Burbank Creative Arts Center offers work of local artists at Holiday Arts & Crafts Boutique

Scanning the selection on tables throughout the white expanse of the Burbank Creative Arts Center, one can get a sense of the orderliness to the 2015 Holiday Arts & Crafts Boutique as the eye moves from a corner filled with turquoise pottery near the front door to a section of blue ceramic plates, pots, crosses and other decorations, then green, then khaki and on to brown to purple.

“We try to make it a cohesive display,” said Barbara Rog, a recreation program specialist with Burbank’s Parks and Recreation Department who organizes the boutique annually.

But all at once, the variety of items on display and offered for sale is a bit overwhelming.

“There’s something for everyone,” said Linda Lynch, a Glendale resident and student at the Creative Arts Center who was one of 65 local artists with items for sale in the boutique, which opened Friday and runs through Dec. 17.

There are the porcelain bottles, thrown and handmade ceramic bowls, trivets, spoon rests, statues and other objets d’art. Jewelry on display includes silver and gold, glass, ceramic beads, polished bone, burnished stone and bits of leather.

There are three Christmas trees filled with ornaments — plus other displays with more of the same — including angels made of dried macaroni and green glass globes painted and decorated to look like Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, for folks who are into such things. There are knitted scarves, caps, purses, pot-holders and more. Much more.

For those who celebrate Hanukkah there’s a table filled with the nine-branched candelabra known as the menorah and mezuzah cases for the small, rolled parchments of handwritten biblical verses many Jewish people fasten to their doorways.

Rog said the artists have an opportunity to put out new items each day of the boutique before it opens, so the selection is always changing. The boutique is open daily, with weekday hours from 9 a.m. to 8 p.m. — it closes Fridays at 7 p.m. — Saturdays from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. and Sundays from 1 to 4 p.m.

The event has been held for more than a decade, Rog said, but has gotten bigger and more popular each year. She said it’s highly anticipated in the community and registration for artists participating in the marketplace to sell their wares fills up “immediately” after it opens.

The artists with items on sale are instructors or students at the center or members of the Burbank Fine Arts Federation. The artists keep most of the proceeds from each sale, but 15% goes to the federation. Artists are also required to put in at least one four-hour volunteer shift to help staff the boutique.

Lynch, who was volunteering on opening day, said she’s been putting items up for sale in the boutique since she started making pottery 10 years ago. She also holds private sales, but the boutique is an opportunity to get some exposure.

“When you make pottery on a regular basis, you have to find venues to sell [it],” said Lynch, who is a retired from a career in animation as a layout artist.

Later, Lynch helped Van Nuys resident Terri Taylor to the cashier in the pottery studio behind the center’s gallery area, where volunteers helped wrap fragile items in layers of tissue paper.

Taylor’s been coming to the boutique for the past few years and this time filled more than two grocery bags full of items Friday afternoon, including little ceramic pieces with messages on them like “thank you,” that she said could be put in a potted plant and given as a gift. She said she keeps coming back for “unique” finds like these.

Some items in her sacks were designated as gifts for others, including her daughter, but others, she said, are “to be determined.”

“Sometimes I get home and I can’t part with it,” she added.

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Chad Garland, chad.garland@latimes.com

Twitter: @chadgarland