ReadyMade: Instructions for everyday life

Our fellow Iowan, Chrissy Jensen (who blogs over at Gussied Up), was lucky enough to be in Brooklyn over the weekend at the Renegade Craft Fair. She put together a round up of some of her favorite vendors for us and I have officially marked my calendar to be on the scene for Renegade Chicago in a few months! Here’s Chrissy:

As you probably know, moustaches were super hot in the craftsphere last year, and, guess what, they were still everywhere at Renegade. Plus, squid and other ocean creatures and themes were in full effect alongside the usual forest friends. I also saw a lot of aprons and mini pillows—actually, mini was all over the place from terrariums and button jars to treasure jars and ceramics. Renegade was 300 booths strong (you can check out most of them here), but here are some of my favorites.

Screech Owl Design  (shown above and below) was one of the first booths I visited and was also one of my favs. Jacqueline Schmidt’s effortless-looking “animals with furniture” designs marry two of my loves without arousing my “pandering” suspicions.  

Something’s Hiding Here (shown above and below) is an old favorite (esp. among the moustache set), so I couldn’t pass by their booth without inspecting their new offerings. Among their awesome ’staches, wishbones and PBN USA plaques, I found their latest—a chalkboard perpetual calendar that you and I should both own. Word on the street is SHH is unwrapping a cool line of gift paper this fall, so keep your eyes peeled!

Jessica Marquez from Miniature Rhino says that, “Small is the new big.” I agree and think that some of the best of the small was right in Jessica’s cute-as-heck booth. Not only does she use the most perfect small stitches to create all those cool little “tree slice,” sampler and constellation embroidered wall hangings, she’s offering customizable “Adam + Eve” (for lack of a better description) arrowed hearts. They’re super cool, right?  

I really want to gush over My Favorite Mirror’s Kellee & Matt Milner.They were showing off their new Crowned Animals prints, which are also available as custom pieces. If you don’t like the cuties they’ve already crowned, send in your own posed pet, choose your background color & crown, and voila! Your very own prince or princess print. Absolutely adorable!

If I could only have gotten one thing at Renegade, it would be this baby-blue-framed John Murphy print. Every single print—and frame—he had was beautiful.

Remember when I mentioned that ocean themes are popping up? Paul Roden and Valerie Lueth of Tugboat Print Shop have created a new awesome collaborative woodcut series, “The Deep Blue Sea“. The “Turtle Island” print, alone, brings a lump to my throat. Seriously. 

They also just finished this large (24×36″) five block (and over 100 hour-long) “America The Beautiful“ print, which is pretty incredible. 

I planned to supplement my posts with all-day Twittering, but internet service mysteriously disappeared mid-day. If you want to see more photos and descriptions, check out my Flickr page!