Mission
Street Arts and Fibers Cheri Pyles came to Ketchikan Alaska in 1988 as
a courier for FedEx. Cheri’s husband is an artist
specializing in Alaskan wildlife. After being in
Ketchikan a couple of years, Cheri became interested
in beading, and a few years beyond this, they decided
to open The Dockside Gallery and The Bead Shoppe. Their
stores were located on the second floor in the Salmon
Landing Market which is located on the south end of the
cruise ship dock. After a couple of years of hearing
the visitors asking, “is there a yarn shop anywhere in
town?” she decided to add yarn to her bead shop thus
creating The Bead and Yarn Shoppe. In May of 2008,
they added a new store called Mission Street Arts and
Fibers, which is located at 500 Mission Street.
Ketchikan is a cruise ship port call and
a very busy little town from the months of May through
September. Mission Street is a premium location in
the center of downtown on the street level at the crossroads
of all the most visited areas in town. At the end
of 2008, they will be moving the Dockside Gallery and The
Bead and Yarn Shoppe to their newest location, and because
they will no longer be located on the dock, they changed
their name to Mission Street Arts & Fibers!
Ketchikan is a small town with a population
of about 11,000 people; a few more in the summer. Ketchikan
is also an island. To visit Ketchikan, one would
have to fly or take a boat to get there. Ketchikan
is 90 minutes by air from Seattle and two days by boat. It’s
quite a site to see all the huge cruise ships pull in and
the sea planes come and go.
Pyles says about 70% of her business comes
from tourism. In the summer we have over one million
visitors to Ketchikan. We do get a lot of knitters
and beaders that do find us by way of advertising in beading
and knitting magazines and shop directories. Qiviut
(musk ox down) is something that we sell a lot of. It’s
the one true Alaskan yarn! We also have some very
talented artists who produce their own hand dyed yarns
as well as hand spun yarns.
You might ask, “What do Alaskans do in
the winter”? Cheri says, “Get ready for summer”. The
store is open all year round for the locals and offer classes
in both beading and knitting. We have a lot of artists
who paint, sculpt, do glasswork, jewelry, writers, poets
and music. Ketchikan is one of the 100 top art communities
in America. When the cruise ships leave, they go
into their “winter break mode”.
Cheri Pyles store hosts an open bead
night on Wednesday’s and an all day drop in
on Saturdays. This is where the local
people come to sit and work independently,
learn something new, or feed off one another
for ideas, inspiration, and to just be social. They
also have a wearable art show each winter that
the locals spend months preparing for. Believe
it or not, Pyles says, our winters are just
as busy as our summers, only in a different
way. I personally use the winter time
to catch up from summer, and when the paperwork
is done, I start getting ready for the next
season.
I think what makes Cheri’s store different from other
shops is the fact that it is in a tourist town with different
merchandise that you can’t find anywhere else; like the
beautiful art work or the Qiviut from Alaska.
The beauty of Ketchikan is like no place
else. Cheri Pyles says she is surrounded by inspiration. “For
me, the best time to knit is when it’s raining; which is
a lot”. Ketchikan gets around 13 feet of rain a year. Pyles
loves to knit socks but says the downside to owning your
own business in a tourist town is that it doesn’t leave
much time to knit. Cheri has had her store for 10
years with yarn and knitting being part of that for the
last five years. The nearest bead or yarn shop is
at least 400 miles to the north or 600 miles to the south
of Ketchikan.
What else does one do in a small town,
on an island, in the winter; with thirteen feet of rain
~ CREATE! Please visit the store’s website; and when
you land on Ketchikan, please stop in and say hello to
Cheri Pyles at the Mission Street Arts and Fibers!
