5 handmade stops in Pittsburgh

Wanna submit your own 5 handmade stops in a county or town or region of PA?  Just send five links to nick@pacrafts.org. This one comes from Carrie Nardini with the Pittsburgh Craft Collective.

Pittsburgh is for crafters – and we have a long history of arts education with hubs for learning craft from the masters. These five stops highlight some opportunities for making and selling, learning and experiencing craft hands-on. Pittsburgher’s are a proud people and we can’t wait to share more with you in upcoming weeks.

1 – Centrally located in Pittsburgh’s Strip District you can find the Society for Contemporary Craft. The SCC offers exhibitions, a juried gallery shop filled with beautifully handcrafted items, classes in their studios and short “Try It” workshops where master artisans provide a taste of their craft in one session enabling participants walk away with a final product. The SCC focuses on cutting edge exhibitions and non-mainstream art. Walk right into their gallery while shopping in the “Strip”.

2 – In Pittsburgh’s Shadyside neighborhood the Pittsburgh Center for the Arts, founded in 1945, sits on the corner of Mellon Park. The PCA offers classes in a variety of medium including ceramics, photography, metals, and printmaking, holds a summer camp for kids, and features a gallery and juried shop among some of the buildings on their campus.

3 – Outside of the city about an hour away sits an almost hidden gem resource called Touchstone Center for Crafts.  This unique organization offers week and weekend long intensive classes for beginners and artists seeing to fine tune their skill set. The Touchstone experience includes camping on site or in dorms during each of the three seasons of instruction offered. If you didn’t have a chance to go to arts camp as a child, or want to relive the experience as an adult, the Appalachian Mountain retreat boasts 150 wooded acres with only 25 developed acres of the property. They even offer kids classes!

4 – Now that you’ve learned how to make your own craft, where would you sell it in the Pittsburgh area? Two hot spots include the new retail outlet Wildcard in Pittsburgh’s Lawrenceville neighborhood which has been enjoying an explosion in small locally owned business development, especially on its walkable mainstreet, Butler St. where Wildcard boasts all handmade wares with a focus on items produced by local artists and makers.

5 – And, the I Made It! Market, Pittsburgh’s nomadic indie crafts marketplace pops up 6-8 times a year throughout the city. The market will soon be celebrating it’s third birthday having held close to 20 events. I Made It! Market partners with arts, community and non-profit organizations to raise funds and awareness for the work they do to impact our communities as well as providing a venue for artists to sell their wares and expand their networks.  I Made It! Mine on Saturday, February 6 from 12 – 5pm at the Union Project in Pittsburgh’s Highland Park neighborhood

These five stops in Pittsburgh are just a taste of what the region offers for makers and lovers of all things handmade. We are looking forward to sharing more with you in weeks to come!