(WBBM NEWSRADIO) – More than 300 handcraft vendors have set up shop through the weekend on the seventh floor of the Merchandise Mart.
The One of a Kind Spring Show features artists, many of them local, who are selling paintings, framed pictures, custom jewelry, ceramics, clothing, hats, shoes and more.
Among the creators are Valerie Mazza of Streeterval Art. The Streeterville resident makes paintings of her neighborhood.
“I make vibrant art, using a lot of tools that are unconventional,” she said Friday. “Palette knives, masonry tools, doing a lot of layers. I do use paint brushes as well, here and there.”
Among the vendors was Dani Zuchovicki, who’s with local small business incubator The Hatchery. The Hatchery has been showcasing a dozen of their food vendors at the Mart.
“Shehed Bakery, and they’re doing Iranian baked goods,” Zuchovicki said. “We have VietFive that’s doing amazing Vietnamese coffee and featuring robusta beans. We have FH Jerk, and they’re doing jerk sauces, and we have a variety of other vendors that are producing so many great things.”
Roscoe Village has been represented at the expo thanks to Joycoast. Jordan Foster, with the store, said they design and machine watches, sunglasses, rings and other trinkets.
“Made out of all-natural wood,” Foster said. “Our initiative is sustainability, so with every product made out of wood.”
Joycoast mainly sources its wood from Africa and South America, and Foster said 10 trees are planted back into those communities every time Joycoast makes a sale.
One-of-a-kind makers from across the country also made their way to the Mart, including a Brooklyn-based artist Raoul Calleja.
“I take pictures of sewer covers around the world, and I put them on different items such as doormats, coasters and trivets,” Calleja said. “Intrigued by the grittiness of some of them and then the prettiness of some of them.”
Nick Hall, with Whiskertin Crafted Light, said they make handmade lamps at their Akron, Ohio, store.
“We’ll turn anything you can dream of into a lamp. I mean, we got our own ideas that we’re creating; we’ve done the skateboards, the roller skates, we’ll turn a fan into a light — literally anything you can think of. You can dream it, we’ll light it.”
Even the bulbs vary in many shapes and sizes.
“We do some LED, Edison-style bulbs. Most of them are all incandescent. We like the incandescents because there’s a warmer glow, they have a more intricate filament [and] just really change the whole vibe of a room.”
The vendors will remain on the seventh floor of the Mart through Sunday.
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