recycling and repurposing, although I still have people that like new ones.”

‘Net Your Problem’

For used rope supplies, she has been considerably assisted by a program called “Net Your Problem” set up by a University of Washington researcher. It has placed Dumpsters at oceanfront locales for fishers to deposit items, especially rope. “Fishermen can dump their old fishing equipment in there and keep them out of the oceans. The Dumpster is free for all. You can create what you like.”

The nearest is in Westport, although Fitzgibbon is lobbying the group to place another farther south in Southwest Washington. She smiled at the thought of “Dumpster diving” amid discarded buoys, netting and derelict fishing gear. “I have been very fortunate to get some really nice rope out of it,” she said. “It can take 200 feet of rope to make a mat.”

Her zeal to protect the environment comes with a down side, however.

“It is easier with new rope. You don’t have any cleaning,” Fitzgibbon said. “With recycled product, it is not so easy. It is very dirty, as it has been in the ocean and comes with algae and barnacles.”

Washing, soaking and drying adds to time invested in the finished items, which she power washes before they are ready for sale. “It is labor intensive, using the recycled-repurposed stuff, but I don’t have to buy it!”

Different disciplines

Jan Bono, event organizer, has sought to make sure artists at the bazaar feature varied disciplines. She will display her cozy mysteries and books in other genres. Peter Adams Young of Ocean Park, Wash., will showcase his two historical novels.

Others in the line-up are:

Dee Anttonen, resin tumblers and pens;

Dorina Fithen, wood ornaments and laser art;

Blaine Gunkel, chainsaw carvings;

Cathy Hamilton, seashell wall art and ornaments;

John Holman, 5×7 easel stand paintings;

Liz Hylton, cloth tote bags;

Mark Kenny, wood sculptures and pyrography;

Joan Porter, wooden trays, holiday signs and lighted 3-foot trees;

Steffi Thomas, cards and keepsakes, crocheted toys;

Taryn Wise, Tarot decks, wooden puzzles and glass jewelry;

Don Perry, hand-cut metal yard and wall art;

Karen Brownlee, functional stoneware pottery.

As well as crafts, there will be foodstuffs available. Erin Glenn will sell fresh cranberries from CranGuyMa farms, Denise LaRochelle will have jams, jellies, pickles and napkins, and Skip Ayres will offer smoked pork and cheese. Two groups will raise funds for their activities. Shoeboxes of Joy will have a bake sale and the Long Beach Grange will sell breakfast burritos and hotdogs.