Green Options

I looooove the Renegade craft fairs, although only Renegade Chicago is close enough to attend.

One of the great things about visiting the web sites of craft fairs, however, is the vendor list–most artists have a web presence these days, so perusing the list of vendors is one way to check out all the Renegade-worthy artists even if you can’t be there for the ambiance.

Web shops also help me decide where I want to shop in person, if I am attending a craft fair. I like fair trade, natural, and recycled work, which info is generally available at an artist’s web site, so I don’t have to feel bad about grilling a super-busy vendor in a super-busy booth on the opening day of a major craft fair.

So, nope, I wasn’t able to make it across the entire country to visit San Francisco for Renegade (although I’ll be there in about three weeks, darnit!), but here are some of my favorite vendors who were there without me:

I am currently a Midwesterner. I stand in line for sweet corn every Saturday at the farmer’s market. Every April, I cheer on my students who ride in the Little 500. Heck, John Cougar Mellancamp lives in my town–is that Midwest enough for you?

As an indie crafter, I’m always bummed that the majority of awesome indie fairs–Maker Faire, most of the Bazaar Bizzare locations, three-fourths of the Renegades–choose to operate on the peripheries of the continental U.S. (it’d probably suck even more if I lived in Hawaii, but I’m willing to bet there are compensations to make up for the inconvenience of living in Hawaii).

So I’m always extra stoked when there are good, national-level indie craft fairs that operate right here in the heartland (occasionally known as the “armpit of America”). Here are two good ones, and how to get involved:

My first craft fair of the season was this weekend, and it suuuuuuucked. Well, partly sucked. Most of the stuff that I really like about craft fairs was still there–checking out the other vendors, gossiping with customers, my daughter drawing with permanent markers on brown paper bags at my feet.

There was really only one thing that didn’t happen: the buying.

There was looking, mind you, from the fewer than normal customers who attended the craft fair. There was admiring. There even was buying, of some of my items in the $1-$5 range. Overall, though, it was slow, slow, slow.

It was a pretty conventional craft fair, with a few fair trade craft  or indie craft vendors like myself. And it left me wondering–is this whole craft fair season going to suck?