Day in Pictures: Handmade Neighborhood

I woke up feeling more pictures than words today. So I took pictures of the handmade things I came across during the day.

From the Manhattan Bridge, through the Lower East Side, then back to Brooklyn for the Handmade Nation book signing, here's my day in pictures. (Ok, and a few words too...!)

RIGHT: Jae checking out the crazy gate in front of a gallery on the Lower East Side.

Jae and I took advantage of the mild weather to go out for a long walk. (Underemployment has its advantages, I guess!) We started by walking across the Manhattan Bridge, from which you get a great view of the (handmade!) Brooklyn Bridge and lower Manhattan. Here, a tug boat hauls scrap metal into New York Harbor.

An incredible amount of colorful graffiti adorns the rooftops of buildings at the end of the bridge. I love it. Welcome to Chinatown.

A painter working en plein air capturing the skyline. How cool to paint on the bridge!

Lunch at Vanessa's Dumplings. You can watch women in the kitchen making every dumpling by hand, then they're cooked to order. All this plus a soda for only $7.50! It's absolutely delicious, (until I hit my threshold for overlooking unidentifiable meat...)

Move over cupcakes!! The passion fruit cream puff I had today at Panade rocked my world. It's a smart, sweet little bakery, and the coffee was good too. I'd love to see these guys at the Brooklyn Flea...

We saw lots of art in the new crop of galleries sprinkled throughout the Lower East Side, but only one work-in-progress. Hours later when when we re-crossed the bridge, the painter had made considerable progress. I like how he even paints the chain link fence that veils his view.

After a quick disco nap, I went out again, this time just down the street to the Powerhouse Bookstore to catch the panel discussion and book signing for Handmade Nation, (which I reviewed here earlier this week). The event drew a very good crowd. We watched the trailer for the documentary, which will be screened tomorrow night.

Faythe Levine (the filmmaker), Courtney Heimerl (her co-writer for the book), and Sabrina Gschwandtner (Knit, Knit) sit before the audience (left to right), with Andrew Wagner (American Craft Magazine) moderating.

An audience member live blogs (I think!), while another knits.

Mingling and congratulating after the talk. It was an upbeat evening, and everyone is so excited about this project!

My reaction to the documentary, and more pictures, soon...

Posted and images by Amy Shaw for Greenjeans.