‘Upcycling’ takes stage at Urban Junktion show

WASILLA — Growing up a ferry’s ride from Seattle, Melissa Hyce was raised on lettering. Since then, the daughter of a sign salesman has continued the family passion, and morphed it into next-generation antiquing, pulling off the first Urban Junktion Vintage Show this weekend.

The first vendor to greet attendees as they came through the door Saturday at the Menard Sports Complex, Hyce had her numerous and diverse letters on display, and got the opportunity to explain to many just what a vintage market show was.

“We like to say it’s ‘old is new,’” Hyce said. “Nothing in here is from a store. A lot of it are found things that are just picked up, and people ‘upcycle’ it and give it new life.”

When she got the idea for the summer show, she reached out to Kelly Turney, whose 3,500 square-foot Alaska Pickers shop on the Wasilla-Palmer Highway features refurbished, vintage items.

“Melissa shares the same love of vintage and of old things and she really has a good eye for that kind of stuff,” Turney said. “A couple of months ago, she talked to me about a summer vintage show and I said, ‘absolutely.’ I built about 10 or 12 things specifically for this show, and some of the other stuff we literally just found this week.”

The biggest hit at the Alaska Pickers booth were a pair of beds, built from door panels of old hot rods and tailgates from old pickups, that sold for upwards of $1,500.

“I sold two of those beds and I could have sold 15 more; nobody else is doing anything like that,” Turney said. “I think a lot of people coming through knew what a vintage show was, but I think a lot were surprised at how creative you can get with things laying around.”

Tammy Hamel, aka Skarlett, of Skarlett’s Chic Boutique, a shop with both an online and brick-and-mortar presence in Anchorage, found her wares to be a pleasant surprise for Saturday’s shoppers.

“I ran into a lot of people who knew there would be furniture here, but weren’t aware of vintage clothing,” she said. “It’s been a lot of fun and a lot of women walked away very happy.”

Hamel said her fashions range from 1930s to late 1960s styles, and she works with designers in Canada, California and England to recreate the looks in sizes from XS to 6X.

Karena Merrill, of Karena’s Creations, focused on reimagining old houseware in new forms, including silverware turned into jewelry.

“I love antiques and I love to repurpose things to make old things useful again,” she said. “A lot of people were just overwhelmed by the different things you could do. It seems like there’s a couple different types of people who come here — those who come to get ideas for their own homes, and people specifically looking to change up their furniture and decorations.”

The show concludes today with hours from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. There is a $5 charge for entry. Hyce is hopeful this weekend’s turnout will prompt an annual event.

“We’ve had a really good and steady flow of people,” she said. “We didn’t know what kind of reaction we’d get, but other vintage shows had started a trend building. We wanted to basically take that idea and run with it; find out if people are really interested; if the demand is there.”

Contact editor Matt Hickman at 352-2268 or matt.hickman@frontiersman.com.