|
|
|
ICE CUBE: The Buyers Market of American Craft
The Buyers Market of American Craft - an essential wholesale trade show connecting artisans with retail shops and galleries - rolled through the Pennsylvania Convention Center at the beginning of the week. Hundreds of participants from North America filled the hall for the event's 30th year. Glassware, textiles, 2D arts, handmade clocks, leather goods, home furnishings and jewelry of all styles made a solid showing.
ICE CUBE: The Buyers Market of American Craft
The Buyers Market of American Craft — an essential wholesale trade show connecting artisans with retail shops and galleries — rolled through the Pennsylvania Convention Center at the beginning of the week. Hundreds of participants from North America filled the hall for the event’s 30th year. Glassware, textiles, 2D arts, handmade clocks, leather goods, home furnishings and jewelry of all styles made a solid showing.
Two locally connected artists in particular caught my eye:
The folks at Hudson Beach Glass, a family business, do functional and decorative items at their locations in Beacon, New York, and Philly (on Strawberry Street across from City Paper’s offices). Not only did they show off some of their custom designs for Jose Garces’ restaurants (Chifa, Whiskey Village) and his appearances on the Food Network’s Iron Chef, they presented a glass piece named after Garces — the Jose Tray. (Hudson Beach Glass will have a booth at the Philadelphia Flower Show March 4-11.)
Then there’s Red Oak Crafts’ Marvin R. Schnoll. Presently Schnoll makes bandsaw wooden boxes, with his newest line featuring animals on the endangered species list including the African Elephant and Bengal Tiger. Though he uses some exotic woods, most are domestic, sourced from Indiana. Schnoll was most interesting to me not just because of his highly stylized work but because of his story — he was young kid who lived at Fourth and Reed, moved to West Philly, then worked as an engineer in San Juan, Puerto Rico, before he settled in Louisville, Kentucky. Schnoll was rug maker who, after being sidelined by a fused wrist, began making objects from wood. Cool stuff.
- Activism
- Arts
- Arts Events
- Books
- Dance
- First Person Fest
- Last Chance
- Museum
- On the Fringe
- Philly Artists
- The Curator
- Theater
- Visual Art
- Arts News
- Artist Profile
- Arts Preview
- Street Art
- Been There, Done That
- Big Ups
- Comedy
- LOL With It
- Stand-up
- Critical Mass
- DVD
- Events
- Friday Fill-in
- Ice Cubes
- In Memoriam
- Interview
- Just Do It
- Just Opened
- Kaleidoscopic
- LGBTQ
- Art Phag
- Mailbag
- Movies
- Film Fest
- Movie Review
- On set
- Scenester
- screening
- trailer!
- Music
- 10 Track Mind
- Album
- Album Review
- Concert Review
- DJs
- Local Support
- Now Hear This
- One Track Mind
- Philly Bands
- Show
- Somebody Else Was There
- Song
- The Showdown
- concert photos
- jazz
- DJ Nights Blogged
- Night Watch
- Now See This
- Poetic License
- Printed Matter
- Radio
- Shopping
- Coveted
- Fashion
- What We Heart
- TV
- 24
- Idol Hands
- Mad Men
- ProjRun
- True Blood
- Useless Lost Recaps
- Couch Potato
- Shore Trash
- Turned ONN
- TopMod
- Video Games
- Free Online Game
- PSP
- PlayStation 2
- The 1-Upper
- Wii
- Web Junk
- CAGE MATCH
- Free Online Toy
- Weekend Omnibus
- Win
