Bazaar Bizarre began in 2001 in the Boston-area as a hodge-podge of friends and acquaintances cobbling together their handcrafted DIY wares to sell and staging an offbeat entertainment extravaganza. In 2004 the Bazaar Bizarre spread to Los Angeles and Cleveland and in 2006 Make took us under their wing to include the Bazaar Bizarre as part of the Maker Faire in the San Francisco-area every spring. The Bazaars in Boston, Cleveland, Los Angeles and San Francisco happen every year during peak holiday shopping season in December.

All the Bazaars couldn't happen without the help and support from numerous organizers and volunteers--too many to mention. Some of the organizers:

Simone Alpen - Boston & San Francisco BB - Simone chronicles her crafty adventures on her site, chick-a-dee. She's also co-owner of Greenward, an eco-modern goods store in Cambridge, MA.

Emily Arkin - Boston BB - Scholarly publishing type by day, musician/animator/playing card designer/knitter/dj by night, Emily is affiliated with: The Operators (guitar), The Tricunx (baritone guitar), and Shepherdess (electric violin for these indie rock bands) ; Compound 440R and Handstand Command (a founding member of these musical collectives) ; and Somerville Arts Council (chairman of the board of this active city agency). She's a founding member of the Boston Bazaar Bizarre and co-owner of Magpie.

Jamie Chan - San Francisco BB - Jamie is a science educator and fiber artist, native to the San Francisco Bay Area. Her penchant for everything handmade stems from being raised by her award winning quilter mother and attending art school from the age of 15. She is also an active leader in the San Francisco Craft Mafia and teaches art through her local community centers. You can see her work at her web shop--Mary Jane's Attic--where she offers handmade art, yarn and fiber arts supplies.

Greg Der Ananian - Los Angeles BB and BB Founder - After zigzagging the nation with his band Prettypony delighting audiences at nightclubs, Greg Der Ananian started Bazaar Bizarre in 2001. Years later, he lives in LA and even wrote a book--Bazaar Bizarre: Not Your Granny's Craft Book.

Alison Gordon - Boston & San Francisco BB - Striving to make cute, affordable accessories, Suzy Coady's endearing drawings and Alison Gordon's sewing skills teamed up to create Wonderland Q.

Leah Kramer - Boston & San Francisco BB - Leah, a computer programmer and self-proclaimed craft junkie, is the force behind Craftster.org. Leah has been crafting ever since she could hold a pair of safety scissors. Somewhere along the lines she thinks she inhaled too much glue because now she is attracted to crafts that are irreverent, ironic, kitschy, or cleverly eco-friendly. She's also co-owner of Magpie.

Dave McMahon - Boston BB - Dave is the primary BB graphix whiz. He's also one of the founder of Magpie, a Somerville, MA boutique specializing in hip, handmade goods.

Shannon Okey - Cleveland BB - Shannon writes, knits, spins yarn, runs several small businesses including anezka handmade and Knitgrrl. She's also the author of several books including Spin to Knit and Felt Frenzy: 26 Projects For All Forms of Felting and a columnist for knit.1 magazine.

Stacie Slotnick - Boston BB - Since September of 2002, Stacie has organized the independent curatorial platform known as The Critique of Pure Reason. She was voted "Best DIY Promoter" in the Boston Phoenix's 2005 and 2006 Readers' Poll.

A quote from Bazaar Bizarre founder and LA Bazaar Bizarre honcho, Greg Der Ananian:
"I was but a wee flaming homosexual when my mother wisely took me under her wing and taught me the ladylike skills of knitting and cross-stitch... and so began my love affair with crafts. Working with my hands made me feel good in a Marxist sort of way, and I learned at an early age that being able to make something from nothing was extremely rewarding. As I got older, my interest in crafts waned because the spectrum of traditional craft imagery didn’t represent me.

Dissatisfied with stencils of country ducks and painted wooden slices of watermelon, I decided to use what I’d learned as a child to express my own interests. To my surprise and delight, a lot of my friends were experiencing the same kind of personal renaissance. How exactly to share these objets de craft was a project upon which we embarked. The result? Bazaar Bizarre.

Crafts have long been denigrated as a feminized form of expression, but Bazaar Bizarre represents an impulse to re-value the abilities our mothers and grandmothers taught us, while making them our own. It’s as much about tradition as it is about change.

The Bazaar Bizarre began in 2001 in the Boston-area as a hodge-podge of friends and acquaintances cobbling together their handcrafted DIY wares to sell and staging an offbeat entertainment extravaganza."

- Greg Der Ananian
Bazaar Bizarre