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.
