Reported by Martha Bonneau
Edited to add: Oops! Sorry... looks like I left off some pictures the first time around... everything is here now... please take a second look! ~Sarah
I had the pleasure of attending the 5th annual Chicago edition of the Renegade Craft Fair that was held this weekend (Sept. 15-16th). For those not familiar with the Renegade Craft Fair, it is a showcase for unconventional and DIY crafts, the impression I came away with was that it was like stepping into
Etsy and getting to see in real life all of those cool things you spend hours drooling over on your computer monitor.
As we walked through the show, there were several trends that we noticed over and over: owls, deer, gnomes and other nature inspired themes were everywhere. One that we had not seen before were raccoons, we noticed them on several items from t-shirts to tote bags so be on the look-out for raccoons! As a papercrafter, I loved the bird tags and screen printed felt patches from
craftpaca. I am already plotting how to use these items on a scrapbooking layout
Other favorites were the nature inspired items from
Glitter Workshop, they had a fabulous array of items with deer, gnomes and owls in their Forest Friends line and
Abe Lincoln Studio had cool vintage owl earrings.
There were several vendors that we really loved, the first of which were
Rebecca Yaker's awesome sock monkey inspired creations. She had hoodies, t-shirts and even tote bags with the traditional sock monkey on them, but presented in a non-traditional way...very fun stuff!
There were of course many plushies to choose from and one of my favorites was
Snicksnee Plush. Great designs if a great variety of styles and colors and full of personality!
Another favorite were the silkscreened creations by
Run Amok. We especially liked the ninjas with throwing stars..
The Small Object was the only vendor we saw offering any stamps. Their's were rubber mounted on wood blocks and came in whimsical designs such as Dust Bunnies and and the Big Monster pack
There were a couple of vendors who really impressed us as they were offering items completely different from any others. The lamps designed by
avec mes mains were incredible. They make wired framed lamps covered in hand silk screened fabric in the most fabulous patterns and designs. Our absolute favorite was the robot lamp in a very cool retro teal color...
another stand-out was the one with the birds on it accented in orange
Soda by Amy was one of the few vendors who had porcelain items. Her hand etched and glazed pieces came in several designs ranging from robots to ones for baby.
She also had the most beautiful wallpaper as well with birdies on it
Owly Shadow Puppets appeared to be doing very well at the show as they were already sold out of several of the designs we wanted to purchase. They make shadowpuppets out of laser cut matboard that are mounted on a dowel and jointed so they move. We really wanted the Yeti, but alas he was already gone as were the bats and toothfairy, but we were happy that we got to take one of their owls home.
If at the end of the day you felt inspired to go home and create something crafty yourself, there were a couple of vendors who could help you out. Our favorite was the Chicago based
Quiltology as they were offering a wide variety of very cool fabrics in various sizes (1/2 yard, fat quarters etc.) Love that they had some funkier stuff like the cupcake fabric (insert quiltology3) and the little kids in space.
