Empty Bottle Handmade Market: Shop Handmade Gifts, Free to Enter

The Handmade Market has taken over the Empty Bottle's floor on the second Saturday of the month since December 2005 — October through April, summers off — which puts it among the oldest monthly craft markets in Chicago. Most of the month this is a dim, low-ceiling music room; for four hours the tables go up where crowds usually stand. Organizers tell sellers to bring their own lights, which tells you how dark it gets. You buy the earrings from the person who made them, at Western and Cortez in Ukrainian Village.

The November 14 lineup runs to 32 makers: sterling-silver and beaded jewelry, kiln-formed glass, functional pottery and ovenware, hand-tooled leather, handbags, hand-stitched needlework, greeting cards, soy candles, shea body butter and small-batch pantry goods. The market's own list is blunter — “funky jewelry, glass pendants, knitted items, handbags, clothing, paper crafts and more” — and makers are encouraged to demonstrate as they work. Shop with a mimosa in hand; that is the organizers' phrasing, not ours. Pizza Friendly Pizza, next door at 1039 North Western, opens at 5, so it is the stop after the market, not during it.

Doors at 1035 North Western Avenue open at noon on Saturday, November 14, and the market runs to 4 PM. The venue is 21 and over, everyone needs a physical, valid ID, and parents with kids are welcome. The Western 49 bus stops outside, the Division 70 two blocks south, the Chicago 66 five blocks north. Street parking is free on Western and Augusta; the side streets are mostly permit. The building sits on the ground floor with no stairs, and bar seating is limited. Carry a little cash — the ATM by the merch table is the only one inside, though the bar takes cards.