Renegade: Ach Ach Liebling

Ach Ach Liebling came all the way top the Renegade craft fair from San Francisco. I just love her use of imagery, and materials such as plastics and mixed metals to create motif rich vintage inspired pieces. I can no longer harp on about why I love this trend...but just assure you that designer Joanna Petrone definitely has her finger on the pulse. And watch out...new motif trend alert: The Moustache!!

Check out the dainty brass and silver stackable facial hair inspired rings below. So ironic!

read more...

Renegade: Chainchainchained

I am noticing that a few Renegade jewelry designers perhaps use the same source of brass ornaments...but who cares if they are cute! More to go around.

I got the dainty arrow earrings  from chainchainchained pictured above, and have been wearing them everywhere. Just when I was getting bored of earrings, this pair is not to big and garish, and not too small. Plus, ever since Karen Walker featured arrow print clothes and pins, I've been obsessed with arrows.

It's funny how little motifs find their way into our consciousness, and then jewelers and textile merchants across the land cash in: skulls, birds, bugs, feathers, and arrows....whatever will be next?

And I also gotta say that I am diggin brass these days. Partially for it's warm coloring, and perhaps also a sort of chintsy hipster irony...but mostly cuz of the whole vintage trend we have going on right now. In anycase, we are all in luck, cuz brass is cheap, and perfect for casting into interesting shapes. Plenty to be found on Etsy, peeps.

read more...

Renegade: Hoibo

Check it out, I found something cool that was not jewelry at the Renegade Craft Fair. The line is called HOIBO, and it's a great collection of bags and tops. I loved their silver linen hobo bags with the rope handles. The bags are washable, so they have graciously screen printed rope tying instructions on the inside...just in case you weren't a boy-scout. And if you are a leather lover, I found one lone lusciously buttery leather black hobo bag...complete with rope.

Of course, Hoibo is still just sold in Canada...but to me, they seem like good fodder for the buyers at Barneys Co-op.

read more...

Renegade: Erica Weiner

I must preface this by saying that I had already discovered Erica Weiner before the Renegade Craft Fair...under similar circumstances, at artists and fleas in Williamsburg. As you know by now I have a love for all things antique and distressed, as well as slightly dark and disturbing. So about a year ago, I was chuffed to have found Erica Weiner's lovely brass Bee earrings (bugs are a great motif for those who enjoy oddities). They eventually broke, but the lovely Erica gave me a new pair at Renegade! She definitely stands behind her work. 

I was overwhelmed at her booth, as she has been busy in the last year! She has added old photos to her repertoire of materials, including actual civil war tin types. I ended up going for a great necklace with portraits of young women from the 40's, cuz it's one of my fav eras. Ericas work mainly consists of pieces made from found curiosities (such as vertebrae from a small snake) and vintage finds, so the collection is ever changing and unique.  At this point to say vintage jewelry is a trend is a massive understatement. Expect it to be one of the things comedians talk about on "I love the 00's" on VH1 decades from now.

read more...

Renegade: Fernworks

Oh my god, this booth blew me away head an shoulders above the others (sorry others, I swear I'm a fan...but you gotta admit...). The Fernworks booth was packed shoulder to shoulder. Credit cards were taking turns to get the old fashioned carbon paper treatment. The place was a buzz with commerce. Why? sheer beauty. Mystical misty layer on layer of peaceful fantasy nature-meets-hitchcock mystery beauty. Yes, resin can be a most amazing medium when put in the right hands. In this case, the capable hands of one Faryn Davis.

I could go on and on, as one who simply enters into and gets lost in the works...I'll let you decide. If you are a meditator, you could choose a resin piece that simply contains grass and the typset words "still", or if you are a little bit dark, the black crows on a wire, darker still, the broken body of a dead bee in a ring.

Really, words are just fluff. The pics above are mine, the ones below are from the website. Enjoy.

read more...

Renegade: Tilly Bloom

Tilly Bloom somehow captured the essence of Edward Gorey or Where the Wild Things Are, and turned it into jewelry...or wearable art (she calls it "illustration Jewelry"....how poetic!). I love the romance of the black and white images. I definitely think that these pieces are unique, and are sure to start a conversation with that hot guy next to you at the bar.

I kind of wish I had nabbed the black and white illustration of wood brooch, but I got the birdcage pictured below. I love that it has two pieces glued together and that the bird is pink, which pops nicely of the black and white. I don't know yet what I'll wear it with...perhaps just let it stand on its own against a white wifebeater.

Tilly's work was being sold at the Magpie booth, which is actually a Massachusetts based online store. They had many other wonderful designers, but it was Tilly that spoke to me. So in the end I visited her site, which I discovered also features her illustration work, and odd disturbing yet wonderful sculptural creations.

read more...

Renegade y'all

This weekend saw the Brooklyn edition of the Renegade Craft Fair. An exciting event that brings hundreds of young talented designers and crafters from around the US together to sell their wares. The Fair happens 4 times a year, once in Brooklyn, once in Chicago, once in San Francisco, and then there is a Holiday edition in December again in Chicago.

So word on the street is that thousands of crafters, jewelers, and designers applied for a spot in the fair, and it was narrowed down to the 200 best. Whereas I saw a lot of amazing talent, I must note that it was heavily populated with T-shirt silkcreeners, totebags, and jewelry. Although I do appreciate those things, I would have loved to see more clothing designers represented (for the record there were also a few poster designers and some homewares but I was concentrating on fashion.).

That said, I spent way more money than I wanted too...and I didn't even get everything that I wanted. There were so many tents!  McCarren Park Pool is enormous, and it was packed to the gills. There is also the possibility that the heat may have impared my judgement a little.

In anycase, this week I plan on introducing you to the designers that excited me. The ones that I hope will springboard onto bigger and better things, and eventually become so successfull that we have to buy their guest designer line at Target.

Watch this space...

read more...