Daron Letts
Northern News Services

Baker Lake (Nov 28/05) - Jesse Oonark Ltd. in Baker Lake is too busy filling orders for printed T-shirts this month to think about Christmas, yet.

"Right now we're not really doing anything for Christmas," said manager Paul Kabloona. "We'll wait until the first week of December, depending on how heavy our orders are."

The store sent an order of 85 T-shirts to the Arctic sports trials in Rankin Inlet and another order for 50 T-shirts for the basketball tournament in Cambridge Bay.

The store does stock locally-made holiday greeting cards. A series of four Christmas card designs feature prints by Baker Lake artist Freda Kudloo. They depict a mother polar bear with her two cubs.

"We also just got in Christmas tree skirts from Arviat," he said.

The skirts are made of melton and come in a variety of colours with iglu and polar bear designs.

The Jessie Oonark Centre is named after world-renowned artist Jessie Oonark. It was designed to be a production facility for local carvers, seamstresses and printmakers.