Crafts go renegade

By Michèle De Meglio

The renegades are coming — and they’re bringing crafts!

The Renegade Craft Fair will rock McCarren Park on June 5 and 6, when 300 artists display and sell their handmade unique designs.

“There’s something for everybody,” said Sue Daly, the event’s organizer. “You’ll find a lot of housewares, clothing and ceramics. A lot of the stuff is one of a kind.”

That’s a great way to describe Greenpoint resident Daina Platais’ ceramics collection. Her “bread and butter” piece is a set of salt and pepper shakers shaped like an avocado.

“Everybody loves them,” Platais said. “I’ve been making them for three years now and they’re really a hit.”

Speaking of best-selling designs, Tamara Stoddard’s Brooklyn Craft line is giving a fresh look to classic sock monkey dolls.

“They’re a new take on the old sock monkeys with the red mouth,” she said. “I’ve made an albino sock monkey, a skeleton with felt bones, and a pirate with a peg leg and eyepatch.”

Stoddard will share her booth at the Fair with Jill Davis, whose J Davis Studio produces delicate jewelry featuring tiny homes and trees.

“I love miniatures,” said Davis, a Clinton Hill resident. “I grew up in a house in Ohio and then I moved to New York where no one has a house, so this is my way of bringing a home with me.”

Renegade Craft Fair at McCarren Park [Bedford Avenue between N. 12th and Lorimer streets in Greenpoint, (773) 227-2707], June 5-6, 11 am–7 pm. For info, visit www.renegadecraft.com.