Correspondent photos / Sean Barron Dean Anshutz and Chrissy Bailey, who run a Youngstown-based business called Bird’s Vintage, sit on a boomerang sofa from the 1960s, one of many vintage pieces they are selling during the 2021 FaLaLa show at The Ward Bakery in Youngstown. The show continues noon to 5 p.m. next Saturday and Sunday

If you go

COST: Admission is free

YOUNGSTOWN — Georgia Tambasis tends to get a lot done when she lets her fingers do a little walking — even without the Yellow Pages.

“I like to leave my mark on the work,” Tambasis, of Wheeling, W.Va., said Sunday.

Her work consists largely of a variety of ceramic pieces with colorful creativity and artistic improvisation at their core. Part of that is courtesy of a Tambasis’s technique called the pinch method, where she uses her fingers to mold, shape and bend the edges of many of her functional and decorative ceramic plates, bowls, sculptures and other forms she sells.

Tambasis, who runs a business called Funky Ceramics, is one of dozens of artists, artisans and makers who are selling their works during the 2021 FaLaLa show, which began Saturday at The Ward Bakery building, 1024 Mahoning Ave.

The event continues noon to 5 p.m. next Saturday and Sunday in the building. Admission is free.

Those who are selling a wide array of paintings, jewelry, custom woodwork, vintage furniture, pottery, fiber art, mixed-media works, drawings, printmaking pieces, digital art and pieces in other styles, also share a desire to sell to those in the local community.

Tambasis said she uses a traditional pottery wheel as a tool, but also likes to add her own alterations and deformities that set her art works apart. She’s also not shy about experimenting with various glazes, even on a single piece.

“It’s difficult to repeat my shapes and forms, because I work intuitively,” Tambasis continued. “I have a spontaneous, intuitive sense of play with my pieces.”

Tambasis added that she uses several firing techniques on the mugs, bowls, cylinders and other pieces she creates. In addition, Tambasis teaches a few pottery-related classes in which she encourages her students to appreciate the inherent beauty and imperfections in art, and for them to develop their unique styles.

Nearby, Maryann Limmer of Poland, a longtime artist and retired counselor, was selling her brand of colorful pottery mugs, plates, bowls and other pieces – minus the intentional alterations and crumpled grooves that to a large degree, define Tambasis’ style.

“I make utilitarian things now,” said Limmer, who, along with two partners and the help of her late husband Robert “Bob” Limmer, used to show large sculptural pieces at art shows.

Also, her pottery is all wheel-thrown, said Limmer, who took such courses at Ohio and Ohio State universities.

Assisting Limmer with selling and wrapping her pottery works Sunday were her grandson Forrest Paul and his girlfriend, Chloe Ghaner, both of Pittsburgh.

Among those selling a variety of furniture and set pieces are Dean Anshutz and his wife, Chrissy Bailey, who have a Youngstown business called Bird’s Vintage, and add a thick layer of nostalgia to what they sell.

“It’s nostalgic for people to come into our space and see what their grandparents had,” Bailey said.

The couple buys and sells, or has sold, largely mid-20th century items such as a black Chesterfield-style sofa, which Branch Street Coffee Roasters in Boardman bought. Other pieces of nostalgia include a stereo console with a built-in AM/FM radio and turntable, a large eye-shaped mirror, a light-green boomerang sofa, a dresser and mirror set piece and an overflow of wooden desks, chairs and tables.

Anshutz and Bailey buy their merchandise from estate sales and auctions nationwide. Nevertheless, even though the couple could make more money selling online, they stress what they feel is the importance of selling to local residents and businesses.

“It’s the idea of serving the community. … We have our own economy,” Anshutz said. “We try to make it appetizing for people to buy stuff in the area.”

That notion sits well with shoppers such as Christopher Eddie, who took his time Sunday browsing to see what Anshutz and Bailey had to offer for his mid-century Newton Falls home, which his grandparents built in 1958.

He also was in the marketplace for vintage radios, chairs and a dish set for Thanksgiving, Eddie said.

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