Window Shopping

Alt Shop

by Ellie Behling

Be prepared to see things in places you've never seen them before—like album covers as book covers and gnomes in glass. Quirky motifs are unleashed when the burgeoning underground craft scene crams into Skully's for the annual Craftin' Outlaws fair.

Local designer Liz Rosino started the event three years ago because she wanted Central Ohio to have an alternative craft fair, representing an online-based community of hip artisans. While some items have political tones, it's more about aesthetics with a touch of irony or kitsch, Rosino explained.

Sixty independent crafters, artists and designers will display reconstructed and handmade clothing, accessories and knickknacks. A raffle—including a Sparrowfish messenger bag and tattoo certificates—will benefit Rwanda Knits, which provides knitting machines and training to Rwandan refugees.

After the success of last year's event, Rosino added more vendors and kept it more local, but the fair will also feature out-of-towners like the feminist button decals of BadButtons and the friendly plush monsters of Spooky Daddy Toys.

Rosino, owner of the Lucky Kat online shop, will have some of her usefully eccentric items, inspired by '50s rockabilly and '60s mod with a punk-rock edge. Some favorites include a tattooed jewelry box with dice knobs ($95) and popular journals with recycled album covers ($12).

Amber Anderson of the online store Beautiful Era debuts her Victorian-inspired pendants encapsulating the weird and cute, from pumpkins to gnomes. The Cleveland Heights designer found a home in the alternative craft scene, as she knew her designs "weren't really the kind of thing that are for the little old lady fairs," she said.

Columbus designer Sara Brown, owner of online store Curly McFreckle, will showcase her happy-go-lucky doodles on greeting cards and T-shirts. She noted that Columbus continues to be a welcoming place for alt-craft crowd. "I'm trying to do a more grassroots, underground way...rather than doing American Greetings," she said.

And that's the renegade spirit behind Craftin' Outlaws—a place where things can't just be mass produced.

September 13th, 2007

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