By Andrew Edwards
Staff Writer
Julianne Hansen, owner of Julianne Hansen Fine Art and Pottery in downtown Prattville, will be hosting an Easter ornament hunt this Saturday starting at either 6 or 7 a.m. and lasting throughout the day. The hunt will primarily take place on Main Street, but will also expand to different parts of historic downtown Prattville as well.
What makes this hunt unique is that there’s no eggs involved. Instead, there will be approximately 200 hand-crafted, ceramic ornaments made by none other than Hansen herself. The idea for the event was sparked around this time last year, when the coronavirus shut down nearly all Easter gatherings.
“It looked like a ghost town last year during this time. I honestly don’t remember seeing a single car downtown in the time leading up to Easter,” Hansen said.
The lack of Easter spirit was troublesome to Hansen, and she therefore took it upon herself to give the Prattville community something to do.
“We were making some Easter ornaments before the pandemic hit, and since most businesses had to shut down, there were really no buyers for the pottery,” Hansen said. “My husband and I decided that, since we had all these ornaments laying around, that we should make something of it – so we ended up hiding them downtown in the typical Easter egg hunt fashion”.
Just like this year, each ornament was sealed in a small plastic bag, concealed with their own bible verse.
“I started a Facebook live video that morning to let people know that the hunt was happening, and before I knew it, all the parking on Main Street was completely filled up,” Hansen said.
Not only that, Hansen said that community members were extremely excited about the prospect of having some sort of community activity.
“I think people were just dying to have some sort of community involvement again. I had a couple of people come up to me and give me a hug, which I was a little bit uncomfortable with at the time – given the circumstances,” Hansen laughed.
The process of making the individual ornaments is not an easy one. Each one must be made, then dried, the gazed, and dried again – sometimes totaling up to four or five days of work. Hansen’s efforts this year will accumulate to around $3,000 worth of labor.
“The process can take a long time, and that’s why we encourage people to only take one ornament each once they find one. And there’s no need to worry, each bag is sanitized and cleaned before they are hidden,” Hansen explained.
Some of the designs that people can find are crosses, Easter eggs, cotton balls, and butterflies. None of the ornaments will be hidden in any other stores, nor will they be in any of the shrubbery or plants in the area.
“We have great respect for urban management and everything that they do for the downtown area. Everything that’s hidden will be within arms reach of a child or adult,” Hansen said.
Ultimately, Hansen believes that the ornament hunt will help to foster a better sense of community.
“We think this will be a great family activity, so please come down and enjoy what should be great Spring weather. We know a lot of people are tired of being cooped up in their homes, and this should be a great opportunity for people to come out and build those tight knit bonds that every successful community has,” Hansen said.
If you arrive late, and all ornaments are already found, there will be an option to buy one at Julianne’s Fine Art and Pottery store in downtown Prattville.
“The community has been so supportive every step of the way, and we hope to see you first thing on Saturday morning,” Hansen said.
