Get gently used craft supplies as affordable as 10 cents at this Tucson art thrift store

Jessica Badowski never intended to run a full-blown art store. She never set out to have shelves covered in sewing supplies, rubber stamps and paint brushes.

Though she’s a crafter herself, she’s also a lover of vintage who stands in line at auctions and estate sales. She envisioned combining those two loves to create vintage crafting kits filled with decades-old stationery and other artsy finds from 1979 and prior.

“In the process of buying items at auctions and estate sales, things often get lumped together — if you want buttons, they often come with zippers and needles,” Jessica says. 

But if she bought the buttons, what was she going to do with the zippers and needles? She wouldn’t use them, she couldn’t sell them, but she didn’t want to throw them away. At the same time, her mom had stopped crafting and didn’t know what to do with all her art supplies.

Both were catalysts for ReArt, the east-side store Jessica opened last year at 2434 N. Pantano Rd. The shop is home to gently used craft supplies for discounted prices. Think of it as a thrift store strictly for craft supplies like yarn, fabric, glitter and half-empty bottles of acrylic paint. 

“I was tired of going to (vintage markets) and hauling all my stuff so I thought maybe if I could find a space cheap enough, I could do retail — sell off my vintage, sell off my craft stuff,” Jessica says.

ReArt was originally supposed to be a side venture — Jessica’s vintage kits were supposed to be the star. But when the store opened last February, it became crystal clear that ReArt was something more.

Before ReArt opened, the plan was to use the space to sell her mom’s craft items, her own craft items and craft items purchased at estate sales. She even made plans with auctioneers to purchase craft supplies in bulk at the end of the sales.

Now it’s nearly a year later and Jessica still has giant bins filled to the brim with craft supplies sitting in her house. She thought her own art items would make their way to ReArt by April — but boy, was she wrong. The large majority of items sold at ReArt have been donated by the Tucson community.

For every purchase made at ReArt, the store gives 5% to a charity or local nonprofit selected by the shoppers who donate their craft supplies. Donors also get to take home a $2 gift certificate when gifting their items to ReArt. 

“I never intended to accept donations. From the day we opened, people showed up with donations,” she says. “We got more donations than we knew what to do with. We’re on people’s chore list, which I love. It’s kinda cool that it’s engrained in people’s heads because we’re off the beaten path.”

Jessica remembers last spring when Courtney Gustafson, a local author and the organizer behind Poets Square Cats, stopped at ReArt to purchase art supplies — including glue guns — for a party she was hosting. After the party, she donated the glue guns back to ReArt. 

A few weeks later, a teacher came in looking for craft supplies — including glue guns — for a project with his students. When summer rolled around, his wife once again donated the glue guns back to the store.

“It was like ‘The Sisterhood of the Traveling Glue Guns,’” Jessica says. “That to me sums up the vibes here.”

When I visited ReArt recently, I picked up 10 pieces of decorative stationery, several packages of stick-on gems, three sheets of stickers, one jar of sequins, seven gel pens, four spools of ribbon and lots of colorful string. My total was around $20.

“It really provides an opportunity for people who may not have the budget to engage in craft,” Jessica says. “I firmly believe the process — not what you get at the end — creating it is so good for your mental health. So many people are like, ‘I want to try this’ and if you have $2, you can get some yarn and a crochet hook and watch YouTube and start crocheting. It’s like, ‘How can I provide access?’” 

At traditional craft stores, you often have to buy a package of stamps to get the one stamp you actually want — and then the rest are thrown away or stashed into your craft closet to never again see the light of day.

At ReArt, nothing is bundled — you can get that one stamp you want and that’s that. It’s a move that helps art supplies stay out of the landfill — ReArt’s goal is to inspire creativity, support Tucson’s makers and reduce over-consumption.

“We do have things that are a quarter or 10 cents in here. People ask, ‘Why do you sell stamps for 25 cents?’ Because that’s what our customers want,” Jessica says. “They told us loud and clear. They don’t like bundles. They don’t like buying a ton of things just to get the one thing they want.”

More than anything, Jessica loves meeting the people who stop by. She loves to hear their crafting stories, she loves to see the art they’ve made. She loves to watch how excited people are when they pick up something they’ve never used before. 

ReArt will soon launch a calendar of events filled with crafty social hours and classes — including 11 months of Christmas-themed crafts because who says holiday cheer is limited to December?

Coming up is a student art show on Friday, Jan. 16, which helps Da Vinci Tree Academy seventh and eighth graders raise money for their end-of-year trip. On Feb. 20, Jessica is celebrating ReArt’s one-year anniversary with a gala that will launch scholarships for art students and art teachers.

“It’s the whole vibe of building community,” Jessica says. “Not only did I not intend to receive donations, I didn’t really have a plan for employees because I didn’t expect we’d have so much traffic. Our goal after this quarter is to hire a person who is not a friend or a volunteer. Tucson really embraced us and people came in (and offered to volunteer) and said, ‘Stores like this come and go because you can’t do it by yourself and you can’t afford to hire people.’”

Though ReArt has stepped into an unexpected spotlight, Jessica still puts together her vintage kits. She recently rented additional space in the same plaza where she plans to curate her kits, which she sells wholesale under the name Betty’s Bits and Bobs.

“It got to a point where we had so much stuff (in ReArt) and the kits ended up being put together in a storage area,” she says. “I thought ReArt was going to be a sleepy little thing and I was going to work on my kits — yeah, not so much. It’s just grown and grown and grown.”

🎨 ReArt is located at 2434 N. Pantano Rd. inside the courtyard. For more information, visit ReArt’s Facebook and Instagram. 🖌