The El Camino College Art Gallery hosted a fair featuring nearly 30 student artists, engineers, tinkerers and hobbyists.

The Maker’s Fair is designed to platform and support independent student-run enterprises, providing an opportunity for students to develop professional entrepreneurship skills.

Vendors set up booths outside the Arts Complex from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. on Tuesday, May 6, showcasing their items and businesses to attendees who could shop as they strolled through campus.

Carrie Lockwood, Art Gallery associate, said the event originated from the annual winter jewelry sales which used to be held on campus.

Students with various backgrounds offered creative merchandise. Vendors did not have to pay to participate in the fair and tables were provided for them by the college.

Olivia Gavin, 20, sociology major and owner of Lucy Strikes, makes paintings, bone jewelry and taxidermy.

Her booth focused on hand-crafted items involving a diverse set of materials, including jewelry crafted from fabric and decorated with animal bones.

“I try to kind of do everything. Creating things is so fun that I don’t really want to limit myself to one thing,” Gavin said.

For Alitza Hurtado, 20, art major, this was the first time she had tabled at an art fair. She sold various prints of her digital artwork, which she printed using the Art Lab on campus.

Athens Parducho, 19, owner of Rudy Bones, was another artist vending at the fair selling their original artworks.

With a variety of inventory being sold at his booth, he showed off prints and patches, handmade bracelet chains created from soda tabs, and pins and patches.

“Everything I make is originally done traditionally, then made into pins and prints,”
Parducho said.

Robby Shearon, 19, geology major and owner of Xenolith Designs had a booth which stood out as it was lined with various rocks, minerals, fossils and jewelry.

A good portion of Shearon’s rocks were mined by himself in deserts and rural areas. He then cuts them into finished pieces.

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Geology major Robby Shearon, 19 (right), sold minerals, rocks and jewelry at the Maker's Fair in front of the Arts Complex on Tuesday, May 6. The Maker's Fair provides an opportunity for the El Camino College community to support its local artists. (Katie Gronenthal | The Union)

“Everything here, jewelry-wise, is completely made by me. I don’t use prefabricated settings or anything,” Shearon said.

Lockwood said the Art Gallery would consider making the fair into a multiple day event in the future based on the success of this event.

Editor Nikki Yunker contributed to this story.