Showing this Sunday @ the Furniture Festival

We have a wonderfully eclectic roster of furniture makers showing this Sunday, the second week of the Greenjeans Fall Furniture Festival at the Brooklyn Flea.

From the undiscovered to the well established, all six designer/makers we're featuring this week are, once again, based in Brooklyn:


Todd McCollister, whose Catenary Chair is pictured top right, works out of 3rd Ward in Bushwick.

Jim Malone of Counter Evolution NYC uses wood salvaged from closed bowling alleys. He's a regular Flea vendor, but this week he's showing with us at the Furn Fest.

Mark Williams of December Box blends slabs of gorgeous hardwood with found metal elements to create very appealing tables and benches.

Palo Samko is well-known and admired for the gorgeous sculptural details of his work.

Roger Benton of Benton Custom also works out of 3rd Ward, building cool experimental pieces like this walnut three-tiered table. [UPDATE: Roger Benton is showing on Oct. 19.]

David Gibbs of New York Water Tower Furniture makes great benches and tables that show off the gorgeous aged patina of old cedar and redwood water towers.

Scott S. Behr does great tables, shelves, mirrors, and custom installation work in copper and steel.

Come see it all under the big white tent this Sunday at the Brooklyn Flea!

And if you missed the Furn Fest last week, you can see some pictures right here.

Posted by Amy Shaw for Greenjeans.
Images courtesy of the furniture makers.

Vote Greenjeans & Brooklyn Flea for Best of New York!

Can you take a few minutes to vote for the Brooklyn Flea and Greenjeans/Fall Furniture Festival in the Village Voice's Best of New York survey?

These are the categories:

Best Flea Market
Best Vendor at the Brooklyn Flea

They're both on the 3rd page of the ballot which you can link to here.

Voting closes TOMORROW (Wednesday Oct. 8) at 5pm, so if you can vote before then I would be much obliged! (And if not, it's ok, I still love you.)

There are lots of other great categories for you to pull for your favorite clubs and eateries, so embrace the voting season and cast your ballot.

Thank you!

Posted by Amy Shaw for Greenjeans.
Image sourced here.

Amy to Speak at Fordham U. Tonight

If you're interested in sustainable business you might be interested in the panel I'm speaking on tonight (10/7/08) at Fordham University.

"Greening of For-Profits Panel and Networking Event," presented by Net Impact and the Fordham Entrepreneurial Society, starts with a mingle at 7:30 and the panel starts at 8:00.

Speakers will include Saudia Davis of Greenhouse, Carol Derby, Director of Environmental Strategy of Designtex, and myself. And the questions the organizers have presented us are thoughtful and interesting.

The press release says "Inspired by the Finance & Sustainability GBA course taught by Professors Werner and Stoner, this event will address how entrepreneurs and corporations are changing their corporate mission to integrate socially and environmentally responsible initiatives. This is a panel event with plenty of opportunity to ask questions and network as well. Food and beverages will be provided."

The event is taking place at 113 W 60th St., which is the Atrium at Fordham’s Lincoln Center campus. The event is free and open to the public.

Would love to see you there!

(And thank you, Landis, for recommending me for the panel!)

Posted by Amy Shaw for Greenjeans.
Image of the sculpture, Peter, Fisher of Men, on the Lincoln Center campus.

P.S. This is my 500th blog post!!!

Report from Day 1 of Fall Furniture Festival

Despite the unexpectedly rainy early start, Day 1 of the Greenjeans Fall Furniture Festival at the Brooklyn Flea was great!

Tons of people from the curious to the serious came through the Festival to check out work by Brave Space Design, City Joinery, Nine Stories Furniture, Standard 41, and Uhuru. Most of the furniture makers were on hand and both the press and the public enjoyed talking with them directly about their work.

Many told me they had no idea there was so much great furniture being made in Brooklyn, so the Fest seems to be doing its job of raising awareness of the amazing skill and talent to be found in our fair borough!

Major thanks to Sam, Nikki, Andrew, Jamie, Bill, Dave, and Rob for helping set up and take down those huge tents -- it was quite a task and your help made it not only possible but fun -- it practically felt like a barn raising! And thanks to everyone who came to see the work -- please come again!

Looking forward to the next three Sundays in October when we'll present work by more than a dozen additional local and regional furniture makers. Come check it out!

