Back from the Renegade Craft Fair

Last weekend, I went to Chicago to go to one of my favorite activities each year The Renegade Craft Fair. I go with my delightfully lovely friend Joyce and we always have a great time. I tell everyone I am going to look at trends and see what younger crafters are making....I do, of course, do this ...but for Joyce and me the big draw is buying stuff from all the booths....well maybe not all the booths but a lot of the booths.

I reported back to my students in my Licensed Image class at Washington University in St, Louis that these were the trends I saw:

• jewelry, t-shirts, dinnerware, all kinds of stuff with anatomical hearts and body parts on them. 

• bicycle images on everything as well as woodland creatures like squirrels, raccoons, deers and rabbits

• red meat and bacon images on all kinds of stuff....I bought my husband back bacon floss

• cute plushes in the shapes of cakes, ice cream cones etc with little smiling faces on them

• letterpress cards that were sarcastic and ironic...and with the f word on them a lot of the time....I loved reading them but have only a small select audience I could send them to

These were my favorite shops:

• Junecraft...Kayanna Nelson.... loved her simple well designed images.....spent a lot here     http://www.junecraft.etsy.com
   
• Sweater Toys.... Caitlin Wicker.....I always say I do not need any more of Caitlin’s plushes but then I enter her booth and one of her plushes talks to me each year and I buy it....Imogene the Penguin now sits on my desk     http://www.sweatertoys.com

• Schoolyard Studio...Katy Chen and Hilary Davis....love their patterns and I am saving up to buy a leaf covered pair of pjs     http://www.schoolyardstudio.com

• Vintage by Crystal....Crystal Hanehan....lovely looking vintage holiday decorations...right up my alley     http://www.vintagecrystal.com

• Mimi Kirchner Original Dolls.....darling dolls and so beautifully made....my friend Joyce really wanted one    http://www.mck254.etsy.com

• Medium Control Design Company.....bought a messenger bag from them for my daughter Anna that she loves....just her taste....a simple black cat the company calls Watson is on the front .....my daughter, like me, is very particular about what she buys...it must be her style and I always consider it a triumph if I buy her something she adores     http://www.mediumcontrol.com

• Frantic Meerkat and Mincing Mockingbird.....hilarious cards, I always buy stuff here     http://www.franticmeerkat.com 

• Last stop the Renegade Handmade shop.....Sue Daley owns this shop which features work from a lot of the Renegade artists and she has my stuff too. Her shop is open year round so whenever you are in Chicago be sure to stop in.     http://www.renegadehandmade.com

Of course, Joyce and I did a lot more shopping at some favorite stores in Chicago.....visit them when you go. We went to:

Uncle Fun (http://www.unclefunchicago.com)

and Paper Boy (http://www.unclefunchicago.com/pboy.html) on Belmont,

The Sweden Shop (http://www.theswedenshop.com) on Foster

and Scout (http://www.scoutchicago.com), also on Foster,

where Joyce bought a great set of old flat files we were not sure would fit in the car but did. And no trip to Chicago would be complete with a visit to the Crate and Barrel Outlet in Naperville.....a big secret of this store is that they have Marimekko fabric that was ordered for display in the Crate and Barrel stores and the excess is sold here at $8.00 a yard!

And last but not least (Joyce really wishes I would skip this part) a trip to IKEA in Bolingbrook for frames. Whenever I buy a bunch of multiple frames at IKEA....this only happens when Joyce goes to IKEA.....the check out person ring the frames wrong... they always ring up more frames than I have so I get overcharged and then I have to wait in the customer service line until my hair turns gray.....ha ha.....to get a refund.

We returned to STL at 11:00 last Sunday very tired with an overstuffed car , lots of great stuff and fun memories to hold us until next year.