Renegade Craft Fair and Renegade Handmade
Issue #34
By Kristina Francisco
Published: December 1st, 2007 | 4:38pm
Three times a year, in Chicago and Brooklyn, Renegade Craft Fair brings together the crafters whose art you ogle on the Internet.
“Renegade is a showcase featuring all of the most talented crafters out there from all over the country and abroad,” say Sue Blatt and Kathleen Habbley, who founded the DIY fair in fall 2003 amid the bourgeoning craft revival.
And it was a success from the beginning: cutting through all the red tape to hold their first fair in a Chicago’s Wicker Park went pretty smoothly; more than 100 crafters applied for the 75 spots available; and word-of-mouth spread in online forums. Though the two entrepreneurs lost a bit of money the first time around, Renegade now pays for itself and keeps getting bigger and bigger — Blatt and Habbley hope to take it west to San Francisco or Portland soon. This year, they opened Renegade Handmade, a year-round store in Chicago that sells the wares of artists who show at the fairs.
“It’s not the types of items you can find just anywhere either,” say Blatt and Habbley. “It’s all one-of-a-kind or small-run items sold by the individuals that make them. People find it refreshing to buy unique items and help support independent artists at the same time, all the while knowing it’s really good quality.”
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