Link to Furniture Festival webpage, including list of exhibitors and dates.

Posted and photos by Amy Shaw for Greenjeans.

Friday Snacks!

[UPDATE: I posted my new regular feature Friday Snacks! on Friday, but just realized I messed up the post date so it didn't appear at the top of the blog -- oops! Here it is re-posted in case you missed it before...]


Enjoy the snacks!

Useful tattoos! [via Hrag Vartanian]

Find out what happens behind that long brick wall at the Open Studios in the Brooklyn Navy Yard on Sat. Oct. 4.

First day of the Greenjeans Fall Furniture Festival is THIS SUNDAY at the Brooklyn Flea, 10am - 5pm.

Make it a two-fer with the 4th annual Atlantic Antic.

Staying in? I love this idea for an easy, autumny DIY project: make a blanket out of your old scarves
-- toasty! [via Craftzine Blog]

Enjoy the weekend!

Posted by Amy Shaw for Greenjeans.

Opening Title Sequence of "Handmade Nation"

Happily found this in my inbox today -- it's the awesome opening title sequence of Faythe Levine's highly anticipated new documentary Handmade Nation.



Here's the link if it doesn't show up above.

This is what I'd call the opposite of "hand-washing" -- something handmade to promote something about the handmade, as opposed to "using" a handmade aesthetic to be "on-trend." This is what the corporate hand-washers are trying to emulate, but its earnest quality is something that cannot be faked.

Looks like it was fun to do this stop-action sequence, and I love it! Rock on, Faythe!

Posted by Amy Shaw for Greenjeans.

Fall Furniture Festival - Exhibiting Oct. 5

The first day of the Greenjeans Fall Furniture Festival at the Brooklyn Flea is coming up this Sunday, Oct. 5!

All exhibitors this Sunday make their work in Brooklyn:

Brave Space Design
City Joinery
Nine Stories Furniture Co.
NYC Water Tower Furniture
Standard 41
Uhuru

Here's a sneak peek inside some of the Brooklyn workshops of this week's exhibitors...

Large table made from reclaimed elm, in progress in the workshop of City Joinery.

Sleek yet slightly quirky chairs and table by Standard 41.

Checking out the beautiful reclaimed water tower wood David Gibbs (NYC Water Tower Furniture) uses for his work.

And here are some pieces you might see:

Delta Table made from plyboo by Brave Space Designs.

Elsie Side Table "veneered" with metal from old car bodies by Nine Stories Furniture.

Stoolen Round made from scrap hardwood by Uhuru.

Come see all this and lots more on Sunday at the Brooklyn Flea!

Link to the Fall Furniture Festival webpage.

Posted and top three images by Amy Shaw for Greenjeans.
Bottom three images courtesy of the furniture makers.

Dumbo Arts Festival 2008

The DUMBO Arts Festival (technically the Art Under the Bridge Festival) -- a crazy formless party of open studios, outdoor art, roving performances, and infectious fun -- is taking place this weekend in Brooklyn, and Jae and I went and checked it out a bit today.

I guess I was too busy taking it all in to really "cover" it, but here are a couple peeks.

It's going on all day Sunday, and everything is FREE, so if you're in the area come check it out!

Top right: I liked this installation on the stairs of an office building on Main Street.

At around 7pm, a band of drummers gathered on the corner of Front and Pearl. I caught them on video just as they were starting up, before they stirred up a huge crowd and marched into Rebar (a local hotspot) to blast the night away. (Turn up the sound on your computer!)

Walking down Pearl Street, we suddenly found ourselves showered with tiny soap bubbles. It was so pretty and mysterious, and it took us a minute to find the source: this third floor window of a loft building down the street.

One of the anchorages of the Manhattan Bridge has recently been opened up and it's my new favorite space in my favorite 'hood. It's huge and open, like a strange urban cathedral. Tonight there was a pretty interesting installation of video projections, and a giant form constructed from rebar uplit in green with flat screens perched on the ends. It was weird and engaging and beautiful.

The title is Pachyderm.

Posted and images by Amy Shaw for Greenjeans.

Futerra's Greenwash Guide

If you run a "green" business, you probably want to avoid the pitfalls of greenwashing. And if you're a consumer of "green" products and services, you probably want to avoid the pitfalls of buying into greenwashing.

