1. HANDMADE ARCADE
CONTACT: Jennifer Baron
Phone: 412.571.5499 • Mobile: 412.736.0343
press@handmadearcade.com
www.handmadearcade.com
NEWS RELEASE
HAN DMADE ARCADE AN NOU NCES
EXPAN DE D TWO-DAY EVE NT
Pittsburgh’s premier indie craft fair adds interactive workshops and
new food vendors, welcomes crafters from around the globe
DATES: Saturday, November 10, 11:00 a.m. – 7:00 p.m.
and Sunday, November 11, 11:00 a.m. – 5:00 p.m.
LOCATION: Construction Junction, 214 North Lexington Street
(Point Breeze)
FREE and open to the public, FREE parking
Pittsburgh, PA, September 2007—Unusual Crafts for Unusual Times! Where can you find
cleverly constructed wares such as duct tape wallets, jewelry made from typewriter keys and
guitar picks, and pillows constructed from vintage T-shirts? Only at HANDMADE ARCADE,
Pittsburgh’s largest indie craft fair — the most creative place to jumpstart your holiday
shopping season.
Handmade Arcade, Pittsburgh’s award-winning indie craft fair, is celebrating its fourth anniversary
with a newly expanded TWO-DAY event on November 10 and 11. For three years, Handmade
Arcade has attracted independent crafters and avid shoppers from Pittsburgh, the Ohio Valley,
the East Coast, and the Midwest, to a retail experience unlike any other in the region.
After drawing more than 5,000 shoppers in 2006, Handmade Arcade is pleased to announce a
newly expanded event, featuring 86 vendors, one-of-a-kind merchandise, interactive artmaking
workshops, and food and beverage vendors.
Handmade Arcade will take place on Saturday November 10, from 11:00 a.m. until 7:00
p.m. AND Sunday, November 11, from 11:00 a.m. until 5:00 p.m. at Construction Junction,
located at 214 North Lexington Street, in Point Breeze.
A one-of-a-kind shopping experience, Handmade Arcade features affordable, hand-constructed
wares from some of the country’s most cutting-edge and talented crafters. Looking for wacky
stocking stuffers or the perfect wedding gift for that creative couple? At Handmade Arcade,
shoppers will discover homespun wares and unique items, such as scary and sweet stuffed
creatures, knitted accessories, felted fashions, hand bound books, handspun yarns, provocative
’zines, and loads more.

2. For its 2007 event, Handmade Arcade received more than 200 applications from across the
western Pennsylvania region, as well as from New York City, Ohio, New Jersey, Illinois, North
Carolina, Maryland, Tennessee, New Hampshire, Arizona, Canada, and even Japan. Handmade
Arcade vendors will sell everything from knitted and duct tape iPod cozies to reconstructed t-shirts
to hand printed rock concert posters.
WHAT’S N EW TH IS YEAR!
Part shopping bonanza, part craft showcase, Handmade Arcade is a celebration of the
make-it-yourself aesthetic, as well as one of the year’s must-do events. New this year are
hands-on screen-printing activities with Artists Image Resource, “make and take” craft projects by
Pat Catan's and Knit One yarn dying. Highlights will also include local DJ Pete Spynda of PAN-
DEMIC, and spandex-meets-modern-dance performers Jazzercize-Troop Radical PGH.
Food vendors will include many of Pittsburgh’s favorite eateries, such as Gypsy Café, Franktuary
and Coca Café, as well cupcakes from Coco’s, coffee from Starbucks, and vegan baked goods
by My Goodies Bakery. In addition, shoppers can peruse Handmade Arcade’s merchandise table
featuring buttons, posters, and t-shirts emblazoned with the organization’s distinct logo.
Admission to Handmade Arcade is free, and the event is open to the public. Free parking is
available. The first 100 shoppers each day will receive a Handmade Arcade gift bag stuffed with
crafty goodness!
ABOUT HAN DMADE ARCADE
When Handmade Arcade was founded in 2003, there were no events in the Pittsburgh region that
catered to the burgeoning DIY craft community, so the group’s founders were inspired to organize
a fair of Pittsburgh’s own that taps into this national movement and provides a welcoming, fresh
venue for artists and shoppers alike. Handmade Arcade’s recent growth has coincided with the
national resurgence of crafting, as a new generation of people are reclaiming craft materials and
methods and putting a contemporary spin on them. Handmade Arcade is run by a group of
crafty and creative Pittsburghers who have helped to shape and bolster Pittsburgh’s indie craft
scene. Handmade Arcade 2007 is sponsored by Scion and Pittsburgh City Paper.
In May 2007, Handmade Arcade received The People’s Choice Award for Best Arts Event,
presented by the Greater Pittsburgh Arts Council. The group recently hosted the country’s
first-ever Craft Congress, which brought 50 leaders of the DIY/indie craft movement from across
the U.S. and overseas to Pittsburgh for a weekend of networking and brainstorming. The
successful event, which was supported by a grant from The Sprout Fund, attracted attention
from The New York Times, Salon, Venus Magazine, and National Public Radio.
Tapping into a vibrant subculture of young, innovative crafters who bring an artistic, and often
subversive, sensibility to traditional crafting, Handmade Arcade provides Pittsburgh-based crafters
with an alternative to high-end, fine arts fairs and more traditional craft fairs, while connecting the
city to a thriving craft culture that is sweeping the nation from Brooklyn to San Francisco.
Handmade Arcade has made sure that Pittsburgh remains on this significant cultural map.
Creative, motivated individuals come to Handmade Arcade to build an audience for their
handmade products, and they leave seeing Pittsburgh in a new, positive light.

