Thursday, January 31, 2008

New Artisan! Soaps by Have Some Patience

We are very excited to be debuting a new line of rich, delicious soaps by Have Some Patience!

Patience Jones loved soaps and bath products, but disliked all the chemicals that make them lather up and smell so good. So about a year ago, in true DIY spirit, she started studying soap-making through books and online tutorials, and created this line of natural, deliciously scented soaps.

The six varieties sound more like farmer’s market treats than cleansers, which is a good thing. She even uses ingredients like molasses, honey, and annatto. In her tiny Manhattan kitchen she cooks up small batches of Spring Lettuce, Honey Rose, Milk Chocolate, Tangerine Fig, Orange Peel, and Bamboo.

They lather beautifully without chemical additives, and are prettily packaged, too.

The soaps are $10 per bar, or $40 for a gift box of 4, and you can purchases them in the shop or from Greenjeans Online. Needless to say, they would make fantastic Valentine's Day presents!

I am in love with the Honey Rose, and Patience likes the Milk Chocolate (which smells just like you could eat it), especially on a rainy day. Which will become your favorite?

Posted and photo by Amy Shaw.

P.S.
Shout out to the lovely and talented Billie and Tootie of ReForm School. Thanks for stopping by today -- it was great meeting you!

Wednesday, January 30, 2008

"Under-Cover" Press Release


January 30, 2008
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Contact: Amy Shaw
718-907-5835
amy@greenjeansbrooklyn.com

Hours: Tues-Sun 12-7, Thurs 12-9

WINTER EXHIBITION: “UNDER-COVER”
February 7 – March 20, 2008
Opening Reception: February 6, 6-8pm

This winter, Greenjeans is presenting “Under-Cover,” a juried group show of small quilts with a new sculpture series by Jane Kaufmann.

Celebrated clay artist Jane Kaufmann of Durham, New Hampshire, created a brand new sculpture series around the theme of beds for this exhibition. Each of the 20 “beds” (most of them raku-fired) features a figure cheerfully emerging from under a narrative blanket. The “Flower Bed” (shown left) is festooned with yellow roses, and the “Feather Bed” plumes with real feathers. The “Day Bed” incorporates her classic Sunman figure.

The other half of “Under-Cover” features small quilts (all under 14-inches square) ranging from the experimental to the traditional, handmade by quiltmakers from around the country. Selected with Brooklyn quiltmaker Erin Wilson following a national call for entries, the group of quilts offers a taste of what quiltmaking is today.

All works in “Under-Cover” will be available to view and purchase from Greenjeans Online. The complete quilt submissions will also be on www.greenjeansbrooklyn.com.

Press images available by request.


Posted by Amy Shaw.
Images: “Flower Bed” by Jane Kaufmann, and Quilt by Steven Stichter, courtesy of the artists.

Tuesday, January 29, 2008

The World Clock Project

Intrigued by all the different kinds of clocks around the world, the boys at Iridesco have created a wonderful and interesting online photo gallery that anyone can contribute to: The World Clock Project. (Iridesco is Danny Wen and our friend Shawn Liu, and they do our website.)

As you'll see on the Project's website, there are plenty of minutes still to be accounted for with a picture of a clock showing that time. So take your digital camera to the streets and photograph the great clocks in your neighborhood!

Their idea is simple, fun, and community-spirited:

"We find it intriguing to see a picture of a clock that is located thousands of miles away, but one which tells us the exact time of where we are right now. So we've set out to collect as many pictures of clocks as possible from as many different people as possible from around the world.

"Our goal is to gather enough pictures to account for all the minutes of the day. Upon accomplishing that, we will create a "digital picture clock" for the community."

Nice idea, and an elegant way of reminding us of how we're all connected. Can't wait to see the finished product!


Posted by Amy Shaw.
Images from The World Clock Project.

What Are Your Favorite Blogs?

May I ask you a favor, gentle reader? I want to find out what other blogs the kind readers of my blog check out on a regular basis.

As you may know, I am giving a talk during the American Craft Council Fair in Baltimore this year on blogging and craft, sort of an extension of the talk Rena Tom from Rare Device and I gave at the ACC's Salon Series back in September.

And in preparation, I want to ask all you Greenjeans Blog readers out there: what other blogs are you reading these days? Whether craft-related or not, what are your favorite blogs? I'd love to know!

Take a moment to mention your favorite blogs in the comments section here, or you can email me: amy@greenjeansbrooklyn.com.

Thank you!

