Verona and Plum Artists Participate in Handmade Arcade

Verona artist Emily Stimmel and Plum artist Jeanne Cherry will show off their crafts at this year's Handmade Arcade.

Handmade Arcade, Pittsburgh’s award-winning independent craft fair, returns on Saturday, Nov. 12, from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m., to the David L. Lawrence Convention Center in Pittsburgh.

Marking its 8th anniversary, the event will feature 156 innovative craft vendors from in and around Pittsburgh, across Pennsylvania and around the
country. Its largest show to date, Handmade Arcade will feature a diverse lineup of vendors from 17 different states, including artists traveling from as far as Seattle, Wash., Atlanta Ga., St. Augustine, Fla., and Chicago, Ill.

The event is known for its commitment to showcasing handmade, locally produced goods—many that integrate upcycled, recycled and eco-friendly materials and techniques.

In addition to being a vendor, Stimmel been the organizer of the show since 2009 and has been the volunteer coordinator since this year's spring show.

Crafting under the name "disCARDS," since about 2005 or 2006, Stimmel primarily designs note cards with recycled images from discarded books—children's books, cookbooks, yearbooks, craft instruction manuals and more. She also makes stickers from similar imagery, some vintage-inspired jewelry and hair accessories, and button "flowers."

At the event, she will be selling supply kits with assorted papers and images.

Cherry, who lives in Holiday Park and launched "juNxtaposition" in 2005, handcrafts goods from repurposed found items.

She is dedicated to creating functional art from yesterday’s leftovers, thus keeping anything useful out of our ever overflowing landfills. She creates many one-of-a-kind items with a unique "juxtaposition" of the old and the new. While utilizing items for purposes other than that for which they were intended, she is combining her creative energy, unique prospective and others' discarded junk to design eco-friendly goods that are hip and trendy while being appealing and useful to society.

Some of her items include typewriter key pendants and bracelets; spoon pendants; silverware handle pendants; word matted prints on vintage dictionary pages; and more.

At Handmade Arcade, shoppers will find cleverly designed products such as felt wallets; jewelry made from found objects; pillows constructed from vintage t-shirts; letter-pressed paper goods; eclectic housewares, limited edition posters; organic bath and body products; upcycled children’s clothing; and much more.

In addition, Handmade Arcade will also feature music by DJs David Pohl and Bad Seed, and snacks and refreshments for sale on site. Sponsors of Handmade Arcade include Etsy, Port Authority, Pop City Media, and the Society for Contemporary Craft.

There is no cost to attend Handmade Arcade, but an Early Birdie pass can be purchased for $15 for anyone wishing to attend the event one hour before it is open to the public. The Early Birdie preview takes place from 10 to 11 a.m. Passes may be purchased for at www.handmadearcade.com or at Wild Card, located at 4209 Butler St. in Lawrenceville. Only 200 Early Birdie passes will be sold.

For more information about Handmade Arcade, visit the official website, its Twitter page or Facebook.