My travel friend, Barb Gengler, invited me to a craft fair over the weekend of November 8th and 9th. Unfortunately, I was unable to make it, but she wrote up a review and I thought it was so good, I'm using it as a guest post. Thanks Barb! Hope you all enjoy.
Melody, The Happy Wanderer, would have enjoyed the HandMade Arcade held in Shadyside at the Hunt Armory this past weekend. I think it was definitely her crowd -- young and hip! Nearly 100 vendor tables displayed their hand-made wares: vintage jewelry made from telephone push buttons, t-shirts with the latest lingo, felted hats, clocks from bicycle cogs, soaps, hand-spun yarn and one-eyed monsters. And with vendor names like Moop, Curious Machine, Miss Chief, Ohmelisa and Sweet Pepita, it was hard not to have fun.
I went specifically to check out who was creating what with the earth in mind. Flawed Flock introduced me to the term upcycle -- to use waste materials to create new products -- with their gingham-looking coasters made from used Starbucks gift cards, Figs and Ginger fabricates their necklaces using recycled sterling silver, and ZipCar was there with neon markers and something to write on -- a car! A smattering of others recycled materials into their products.
But by far the biggest hit of the show was provided by Artists Image Resource, where you can rent time locally to do your own screen printing. I knew there was something special going on even before I entered the building because I had passed several people carrying rolled up paper along the way. As you waited in line you watched the people ahead of you. One by one they'd grab a hold of a large squeegee, and together with a member of the organization, they'd push black ink through a screen onto paper. The screen lifted and they took their piece of history to some blank floor space and waited for the ink to dry.
The image printed is historic. It's the front page of the Pittsburgh Post Gazette from the day after the 2008 election. Oh, and did I tell you? At about 5 1/2 feet by 3 feet, it makes a big impression. Just like the news it reported.
Barb Gengler's Bio - Barb woke up one day wanting to save the planet. Not a person to stay focused on just one aspect of this tremendous challenge, she's starting Barb's Ideas (http://www.barbsideas.org), where she can plant ideas that can, as her tag-line reads, Make Change to Save The Planet.
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