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The new church of craft | The Globe and Mail

Greeting fellow knitters! I found this interesting article I though you might like to read through. Let m know what you think.

Brad

The new church of craft
The Globe and Mail - July 15 2006

So you're sitting around the cottage and it's raining cats and dogs. You get out your craft supplies. What are you going to make? A Popsicle-stick house? No way. You'll crochet a striped cozy for your iPod or snip your empty pop cans into cool cuff bracelets.

While it's no secret that knitting has dominated the DIY world for the past few years, there's now an explosion of interest in all forms of craft, from felting to printmaking, all with a distinctly ironic edge.

Nowhere was the trend more apparent than at the recent Renegade Craft Fair (http://www.renegadecraft.com) held in Brooklyn, the new hotbed of North American hipsterism. Two hundred counterculture crafters from across the continent came together to present a stunningly diverse collection of goods.

Montreal's Red Rooster (http://www.redroostercraft.etsy.com) showed off its bird and lion-themed tote bags made from vintage and recycled fabrics. My Paper Crane (http://www.mypapercrane.com) came from small-town Pennsylvania with a family of food-inspired stuffed toys (golden toast was happy; burnt toast was sad). Brooklyn's Perch (http://www.perchdesign.net) presented handmade ceramic birdfeeders, but it also showed salt and pepper shakers shaped like bird feet, for feeding humans.

"People have preconceived notions about what a craft fair is going to be like," says sewing enthusiast Kathleen Habbley, who founded the fair with jewellery designer Sue Blatt in Chicago in 2003 (this year's Chicago edition is scheduled for Sept. 16-17). "And then they come here and it's just totally different." [more]

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