Renegade Craft Fair

Yesterday, hit the Renegade Craft Fair in SF - and what a good time!…

http://www.renegadecraft.com/sanfran/

Touted as the biggest and best of the DIY craft fairs around, this handmade craft bonanza started in Chicago 2003, and has since become 4 fairs per year in Chicago, Brooklyn, and as of yesterday, San Francisco. 

So, Fort Mason’s Festivial Pavilion, food and drink, music (thumping,but not too loud), and about 150 vendors.  A lot of great recycled and repurposed jewelry, gorgeous handmade tote bags, a couple DIY sewing collectives, hand-printed cards and screen printed clothing.  Eco-friendliness sprinkled in throughout with lots of reuse seen in materials, even a number of  business cards printed with soy ink on paper bags and one on tree bark! Neat.

My favorites:

AC Clothing and Bags by Amy Cools: http://acclothingandbags.com/

Bought 2 great zipper pouches from her- both made from vintage fabrics (great complementary, yet different vintage fabric used for inside lining!) and unique floral and randomly shaped appliques.  They were high quality and beautiful.  I was drawn to her booth first, and thought I might regret buying two things from her so early as I soon saw many other booths offering handmade purses and bags – but very happy I pulled the trigger with her – they were well made and with a sophisticated eye for color. 

Ferdinand Home Store: http://www.ferdinandhomestore.com

Bought a couple random tissue cozys here for $4 each – made from vintage fabrics, they made me smile, so one for me and a friend.

Fernwork’s Gallery: http://fernworks.org

Faryn Davis with Fernworks creates these entrancing, miniature scenes with found objects and puts them into rings and pendants, the pics don’t do them justice, they were breathtaking – but take a look at: http://fernworks.org/jewelry.html

Stella Neptune: http://stellaneptune.com/

Went gaga for Stella Neptune’s screenprinting on vintage sweaters.  Bought one for hubby (and two for me!) of the “retro trailer” – hilarious.

Partybots: https://partybots.org/

Karl Addison, owner and artist, draws playful images – I remember plenty of monsters, animals and robots and screenprints them to tshirts.  Even better, he uses organic cottons and water-based glues.

Cara Lyndon Creations: http://www.caralyndon.com/vintage/earrings_lucite/peach_hoop.htm

Check out the pair of great earrings I purchased from her (and just happen to be wearing right now).

Don’t Quilt Your Day Job: http://dontquiltyourdayjob.com/

Last but not least – these folks take old plastic grocery store bags and turn them into the coolest bag design I’ve seen – take a look at: http://dontquiltyourdayjob.com/Bobs.html  -they call them B.O.B.’s (Bags Out Of Bags) – great.   And hey, when you buy one, think of how cool it’ll looked paired with one of my Gussy Green pieces that just so happen to be made out of the old grocery toters themselves – how eco – chic you’ll be…

I’m just saying! 

More great green to come, thanks for visiting!

to green wonders and wanders,

Gussy

Welcome to the Gussy Green blog!

Well hello!  This is Susan with Gussy Green – a funky and fun eco-chic accessories line that celebrates everything green.  We have so many awesomely green things to tell you about here in our blog – that we couldn’t even wait for our company’s official launch (in a few weeks!) to get started! 

As folks that believe in promoting ways to live a fun and sustainable, eco-friendly life – we’ll be sharing great companies, products and people that share these ideals and that we know you’ll love hearing about!

There are so many great green things going on out there!   

We’ll stay on top of them and share all the best with you.

Here we go – thanks for coming along!

to green wonders and wanders,

Susan