Craftiness at its Finest

[from Pursuitist]

Happy NYC Fashion Week!  

On Tuesday I had the pleasure of attending a gallery reception at the 

Hermès boutique on Madison Avenue showcasing photographs by 

Koto Bolofo.

[from Wallpaper*]

A fashion photographer originally from South Africa, he is the first to gain access to the famous and historically secretive Hermès workshops where the beautiful leather, silk and other objects are hand-crafted.  Over seven years he documented and compiled his work into La Maison, a collection of 11 volumes: Horses, Saddles, Kelly Bag, Clothes, Perfume, Bugatti Veyron, Gardens, Special Orders, Silk, John Lobb and Collection Émile Hermès.

[from Wallpaper*]

Thirty-three images will be on display at The Gallery at Hermès this month and I found some others online.  I was struck by this image of waxed thread:

[from New York Magazine]

A rolling tool is used for imprinting the leather: 

[from New York Magazine]

So many dyes:

The Gallery at Hermès 

691 Madison Avenue, NYC, Fourth Floor

Monday through Saturday: 10:00 a.m. - 6:00 p.m.

Now through Friday, September 30th 2011

Calming Calendars

I've been all about the recaps this month since there's been so much to do. 

I stopped by a photo shoot for the new cookbook by Allison Fishman, cooking school founder and host of Lifetime's Cook Yourself Thin, where I also met Abby, the designer of Institute of Dress and I love the dreamy, drapey style of her clothing,  

next was a celebration of paper creativity from event designer David Stark's new book and installation of THE (purely paper) FLOWER SHOPPE at West Elm,

then went to a launch party for Apartment Therapy's Big Book of Small, Cool Spaces at the Clic Bookstore and Gallery, 

and saw "No Man's Land" by Christian Boltanski,

an art installation at The Park Avenue Armory (through June 13th: I highly recommend it), attended Share Our Strength's Taste of the Nation, and yesterday did an event for hundreds that took all day to set up, so I'm definitely TGI-Fing today.

When the going gets tough, I get planning and organizing calms me down so I've been making calendars. I made my first batch back in January and I'm so excited (and relieved) that summer's almost here.  For June I used my Martha Stewart eyelet lace punch-around-the-edge set.  I've been noticing in Martha Stewart Living each month there have been 40% off coupons for Michael's, nice!

There are quite a lot of birthdays to celebrate this summer, especially in July and August, including Martha Stewart (8/3), Julia Child (8/15) and more than a few fam and friends, so I have to get crafty.

And not to think too much about it yet, but when summer's over September's probably going to be a killer work month once Fashion Week hits, so I strung 30 seed beads like an abacus to remind me that each of the 30 days will be different, but they too shall each pass in their time.

Crazy Catch-Up Post

This is a shot I took in Soho after seeing Exit Through the Gift Shop, the awesome documentary about street artists Banksy, Shepard Fairey, Space Invader, Mr. Brainwash and others and how far they would go for their art, very funny, very cool.

May I say that May has been a crazy month so far: 11 days and it's been 4 holidays (Fete du Muguet, Cinco de Mayo, Korean Children's Day, Mother's Day), 3 marketplaces (Hester Street Fair, Limelight, Brooklyn Lyceum Spring Food and Craft Market), 2 movies (Exit Through the Gift Shop, Kick-Ass), 2 store openings (Nordstrom Rack, David Yurman), 2 nights of celebrities and 1 museum gala.  So, here's how some of it went.

First up on May 1st was The Brooklyn Lyceum's Spring Food and Craft Market

There's my boyfriend on his way in.  I fell hard for the adorable drawings by Kristiana Parn, we had Korean kimchi hotdogs from Mama O's Kimchee and then he bought me...

a beautiful necklace by Lauren Haupt, which I wore the next day when we....

went to the Hester Street Fair

which was lovely, but it was around 90 degrees that day so we went to see the street art movie.  Fast forward to the next weekend and we went to check out Limelight Marketplace:

and the site that was once a church and became a club has been reborn as an amazing marketplace of beautiful and unique shops, a gourmet food gallery and outdoor green market.  Restaurants and wine bars are also moving in soon!

I love the cakes at Butterfly Bakeshop, tiered cake chocolates at The Little Candy Cake Company, adorable kitchenwares at Whisk, decadent, fascinating flavors of brownies at Mari's, truly tasty oils and vinegars from Carter & Cavero (we bought fig balsamic), wonderful soaps from Soapology (in lily of the valley and almond!) and the beautiful home designs at Brocade Home.

So, it was a great place to shop for Mother's Day.

I also made my Mom a little tissue paper carnation corsage with this tutorial from Folding Trees

and now there are only 20 more days of May and so much more to do...!

Recent Resources

[From broadwaypaper.com]

This picture is from Broadway Paper, "the paper store with so much more," not in NYC, but in Wisconsin.  I found the site while doing some research on mini hat boxes today.  Looks like a fun store, wish I could visit, but until then I'll just have to check out their website some more, it's quite pretty.  I've also found a few other interesting shops recently:

I stumbled on Exotic Fragrances, Inc. all the way up on 104th Street when I didn't have an umbrella en route to The Museum of the City of New York.  I had been looking for fragrance oils to use in poured candles so I was shocked to find this shop with over 1,000 scents!  I chose Peppermint and Dewberry, so hopefully I'll buy the other materials to make these candles soon, maybe before winter is over.

I also just happened to walk by Beads of Paradise on 17th Street.  They have pieces from all over the world: South East Asia, India, Indonesia, China, the Middle East and Mexico and beads made of glass, metal, wood, shell, gold, silver and semi-precious stones.  They even have reasonably priced classes, might have to check those out sometime.

If I'm not working at events, my office closes at 6 p.m. each day.  I've wanted to go to New York Central Art Supply on 3rd Avenue, but it closes at 6:15!  So, it was cool when I got out early yesterday and could check it out.  This store has been in business since 1905 and I like that they had a vast selection of "serious" art supplies from paints to embossing and silk screening supplies, as well as "lighter" stuff like glitter and sculpey clay.  

And I also made it a little further south to Downtown Yarns and saw these cool yarn snowflakes in the window.