Renegade Craft Fair Sets Up Shop in Wicker Park

By Staff in Arts & Entertainment on Sep 4, 2011 8:00PM

Photo via Tugboat Printshop from Pittsburgh, Penn.

The 9th annual Renegade Craft Fair sets up shop next weekend on Division Street in Wicker Park. The free fair, which runs September 10 - 11 from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m., will be packed with more than 300 vendors offering handmade items. It can be hard to navigate such a large fair, so here are some can't-miss highlights.

Interactive workshops let attendees find their inner crafters: learn letterpress printing with Power and Light Press in their truck/letterpress studio; explore fiber art with textile workshops and demos from Lillstreet Art Center; learn to knit with the Chicago Waldorf School; make a recycled paper project with the Chicago Reader; and more. Renegade Handmade, which throws the event, will be sponsoring raffles and offering a photo booth at its 1924 W. Division Street storefront.

Chicago-based vendors include Diffraction Fiber, which offers textiles; Starshaped Press, which features note cards and stationery with a Chicago slant; and Maker and Maker, which sells ceramics. Other vendors include Tugboat Printshop, which creates woodcut prints; Misha Ashton, who takes color-rich photographs; and jewelry from Red Raven.

Finally, take a food break with grub from Antique Taco, Big Bite Catering, MANA Food Bar, Black Dog Gelato, Puffs of Doom, Intelligentsia Coffee, and Goose Island. For more on the fair, check out the Renegade Craft Fair website.

By Amy Cavanaugh