Around September of each year I begin to worry about holiday gifts for family and friends. Because I’ve written a number of stories for The Working Waterfront about coastal and island craftspeople who make interesting and unusual products, I thought I might do some research and write up some suggestions for marine-oriented presents. Below is a highly arbitrary list, with apologies to all the crafts- and business-people I neglected to include. (Unless noted, prices do not include Maine sales tax and shipping.)

Lobster and other seafood

Many people think a gift of Maine seafood is a grand Christmas treat. Many co-ops and seafood businesses ship fresh lobster, but if you’d like the catch of one Maine lobsterman, Gary Hawkes, and his sons, wife and mother Sue Hawkes, of Hawkes Lobster & Gifts, at the end of Cundy’s Harbor, will ship your order by Fed Ex overnight. Lobsters are priced by the pound and shipping charges are based on weight and destination. Shipping four hard shell lobsters selling at $4.69/lb. to New Jersey will cost $29 for the lobsters, $7.50 for the box and ice pack, and $55 for shipping. It’s better to ship as much as possible in one box because you’re paying for the same amount of packing.


Sue Hawkes has many locally made gifts for sale, including dory-shaped window boxes, sea glass-based kerosene lanterns, and Carole de Bellefeuille’s fine, 25-inch tall, porcelain fishermen dolls that come bearded or not for $179. To inquire call, 725-8468, fax 207-721-0472, or write Hawkes Lobster & Gifts, 992 Cundy’s Harbor Road, Harpswell, ME 04079.

Hancock Gourmet Lobster Co. uses only lobster claw and knuckle meat and “sherry-splashed cream sauce” in owner Cal Hancock’s puff pastry-covered Pemaquid Point Lobster Pot Pies, which won the 2003 Outstanding Meat, Pate or Seafood Category at the Fancy Food Show. The pot pies come in boxes of two 7 oz. reusable ramekins for $42.50 and in four 5.3 oz. reusable ramekins for $59.50. Hancock’s Cundy’s Harbor lobster stew comes in pints or quarts. Each quart contains more than one whole lobster. Ben Willauer, head of Customer Service, said, “The lobster stew is excellent for ship’s stores because it stays frozen for a long time and has large pieces of lobster in it.” Hancock also sells a number of other foods ready to be popped in the oven. They even ship lobster rolls nation-wide. And for the chocolate lover, Hancock sells one-pound chocolate lobsters for $12.50. Call 866-266-1700, fax 207-725-1856, e-mail sales@hancockgourmetlobster.com, or write 46 Park Drive, Topsham, ME 04086.

If you like smoked seafood, there’s no better place to get it than Stonington Sea Products, also a Fancy Foods Show prizewinner. Among its many fine products, such as smoked salmon and seafood samplers, are three new items for Christmas: Smoked Shrimp, Cajun smoked shrimp, and a shellfish trio called Fruits de Mer, consisting of smoked bay scallops, mussels, and shrimp. Each Christmas treat comes in a 6-oz. container and retails for $8.25. Call 1-888-402-2729 or go to www.stoningtonseafood.com.

Wreaths

Fresh balsam fir Christmas wreaths decorated with scallop, mussel and periwinkle shells make a present evocative of the Maine coast. Lily, Lupine & Fern, in Camden, sells these 24-inch double-sided wreaths for $45, including shipping. Call 207-236-9600.

Archipelago, in Rockland, carries a handsome mussel shell wreath by Kathy Krause, of Monhegan, that sells for $225. Archipelago also carries the most spectacular multi-shell (scallop, mussel, crab, and sea urchin shells and dried starfish) wreaths I’ve ever seen. Kitty Smith of Rockland makes them in two sizes. The 24-inch diameter is $210; the 18-inch diameter is $117. Call 207-596-0701 or go to www.thearchipelago.net.

Mail order and Internet items

You can’t beat this easy, armchair way to shop. Michael Mayo’s “Bachelor Lobstermen of Maine” and “Lobstering Women of Maine” calendars are fun and have a certain charm. Each goes for $12.95. To take a look, go to www.4mproductions.com. To order: e-mail mmayo323@midcoast.com, call 207-354-8781, or write 4-M Productions, c/o Michael Mayo, 323 Main St. Thomaston, ME 04861.

If you’d like to benefit Vinalhaven’s Islands Community Medical Services, you might want to order its calendar of pictures of island scenes and people ($15). Call 207-863-4341 with your credit card number and expiration date at hand, fax the information to 207-863-2737, or send your check for $19 to ICMS, P. O. Box 812, Vinalhaven, ME 04863.

