Founded in 2006, Crafty Wonderland is now the city’s biggest arts and crafts market, drawing hundreds of vendors and tens of thousands of visitors to the (nice and dry) Oregon Convention Center in Northeast Portland. The twice-yearly market returns in early December and May (just in time for holiday shopping and Mother’s Day, respectively).
Portland jewelry artists Torie Nguyen and Cathy Zwicker were tired of craft fairs and holiday markets getting rained out, so they created Crafty Wonderland, an indoor marketplace to support PDX makers and artists. “We decided to start it before someone else did,” Nguyen said. Crafty Wonderland began as a “pure DIY” production with 40 vendors and a couple hundred shoppers and has since grown into an extravaganza of creativity. “It totally blows our minds that the little show we started in 2006 has transformed into what it is today,” Zwicker said.
At Crafty Wonderland’s markets, you can find products like illustrated portraits of punk rock cats and hipster triceratopses, pins, patches and prints, and elemental brass and copper metalwork combined with geodes and gemstones. (That’s not to mention a slew of clever t-shirts, unique stationery, funky pet accessories, small-batch mustards and nut butters, craft spirits, natural soaps, terrariums and more.) Nguyen and Zwicker rotate the artists at each market — so even if you’ve attended a previous Crafty Wonderland, you’ll always find something new.