Staging the Renegade Craft Fair in the Pool at McCarren Park Pool is a great way to crystallize the cultural divide that is Williamsburg: you walk through thousands of Hispanic families camped out under every tree in the park, grilling and drinking and playing soccer. Then you enter the decrepit concrete pit filled with hipsters getting sewn into their hotpants jumpsuits and choosing just the right letterpressed coasters.
And pushing Bugaboos. The place was freaking with cutesy silk-screened Onesies [sic] and kid t-shirts, enough to pay for at least a month's legal fees for American Apparel CEO and sexual harasser in chief, Dov Charney.
Here are a few things that stood out:
Though they market them as desk toys, the little puzzle blocks by Mogo Goods, the matryoshka people, were cool. They're printed on four sides and come in a little matryoshka [what else?] gift bag, $24. Mogo has some cool balloon dog Onesies and kimono tees that would appeal to the Jeff Koons fan on a budget. [mogogoods.com]
To say that Taliah Lempert paints portraits of peoples' bicycles is to just scratch the surface of her oeuvre. She also screens silhouettes of bicycles onto t-shirts and bodysuits, and she prints up line drawings of bicycle portraits into tasty, oversized coloring books. Which I bought for just five dollars on the spot, even though it's easily worth the online price of $8+ $2 s/h. [bicyclepaintings.com]
Just around the corner from Cathy of California [who posted about that awesome, mod plexi dollhouse a while back] was Victoria of Albany, better known to her etsy customers as exlibris handmade. This pretty awesome denim crib blanket is made from reclaimed fabric. I didn't think to ask the price, though, because I was too busy couting out my 18 bones for one of the little hand-embroidered cloth books that has the names of colors in Spanish. [exlibrishandmade.etsy.com]
