A treasure-trove of art and craft items made by more than 600 senior hobbyists is housed and sold in a 143-year-old one-time elementary school building in historic German Village, just south of Downtown Columbus.

The Golden Hobby Shop, now a quarter century old, has an inventory of more than 1,100 items that mirror the wide range of seniors’ hobbies and interests in the six-county Central Ohio area. Annual membership costs $20 for hobbyists 50 and older.

The expected – handcrafted doilies, for example – and the unexpected – professional quality photos from around the world and prize-winning sculptures – bookend the range of mostly top-quality items on consignment at prices less than retail stores, art galleries or craft shows might command.

It’s unique to Ohio and “too bad there are not more” like it, says retired pharmacist Fred Shaner, a volunteer at the shop. He also markets small items such wind chimes bearing The Ohio State University’s scarlet and gray colors. A popular creation, of all things, is a package of plastic pipe pieces he cuts, plus instructions on how to assemble a blow gun that uses small marshmallows for ammunition. The guns sell for $8.40, including the 20 percent surcharge the shop adds. “The best thing about Golden Hobby is to not be greedy,” he says. Still, his items bring him a monthly check that helps with spending money.

“Wouldn’t it be wonderful if there were more places like this?” Shaner asks. “There are so many empty buildings in strip malls that could be used to keep (seniors) busy.”

Doreen Gosha, manager of the facility that’s partly financed by the Columbus Department of Recreation and Parks, is the only full-time employee. The city pays another, Sharlene Nolan, as a part-time staffer, and Linda Karnes is also paid by the shop through the 20 percent of each sale. Gosha explains that volunteers carry the load of running the center, doing everything from tagging to sales.

Although the German Village shop draws visitors and tourists as well, its arts and crafts sell best at the Ohio State Fair and the annual Oktoberfest. Members make a few dollars or several hundred a month.

The inventory is spread through the building by category. For example, doll clothing, including items for a nationally marketed 18-inch doll, is in one corner of the first-floor sales room. Twice a year, those clothes are entered in fashion shows.

Upstairs are four models of beds and wardrobes Richard Chadwick, a retired quality control supervisor, builds for the 18-inch dolls. Bed prices range from $20 to $70, while the wardrobes cost $40 to $70, plus the center’s 20 percent commission.

“Some take three to four days to build, plus three to four coats of paint,” Chadwick says. They’re similar to manufactured pieces for the dolls, “but I think mine are better and cheaper,” he says.

Across the hall, a group of four to eight ladies spends each Tuesday morning making quilts in segments of three. The first two are sold to help the center and the quilters keep proceeds from every third quilt to buy more materials. Their handcrafted quilts can command several hundred dollars, still a bargain in the quilt market.

Elsewhere are ceramics and related crafts. Retired college ethics instructor Jim Strecker’s wood sculptures, as well as his work in ceramics, clay and other mediums, are displayed with ribbons they have won in competitions.

In the main sales room are Pat Howard’s bowls, which are painstakingly made from walnuts he collects, slices with a band saw, sands and glues together. He figures he makes $1 to $2 an hour from the 6- to 9-inch bowls that sell in the $20 range. “It gives you something to do in the winters,” he says.

Also in the multitude of items are Linda Karnes’ assortment of bottle dresses that are used to decorate all sorts of household containers, such as dish soap or water bottles. They sell for $3 each and are “a novelty.”

Karnes uses the hobby to drive another effort, raising money for Pilot Dogs, which provides seeing-eye dogs for the blind. She stages an annual show at her home with about 30 other crafters and has generated enough to buy nine puppies.

In the room and at other places in the building are bright stained glass figurines, lamps, patio lanterns and “sun catchers” (to hang in windows) created by Jim Hall, a retired corporate accountant who also volunteers at the center. He did some of his work while wintering in Arizona. One sun catcher has a southwestern theme depicting an Indian on horseback.

Coming in the spring, when outdoor items are more in demand, will be his concrete stepping stones with embedded glass depicting various scenes. Hall says his hobby gives him some income and keeps him out of trouble.

Among a display of greeting cards are some done in “string art” and some in cross-stitching by Betty McKee, who had worked in data processing in a catalog center. For the string art cards, she uses her computer to print patterns on card blanks, carefully punches holes and runs thread between them to create colorful designs, “They’re different,” she says of the popular $3 cards.

Another series of cards bears striking photographs of various scenes. They’re the product of Inga Smith, a retired English teacher and publishing company consultant. The volunteer at the center has combined her hobby as an avid traveler and life-long interest in photography to create a portfolio of pictures displayed and sold in the shop and elsewhere, including galleries in the Columbus area.

Smith says she accumulated 950,000 frequent flyer miles while with the publishing company and is now enjoying them monthly, traveling the U.S. with family members or going abroad, looking for photogenic places and scenes.

She gets some small prints for cards, mounts larger ones she’ll sell, and frames a few others, either for sale or shows. She keeps prices down – $3 for cards, $14 for an 8 x 10 and $24 for an 11 x 14 mounted print – so they’ll sell. She says she doesn’t want to “make a killing” but will, for the first time in 16 years, finish in the black this year.

Among the more unusual items are those made from horseshoes by retired welder Donald Yors, who has built his own forging shop in his garage. Yors says he “makes about anything” from the shoes that he combines with other materials, such as steel bars or rods or wood. His creations include dinner bells, wreaths and paper towel and bath tissue holders. (Towel holders are $14.40, toilet paper holders are $21.60.)

Weekly, Yors and a group of like-minded people get together in his shop to make things. Yors says he has made knives from railroad spikes and spoons from horseshoe nails. Others have made things like a music stand or fireplace tools. “It’s hard to tell what we’ll come up with,” he says.