Ainslie Heilich’s planner is booked with appointments during a busy tattooing season, while co-proprietor and artist Laura Davis runs a shop downstairs at their tattoo and homemade goods store. Vintage Karma was one of more than 20 vendors selling creative-reuse pieces at Hatch’s art fair Saturday.

Heilich, co-proprietor and tattoo artist at Vintage Karma, ran her business in Stroudsburg, Pennsylvania from 2007 to 2011. After moving to Tuscola, Ill., Heilich and Davis reopened with an added handmade goods section, featuring 40 local and regional artists’ work, to the two-story business in April 2012.

Vintage Karma was among many businesses to make a trip to Champaign on Friday to Sunday for Hatch, an inaugural creative-reuse art festival hosted by The I.D.E.A. Store, an earned-income enterprise of The Champaign-Urbana Schools Foundation. The shop offers craft workshops and materials that are usually discarded for repurposing.

The festival began Friday at the Indi Go Artist Co-op with an art exhibition that features juried art by reuse artists in the Midwest. On Saturday, the McKinley Fitness Center gymnasium housed an all-day art fair.

The concept of the three-day event was created by The I.D.E.A. Store’s general director, Gail Rost. She envisioned the art fair as having a variety of price points and content. On Saturday, she made several creative-reuse purchases of her own, ranging from dresses to earrings.

“I’ve shopped like a madwoman,” Rost said. “I wanted people to see high quality execution of things that are made with reused materials. I also have a committee that’s to-die-for.”

The organizing committee, which consists primarily of four people, included volunteer and assemblage artist Melissa Mitchell, who coordinated Hatch. Mitchell said her hopes for the event were to show people the “kinds of wild, crazy, imaginative things people have done with these materials.” She also hoped to inspire other people to try this kind of art.

Mikako Takai, senior in FAA, displayed her art dolls at the art fair. When crafting the dolls, Takai attempts to represent characteristics of nature and animals, a style that she adapted two years ago.

“They wear masks instead of having an actual dolled face to them,” Takai said. “They are a physical object made up of thrown away objects. By forcing them into an actual character, it brings importance back to the items.”

Takai’s dolls are made from leftover supplies and fabric from the quilts that her mother used to make for her family.

Heilich also featured a variety of pieces at the Vintage Karma booth. Along with colorful headbands and rugs woven by an almost-90-year-old woman, her display included handmade rosaries.

“I did all these rosary type things,” she said. “I get broken rosaries and I find little parts and deconstruct them and reconstruct them.”

One of Heilich’s favorite Vintage Karma pieces is one by Davis. The piece is crafted from a clear bottle, which has felt heart shapes hanging inside. There is a small print drawing of a gentleman glued to the back of the bottle with fine print that read, “Very Suitable.”

Both Takai and Heilich, along with other repurposing artists, hope to promote the idea of creating less trash through art. To aspiring creative-reuse artists looking for materials elsewhere, Heilich suggested starting by searching for materials at home.

“That’s half the fun, going out hunting for supplies,” she said. “Probably the best place to start looking is the junk drawer. Friends are always a good resource. We definitely go on little expeditions to go to different towns that might have a junk shop or thrift store or auctions. It’s a constant treasure hunt.”

The Indi Go exhibition will remain open until Sunday, March 17 at 9 E. University Ave. The I.D.E.A. Store is located at 28 E. Springfield Ave.

Lyanne can be reached at [email protected].