Jane Crosen, of Penobscot, makes hand-drawn maps of Maine silk-screened on T-shirts and offset printed on postcards and posters. Her T-shirt designs include 12 regions of the Maine coast and lakes and two parody nautical charts that are pure delight. T-shirts come in various colors; short sleeves are $16.95, long sleeves are $21.95. Five assorted (or five of any title) packaged cards are $4.50. Packaged sets of five note cards with envelopes make a good present at $9.95. Posters come in various sizes and colors ($6.95-$10.95). For more information on posters and T-shirts, call 207-326-4850 or e-mail janecrosenmaps@gwi.net.

Hamilton Marine, in Searsport and Portland, offers wind bells with the sound of bell buoys from eleven different harbors ($30 to $70, depending on the size), brass oil lamps ($42 to $200), barometers, tide clocks, and weather instruments ($30 for a weather glass to $500 for electronic weather stations.) Call 800-639-2715 or go to: www.hamiltonmarine.com.

Museum and other shops

Unique to the Penobscot Marine Museum shop, in Searsport, are handsome, textured reproductions in two sizes of four different Buttersworth marine paintings. The large size is 22 1/4 inches long including frame ($140), the smaller is 11 1/2 inches long including frame ($70). Coffee mugs with one of four Buttersworths pictured on the front and its history on the back are only $9 each. A set of four would make a handsome present. Equally good-looking are boxed sets of six Buttersworth Christmas or note cards ($7.50).

Other items of interest include Maine-made leather-handled canvas tote bags printed with a chart of Casco Bay ($62) and for chess lovers, a set with lobsters for pawns, a sea captain king, etc. ($72). Books and videos published by the museum include Joanna and Lincoln Colcord’s Letters from Sea 1882-1901 ($35) and the video Searsport Sea Captain Col. Frederick Frazier Black ($39.95).

The Wilson Museum, in Castine, offers delightful post cards printed of colorful canning labels for blueberries, clams, lobster, and soused (pickled, according to my dictionary) mackerel; four assorted for $4. The museum also sells reprints of Noah Brooks’s Lem, A New England Village Boy, about life in the 1830s ($15) and of J. M. Richardson’s 1941 pictorial history, Steamboat Lore of the Penobscot ($10). Reprints of two historic maps, 1815 ($25) and 1889 ($10), and of Fitz Hugh Lane’s painting, “Castine from Hospital Island” (1855), 21 inches high by 32 inches wide, ($10) would also make good presents. Call 207-326-9247 or e-mail info@wilsonmuseum.org.

The Maine Maritime Museum, in Bath, has handsome reproduction blue-and-white Staffordshire plates with the center scene a portrait of a Bath-built sailing ship. (The WYOMING, USS MASON, HENRY B. HYDE, SHENANDOAH, POCOHANTAS and RANGER are $35 each.) Wedgwood did similar sets of American clipper ship plates in the 1940s and in the 1960s, both of which have appreciated in value, so these Staffordshire ship plates could be considered an investment as well as a present.

A cheery, Victorian lobster canning label served as the basis for a decorative poster advertising the museum’s 1985 exhibition, “Lobstering and the Maine Coast.” Framed, it sells for $89; unframed, it’s a bargain at $7.50.

In addition to the museum’s many books on Bath’s maritime history, World War II shipbuilding and fiction, the store also carries an extensive collection of Portland-made white cotton knotwork, including placemats ($22 each), trivets ($11.95 and $12.95 each), Christmas ornaments ($6.50-$12), and even earrings ($10). Call 207-443-1316, ext. 331; fax 207-443-1665; or e-mail the store manager at turet@bathmaine.com.

The Farnsworth Art Museum shop, in Rockland, offers many fine art books. A book of the museum’s permanent collection, Maine in America: American Art at the Farnsworth Art Museum is $55. The shop also carries a large collection of Wyeth prints and literature and videos. “We try to have anything we can find in print pertaining to Wyeths we have,” said Store Manager Rachel Murphy. Among books for children is The Farnsworth Story, by Mary Louise Meyer ($10). The store also carries baskets including a tiny one ($11), a handsome two-color Mossy Grove herb gathering basket signed by Patty DesCherie ($55), a large field-gathering basket ($85), and a wood-gathering basket ($96). A framed print of Leo Brooks’s23-inch by 30-inch “Fish Beach” is $125. An unframed 26 1/2-inch by 20-inch Alan Magee print of rounded stones, entitled “Convergence,” goes for $500. Farnsworth Museum baseball caps come in various colors ($17). Call 207-596-5789, fax 207-596-0509, or e-mail store@farnsworth.midcoast.com.