And if you're going to be in Baltimore for the fair, I hope you'll join me on Wednesday morning (Feb. 20) at 8:30am for my breakfast talk! (Stay tuned -- there will be more on that later...)

REPOST from Jan. 25, 2008, post.

Posted by Amy Shaw.

Image sourced here.

Saturday, January 26, 2008

Solmate Socks - Adult Sizes Restocked!


We are re-stocked with Solmate Socks in all adult sizes!

If you want some, don't wait! They go FAST.

Come in this weekend, or contact us to place an order. (They aren't available in our Online Shop yet.)

Plenty available in kids and infant sizes, too.

Posted by Amy Shaw.
Images by Solmate Socks.

Thursday, January 24, 2008

Lagasse Baskets Now Online


Today I added a big batch of Ray Lagasse's wonderful baskets to the Online Shop. Have a look!

These baskets are so well made, and just perfect for organizing your counter top, holding magazines and mail, or keeping knitting or other projects together. Some, like the tall Kindling Basket (pictured top), are great for the fireside or near the door to hold umbrellas. Others, like the Oval Serving Tray, are multi-purpose favorites. And the Picnic Basket (pictured below) is a classic. Each is built to last with hardwood interior bottoms and underside rails.

Baskets make wonderful wedding and housewarming gifts, even if it's a gift to warm your own house!

And click here to see the Virtual Studio Visit with Ray Lagasse I did a while back.

Come to Greenjeans this weekend to take advantage of the final days of our After Holiday Sale and to see the baskets for yourself!

Posted and photos by Amy Shaw.

Wednesday, January 23, 2008

Judy Geagley's Knotty Pig

Move over sock monkeys! Made from reclaimed sweaters in multiple patterns and colors, Judy Geagley’s Knotty Pig is a soft and funny friend.


Also newly available in the Online Store:

Eberhart Rocker and Enfield Side Chair by Brian Braskie (Canterbury, NH)

Jewelry by Chelle Kraus (New York, NY) (shown below)

Glass Nymphs by Matthew Eskuche (Pittsburgh, PA)


See something you'd like for Valentine's Day? Let us know and we'll put it on your wish list, so when your sweetheart comes in we can help them make the perfect selection!

Posted and photos by Amy Shaw.

"Extreme Embroidery" Show Extended

I received word today from the Museum of Arts & Design that they have extended the dates of their two current exhibitions, "Pricked: Extreme Embroidery" and "Cheers! A MAD Collection of Goblets," both of which I reviewed here recently. There are a number of new public programs coming up, too.

You now have until April 27th to check them out -- both shows are definitely worth seeing!

Monday, January 21, 2008

Attention Quilt Submitters

It is nearly midnight and we are still finalizing our first round selections. Then we have to prepare 45 emails to let you know our decisions.

So don't stay up! Check your email in the morning. Thanks!

Sunday, January 20, 2008

"Under-Cover" Comes Together

Today is the deadline for submissions to "Under-cover," our Winter exhibition of small quilts and new sculpture by Jane Kaufmann, and the emails keep rolling in!

Jane is all done with the series of 22 "bed" sculptures she made for the show. Each one features a figure tucked under a blanket. "Flower Bed" is festooned with roses, and from "Day Bed" her classic Sunman reaches up with a smile. Jae is driving up to NH to pick them all up on Tuesday, and we'll tuck them away until a few days before the show.

As for the quilt piece of the exhibition, we've received images of something like 80 quilts to consider, but with space to show less than half of them, Monday's selection process will be quite challenging. The pool is rich.

Brooklyn-based quilt maker Erin Wilson will be co-curating the show with us. We will email all submitters by midnight Monday to let them know if their quilt made the first round and should be sent to us for final decisions. Final selections will be emailed and announced here on the blog February 1.

Since we will not be able to exhibit all the quilts at Greenjeans for "Under-Cover," we will also create a Complete Submissions version available to view online. There you will find images of small quilts by about 45 quilt makers and artists from around the world who submitted, and in many cases created new work, for the exhibition.

Thank you to everyone who has submitted work -- it's going to be an amazing show of contemporary quilts from the classic to the inventive, and wow will it be colorful! Thank you to Jane for creating her new series for the show.

I hope you can come to the Opening Reception on February 6. Jane Kaufmann and some of the quilt makers will be in attendance and we'll have nice beverages and snacks to enjoy. It will be an effervescent evening!

(Update: Jane may or may not be able to come for the opening. Please call us around the date of the opening to find out if she'll be attending: 718-907-5835.)

