At the Artist and Fleas in Brooklyn

Let me just say, it was great walking into the Artist and Fleas market last Saturday. It was an awesome space full of creative designers that I have not come across yet in the city. They also had a truck outside selling coolhaus ice cream sandwiches!

image from www.eatcoolhaus.com

After staring at the truck and trying to figure out the ice cream between cookies bit, we walked into the market and suddenly I just wanted to shop shop shop! Lots of vintage stuff going around but also some interesting new ideas.

Take for example ASTALI. She had jewelry made out of gun casings! I took a postcard that had a sample gun casing attached to it. :) Now I can pretend to be dangerous.
 Next I had to stop at Webbedware by Courtney Webb. She had great looking cuffs covered in different types of fabrics. Check out her website for other awesome products.

 

product images from www.webbedware.com

The one that I couldn't walk away from! Leroysplace.

She had these handmade necklaces with different images put together. I can't describe it well but I can say I had to be pulled away from the stall. She also has these resurrected paintings with her own creatures creeping in to the frame to bring in a twist.

images for Leroysplace are from  her website WWW.LEROYSPLACE.COM

I  hope to be checking out a few more markets this weekend and hope to blog about the great finds! I think I tend to say great a lot. :)

A great article

So, I recently subscribed to the American Craft magazine and came across this article on CHEAP products and the downside of going for discounted items.
The article Shop Till We Drop is an interview by Shannon Sharpe of Ellen Ruppel Shell, the author of Cheap: The High Cost of Discount Culture (Penguin, 2009). Here are a few excerpts from the article:

"Cheap goods are an illusion, she discovered. While we tell ourselves, especially and understandably during hard times, that we need bargains to sustain our quality of life, in the long run these products aren't helping anyone - in any socio-economic bracket. To sell cheap goods, companies need cheap labor, which keeps wages low. Discount goods also entangle us in foreign manufacturing and labor practices, which may run counter to our ethics. There are environmental costs, both in how we produce cheap goods and how quickly we discard them. And bargains disguise the fact that, in recent decades, prices on housing, insurance, and childcare - what we spend most of our money on - have skyrocketed." (Sharpe, 2011)

Click here to read the rest of the article. 

This is just a reminder to us all that when we buy, we should think not only of our pockets but also of how a products weighs next to the initial cost. Look at the quality and pay for the life you want to have with that product. With the life long partnership you're also investing in the good practices that brought the product into being such as the craftsmanship of the maker, possible resource conservation and fair labor practices. As consumers, we do have the power to effect the quality of products and the quantity that is brought to us, thus decreasing the price tag.

Scarves and Pillows!

How I wish I could have such  pretty things. 

images from www.mattany.com and www.tulutextiles.com

Check out the products of Matta and Tulu Textiles. Such great prints and products.

Indian Handpainted Banners

An interesting watch :

http://www.handpaintedtype.com/http://www.handpaintedtype.com/

about the disappearing Hand painting artists in India. This is basically the problem everywhere. The old techniques that took time and talent are disappearing, being replaced by fast machinery. But, there are a few that realize the urgency to preserve and promote. Hopefully this awakening continues.

I would like to thank...

Check out the link for a brief statement featured in The Fashion Institute of Technology's Hue Magazine.

HUE MAGAZINE