Photo/Video Recap

‘Tis the season for holiday gift shopping. And while many crowded the malls across town last Friday and Saturday, others flocked to Art vs. Craft at the Harley-Davidson Museum or patronized local small businesses observing Small Business Saturday.

Art vs. Craft, an indie craft fair in its ninth year, delivered dozens of venders with a wide selection of hand crafted items. Like years prior, there were creative items crafted from recycled objects: jewelry made of shards from broken dishes, mittens made from old jeans, journals with old book covers, metal bottle openers crafted from recycled garage door cables, etc. There was fashion apparel and accessories from local artists and designers. Orchard Street Press provided apparel to show off your city and state pride. Milwaukee Beer Soap provided a variety of scented hygienic products.

Small businesses around the city put up signs and balloons welcoming shoppers. Broadway Paper saw a steady flow of people visiting their store in the Historic Third Ward. Across the street, Splash Studio: A Painting Bar offered a welcoming space for people of different artistic skills to come and paint, or take group painting classes while enjoying drinks served from the bar. The downtown Urban Milwaukee Store was stocked with all things Milwaukee – postcards, books, a board game, paintings, photography – and provided plenty of great holiday gift ideas. The Art Bar in Riverwest had literally hundreds of art pieces, each eight square-inches or smaller, on display and for sale; each of them very affordable and unique.

TCD was there to take in the sights of this year’s Art vs. Craft and Small Business Saturday. See the photo slideshow and video embedded below.

You can also see the photos at the TCD flickr page and the video at TCD’s YouTube Channel.

Video by Val Danculovich and Breanne Brennan.

For more holiday gift ideas, check out Carly Rubach’s local shopping guide, and for holiday events in the area this holiday season, check out TCD’s 2012 Holiday Fun Guide.