This handmade folk art wooden railroad tower (and coal shoot!) has working levers to raise and lower each shoot door. So cool.
Category: Etsy
Beads
Posted by – March 25, 2013
I really love these raw, beautiful necklaces. They’re composed of kiln-fired enamel on a leather cord. So gorgeous.
The Twenty Four Woman: Calendar Edition
Posted by – December 8, 2012
A few months back, I wrote about Scott Lenhardt’s quest to make his page-a-day nude calendar a reality. Folks, I am here to say it is here, it is for sale, and it is so damn charming. Behold, the Twenty Four Hour Woman! She installs air conditioners, she works a visor, she sells twist cones at an ice cream stand — all in the very endearing nude. (Because who doesn’t love turnip-shaped boobs?)
But how did this little lady come to be? Scott explains the Twenty Four Woman’s origins as such:
Twenty Four Hour Woman is a one-a-day calendar not unlike the popular Far Side calendars of the ’80s. It’s a simple idea that is meant to celebrate the woman caught in the act of whatever it is she is doing, one day at a time. This nude series started as an exercise a few years ago in my studio as a way to warm up my brain, get my hand moving and help ease any seriousness that might have been floating around. Each day of this 5″ X 4″ (approx.) tear-off calendar contains a different little drawing of a naked lady doing something different for every day of the year. I have spent the last year-and-a-half illustrating the limitless list of activities and tasks and have done my best to do so with love and honesty.
I’m so excited to greet each new day of 2013 with the Twenty Four Hour Woman.
Snowflake Crystal Holiday Cards
Posted by – November 25, 2012
I’m so in love with these snowflake crystal holiday cards. (Bought them immediately, in fact!) According to seller Jeremy Rendina, “This collage of snow crystal micro-photographs was originally taken in the 1920s by Vermont farmer Wilson Bentley; individual snowflakes were caught on black velvet and photographed before melting.” Gorgeous.
Love These Brutalist Candlesticks
Posted by – August 4, 2012
I’ve been ogling all things Brutalist lately, and these candlesticks are just so damn cool! Love the stalagmite look. They look like they’d fit right into a cave.
Petit Mort
Posted by – July 14, 2012
Pretty in love with Petit Mort. Anything with crochet chains draws my eye, but those nested gemstones really make ‘em pop.
Don’t You Need…
Posted by – June 9, 2012
Lately, I’ve been coming across more amazing things than I could ever hoard for myself. Etsy provides!
In the interest of making your bank account sweat, here’s a new little series of objects I covet but cannot own, called:
Don’t you need…
…a silk handkerchief, showing a woman crying with a hankie? Instructional and meta.
And weren’t you saying you needed an original drawing of Lou Reed?
Or how about a funky ’70s bedroom set? Lots of space for cats to hide out!
Killer Wayne’s World cards. I’ll probably end up buying these if you don’t. She’s also got some great Pulp Fiction and Mean Girls ones.
Tangerine suede portfolio clutch: kind of sweating this big time. Buy it so I don’t, please!
The Celluloid Rings of Bob Dodd
Posted by – May 7, 2012
Last week, in the course of my daily folk art search on Etsy, I stumbled upon something exciting: something better than old needlework, more interesting than your typical duck sculpture. This was a cache of the most amazing rings I’d ever laid eyes upon, and there had to be a story behind them.
I wrote to the shop owner, Constance, in the hopes of finding out more info. The story just got better. In fact, it went back over seventy years, to the days when the rings’ handy creator, Bob Dodd, was a sailor. According to Constance:
Bob said that when he started as a sailor in 1937, making rings from celluloid was a crafty thing to do, but few people made more than one or two because the process was so time consuming and labor intensive. Each of these intricate rings was made by hand — without the use of molds or melting — by cutting up raw materials such as old celluloid toothbrushes, hand mirrors, vanity trays, combs, piano keys, guitar picks, umbrella handles, pocket knife handles, accordion pieces. (Bob said he once even used a piece from the windshield of a helicopter or small plane.) These pieces are then filed, pieced together, and filed again. This process can take a master craftsman a day or more to complete.
Today Constance is selling a portion of her collection of Bob’s rings, in the hopes of funding efforts to make them herself. Bob was a true folk art hero, and I can only hope to own one of these elaborate pieces someday.
I Dream of Almanzo Wilder
Posted by – March 17, 2012
Oh my. Do you know what these are? (Dismembered Sasquatch arms? Bear claws, minus the claws?) Hold your guesses! They’re actually vintage stagecoach driver gloves. Totally brings to mind the long, snowy drives from Little House on the Prairie, when Almanzo would go and pick up Laura from her terrible teaching job. Through blizzards, ice and a frigid twelve mile drive (each way!), they’d drive in silence across the prairie, huddled under a bearskin. Oh, courtship!
