Renegade inspiration

Bracelets made out of old bicycle tires. “WTFWJD” bumper stickers. Musical hair. Old books with the middle carved out, the way you’d sneak a gun into a jail, but with the shape of an iphone carved into it to create a clever storage and carrying device for your iPhone.

These were few of the many wonderfully innovative items being displayed and sold at the Renegade Craft Fair on Division Street over the weekend. Renegade is based in Chicago and is also held "in urban epicenters of creative indie-entrepreneurship."

In Chicago, the entire fair is only a few blocks long but the vast amount of creative thinking they cram into several dozen small booths would put most other fairs to shame.

The items for sale go from playful to profane, beautifully crafted to simple but ingenious. And many just plain fun and smile-inducing, like the bookmarks made out of old book spines.

Beyond the items, the way they’re displayed and the way the booths are set-up are also given thought and made to feel different and a little special. Not your standard art-fair-in-a-mall exhibition.

If you’re even the slightest bit interested in being inspired, put it on your calendar now for next September. See how people are conjuring up fantastic things from old skateboards, books, bicycle parts. Putting the right sides of their brains to work and having a pretty gosh darn good time.

And if you want to feed your physical curiosity, try the brown rice sliders from Mana food bar. Tasty!