Luckily, the London-based sustainablility communications firm Futerra has released a very thorough guide to greenwashing, describing what it is and how to avoid being perceived as a greenwasher yourself (assuming your green efforts are in earnest, of course!).

Download the Greenwash Guide here.

It's a helpful resource to be sure, although I have one criticism: I think some of their graphic design, with it's pseudo-hand-drawn graphs and charts, might fall into the realm of hand-washing...?

[via LOHAS]

Posted by Amy Shaw for Greenjeans.
Image sourced here.

Friday Snacks - new feature!

I'm attempting a new feature today called Friday Snacks. It's basically a few links, calls for entries, and other cool stuff I've come across recently. Let's see if I can stick with it for more than just this week!

Enjoy the Snacks!

I am doubtful that I could make them as good as Hanco's, but it's good to have this recipe for Vietnamese banh mi sandwiches. [via Craftzine Blog]. (This is for you, Rena!)

Art21 Blog, which accompanies the PBS series, is really good, and my friend the culture pundit Hrag Vartanian is currently guest blogging.

The American Craft Council is now accepting applications for the Alt-Craft section of their huge annual American Craft Show in Baltimore. Deadline is Oct. 23. Email altcraft [at] craftcouncil [dot] org to find out how to apply. [image via Etsy]

Furniture Festival exhibitor David Gibbs and his project New York City Water Tower Furniture will be featured on the Discovery Channel on Oct. 6 at 6pm and Oct. 7 at 2am and 10am. Congrats, David!

I can't get enough of big knitting... This is a project by Jennifer Marsh [via Craftzine Blog].

I love this growing moss ring by Icelandic designer Hafsteinn Juliusson [via Inhabitat].

Snackalicious!

Posted by Amy Shaw for Greenjeans.

Fall Furniture Festival - Images in Flickr Set

I've set up a Flickr set to make images of work by exhibitors in the upcoming Fall Furniture Festival available to bloggers, press, and anyone else who's curious. (We have 17 exhibitors confirmed so far, and more to come!)

I'll be adding more pictures as they come in. If you need high-res of anything, please contact me.

Check out all the images here.

A sneak peek:

Top: Long Bench built from old bowling alley wood by Counter Evolution NYC (Brooklyn).

Elsie Low Table by Nine Stories Furniture Co. (Brooklyn). "Veneered" with enameled metal salvaged from junk yard car bodies.

Hollow Chair by Brave Space Design (Brooklyn). Made from bamboo and non-toxic finishes.

Three-tier table by Benton Custom (Brooklyn). Roger Benton lines up the sapwood in these planks of walnut to evoke racing stripes.

Bilge Chair made from bourbon barrels by Uhuru. The base is made from truck springs.

Link to the Furniture Festival webpage.

More to come!

Posted by Amy Shaw for Greenjeans.
Images courtesy of the respective furniture makers.

Recap of ACC Salon - Politics of Craft

With journalist and consumer culture critic Rob Walker moderating a discussion with the smart, articulate multi-hyphenates Sabrina Gschwandtner (pictured right) and Liz Collins (with Walker, left), Thursday night's Salon at the American Craft Council was a feast of ideas and engaging insights.

The entire event is available to download as a podcast, and it's worth a listen.

Prompted by Walker's thought-provoking questions, Collins and Gschwandtner spoke to such issues as "what role do craft and design play to promote change?", "What is the value of non-utilitarian public expressions of craft?", and "What is the effect of trendiness on the DIY movement?"

Their considered, honest responses touched on a number of topics, from the Luddite Movement as an example of how craft can effect change (fascinating!), to how the fact that works of craft suggest a bodily presence might explain why craft is so popular today in our increasingly digital age. They discussed the challenge of craft in the context of the third world, and craft as an alternative to mainstream consumer society.

Toward the end, American Craft Magazine editor Andrew Wagner asked Walker how he came to craft as a topic. Walker said he found it to be the most interesting thing happening in consumer and material culture today, and it presents questions about what it means to make something, to buy something, etc.

This was the last in the Summer Salon Series at the American Craft Council, and I look forward to the third season of Salons next summer (and hope the ACC Library will have more chairs by then!!)

Posted and photos by Amy Shaw for Greenjeans.