One of a Kind Show, NYC

A couple of weeks ago after eating a hearty brunch at Rose Water my husband, Mike, and I hopped on the subway to check out the handicraft at the “One of a Kind Show” located at Pier 94 ( 12th Ave and 55th street). We were hoping to pick up a few holiday gifts and we had a lot to choose from. The show included a wide range of makers working in ceramics, clothing, fashion accessories, fiber art, furniture, metal, jewelry, etc. Here are some of my favorites.

Pip-Squeak Chapeau makes you wish for a cold day with their lovely hand knitted collection from alpaca yarn. The fleece is soft and gentle and is incredibly warm. Alpaca’s are from llamas and have kept people warm and comfortable for centuries even on the coldest days. The biker mittens, part mitten /part glove, let’s you have the best of both worlds — warmth of a mitten plus the use of your thumb and pointing finger for getting your subway pass out, etc. The pieces are made in Brooklyn. They also make dresses, skirts, shirts from 100% natural yarns and fabrics such as linen, cotton, hemp, wool, silk and mohair.

The Cordwainer Shop have been making hand crafted beautiful shoes using the finest leather, free of synthetic materials and toxic glues since the 1930’s. The shoes are fully lined and hand sewn, making them lightweight, flexible and resole-able year after year. These shoots fit! Feet are carefully measured and made in your choice of leather and style. The family owned operation runs out of Deerfield, New Hampshire and offer workshops for those who would like to learn more about the making of shoes. “Cordwainer” means shoemaker and was coined by boot makers from Spain. What an appropriate name! Look for an article about the Cordwainer Shop in the Feb/March 2010 issue of American Craft magazine.

Sang Joon Park interest in pottery started as a young man living in Korea and became an apprentice to a master Korean potter, Na Woon Chae. “He told me in order to become a potter I must be able to make at least 30 identical bowls within the period of a single hour. Countless days full of failures ensued. Then suddenly one day Mr. Na announced I had become a potter. Since that day I have continued to make thousands of bowls and I dreamt of becoming a real artist” as stated on Park’s website. He later attended Pratt Institute for an MFA in ceramic sculpture. The random but yet calculated repetition of the bowls and use of simple colors makes his work sculptural.

David Nerwen uses a variety of complex hand stitching techniques with 100% tapestry wool yarn on canvas to create his abstract geometric compositions. “For the past 37 years I have designed and executed original hand stitched abstract and geometric tapestries on canvas. It has been a labor of love and very challenging to design in spite of the restrictive medium of fiber art” states Nerwen on his website.

Jean Pelle’s stunning Bubble Chandeliers are comprised of delicate clusters of handblown glass balls and clear globe bulbs held together by cables wrapped in cotton twine. Macrame and bubbles what more can one ask for? The chandeliers are a nice blend of nautical-hippy and modern design. The configurations come is a variety shapes and sizes and individually assembled by Pelle in her Brooklyn studio. Pelle studied architecture at UC Berkeley and Yale. In addition to her chandelier she applies her design skills by making diverse objects like candle holders and necklaces. Very nice indeed!

Stephan Schneider

Stephan Schneider (German born) designs clothes for both women and men but what I find most interesting is that he creates his own textiles for his garments. While most fashion designers use existing fabrics from various sources, Mr. Schneider spends much of his time designing his own. “I spend half of my time with the textile and half with the silhouette,” he says. “When your textile is strong, you don’t have to invent trousers with three legs.” His clothes shown above represents the his work since 2005. He uses the same fabric for both lines but isn’t going for a unisex look. When he uses the same fabric for the two lines he changes the design giving distinction between the women’s and men’s lines. His clothes captures a cool, but classic aesthetic with simple silhouettes with impeccable details. His garments are made in Belgium, where pieces are cut by hand and time can be spent on the finest finishing. He established his label in Antwerp immediately after graduating from the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in 1994.

Several years ago I serendipitously met Stephan in his Antwerp shop. Lucky for my husband and I he was sorting out a display. We learned first hand how passionate and knowledgeable about design he was. It makes complete sense that he is now a professor at Universität der Künste, Berlin. It was quite refreshing that we found him mucking about in his store and he gladly stopped what he was doing to have a conversation with us. If you are ever in Antwerp his store located at 53 Reyndersstaat is a must see. It’s a small space and it shows off his clothes well. He displays both men and women together so you can see how the design plays out between the lines. The interior is minimal with just enough architectural details to make it inviting. On that trip and another trip a year or so later I bought several items which I continue to wear today. His pieces are some of my favorites.

Sheila Hicks—Weaving as Metaphor

Sheila Hicks’s miniatures have inspired me since I first laid eyes on them a few years ago when they were exhibited at the Bard Graduate Center in Manhattan. The remarkable weavings are colorful and compositionally dynamic. They are both 2 and 3-dimensional in form and some are assemblages made from found objects. For 50+ years Ms. Hicks has taken a small wooden frame around the globe to create notebook size weavings of the intimate kind. These pieces started when she was an art student at Yale. By her own estimate she has made more than 1000 of them. Ms. Hicks has referred to the miniatures as “personal expressions”, “private investigations” and also to lighten matters, “ramblings”. These pieces have informed her conceptual ideas, material explorations and large scale commissions. “I found my voice and my footing in my small work. It enabled me to build bridges between art, design, architecture, and decorative arts.” —Sheila Hicks, 2004

Check out the review of the show and interview with Ms. Hicks from The New York Times.

The show’s catalogue was designed by renowned Dutch book designer Irma Boom and is a noteworthy piece of design. The hefty deckle-edges give the book a handmade quality that refer to the subject poetically. It’s a book (415 pages) that begs to be held and touch. The book construction is mind boggling. I’m not sure how they achieved deckling the edges on all sides—top, bottom and sides. The book is printed in Holland by Drukkerij Rosbeek and is in it’s second printing. If you can find this book you should get it. Metropolis has an interview with Ms. Boom which she speaks about her design approach and the making of the Sheila Hicks’s book.