Plenty new to see at Pittsburgh’s 14th annual Handmade Arcade
WQED personality Rick Sebak, a Bethel Park High School graduate, and Handmade Arcade organizers welcome guests to the 2016 event. (Photo by Joey Kennedy)
Many of the Handmade Arcade offerings are unique to Pittsburgh. (Photo by Joey Kennedy)
Courtesy of Joey Kennedy
Youngsters enjoy the Hands-on Handmade Activity Area at Handmade Arcade.
Thanks to some folks’ creativity, holiday gifts of yesteryear can work again this season.
Consider Brad Yurkovich and the idea behind his Yurko Stitch Co.
“He does wallets and little bags made out of recycled baseball gloves. They’re beautiful, with the stitching and the brand names,” Jennifer Baron attested. “His stuff is amazing.”
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His handiwork will be among a wide array of similarly conceived and crafted products – we’ll call them “upcycled” – to be offered at the 14th annual Handmade Arcade: The Cutting Edge of Craft, for which Baron serves as director of marketing and outreach.
The free event is from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. Dec. 2 at Pittsburgh’s David L. Lawrence Convention Center.
“There’s plenty to see that’s new,” Baron, a Dormont resident and Mt. Lebanon High School graduate, said. “A lot of people will return year after year to see their favorite artists and buy their new products, but we also have a huge selection of brand-new vendors.”
An exclusive opportunity to shop one hour before the event opens to the public takes place from 10 to 11 a.m. Early Birdies will receive a “swag bag” stuffed with crafty goodies, coupons, colorful Hip Modern Soaps, limited-edition holiday cards designed by Jeff Brunner of Hey Beast Studio and more.
Early Birdie tickets going very quickly.! A limited number of $10 tickets are for sale at www.handmadearcade.com. Important note: $10 tickets will not include a swag bag.
Hands-on Handmade Activity Area
- T-shirt screen printing, Artists Image Resource and Pittsburgh Creative and Performing Arts High School
- Small Precious Objects secret gift exchange, City of Play
- Leatherworking, wood burning and macramé, Workshop PGH
- Virtual reality and origami, Father Ryan Arts Center
- Community Blooms, the Union Project
- Journal creations, BatCat Press
- Reuse-a-Palooza, Pittsburgh Public Schools, Gifted Center
- Frankentoys, Mt. Lebanon Public Library
- LED flowers, Assemble
- The Exquisite Corpse, The Ellis School
- Block-printed holiday cards, PopCraft
- Holiday decorations, Sarah Heinz House
- Mask making, Westmoreland Museum of American Art
- Copper pendant necklace making, Contemporary Craft
- Plastic water bottle flowers, Earth Girl
- Vinyl sticker creations, Prototype PGH
Event sponsors
- The Artsmiths of Pittsburgh
- NEXTpittsburgh
- WESA
- WYEP
- Port Authority
- Yelp Pittsburgh
- strawberryluna
- Work Hard Pittsburgh
- Pittsburgh Magazine
- Artist & Craftsman Supply
- Commonwealth Press
- Green Mountain Energy
- Kerf Case
- Matt’s Maker Space
- Monmade
- Modesto Studios
- Pittsburgh Center for Creative Reuse
- Una Biologicals
Of the 170-plus vendors this year, 66 are first-timers, representing considerable growth from the 30 participating in the initial Handmade Arcade, held in 2004 at Construction Junction in the East End. Several components are making their debut in 2017, including a Craft Corridor.
“This features 19 artists who have never been in a craft fair before. They’ve also never sold work in brick-and-mortar shops,” Baron explained. “We really wanted to get back to our grass-roots history and celebrate our DIY past, from when we were at Construction Junction, and the Craft Corridor is a way to embody that.”
Also debuting is the Youth Maker Alley, featuring high school students selling their original products. Handmade Arcade’s new Youth Maker Scholarship makes the opportunity possible, with recipients having completed a summer program by Startable Pittsburgh that teaches students entrepreneurship and maker skills.
Another 2017 addition to the proceedings is a framers’ market, presented by the Greater Pittsburgh Arts Council.
“What’s great is that for the past couple of years, they’ve been doing a framers’ market in their offices on the same day as Handmade Arcade, and we’ve been cross-promoting,” Baron said. “But we thought, why not bring them together and have it on-site?”
Tom Cascone of FrameHouse and Jask Gallery in Lawrenceville, who has been in the business for 45 years, will be on hand to teach the basics of framing and matting artwork.
Do-it-yourself opportunities abound at Handmade Arcade, with the Artsmiths of Pittsburgh in Mt. Lebanon sponsoring the popular Hands-on Handmade Activity Area for the second year in a row. Seventeen all-new activities will be available, including the intriguingly titled “Frankentoys” upcycling project presented by Mt. Lebanon Public Library.
Speaking of creative reuse, the chock-full-of-upcycled-items Pittsburgh Craft-O-Tron machine will be at Handmade Arcade, by way of Canonsburg crafter Lynne Kropinak.
The two-time recipient of the People’s Choice Award for Best Arts Event from the Greater Pittsburgh Arts Council is one of only a dozen such enterprises in the United States and Canada to be featured in the guide ”Shop Small This Holiday Season at These Local Maker’s Markets” on The Good Trade website.
“It’s all about ethical consumerism and ethical shopping,” Baron said about what the site has to offer. “It’s such an honor, because we’re in there with some really big ones.”
For more information about Handmade Arcade: The Cutting Edge of Craft, visit www.handmadearcade.com.