Al Hoff has been living cheap since well before the Economic Malaise of the 1970s. In the mid-90s, she went public, publishing Thrift Score, a zine (and book) documenting all the wonderful, stupid, kitschy junk to be found at thrift stores. In a desperate attempt to do something with all those silly books, groovy fabric and assorted doo-dads amassed after decades of trolling the secondhand world, Al turned to craft alchemy: An old driver’s-ed book transformed into magnets; a valence into cat toy; a pile of junk into a pile of pennies! Since 2003, Al has been part of the core group that started up and runs Handmade Arcade, Pittsburgh’s annual craft fair now heading toward its sixth staging. In her other life, Al works in the fading twilight of print media, as a writer and editor at the Pittsburgh City Paper.

If you spent the 90’s like I did, trying to score free copies and vintage kitsch, then Al is likely one of your heroes. So we are excited to have Al join Jessica Manack and Christy Petterson on the Organizing a Craft Fair panel at the Summit of Awesome.