Renegade Craft Fair in Los Angeles this weekend

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DIYers, get your hand-bound idea books ready: An impressive lineup of more than 200 crafters from around the country will be converging on downtown L.A. for this weekend’s Renegade Craft Fair.

The event won’t be short on locals either. L.A.-based artists and vendors will be offering free workshops on everything from kite-building to button-making. Designer Tanya Aguiñiga will demonstrate her felting and knotting processes; the Urban Craft Center of Santa Monica will lead classes on yarn-spinning, Japanese gocco-printing and book-binding; and Sew L.A. will host demonstrations in needlecraft and sewing. The complete list of Renegade workshops is varied.

With the profile of craft fairs such as Felt Club and Unique L.A. on the rise, artists say they can be overwhelmed at such events (in a good way). When Orange County-based floral designer Chandra Abel attended the Renegade Craft Fair in San Francisco during the holidays, she sold out of her Planted terrariums, above left and at right, in just three hours. “I had to close down,” she says, laughing. “One of the best things about fairs like this is looking around and seeing all the products you would never think to make. It’s very inspiring.”

Abel’s striking succulent terrariums begin at $25 and go all the way to $200. “They will last six to eight months as long as you water them once or twice a month,” she says

The Renegade Craft Fair will be held from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. Saturday and Sunday at the Los Angeles State Historic Park, better known as the Cornfield, at 1245 N. Spring St., Los Angeles, near Chinatown. Admission is free.-- Lisa Boone

Photo credits, clockwise from top: Chandra Abel, Flock Home, Rae Dunn, Chandra Abel