Chicago + Renegade Craft Fair

Sean at Prasino in Wicker Park

Sorry all for the unannounced days off. I was busy preparing for art classes to start and Sean and I took a whirlwind trip to Chicago this weekend, and boy do I have a treat for you. We went out to brunch with the fam on Sunday (this cute spot in Wicker Park called Prasino. I had eggs benedict on a pretzel bun with black truffle hollandaise. Truffle hollandaise! Genius!) and what do you know but the Renegade Craft Fair was going on right out front. It made parking a bear and complicated things, but I was so thrilled to see this particular arts festival going on. Renegade Handmade might be my favorite store on the planet, and every time I visit Chicago without making a stop there I weep bitterly. Well, I'm being hyperbolic, but I do love it, so imagine my glee at discovering my favorite store blown up into an entire street fair!

The Renegade Craft Fair is Chicago's largest indie and DIY craft event. Artisans from all over the place set up tents and hawk their goods. It also takes place in Austin, LA, San Francisco, London, and Brooklyn every year. We got to peruse the fair for a bit and there were so many beautiful things to look at! I probably could have blown our whole budget for the month on necklaces with mini telescopes dangling from them or handmade prints to go on the wall but I restrained myself. It was a difficult decision, of course, because sometimes no groceries for a week seems a fair tradeoff for some beautiful art. Maybe next year I'll take some treasures home with me. Read on for highlights after the jump!

the Berkley Illustration booth. Some downright great drawings of animals pretending to be humans.

Tugboat Printshop from Pittsburg! Beautiful beautiful beautiful hand pulled block prints.
This was the booth I was most excited to see at the fair after I read about them on Design*Sponge a few weeks ago.

The Found: cute booth I stumbled into searching for postcards.
Almost bought a huge box of matches.  They were just that beautiful.