Pick up Little House if you haven’t read it in a decade or two. It totally holds up, and it’s a yearly tradition for me to re-read the series. All the talk of cozy sod houses built into the ground, clean hay and corn cob dolls just make me feel all warm and gooey inside.
Claywork
Posted by – March 3, 2012
I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again: pottery rules me. Claywork provokes my most covetous urges. Just…want…all of it.
What’s the Word for “Sad and Cute”?
Posted by – February 11, 2012
Oh, the dreaded cone of shame! These salt and pepper shakers by Rogue Taxidermy are both tragic and adorable. Love!
Yevgeniya’s Masks
Posted by – November 22, 2011
Yevgeniya Kilupe, a Latvian Holocaust survivor and self-taught artist, started making masks to supplement her pension after a life of working in a factory. The Etsy Blog was lucky enough to interview this tiny lady and check out her process. Not only is she totally adorable — her masks are incredible!
Read more on the Etsy Blog.
Twin Peaks Dioramas
Posted by – September 26, 2011
Twin Peaks is a series that screams “fall” to me. I can’t hear the intro without thinking of snuggling up under a blanket, cherry pie and a “damn fine cup of coffee.” The characters are so lovable, but often bizarre — Nadine and her eyepatch (and curtains), the backwards-speaking little person, Laura Palmer. There are infinitely more reasons to love this show, but ultimately, it’s certainly lives up to its cult status — which results in an incredible breadth and variety of fan art. Case in point, these can-size, miniature dioramas that show key moments from the series, including “the red room,” the scene of the crime (that’s Laura in a plastic bag, not a weird doobie, FYI) and many others.
Find more can-size dioramas in Box Artig’s shop on Etsy.
Kara Gunter’s “Trial by Fire”
Posted by – August 15, 2011
I first came across Kara Gunter’s smoke-fired ceramic eggs on Etsy. Intrigued by the premise, I looked up her website and the art project where the eggs originated, entitled “Trial by Fire.” I was not disappointed: the salt, smoke and ceramics are like candy to me! Kara’s artistic statement explains her motivations:
According to fire ecology — the study of fire and its relationship to living organisms — fire is a necessity for propagation. Certain plant life has evolved to depend on fire as a means to clear out the old and dying so new life can take hold. Seeds are split open by the heat, and the ground is fertile with ash.
Trial by Fire explores themes of devastation followed by the cycle of rebirth. Referenced are eggs, seeds and cast away skins, all signs that the metamorphosis has begun. Salt, also attributed with purifying and preservation, suspends the moment of purity in time, holding the cycle’s completion in stasis.
The majority of the work created for Trial by Fire, utilizes fire in some way in its fabrication. Clay must be exposed to extreme heat to become vitreous. Furthermore, clay work has been stained with fire and smoke in the smoke-firing process. Paper and wood have been blistered and scorched with fire.
So beautiful. Many of the pieces are now for sale on Etsy.
Creepy Kitten
Posted by – August 7, 2011
I’m not sure I’ve ever seen a muff like this rabbit fur kitten. The attached head! The missing eye! (I’m a sucker for a cyclops.) I feel envious of the child that kept her paws warm inside this little bit of cute antiquity.
(No actual kittens harmed. I can’t speak for the bunnies, unfortunately.)
[Via Pinterest, home of all things good.]
Birthday Thoughts
Posted by – July 26, 2011
[Clockwise: Vintage Furry Man; Vintage Cast Iron Crab; Matte Wavy Band; Vintage Humo Frames; Raw Chocolate Tea Pot; 1930s Bakelite Timer; Vintage Straw Handbag; Original Abstract Painting; Antique Woven Willow Chest; Vintage Beacon Blanket Pillows; Rustic Jug; Pedro Pujol Abstract Copper Sculpture]
So, my birthday is next week. I received several concerned emails about what I’d like to receive as a gift; I’ve been told that I’m very hard to buy for. (True. So true.) I haven’t decided yet if I’m actually going through with a party or not. All I really want is a freshly made pie (peach), some sweet cards and a vacation — and I’m taking all of next week off, in fact! Cape Cod, here we come.
However, if I had my way, here are some gifts I would open with great glee. Mostly that beautiful matte gold ring.
Ceramics by Juliet Gorman
Posted by – June 27, 2011
I’ve been a fan of Juliet Gorman’s ceramics for quite a while; over a year, in fact. I’ve observed the Internet explode over her work — and rightly so, because it’s so damn beautiful! — and all the while I’ve sat on the sidelines, watching her style develop. You see, Juliet is not only my colleague at Etsy, but she’s also a friend. I absolutely admire her aesthetic, and I made a point to venture out to Renegade Craft Fair to snag a necklace (my new favorite and in constant rotation). At long last, her work is for sale on Etsy. Check out her shop at Digoyo.
