Ooooh, pretty!!
This weekend was the Buyer's Market of American Craft, and as usual, I found far more beautiful things to fall in love with than I could actually buy. Here are some of my favorites, with links to sites where YOU can buy them, retail, if you decide you love them too.
First up is jewelry maker Ananda Khalsa, whose work I first saw a couple of years ago in a gallery in Boulder, Colorado:
She hand-paints exquisite little Japanese-style watercolors and then encases them in glass and mounts them in gold and silver. The whole category of "jewelry with images under glass" is simply exploding right now, with everything you can imagine, but every time I see Khalsa's work I am impressed all over again, because her paintings are so delicate and beautiful, her metalwork is top quality, and the overall design of the pieces is always eye-catching. Her work is leaps and bounds ahead of the imitations, and it varies enough from year to year to keep it always fresh.
Ananda Khalsa's own website is set up for retail sales, so you can go here.
I always "ooh" and "aaahh" over these whenever I find them in other craft galleries, they are hand-made glass chocolates and the sheen of the glass makes them even more yummy-looking than real chocolates:
These are some fairly straightforward ones shown on their website (which is here), but their newest designs have tiny detailed little images screen printed on them, just like all the high-end confectionaires are doing to their edible bonbons. They also come in beautiful tapestry-covered boxed assortments, and they'd make a great gift to anyone watching their waistline or anyone with a fine appreciation of the visual appeal of their food.
Their website includes a list of retailers, and those will special-order you exact candy pieces from the company, so you can pick and choose your own assortment through a variety of sellers. Can I admit that I wanted to pop one in my mouth?
Okay, then there's Jill Schwartz with her "Elements" line, from which I could happily take just about anything and be quite happy with it.
She uses such a fun melange of vintage jewels and plastic baubles and old, faded colors with parchment and pearls and buttons...I wanted to move right in to her booth and live there, it was so cozy and appealing.
Her work is carried by a number of boutiques, including this online one which has some of her jewelry and
Jenni Bick, who I should be recommending anyway, because they always have such nice stuff, and they also carry Jill's photo albums. She's the kind of artist who's hard to keep up with, though, because each season brings new goodies, and I see now that nothing online comes close to portraying the full range of fun pieces that she has to offer.
And last but certainly not least is the cryptically-named "She Hit Pause Studios" with a nice assortment of Polaroid transfer prints. In addition to the typical vintage signs and scenic landmarks is a most delightful series of "girls and dreams". It's about the cutest set of Polaroid transfer prints I've ever seen.
The full series is here, and they do take online orders.
Happy shopping!
First up is jewelry maker Ananda Khalsa, whose work I first saw a couple of years ago in a gallery in Boulder, Colorado:
She hand-paints exquisite little Japanese-style watercolors and then encases them in glass and mounts them in gold and silver. The whole category of "jewelry with images under glass" is simply exploding right now, with everything you can imagine, but every time I see Khalsa's work I am impressed all over again, because her paintings are so delicate and beautiful, her metalwork is top quality, and the overall design of the pieces is always eye-catching. Her work is leaps and bounds ahead of the imitations, and it varies enough from year to year to keep it always fresh.
Ananda Khalsa's own website is set up for retail sales, so you can go here.
I always "ooh" and "aaahh" over these whenever I find them in other craft galleries, they are hand-made glass chocolates and the sheen of the glass makes them even more yummy-looking than real chocolates:
These are some fairly straightforward ones shown on their website (which is here), but their newest designs have tiny detailed little images screen printed on them, just like all the high-end confectionaires are doing to their edible bonbons. They also come in beautiful tapestry-covered boxed assortments, and they'd make a great gift to anyone watching their waistline or anyone with a fine appreciation of the visual appeal of their food.
Their website includes a list of retailers, and those will special-order you exact candy pieces from the company, so you can pick and choose your own assortment through a variety of sellers. Can I admit that I wanted to pop one in my mouth?
Okay, then there's Jill Schwartz with her "Elements" line, from which I could happily take just about anything and be quite happy with it.
She uses such a fun melange of vintage jewels and plastic baubles and old, faded colors with parchment and pearls and buttons...I wanted to move right in to her booth and live there, it was so cozy and appealing.
Her work is carried by a number of boutiques, including this online one which has some of her jewelry and
Jenni Bick, who I should be recommending anyway, because they always have such nice stuff, and they also carry Jill's photo albums. She's the kind of artist who's hard to keep up with, though, because each season brings new goodies, and I see now that nothing online comes close to portraying the full range of fun pieces that she has to offer.
And last but certainly not least is the cryptically-named "She Hit Pause Studios" with a nice assortment of Polaroid transfer prints. In addition to the typical vintage signs and scenic landmarks is a most delightful series of "girls and dreams". It's about the cutest set of Polaroid transfer prints I've ever seen.
The full series is here, and they do take online orders.
Happy shopping!