Three jewelers, two furniture makers, one ceramist and one fashion accessories designer from Brooklyn join 83 other handpicked exhibitors at the fifth annual American Fine Craft Show Brooklyn in the majestic Beaux-Arts Court at the Brooklyn Museum Nov. 18-19, perfectly timed for gift-giving. The seven Brooklyn-based artisans will join fashion designers, art glass makers, fine artists, milliners and sculptors. Their studios are in Gowanus [2], Bedford Stuyvesant [2], Fort Greene, Prospect Heights and Bay Ridge.
JEWELRY
Prospect Heights-based jeweler Michal Lando, Michal Lando Design, fell in love with the properties of nylon mesh, a supple, dramatic, lightweight material once used as a structural element in hats and clothing. Her latest pieces are “based on a kind of controlled unraveling.” She developed a technique of applying heat to shape the material into new forms for an ethereal, delicate and otherworldly effect.
Yuko Matsumur, Ariko Jewelry, creates one-of-a-kind pieces of recycled precious metals–gold, platinum, sterling silver, diamonds, sapphires, rubies and semi-precious stones–in her Bay Ridge studio. Her signature style has an organic aesthetic, expressing the forces of nature: weathering of volcanic rocks; the surface of the earth and the beauty of natural materials.
Sonja Fries uses recycled metals and diamonds in her rings, cuffs, bracelets and necklaces. She said: “Jewelry is architecture for the human body. Much like an architect, I set out with a unique vision, carefully select my materials, design a piece and then start constructing, layer by layer.” The Bedford Stuyvesant jeweler uses traditional jewelry-making methods: sawing, forging and soldering.
FURNITURE
Custom furniture designer Steven Bennett, Keep Furniture, Gowanus, hand makes tables, cabinets, stools and centerpieces from locally sourced, sustainable hardwood. His distinctive, ergonomic, minimalist designs showcase the wood’s beauty.
“We design and make unique handcrafted furniture featuring marquetry and inlay to create imaginative visual stories,” say Michael and Alexandra Miller of Everyman Works, LLC, Gowanus, sharing “a love of good design and humor.” Their first challenge was to “rescue the humble side table from obscurity and re-imagine it with imagery and wit.” They also make cabinets and mirrors.
FASHION ACCESSORIES
Fashion accessories designer Yuh Okano’s scarves, created in her Bedford Stuyvesant studio, are made of fine silk and Shibori to achieve three-dimensional illusions. She describes them as “fun and fanciful contriving features of coral and sea animals immersed under water.” She learned basic design skills in Japan and completed her education at the Rhode Island School of Design. One of her design concepts, “Structure and Surface,” is a contemporary Japanese textile at MoMA in NYC.
CERAMICS
Ming Yuen-Schat, Mings Monsters, hand-shapes, then alters each ceramic, marking every monster with his finger. The spirit of each appears in the wood kiln where most of his work is fired. There flames, smoke and ash paint the pots with color and texture. In addition to attending workshops with internationally recognized artist, the Taiwan-born Fort Greene-based artist earned a BFA in ceramics and architecture design from the Massachusetts College of Art and a Master of Architecture from MIT. He embraces the imperfect, asymmetrical, and deliberately crude, diametrically opposed to the influence of commercialized modernism which values slick, high-tech, machine-made objects.
The show is produced and curated by An American Craftsman Galleries that has supported crafts artists since 1982, longer than any other gallery in NYC, representing the work of 500+ artisans. “Seeing the trendsetting, exquisite work of these award-winning American artisans in conjunction with exhibitions of a world renowned museum is a double benefit,” said show co-founder/director Richard Rothbard.
Tickets to the craft show include general admission to the Brooklyn Museum. Some concurrent exhibitions include: “Rodin at the Brooklyn Museum: The Body in Bronze,” opening November 17; “Soulful Creatures: Animal Mummies in Ancient Egypt;” and “Arts of Korea.”
In addition to the American Fine Craft Show Brooklyn, Richard and Joanna Rothbard also founded and produce the annual July Berkshires Arts Festival and August Berkshires Art & Culture Festival in Mass.; the October American Fine Craft Show Washington, DC and the December Sarasota Craft Show in Fla. For 30+ years they produced hallmark shows such as the American Fine Craft Show NYC, Contemporary Art Fair NYC and the Rockefeller Arts Festival in Manhattan.
Information: Visit www.brooklyncraftshow.com
Where: Brooklyn Museum, 200 Eastern Parkway, Brooklyn, NY 11238. Directions: https://www.brooklynmuseum.org/visit/directions.php
Hours: Saturday Nov. 18 11 am – 6 pm. Sunday, Nov. 19: 11 am-6 pm
Tickets: Cash only at entrance: Adults – $16.00 Seniors -$14.00 Students – $10.00 Museum members with membership card -$8 Children under 10-Free. Online: $12 for everyone until Nov. 10 and $14 after that. http://www.americanfinecraftshowbrooklyn.com Tickets include general admission to
the Brooklyn Museum