Renegade Craft Fair Chicago

The work in this booth by Mike and Mary Jewelry was probably my favorite of the day. The presentation of the work was eye-catching, at the perfect level for the hand and fairly easy to access, compared to some booths were people were literally on top of each other to try stuff on. I also think this work was at the perfect price point for this type of venue. Most rings were $45-$65 and even the higher end of the necklaces were only like $150. I wonder how well the work sold..it was busy everytime I passed by. Most of the designs were clean and simple, really appropriate for this crowd. I really enjoyed this work. Some of my favorites below, from their etsy site. Although my favorite piece was a necklace with little rolled sheets of silver making swirls inside..not on etsy or their site..must have been new..I loved it..

Made with Love and a HAMMER..very simple, elegant designs with nice catch phrase by Freshie and zero from Nashville.

great hangers...

Look at this presentation!! A shelf of books..but wait! Those are all purses, lined up like the books they used to be before they were repurposed to be vessels.

This work was a group of 5 metalsmiths from Kalamazoo that ran the booth together. I did notice that there were a lot of collaborations, where people were sharing booths to either share the fee or try to attract as big a crowd as possible. Very Nice ladies!

Look at these great little lasercut and burned boxes that the work came in..very cool. Wish he would have played up his presentation of the work better though..he could have made the whole booth a laser cut wood setup like those little boxes..

Welded wire jewelry sold as such so those little weld marks are the "jewels"

I saw this a few times, lentils or rice being used to hold jewelry pieces..and I think it worked well, especially if the color somehow contrasted the work and made it really pop!

These necklaces were really great! Hand dyed ribbon wrapped around circular frames..I don't wear necklaces like this really, but I really LOVED these pieces by Lauren Wimmer. They were the perfect balance of chunky and sweet. Really really lovely... This one was my favorite...

LOOK at those great fluffy purses! I had already blew my wad by this point, but those purses are so so great...

So...I also really loved this work by Sasha Bell, but I think her work was underpriced..Starting around $20 for flat hoops (a bit smaller than the ones pictured below) and only $48 for these amazing balled out "studded" hoops....pricing is just so hard though..I wonder how well she did..