Help support a local artist at unusual rummage sale

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Every month 40 to 50 artists congregate at The Crocodile Cafe, not for a packed, jiving evening but on a Sunday morning to sell their handmade creations.

"It's a total hipster parade," said Erica Gordon who sells her handmade belts and buckles at I Heart Rummage. "It would be like the Fremont Market but smaller, smokier, darker and only with handmade work."

The event runs from 12-4 p.m. at The Crocodile Cafe, 2200 Second 2nd Ave. in Seattle. Admission is free (www.iheartrummage.com).

Anything from paintings to clothing is acceptable merchandise, so long as it's not something you can get at the mall. Each vendor pays $20 for a space and the money goes back into the event, funding another month of fun, organizers say.

"With 'rummage,' typically you're thinking something maybe held at a church, something where grannies can clean out their attic and sell little trinkets," said Matthew Parker, co-curator of I Heart Rummage for about two years. "But the irony is that it has nothing to do with church, it has nothing to do with grannies, it has everything to do with edgy new art and fashion."

He sold reproductions of his paintings when I Heart Rummage began in 2001. Now he and co-curator Sam Trout have taken over organizing the event and a big chunk of the Capitol Hill Block Party, which is July 24-25 along East Pine Street. Trout still sells his paintings and clothing during the sale.

The two are expanding the public-market experience by tossing in brunch and a little Bloody Mary mix. The Croc has a bar ready to serve patrons during their alternative shopping experience. A disc jockey will be enlivening Sunday's I Heart Rummage as well.

"That means that you can go out Saturday night and you can roll into Rummage on Sunday morning and get some brunch and get a drink and see what the kids are making in Seattle," said Parker. "That's kind of what we've always been associated with: hangover shopping."

— Jennifer Lloyd
 

IF YOU GO

I Heart Rummage, Sunday, 12-4 p.m. The Crocodile Cafe, 2200 Second Ave., Seattle, free admission. www.iheartrummage.com