Great Lakes Green Pages

I have been waiting to see the Bizarre Bazaar this year. I love the idea of buying unique gifts for the holidays. I like quirky stuff. I like supporting artists. I like contributing to the local economy. The answer to meeting all my likes? Go to Bizarre Bazaar! Located in the 78th St Studios, at 1300 W 78th St, this show rocks!

A good crowd at Bizarre Bazaar

The space is raw, unfinished warehouse. Set up in rows are table after table of crafts. But when I say crafts, I don’t mean hand knitted tea cozies, or grandma’s toilet cover that looks like a clown. These are truly great gifts, some so inventive that they blew my mind! I really liked the items that are a complete reuse. I saw purses made from pull tabs (quite chic), shopping bags made from crocheted plastic grocery bags, old ties made into new clothing, and maybe my favorite was the capri sun purse. These are made by Contrive. I like them because I thought they were super inventive and can you really recycle a Capri Sun package any other way?

The Capri Sun purse

There were jewelry vendors (naturally), but there was cool jewelry made from stained glass, highly polished bits of wood, even old bottle caps and game pieces. Even my favorite potter (Gina DiSantis) had some necklaces made from her signature pottery shards.

awesome soaps from sunstone

Be sure to check out the Sunstone Soap table. Wonderfully scented soaps like these are usually too expensive for my blood, but these were a steal! what a wonderful way to start your day, by lathering up with these natural soaps and enveloping yourself in the exotic scent of lemongrass or ginger and eucalyptus. They use no animal fats, chemicals or petroleum, so you can feel as good on the inside as these soaps make you feel outside.

Don’t miss the hand sewn aprons, bags, and other goodies for the clothes horse on you list. One of my favorite was Without A Pulse. This was some cool one of a kind stuff! Check out the hoodie on their website! They had leg warmers with little wings, that will make any girl’s eyes sparkle on Christmas morning.

Winged Leg warmers from Without A Pulse

Speaking of clothing, if you like T-Shirts, this is the place to be. Hand created and silk screen printed t-shirts abound. There were unique illustrations and retro styles. As I stood in front of one busy booth, I overheard someone say, “I LOVE Cleveland.” Me too, I thought as I perused the selection from CLE CLOTHING CO. Tagged as Cleveland’s raddest t-shirt shop, I was thrilled to see so much Cleveland love, in so many designs! There were, of course Browns and Cavs shirts, but the indie Cleveland skull was my favorite!

If you are a lover of art illustrations, you will find plenty of choices here as well. Look for Emily Dove’s work. It had a charm and beauty that was fresh and intriguing. I also loved the handcrafted toys and kids items. One special child on our list is getting a gift from Caseybots. Enough said, I don’t want to spoil the surprise.

While you are here, don’t skip out without visiting the eco art studio on the 3rd floor. If you haven’t been to Tregoning & Co, (just around the corner in the same building) stop in and see the work of local artist Andrew Reach. It is truly fantastic!

Remember-Bizarre Bazaar is this weekend only, so get off your butt and get some great gifts! They wrap gifts, too, so do all the holiday work in one spot!

Tags: Cleveland arts, Events, Go Green

This entry was posted on Saturday, December 13th, 2008 at 4:16 pm and is filed under Arts & Culture, Cleveland, Green. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.