For crafters wanting to avoid big box stores, some local shops have opened in recent years to fill craft needs in economical and environmentally friendly ways.
“A lot of the thrift stores … they just don't have a lot of craft items,” Jonna Ivin-Patton said. “They don't know what to do with it. It can be overwhelming, but we'll take all of that stuff, we'll sort through everything. We'll make sure everything works and it's in good condition. … For that reason alone, I feel like we're definitely filling a space.”
Ivin-Patton opened ReCreate, an arts supply and crafts thrift store, in August.
“This is a place where anybody who just loves to make things can come, feel at home here, be comfortable, look around,” Ivin-Patton said.
ReCreate is a donations-based craft store. Have a surplus of supplies after you finished a project? Donate it to the store and they’ll find a new home for it.
The store donates a portion of its earnings to Always and Forever, a local no-kill animal shelter.
““The community's just been great,” Ivin Patton said. “They have supported us right from the beginning. …We've given, I think, $3,600 to Always and Forever in five months.”
If your craft interests are more niche and yarn-based, Coast-to-Coast Yarn Company fills the need in Revolutsia. Erin Bartel opened the store almost two years ago after growing her business online. Bartel dyes the yarn, and she puts a lot of thought into the colors that she uses.
“If I do a collection, I'll choose a theme for the whole overarching collection,” Bartel said.
A recent soup-themed collection included Pea Soup, Hearty Stew and Crusty Loaf.
“It's fun to connect the colors with a specific mood or an idea that people can adopt,” she said.
Bartel’s shop is lined with skeins of yarn in vibrant colors, also known as colorways, and they all come attached with charming labels – things like “Suspicious Wizard,” “Is She a Witch?” and “My First Celebrity Crush Was an Anthropomorphic Fox,” which she says is a reference to Disney’s “Robin Hood.”
“So many times it's the color (that) grabs your attention, but then the name really sells it.”
Coast-to-Coast offers “open stitch” hours where crafters can work on projects together. Bartel said it's a great way to meet like-minded people.
“It's not weird at all to come and test the waters, sit there quietly and kind of observe the dynamic. If you want, you can jump right in,” she said. “People are so friendly and so welcoming that it's just a very low pressure social environment, which is just the style that I appreciate.”
Bartel said one of the benefits of opening a storefront is the circle she has been able to build around the hobby.
“The community that's developed around it has been incredible, and now I can't even imagine not having this shop in this community that's been so central to it,” Bartel said.