3. TH E DIY CRAFT M OVE M E NT
The DIY craft movement brings together artists with a passion for inventiveness and creativity, a
love of found and recycled materials, and a spirit of the handmade that is often lacking in today’s
primarily mass-produced, consumer-based culture. Often young women in their 20’s and 30’s,
indie crafters delight in combining retro images and materials with traditional craft techniques to
produce practical items with an off-kilter aesthetic.
Defined by its eclecticism and inventiveness, the indie craft movement is known for producing
homespun wares that are shaped by an eye for collecting, reinterpreting and repurposing. Knitting
with Kool-Aid dyed wool is the new craft; using cocktail umbrellas to make lampshades is the new
craft; transforming album covers into purses is the new craft.
Embracing a sense of shared community and practices, the new craft subculture is connected
through Internet forums, such as Etsy.com, Craftster.org and GetCrafty.com, groups like Craft
Mafia and Church of Craft, and large craft fairs, including Bizarre Bazaar in Boston, Renegade
Craft Fair in Brooklyn and Chicago, Maker Faire in San Francisco, and Crafty Bastards in
Washington, D.C.
Designers working within the new craft subculture travel regularly to national fairs to sell their
wares, develop an audience and network with international crafters and boutique owners. Fueled
by Internet marketing and networking, the number of national indie craft fairs like Handmade
Arcade has tripled in recent years. In Pittsburgh, Handmade Arcade provides opportunities that
have strengthened the indie craft community, while at the same time connecting the work of local
crafters to fairs, shops and organizations across the U.S. Many have come to view crafting as
either their primary or secondary business, with popular online craft marketplaces like New York
City-based Etsy.com, and indie craft fairs like Handmade Arcade, serving as central outlet for
selling and sharing handmade merchandise.
ABOUT TH E VE N U E
Construction Junction (CJ) is Pittsburgh's only nonprofit building material reuse retailer. Specializing
in used and surplus building materials, CJ supports and promotes conservation, and is committed
to environmental stewardship and waste prevention. Located in Point Breeze, CJ's retail store
is a spacious and fun place to shop, featuring more than 30,000 square feet of kitchen
cabinets, doors, bathroom fixtures, lumber, windows, hardware and much more. Supported
by Pennsylvania Resources Council, the state's oldest grassroots environmental organization,
CJ encourages donation of unwanted building materials, such as wood, brick, concrete, metal,
and cardboard.
# # #
Handmade Arcade, an annual craft fair, exists to provide crafters working outside of the
mainstream/fine arts craft sector a venue to sell their wares and build a community in Pittsburgh.
Handmade Arcade facilitates opportunities provided through crafting, particularly crafts as an
avenue for accessible artistic expression and as an opportunity for individuals to establish
independently owned, home-based businesses. Handmade Arcade regularly seeks out new
strategies to educate and empower independent crafters to be successful on their own terms.

4. HANDMADE ARCADE
2006 GALLE RY