Eco Craft Hunting At Festivals

This weekend is the biggest festival of the year in Asheville NC – which normally would frighten me since there are huge crowds, bad music, and freaky combinations of food smells wafting about these events. This year I decided to go on a treasure hunt, specifically a green crafting hunt! It turned out that 1/3 of the booths were representing environmental causes from biodiesel, recycling, petitioning to save trees, to the ever alluring eco minded crafts. It is totally rad that the world is catching the green fever.

Now you can take a virtual walk with me through a few of my favorite festival crafts…

It never ceases to amaze my inner child when I see someone has taken funked out metal parts and welds them together to make whimsical creatures. This flying bird monster & friends looks like it all began with a tiny BBQ propane tank.

In the same booth as the flying spaghetti monster I discovered these gorgeous boxes made from Elephant Poo. You heard me right, this stationary box set is handcrafted from dried elephant dung and then the pulp is used to make paper products for writing, drawing and gifts. I swear it has no smell what-so-ever and actually is so attractive you want to keep touching it.

Next my festival companion and I were stopped by some ladies at a Recycle booth who coerced us into a quick survey of our recycling habits and lifestyle. There were no crafting questions, but they did want to know about church, TV, video game, and outdoors habits. Hmm?

I got super-de-duper excited when I found this booth full of upcycled clothes! The designer More Then Mammal also had a table full of second hand clothes, maybe for those who got inspired by her romantic designs. She should offer classes on this, because her garments were so creative and borderline outrageous.

I saw alot in the way of handmade jewelry, too much honestly, to really seek out the most eco fab. I found these by SIS Designs to be the most stunning because it was obvious natural stone was used.

I know the paintings below may not be museum quality but what got me humming about these is they are done with henna. You know the crushed up leaves you can dye your hair, clothes, and skin with. This opens a whole new world of natural painting here, it appears henna could easily be used for monochromatic watercolor paintings! Yes, a major score in my search for natural painting supplies.

Of course, upcycling fabric is not just for clothing and these vibrant purses are hard proof. Check out the genius idea of using a men’s necktie for the purse straps. Brilliant!

Last but certainly not least is handmade soaps. A must have craft at any festival, and these were not only a vibrant rainbow of colors but all the soaps were full of botanicals and essential oils. Handmade with shea butter by Palmetto Soap Co.

I found that all this eco crafting was really encouraging about the direction the environmental movement is going!

Have you noticed the increase in green crafts & products in your town? At festivals?

16 thoughts on “Eco Craft Hunting At Festivals”

  1. Hey cchiovitti – I so totally wanted to go broke there, which is why i went with no cash in advance 🙂 – otherwise the upcycled clothes would have cast me under a spell which made me think I was rich! lol I did however end up in a second hand store that had red cowgirl boots and took credit cards…

  2. Hey cchiovitti – I so totally wanted to go broke there, which is why i went with no cash in advance 🙂 – otherwise the upcycled clothes would have cast me under a spell which made me think I was rich! lol I did however end up in a second hand store that had red cowgirl boots and took credit cards…

  3. Hey cchiovitti – I so totally wanted to go broke there, which is why i went with no cash in advance 🙂 – otherwise the upcycled clothes would have cast me under a spell which made me think I was rich! lol I did however end up in a second hand store that had red cowgirl boots and took credit cards…

  4. Hey Stephanie!
    The Asheville festival is called Belle Chere, and it runs friday through late sunday night every year – so you get a whole weekend of crazy festival fun. It starts out tame on friday at noon and by sunday I think the crowd wishes it was Mardi Gras. Come and join us next year!!!

  5. Hey Stephanie!
    The Asheville festival is called Belle Chere, and it runs friday through late sunday night every year – so you get a whole weekend of crazy festival fun. It starts out tame on friday at noon and by sunday I think the crowd wishes it was Mardi Gras. Come and join us next year!!!

  6. Hey Stephanie!
    The Asheville festival is called Belle Chere, and it runs friday through late sunday night every year – so you get a whole weekend of crazy festival fun. It starts out tame on friday at noon and by sunday I think the crowd wishes it was Mardi Gras. Come and join us next year!!!

  7. Hey Stephanie!
    The Asheville festival is called Belle Chere, and it runs friday through late sunday night every year – so you get a whole weekend of crazy festival fun. It starts out tame on friday at noon and by sunday I think the crowd wishes it was Mardi Gras. Come and join us next year!!!

Leave a Comment

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Scroll to Top