Today we’d like to introduce you to Cathy Zwicker and Torie Nguyen.
Hi Torie and Cathy, we’re thrilled to have a chance to learn your story today. So, before we get into specifics, maybe you can briefly walk us through how you got to where you are today?
Crafty Wonderland began in April of 2006 as a small monthly craft fair with 40 vendors in the basement of the Doug Fir Lounge. We first met as members of Portland Super Crafty, a women’s craft collective. We sold our handmade goods together at many local craft events and would often talk about combining our experience to organize the perfect Portland fair – regularly scheduled, indoors and juried to include the best local artists and designers in town.
Our event quickly gained popularity with both shoppers and vendors, receiving both local and national media attention during its 3.5 year run as a monthly event. In the fall of 2009, we made the tough decision to transition the monthly shows to two large shows a year at the Oregon Convention Center. This change helped us grow the show to include many more vendors and, in turn, many more shoppers. The large scale craft market now includes over 250 local and national vendors and brings upwards of 14,000 shoppers through the doors over the course of the weekend.
In November of 2010 we were approached by the City of Portland to participate in their pop-up shop program. The city works with downtown landlords to fill vacant storefronts over the holidays – bringing more shoppers downtown and giving local artists + designers a chance to showcase their wares. The Crafty Wonderland Pop-Up shop was a huge success, breaking all records of previous participants in the program! Because of this success, we were able to negotiate to stay in our space beyond the holidays and eventually signed a lease for the space next door to our pop-up, giving Crafty Wonderland a more permanent home. Our original Downtown shop has been open for over 15 years! Since then we’ve added a second location on NE Alberta St. and also have an online store so people can get Portland-made goods from anywhere in the world.
Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
We never anticipated having to steer a business through a global pandemic. Our Downtown shop was closed for 18 months during 2020-2021 and all of our employees were furloughed. We had to pause holding our craft markets since it was unsafe to gather large groups of people together. It was a really rough time, but we are persistent and held on through it all, with just the two of us operating out of our NE Alberta St. shop and trying to sell as much as we could online. We’re still recovering financially from the setbacks of that time. The retail aspect of our business has yet to bounce back to where it was before the pandemic.
Thanks – so what else should our readers know about Crafty Wonderland?
The Crafty Wonderland retail shops exclusively sell handmade goods by Portland-area artists. We are proud to tell shoppers that everything in our retail shops was made by someone living in the Portland Metro area! Most of our items are on consignment so when you shop at our stores your money stays in our community and goes directly into the hands of a local artist – thus helping them thrive as a small business! Small businesses and artists are the heart and soul of Portland and we love knowing that we play a part in keeping that alive and well.
Is there something surprising that you feel even people who know you might not know about?
We are also passionate about vintage and both have side hustles selling vintage jewelry + clothing!
Contact Info:
- Website: https://craftywonderland.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/craftywonderland
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/craftywonder/
