Art & Craft shopping in Chicago
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A
Beadniks
Incense envelops you at the door, and you know right away you’re in for a hippie treat. Mounds of worldly baubles rise up from the tables. African trade beads and Thai silver-dipped beads? Got ’em. Bright-hued stone beads, ceramic beads, glass beads? All present. For $3 the kindly staff will help you string your choices into a necklace. Or take a workshop (two to three hours, $20 to $60) and learn to wield the pliers yourself; they take place most evenings throughout the week. The website has the schedule.
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B
Loopy Yarns
This isn’t your grandma’s knitting shop. Loopy Yarns caters mostly to students from the nearby Art Institute, so the books, patterns, needles, hooks and designer yarns are about as hip as they come. Beginners can learn to knit or crochet in a workshop (two hours, $70 to $90, materials included), while advanced practitioners can learn more complex techniques while making a fair-isle hat or flip-top mittens (two hours, $20 to $60, materials not included). Check the website for the schedule.
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C
Wolfbait & B-Girls
Old ironing boards serve as display tables; tape measures, scissors and other designers’ tools hang from vintage hooks. You get that crafting feeling as soon as you walk in, and indeed, Wolfbait & B-girls both sells the wares (tops, dresses, handbags and jewelry) of local indie designers and serves as a working studio for them. Take a fabric book-binding workshop (two hours, $30, materials and drinks included), and who knows? Maybe your stuff will be for sale soon, too.
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D
Renegade Handmade
This store sprung up out of a popular local craft fair. Rather than just selling their goods for two days per year, participants thought it would be a swell idea to have an outlet to sell from year-round. Bravo! The reasonably priced merchandise veers toward mod, such as boho tops, graphic-print guitar straps, journals reconstructed from vintage hardback cookbooks and shadow puppets (why not, eh?).
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E
Illinois Artisans Shop
The best work of artisans from throughout the state is sold here, including ceramics, wine jugs, glassware, mobiles, toys, and glass and wood coaxed into jewelry. Prices verge on cheap. The enthusiastic staff will tell you all about the people who created the various pieces. The Illinois Art Gallery next door sells paintings and sculptures under the same arrangement.
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F
Gallery 37 Store
It’s a win-win proposition at this nonprofit entity: painters, sculptors and other artists get paid for creating their wares while teaching inner-city teens – who serve as apprentices – to do the same. Their artworks, including paintings, mosaic tables, puppets and carved-wood walking sticks, are sold in the gallery here. Profits return to the organization.
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G
ShopColumbia
This is Columbia College’s student store, where artists and designers in training learn how to market their wares. The shop carries original pieces spanning all media and disciplines: clothes, jewelry, prints, mugs, stationery and more. Proceeds help individual students earn income, and part goes toward student scholarships.
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H
Fourth World Artisans
This exotic bazaar provides local artisans, recent immigrants and small importers a market for their handicrafts, and assistance in learning entrepreneurial skills. Reasonably priced folk art, textiles, masks, musical instruments and jewelry from Vietnam, Ghana, Pakistan and other far-flung countries fill the shelves.
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I
Greenheart Shop
This nonprofit, ecofriendly, fair-trade store stocks chocolate from Ghana, banana-fiber stationery from Uganda, rubber soccer balls from Pakistan and organic cotton baby clothes from, well, Chicago. There’s much more, all part of the Center for Cultural Interchange’s project that ensures fair wages to artisans.
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J
Handmade Market
Held the second Saturday of the month at the Empty Bottle, this event showcases Chicago crafters who make funky glass pendants, knitted items, handbags, scarves, journals and greeting cards. The bar serves drinks throughout the event, for those who enjoy sipping while shopping.
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K
Andersonville Galleria
Ninety indie vendors sell their fair-trade and locally made artisan wares in mini-boutiques spread over three floors. Sweets, coffee, clothing, handbags, paintings, photography, jewelry – it’s a smorgasbord of cool, crafty goods in a community-oriented marketplace. Support the little guy!
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Mint
Mint’s teensy showroom displays handmade handbags, scented candles, jewelry, soaps, greeting cards and other crafty creations by Midwestern artists. Designers rotate in and out, so there’s always something new on the shelves.
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