Artists puts local touch on holiday ornaments

A local resident used some unexpected down time during the pandemic to learn a new hobby and turn it into a side business creating holiday ornaments unique to Boulder City.

“I started during COVID,” said Ann Boulais, who works as a tour operator. “I lost my job because the tourism industry died.”

Boulais is also an artist and member of the Boulder City Art Guild. She does graphic arts and sublimation, the act of taking graphics and printing them on different items. She said when she wasn’t working during the pandemic, she started creating laser cut wooden ornaments.

“We had an Artist in Action (show) recently,” she said. “I had a line of wooden ornaments there and someone asked me to create one for Boulder City.”

So she did.

Boulais created five different ornaments that feature local desert wildlife, including a coyote, lizard, desert quail, desert tortoise and bighorn sheep.

Since then, she said they’ve been so popular that she’s having a hard time keeping up with the demand.

“I can’t cut them fast enough at this point,” she said. “I just never expected them to take off the way they did.”

Due to their popularity, Boulais said she was able to donate some of the proceeds to the Blue Star Mothers of Southern Nevada and she plans to donate more to different veteran organizations in town.

“I want to keep it local,” she said.

The ornaments are available for sale at the Boulder City Art Guild’s art gallery in the Boulder Dam Hotel, 1305 Arizona St. They will also be available soon at Boulder Vintage, 508 California Ave., and at the Doodlebug Craft Bazaar on Saturday, Dec. 4, at the Boulder City Parks and Recreation building, 900 Arizona St.

Contact reporter Celia Shortt Goodyear at cgoodyear@bouldercityreview.com or at 702-586-9401. Follow her on Twitter @csgoodyear.