DAVENPORT, Iowa — Crafty Cat Indie Art Fest wrapped up its fourth year in downtown Davenport on Saturday. The two-day shopping event featured around 100 vendors this year, selling handcrafted items and vintage finds.
"This is a really great opportunity to get out and shop local and support local and support artists," Co-organizer and Owner of Crafted QC Mary Talbert said. "Artists have a tough time, a lot of times getting their work out there and known. So the thing is, as an artist, every time you make a sale, it motivates you for your next project."
The craft festival also featured 16 kid vendors.
"It's really cool. A lot of these kids come back time and time again, and they sell out. They make great stuff," Talbert said. "It's fun to teach them early that there are possibilities and they can have fun careers and just think outside the box a little bit."
She added that it teaches the kids how to be entrepreneurs, too.
"These kids learn their sales pitch, which is great," Talbert said. "If you go out to their table, they'll tell you exactly what they've made, how they made it, where they got the idea, how long they've been doing it, and they're so excited."
One of those kid booths is Nicolina's Turtle Co. It's run by Nicolina Pappas,10, and Sadie Dusenberry and Lillian Vogel, both 11. They've been selling metal straws along with hand sewn pouches for the last two years. They also sell key fobs, ornaments and stickers.
"People should come to buy from us because one, we help the environment," Pappas said. "Two, we're basically kids who own the business. You typically don't see that very much, so I feel like it'd be a good way to support that."
Pappas wanted to start the business after her sister gave her a metal straw and she learned about how harmful plastic straws are to turtles. When she saw that her sister just threw the metal straw back into her bag, she decided that she wanted to make a case for it.
"She came to me and she was trying to find a way to raise funds for conservation. She was that bothered by it at eight years old," her mom Lori said. "So she came up with the idea to make the pouches and asked for sewing lessons."
The girls donate all their profits to conservation efforts. So far, they've donated over $4,000. They've also convinced their school to stop using plastic straws.
"She started realizing there were other kids that didn't know about conservation, so that's when she started funding scholarships for kids to go to camp at the zoo, and also funding outreach for Niabi Zoom and Nahant Marsh and Living Lands and Waters to help clean up the rivers," Lori Pappas said.
The Murphy brothers are also young entrepreneurs. Declan and Kellen, ages 12 and 10, sell handmade jewelry. They have necklaces, earrings and keychains.
"You just get like tools and beads and wires and stuff and then you can make it with it," Kellen said.
Declan and Kellen said they learned how to make them from their mom who learned it from their grandma. Once they got the hang of it, they said it's easy to make. Each piece of jewelry takes them around five minutes.
The Crafty Cat isn't their first craft show either. They've been selling at craft fairs around the Quad Cities for the past few years. Declan said he's learned how to be a salesperson and how to convince people to buy stuff.