“Oh! These are the handmade earrings made out of pebbles”, said she. “And these are the spun cotton figural ornaments, me and my wife, make using the old age German tradition in rural upstate New York.”, said he. “And these are the jewelry made out of food”, said another. Any craft fair is a source of amusement – you never know what could catch your eye and what might have a story to tell by people who are passionate about their craft to be taking it this far. 

At one glance, you might think it is a zig zag of clustered stalls one after the other where “things are sold”, but not many know each and every stall has a story to be told. I went to the Renegade Craft Fair in New York at Metropolitan Pavilion on 17th and 18th Nov, and although my husband (Vab) insisted on me finishing it fast enough for him to flee out of sight, I stayed the whole second half, although I wish I had planned it better and 2 days would have been good enough for me to know and understand everyone. So, anyone who is planning to go to Renegade Craft Fair in Brooklyn this weekend (Dec 22-23 2019), here are a few tips:

  1. Keep a day full for the event. 
  2. In NYC, it happened inside a big hall, with stalls next to each other. From far, it may look like it will take minutes to go around. But nah! There’s much more stuff in there than you had imagined.
  3. These also make the great holiday gifts. I got an alpaca keychain and that’s the cutest thing I got right now.
  4. Don’t miss on the testers and the samples. I tried samples of Whiskies, I tried sample of creams, I even got to make my own perfume. So that was interesting!
  5. There wasn’t many chairs in the hall. Just a couple and my hubby grabbed one of them. So if you are coming with a partner who wish to sit, then grab it as soon as it gets vacant. Because the footfalls are many!
  6. Low cost items get sold very fast in the craft fair. So if you like something, just get it.
  7. Carry water. 

These are 5 best stalls that I really liked, all were good though 🙂 :

  1. Spun Cotton by Vintage By Crystal: This could make for a perfect gift for Christmas , as Santa would have great company of whimsical creatures on the Christmas tree or elsewhere. Founded by Crystal and Ben Sloane, a husband and wife crafting team that creates a whimsical world of vintage inspired handcrafted spun cotton figures & ornaments that includes wide variety of animals, characters, cake toppers, inanimate objects brought to life out of their imagination. 

Spun cotton is a lost art , an old German technique used for making figural Christmas ornaments. They started with Spun cotton in 2005 and it had been a journey of trial and error to perfect the art that was long lost. In fact, Crystal confesses that her first work of figurine was made out of Spun cotton from Bathroom.She also saved pieces that most people might throw in the trash and her favorite materials are broken materials. When I met Ben at the Craft Fair, I couldn’t stop myself but ask on how lucky his children are as they got so many toys to play. To which Ben said, yes it is, in fact sometimes, we have to work in a separate room to not let them in.

2. Handmade Home Accents by Ayadee Studio : We are not perfect and that’s the beauty of it. Our imperfections make us who we are. Based on this philosophy this rare concept of handmade masterpieces out of broken-ness or flaws makes it so desirable. It’s as if we are not hiding the flaws, we are purposefully celebrating it.

They have 4 categories of home accents that they have made into art form and they are Cracks: Whether materialized as a scar on your arm, a chip on your favorite cup, the mark of a lover, or a split on the ground, they represent a powerful testament that something happened, that life happened, and a celebration of being alive ; Repair : At Ayadee, they have a collection inspired by Kintsugi, the longstanding Japanese tradition of repairing broken pottery that treats breakage and repair as part of the history of an object. There is no attempt to hide or disguise the damage, all the work is done for the sake of illuminating the repair and celebrating the revival. Stitches : With a simple thread, a second life is given to a vintage dress, a teddy bear or even to our own flesh. It’s impressive how little it takes to make things whole again. And so they have stitched pots and home decors. Along with these, they also have ritual cleanses and incense.

     3. Pebble Jewelry by Ember And Flow Handmade: Sophie Ness draws inspiration from her travels and incorporates the structure and fluidity of nature into one of its own kind of jewelry in her Cleveland Studio. I really liked how her creative juices could make such statement jewelry out of lightweight pebbles. I wonder if she picked it up from the Shores! We even shared light hearted banter on on our common fondness for midwest…Perhaps the traveler within us got energized on meeting each other 🙂 

 

4. Vintage Industrial Touch Lamps by Luke Hobbs Design: These are awesome touch – controlled touch sensor cast iron industrial lamps that glows based on your touch taps. This stall was a magnet for inquisitive folks who couldn’t help but touch the lamps to see how it glows, how it fades. It was a very interesting concept. If you are into rustic and industrial, this will make an add-on to your home , worth keeping! It feels like magic when you touch it and it glows..

 

5. Food Jewelry by Glitterlimes :  Since 1996,  Debbie Tuch has designed and cultivated a world of jewelry  that showcases the beauty in the foods we eat. With just a lime and some glittery resin, it began and has grown throughout the years as she has glittered countless local and international finds. Some of the snacks she dries include, many citrus varieties (3-4 types of limes, lemons, oranges, blood oranges, pomellos) and other exotic fruits such as, kiwano melon, lotus root, starfruit, dragon fruit peanuts, pecans, walnuts and persimmons. Every piece is sealed with a self-made glitter resin. If you fancy wearing a food as jewelry, you are in the right place here!

 

We have 10 more features coming up in the next post! So stay tuned.