Students looking to bring home last-minute gifts for friends and family, or even for themselves, now have a chance.

The Art Department will hold its 21st Annual Holiday Art Sale in the Tarble Arts Center today through Saturday.

All of the items on sale are original works of art handmade by students, faculty and ex-faculty. None of the pieces on sale are manufactured.

Some of these items include jewelry, small sculptures, ceramics, prints, holiday decorations and more. Admission is free.

Sue Rardin, of the art department, said prices vary.

“It runs anywhere from $2 or $3 an item, and some of the larger items are $100,” Rardin said. “It’s a very wide range.”

As far as Rardin could remember, the highest item that ever sold was a painting for $125.

The students determine the price their art sells for. If any of their art sells, they get to keep 60 percent of the amount the piece sold for. The other 40 percent goes to the art department’s scholarship fund.

“The fund is used to offer scholarships to art majors,” Rardin said. “In the spring, we do an all-student show, and part of the proceeds from this helps give the awards to the students for best in show, outstanding senior award, and various area awards for graphic design, print making, 2-D and 3-D. The show gives them experience in competing.”

Students won’t find a majority of any particular category of art at the sale. Rardin promises many different kinds of art pieces to be on display.

“It’s a wide variety,” Rardin said. “This year, we have ceramic, some paintings and reproductions of art work.

“The artist will take a drawing or one of their paintings and they will make it into greeting cards. We have a lady that does painted wooden clocks. We have a guy this year that does copper hummingbird feeders. We have some people that do jewelry and candles. It’s just a wide variety.”

Students and faculty are not the only artists who contribute their art to the sale.

“We have several people from the community that are artists that have never gone to Eastern,” Rardin said. “So it’s not just faculty and students. We have community artists that come from Decatur, Atwood and Champaign.

“The students usually do most of their work here because they have all the tools and everything necessary. Most of the faculties do theirs in their studios, but it is community-involved, too.”

Non-art students can also contribute art to the sale by requesting an application.

“We have a mailing list that we add to every year,” Rardin said. “People say, ‘Hey, I did this; I’d like an application.’ They then turn in their application and I process it, then I do the price tags for them.

“The Tuesday before the show, they deliver their work to the Tarble Arts Center, and then we set it up. We do the sale so the artist doesn’t have to be present to sell their own stuff. After the show’s over, the following Tuesday, they come to pick up their work.”

Over the course of the event, at least 300 people are expected to show up to browse through the art pieces.

Michelle Hinson, graduate student with a concentration in metals in art, will have some of her work on display at the sale. She said she is using this opportunity to get her name heard and to make a little money on the side.

“I also want to give back to the art department,” she said. “The 40 percent of my art profit will be designated to the weaving part of the art department.”

Stephanie Frank, sophomore art major with an emphasis in 2-D design, will have pieces of art on sale, as well. Some of those pieces include painted wine bottles, ceramic necklaces, pendants, bracelets from vintage jewelry and more. This will be her first year contributing art to the sale.

“I am trying it and seeing if I can make any money,” Frank said. “It’s for a good cause, and it helps me, anyway.”

Frank may also attend the sale to buy other artists’ work.

“I may buy a present for myself,” she said. “They are all unique items because they are made by artists, and it makes for a really good present.”