Archipelago, the Island Institute’s store, lies a few doors up Main Street from the Farnsworth. Here you’ll find signal flag potholders by Melissa Coleman in bright primary colors with witty messages on the card ($6.50). The one for “R” is, “The way is off my ship. You may feel your way past me.” A smaller bag without pockets or embroidery is $20.

Hooked rugs designed by Herb Parsons, of North Haven, include a 34-inch diameter compass rose ($895) and a 25 x 40-inch Brown’s Head Light, ($720).

Bremen potter Becky Poland uses naturalistic shell shapes to form a scallop shaped dip and chip dish ($58), a starfish dish ($14). She also makes hand-potted ceramic bases for kerosene lamps that are just right for a boat ($24).

The shop also sells beach stone jewelry ($40 to $500) and beach glass jewelry in silver and in gold ($100-$500) Sea glass earrings are $30. Among the framed prints is an evocative black-and-white carbon giclee print Spruce and Isles by Jeremy Barnard ($525). Call 207-596-0701 or go to www.thearchipelago.net.

On Stonington’s Main Street you’ll find The Dry Dock, another nifty place to find presents. Highly brushed metal serving pieces for ship or shore look as handsome as silver, but without the polishing. A 23- by 19-inch high schooner-shaped platter costs $168, one 14 by 15 inches is $120, and an 8- by 10-inch Friendship sloop server is $47. A sand dollar-shaped dish is $25 and a scallop-shaped dish, $30.

Dry Dock owner Janet Chaytor also carries Galen Davis’s exquisite 10- by 12-inch quilted and balsam-stuffed pillows painted with moonlight scenes of Isle au Haut and Stonington Harbor ($65-$95).

Deer Isle Granite pieces, available at other shops, too, include a 16- by 12-inch galley tray with cleats ($88), an 8-inch diameter octagonal clock ($44), desk clock ($26), and monolith clock ($28). Call 207-367-5528 or e-mail sassafras@tds.net.

And don’t forget:

· Alan McKinnon and his wife, Ann Marie, of Narragansett Leathers, in Damariscotta, have added belt buckles to their stock. They now offer sterling silver or brass lobster claw, clam, scallop, or mussel shell buckles ($40 to $90) and brass-backed, 2-inch long by 1-1/2-inch high buckles of kingwood, maple and ebony inlaid with (piano-key) ivory sailing vessels ($90 to $160). Go to www.NarragansettLeathers.com, e-mail mckinnon@lincoln.midcoast.com, or call 207-563-5080.

· Dream Weaver Mary Eaton, on Little Deer Isle, weaves chenille scarves and sweaters in luscious, glowing, color combinations as well as subdued ones and does special orders, too. Her direct-order price for the 9-inch wide by 63-inch long scarves is $45. Special order scarves cost $64. Her single color, roll-neck sweaters start at $125. Patterned roll-neck sweaters cost up to $300. Cardigans are $220 and $240.

Her newest items, wispy, delicate poncho scarves, can be worn in many ways including as a cowl collar. One type looks as if brilliant pieces of confetti had been sprinkled over a base of lacy black. Another type, called eyelash, looks as if teeny, 1/8-inch -wide bits of colorful fringe had been scattered over the airy base. Both types come in 12 different color combinations ($50 for direct orders).

Eaton also makes elegant Christmas ball ornaments in many colors hand-decorated with beads, crystals, ribbons, sequins, and pearls ($30 to $150 each). Go to www.dreamweavermaine.com, e-mail dreamweaver.maryeaton@ verizon.net, call 207-348-6294, or write Eaton at 222 Blastow Cove Road, Little Deer Isle, ME 04650.

· If you’d like to order a hooked rug by designer and hooker Barbara Pendleton, of Islesboro, you’ll have to give the recipient an I.O.U. because Pendleton has a six-month waiting period. The good news: she also repairs hooked rugs ($30/hr.)

· Finally, remember to fill your elderly, arthritic pet’s Christmas stockings with Sea cucumber treats. Sea Jerky(tm) for dogs comes in the original beef flavor, lamb and soy, and chicken and rice. Sea Flex(tm) for cats “is really shooting through the roof,” says Coastside Bio Resources president Peter Collin. “It gives old cats a taste of their wild youth.” Call 800-732-8072, fax 207-367-5929, or go to www.seacucumber.com.