In any case, stay tuned to the blog during the next several weeks to see pictures from the opening, pictures of all the works in the show (most will be available for purchase from Greenjeans' online store).

Until tomorrow!

Posted by Amy Shaw.
Photo: exhibition poster by Dick and Jane Kaufmann.

Thursday, January 17, 2008

Upcoming Events & Shows

TASCHEN Warehouse Sale in New York
January 18, 2008 - January 20, 2008
TASCHEN Store New York (107 Greene Street, NY 10012)

Get crazy deals on slightly worn but still gorgeous books from Taschen.

-------------------------------

The City Quilter 10th Anniversary Show
Now - March 2, 2008 (8am-8pm daily)
Williams Club (24 East 39th St.)

An exhibition of 45 quilts celebrating the work of the more than 3,500 students that have taken our classes over the past decade.

------------------------------

Church of Craft Convening
Jan. 21, 7-9pm
Rapture Cafe 200 Avenue A (Between 12th & 13th Streets) NYC

All are always welcome. Bring a project you are working on or just come and check out what everyone else is up to.

------------------------------

Check out American Craft Magazine's new on-line Calendar to find more craft shows and events nation-wide!


Posted by Amy Shaw.

Wednesday, January 16, 2008

Greenjeans Gazette for Jan. '08


The latest issue of the Greenjeans Gazette is out (albeit a week late...)!

Click here to read this month's issue.

To subscribe, click here and scroll down.

Thanks for reading!

Photo: Ears of Jane Kaufmann's "Hep Cat" raku clay finger puppet.

Sunday, January 13, 2008

More in the Online Store


I seem to be on a tear shooting pictures and putting up new work in Greenjeans Online Store! Thank you again Rena (of Rare Device) for all your excellent advice and encouragement the other evening. You're a superstar!

Newly available online:

Sculptural Porcelain Plates by Chris Rom & Geoff Buddie (Swanton, OH) (shown top)

Wagon with Blocks by Frank Ridley (Solon, ME) (shown below)

Little Cloud Earrings by Janice Ho (now in Hannibal, MO!)

Dichroic Glass Jewelry by Susan Pratt-Smith (Northwood, NH)

Reminder: if you haven't seen it yet, the Martin Puryear retrospective at MoMA closes tomorrow (Monday, Jan. 14) -- run don't walk!


Posted and photos by Amy Shaw.

Saturday, January 12, 2008

New in the Online Store


One of my New Year's resolutions for 2008 is to take more product photos and post new work to our Online Store more frequently. Starting today!

Newly available online:

Open Oval Earrings (shown top) by Lisa Crowder (Austin, TX)

Twisted Drop Earrings by Melle Finelli (Boston, MA)

Double Film Earrings with Penguins by Connie Verrusio (Highland, NY)

Burma Bowl (shown below) by Kit Cornell (Exeter, NH)
50% of the proceeds from the sale of this gorgeous bowl go to support Burmese monks in their struggle against an oppressive regime

And remember, we're running a SALE through the month of January with some items more than 50% off!!

You can read more about the Burma Bowl project and other items when you click the links above. Happy shopping!

Finally, a note to our Greenjeans Gazette subscribers: this month's edition will come out a week later than usual. Look for it in your inbox first thing this Tuesday morning! And if you'd like to subscribe, click here and scroll down to sign up!

Posted by Amy Shaw.
Product images by Greenjeans. Photo of Burmese monks from New York Times.

Friday, January 11, 2008

Quilt Show - DEADLINE EXTENDED!!


Just a friendly reminder to those of you interested in submitting work for our show of small quilts and new sculpture by Jane Kaufmann.

NEW DEADLINE IS SUNDAY, JAN. 20th (Sunday)!!!

First round selections will still be announced on the 21st as scheduled.

Remember all quilts must be 14 inches square or smaller (or must be displayed in an area 14 inches or smaller). EXCEPTION: we are looking to show some crib quilts too, which can therefore be larger.

IF YOUR QUILT IS NOT YET COMPLETE, just send us a sketch or written idea to consider.

Click here to read the full submission guidelines.

Thank you for submitting your work, and feel free to spread the word!

Posted by Amy Shaw.
Photo sourced here.

Friday, January 04, 2008

Greenjeans Review: Martin Puryear at MoMA


There is still time to catch the best museum exhibition of 2007: the Martin Puryear retrospective at the Museum of Modern Art is on view through January 14th. Making excellent use of MoMA’s vast new gallery spaces, the exhibition presents 47 large-scale works created by the artist over the past 30 years. For their poetry, refinement, mystery, and intelligence, the works, and the show itself, are a must-see.

