A Crafted Gem in San Pedro

 

Being the inquisitive crafter that I am, I had to make a trip to check out Crafted at the Port of Los Angeles (110 E. 22nd Street, San Pedro) and enjoy this unique new indoor marketplace.  I took my 15 year old god daughter along with me to see if Crafted was "cool" enough for her.  Thankfully, it was, and we had a really fun afternoon there.

First off, as you approach you will see that the building is huge, you walk in and see its clearly been well thought out.  The booth space areas are separated by wood paneling and overall look classy and well constructed -- the signage for each booth is uniform in size.  In each booth is a vendor (who is likely creating something!) and all of their wares.  The goods sold in the booths varied from jewelry, to purses and clothing, to cookies and my favorite - paper crafts!  The best words I can use to explain Crafted are that it's a place where you can buy anything handmade and the products are hip and chic.  Those is the craft community will understand the explanation that Crafted is basically "Etsy in Real Life". 

Here, me and my god daughter Belen get a little goofy with Mustache Sugar Cookies from Parchment (Space A201).  The cookies were delicious and the owner's boyfriend was kind enough to oblige Belen with a photo! 

We also enjoyed the food trucks out in the courtyard area!  Since it was a hot day we had some iced drinks from the Perk Up Truck and shared a savory crepe from the Crepe'n Around Truck.

We ended the day with the very talented Jennifer Priest (below, pictured with Belen) who has 2 booths at Crafted!  She has her paper craft company Hydrangea Hippo (Space A120) and a booth entitled "Curated" (Space A140) where she includes other crafted wares such as fabric purses, bracelets and illuminated signs.  She also has a Make 'n Take counter set up for visitors to experiment with selected craft projects!  Jennifer is such an inspiration to me and I was glad we were able to visit and speak with her. 

Two other fun booths we visited were the Dogwood & Poppy (Space A121) and Make.Shop.Live. (Space A200).  Here is Amy Steelman (below) the owner of Dogwood & Poppy - crafting jewelry; Amy is from Riverside too and I met her initially at the Sew Funky Marketplace over a year ago!  The Make.Shop.Live. space was a upcycler's dream with cute wallets and address books made entirely of recycled items!  The owner of this space is KC and she was so nice to speak to about crafting.

So, I hope I have convinced you to make the trip (for us it was a trek and we did battle the traffic!) to Crafted.  Like us, I know you will have a blast and really enjoy the chance to speak to people who are passionate about their crafts and handmade goodies. 

Happy Scrapping (and anything DIY/handmade)!!!

- Rina