The Renegade Craft Fair has been a well-known in the indie craft circle for years, but since it was held only in Brooklyn and Chicago, I had to rely on stories and YouTube to get a sense of it. No more! Renegade expanded this year to Los Angeles and San Francisco, and I got my first taste of it on Saturday, at LA’s California Mart.
The contemporary crafts movement that you’ll find at shows like Renegade and Felt Club is nothing like what you find at most street/arts fairs. From funky to funny to deconstructed to fractured retro to downright weird, creativity is bouncing off the walls.
Some 200-plus vendors filled the penthouse level of the California Mart, and I was impressed that so many came from across the country and from Canada to sell their own handcrafted jewelery, art, posters, stationery, clothing, bath +body products and in one case … beards.
Here button maker Mr Paul&Kat models a felt beard from I Made You a Beard.
But it wasn’t only the vendors showcasing creativity––visitors could exercise their own artistic juices participating in Reform School’s linoleum print workshop or Swap-o-rama-rama‘s shmatta-remake workshops. (Shmatta-rama-rama has a nice ring to it, doesn’t it?)
Here is KB of Kokolelo who was not selling her patchwork world goodies but was lending a sewing hand at Swap-0-rama-rama.
Me and Christine Haynes, Indie Couture Queen and author of the newly published Chic and Simple Sewing.
<< Christine’s book!
But how did I miss THIS? Darn! Check out the Postcard Machine:
If you are in the San Francisco area this weekend, don’t miss Renegade!
>>JULY 18 + 19 from 11am – 7pm, at Fort Mason Center Festival Pavilion, more info here.