Puryear is a major American artist whose work is as rooted in a global sense of craft and material culture as it is in Minimalism. He has traveled extensively observing the art and craft of many societies around the world, drawing inspiration from the ritual masks of West Africa to the crafts tradition of Scandinavia. The result, as the press release states, is that “Puryear’s work is quiet but deliberately associative, encompassing his wide-reaching cultural and intellectual experiences and drawing on a varied reserve of images, ideas, and information.”

The relationship between Puryear’s artwork and the realm of craft is at once obvious and elusive. In fact, in his keynote address at the American Craft Council’s Houston conference in October 2006, Puryear expressed his own uncertainty about how he fits into the story of craft – he never set out to be a sculptor, not a craftsman per se.

Yet it is clear to this reviewer that significant aspects of his work are very much rooted in craft both in terms of the handmade (dealing with materials and process) as well as in a sense of humanity.

In an interview with the artist in the exhibition catalogue, Puryear speaks to the issue of the handmade in his work.

“I learned a lot from watching carpenters in Sierra Leone produce their work with no electricity. What they lacked in electrical power they made up for in skill and ingenuity and sheer muscle… [Starting out] I did not have the funds to equip my studio as fully as I would have liked, but I knew it was possible to make do with a few hand tools. “

He continues, “As a graduate student [at Yale, class of ‘71] I found myself coming to terms with the developments in art that had taken place here while I was abroad. Minimalism and Conceptualism were dominant among those developments, but through it all I continued to work with my hands. This made me feel like an anomaly within the department, since so many of my classmates were thinking of art in ways that made the actual creation of the art object something perfunctory, even extraneous.”

The exhibition is full of examples of Puryear’s artistic reliance upon craft and his innovative ways of engaging craft techniques. The building of each piece is part of the essence of the work, not incidental to it.

In terms of specific craft techniques, Puryear draws from timberframe joinery, boatbuilding, fine woodworking, and even basketry. Several works involve a wire mesh frame covered with wood and tar, and others are sheer aerodynamic forms constructed of sanded pine. Sometimes he uses rawhide, fiber, narrow tree trunks, or other mostly natural and often found materials. Regardless of the material, nowhere is there artifice – each work is plain about its materials, and isn’t trying to create an illusion that it’s something else.

Moreover, there is nothing slipshod or messy about the construction of the sculptures; on the contrary, the work reflects honed skill. Pieces are built as though by a craftsman who takes pride in his skill but isn’t necessarily trying to dazzle us. He seems to want the works to be strong and beautiful in a form-follows-function way, even if the function is none other than to describe form.

There is also narrative involved in the work, though it is more suggestive than didactic. One of my favorite narrative themes (or maybe it’s just a personal aesthetic associations) is the evocation of agrarian culture. Some works remind me of antique farming implements, models of devices for unknown tasks, as though they might have been discovered in a barn hayloft covered in dust and years of age and use, then put on display to teach us something about our forgotten past. The 13-foot long toothed element of the early work “Some Tales” (1975-78) could be mistaken for an old lumberjack’s crosscut saw (the same type of saw that would have been used to cut the cedar, Douglas fir, and other types of woods that appear frequently in his work). “Desire” is a monumental wooden wheel connected by an axle to a base that looks like it might have belonged to a mill for threshing wheat or grind flour. There is a sense of barnness in how nails are exposed or wood is worn. And as on a farm, in Puryear’s work there is often the aspect of both death and birth, the decaying and the fresh, the sweetness of grass and the sweetness of rot. Or maybe this is to say Puryear’s work bears the sense of the sublime.

Indeed, there is something both spiritual and existential about Puryear’s work. To see it in person, it feels very personal and human, yet almost closed off to us, almost for itself. That may be the real message of his work: the possibility of both coexisting harmoniously.

Martin Puryear
The Museum of Modern Art
November 4, 2007-January 14, 2008


View the online exhibition

Read more Greenjeans Reviews

Posted by Amy Shaw.
Photo credits (top to bottom): installation view by the author; Fogelman Photo, MoMA (exhibition catalogue cover); the author.

Thursday, January 03, 2008

After-Holiday Sale!!

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

We are throwing a proper After Holiday Sale at Greenjeans this month!

Come in to find a great selection of scarves, pottery, glass, ornaments, and even cufflinks marked as much as 50% off!

There are a few sale items available online as well -- click here to check it out.

We need to make room for new work, so come in and help us clear the shelves! And thank you!

Posted by Amy Shaw. Pictures by Greenjeans.