Indie artisan fair in Pasadena offers handmade help to wildfire victims ...Middle East

Jackalope, Pasadena’s popular “community meets artisan” event, will help Eaton Fire victims when it returns to the city this weekend.

Quirky, creative and wholly local, Jackalope Pasadena opens twice a year at Central Park, 275 S. Raymond Ave., in Old Pasadena. This year’s 10th celebration of all things handmade is dedicated to five Altadena artists who lost their homes, and businesses in the Eaton Fire as well as one business from Pacific Palisades.

Founder Sara Diederich, 40, of Thousand Oaks, said shoppers can find trendsetting indie goods, from clothes to jewelry, paper goods, home and garden décor, housewares, art, photography, and food.

Among the more than 200 artisans in the fair are six businesses whose proprietors lost their homes, and in most cases, their studios and inventory in the wildfires. They include Altadena Maid, Srimoyee Handmade, Pottery Daily, Antenna Studio and Altadena Studio Company. Nikki Rifkin, co-owner of Heartprint Press, lost her home in the Palisades fire and said the future of her business is uncertain.

“While Sara and I weren’t directly impacted, a member of our team is still displaced and can’t return to her home in Pasadena,” said co-founder Melissa Kohout, 36, of Minneapolis. “Pasadena’s been our home base since we started in 2015, and we have a big network, so we asked what can we do to help? Our community of makers and shoppers who come every year, we all just want to support each other.”

The two fashioned their initial response into a new nonprofit, too. Jackalope Gives’ first campaign ends on June 1, with a mission to help victims materially as well as offer a space for healing through creativity.

Diederich said the nonprofit’s goal doesn’t stray too far from Jackalope’s characteristic spirit “to creative a vibrant, inclusive community where arts thrive, families grow and communities rebuild.”

“Our team wanted to donate directly to our community that was affected and instead of sifting through numerous options on how and where to donate, we decided to get a list of our artists in our community who had lost their homes and donate to them directly,” Diederich said.

The nonprofit has since helped the artists get back on their feet, get new supplies, and continue to create.

“We’re so happy to be able to help them recover in any way we can,” she added.

A GoFundMe campaign has raised more than $11,000. People can also donate to win three baskets of handmade items valued at more than $600. Artists will create pieces of art live onsite at the Downtown Burbank Arts Festival on May 31 and June 1. Proceeds will benefit Jackalope Gives, too.

The new nonprofit will help communities in every city that hosts a Jackalope fair, Kohout said.

Diederich and Kohout founded Jackalope in 2015, arranging fairs in Pasadena and Denver before adding a Burbank stop in 2019 and Minneapolis in 2021.

Each fair showcases more than 150 local makers who focus on handmade artistry.

Kohout said she rarely does any shopping outside the Jackalope fairs.

“I just love supporting all the makers and I find everything from cool fashion to food and body care, you don’t know how creative people are until you see all the items,” she said. “It’s all so inspiring, getting to support them and seeing how cool and creative they are.”

A longtime Jackalope vendor, René Amy, 64, normally has more than a dozen varieties of his proprietary product, native-wildflower “seedbark” to help people dip their toes into growing native wildflowers, with each mix being for different locations and conditions. This year, because his stock burned in his Altadena home, Amy will have three: “Altadena Strong!” a mix of 16 different California-native inland wildflowers; “Palisades Strong!” a mix of 17 California-native coastal varieties, and “Monarch Strong!” a mix of two California-native milkweeds.

The mixes are part of Amy’s plan to donate 100 million wildflower seeds to the fire-impacted areas this fall, with each purchase helping meet that goal.

He will also offer “found art” from his Altadena property, melted, scorched, fused and forever-changed items, as he calls them. Each has been cleaned and coated with an acrylic urethane finish for safety.

“Each piece tells part of the story of the fire,” Amy said. “A lot of it just has an inherent beauty, and other pieces allow for social commentary or even humor.”

The melted rear hub from Amy’s super-custom recumbent tricycle, which he said he intended for a not-yet-planned around-the-world bicycling tour now includes one spoke. The artist titled it “Perhaps I Spoke Too Soon!”

The establishment of Jackalope Gives is not surprising to anyone who knows Diederich, Kohout and their team, admirers said.

“In a way, their kindness is kinda what one would expect, given who they are,” Amy said. “And the folks who come to the events are receptive to new ideas and it’s a great opportunity to educate folks, including kids. While it’s a huge amount of work to put it all together, especially this time around, these events are truly one of my happiest places.”

Jackalope Pasadena Indie Art Fair: If you go

When: 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday and Sunday, April 26 and 27

Where: Central Park, 275 S Raymond Ave. Pasadena, CA 91105

Admission: Free. The outdoor fair is for all ages and is handicapped accessible. Leashed pets are welcome.

For more information: Jackalopeartfair.com or 323-989-2278.

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