Victorian Sleep Mask
Posted by – June 13, 2011
I’m trying to keep myself from buying this amazing antique sleep mask from Ethanollie (look at the eyes!), so I thought I’d post it here, in the hopes that someone else would buy it.
And….go!
Shoppin’
Posted by – June 12, 2011
[Clockwise from left: Horse Hair Belt; Ulpu Earrings; Antique Wooden Elephant; Vintage Lace Wide-Leg Pants; Vintage Rocking Horse; Vintage Abacus Lamp; Kilim Cube Stool; 1940s Clarion Bakelite Radio; Coney Island Photographs, Circa 1940; Brutalist Wrought Iron Candle Holders]
I’ve been hoarding all kinds of goodies in my Etsy cart. I’m not sure if I’ll ever actually have the guts to wear lace pants, but damn if I don’t think about it often! (And what a nice breeze for summer.) Also, the horse hair belt? Incredible.
Thanks to an in-the-know commenter, I’ve been informed that the elephant above is a classic Schoenhut toy from the 1930s. I’ve since fallen down a Schoenhut hole on eBay — so many incredible designs, and all wooden! In addition to wooden animals (many circus-themed), they also made realistic dolls and miniature musical instruments, like this player piano. Their clown toy is the stuff nightmares are made of! Thanks for the tip, Robin!
Furniture Lust
Posted by – May 12, 2011
Vintage twosome Daily Memorandum (“an intellectual’s Americana”) has been hitting it out of the park. The workbench? I’d use it as a desk in my imaginary garage. Or even learn to solder!
Each photo links to the furniture in question.
Fragile Contents
Posted by – March 18, 2011
As I can’t seem to curb my pottery addiction, I’m constantly stumbling across it on Etsy. Then buying it. Then attempting to find a place for it in my crowded apartment. Here are some of my favorites from this week. Check out that ceramic lantern!
[Clockwise: Hand Built Ceramic Lantern; Stoneware Vase by Theo Helmstadter; Striped West German Vase; Yellow and Blue Bowl by DiTerra; Eggshell Vessel by Modine Pottery; Folded Miso Bowl by Pigeon Toe Ceramics; Blue and White Jar; Teapot by BellaCosset]
Little Minnows
Posted by – February 28, 2011
Just discovered the lovely swimwear of Minnow Bathers via Fieldguided’s Etsy faves. The first suit is, to turn a phrase, “sex on wheels.”
Do you use Circles on Etsy? Crucial to find neat stuff your friends are favoriting!
Time Wasting Experiments
Posted by – February 16, 2011
I’m deeply moved by Alyson Provax’s inventory of her wasted time. (Or is it so wasted? Can understanding ever be a negative?) Take in the reasoning and philosophy behind this project on the Etsy Blog.
Wonder Pups
Posted by – January 3, 2011
Enh!
Plush sculptor kusjkjkjk creates the most animated, Muppet-like creatures. These adorable dogs appear as photographs in children’s books but can also be posed in stop motion animation. I’m charmed. Find them on Etsy.
I Couldn’t Stay Away
Posted by – December 24, 2010
Here I am in Iowa, sixteen inches of snow on the ground and a self-proclaimed blawggin’ hiatus currently underway…but I just couldn’t stay off the internet. Nope, addicted. Then I saw this glorious felt and fur wall hanging by Modern Fiber Lab and I just had to share. It’s like a matted pelt! (My favorite.) If I was loaded, this would be in my living room right this second.
Back to hiatus, and happy Christmas!
On Used Bandaids and Broken Glass
Posted by – December 17, 2010
If trash is treasure — and it usually is, as my raccoon-like rooting instincts are now honed to a science — then my used Q-Tips are eagerly awaiting their second life from the cloistered comforts of my bathroom garbage can. Yes, you heard me correctly: waxy Q-Tips, stale potato chips, and used Bandaids — the refuse that only bottom-feeding pets with a penchant for choking usually deign to touch? — are now cast currency, and beautiful at that. In Danielle deCongé’s Rescued Refuse jewelry collection, she “brings life to overlooked familiar forms rather than creating new ones. She transforms objects such as orange peels, potato chips, toothpicks, and coffee sleeves by employing traditional metalsmthing techniques.”
I’m pretty in lust with the pearl-and-broken-champagne-bottle earrings.
P.S. You can rot in hell, bedbugs. Get out of my trash cans and let me root in peace!
[Via]
Snow Dreams
Posted by – December 12, 2010
It’s a humid, heavy rain kind of day here in Brooklyn. Fifty-six degrees is not really normal for December! I never thought I’d say it, but I can’t wait for cold that freezes the inside of my nose and snow deep enough to fall in, Iowa style. Bring it on.
[Via]
Waaaant!
Posted by – November 28, 2010
The horsehair and weave jewelry trend is finally starting to take off on Etsy, and I couldn’t be happier. This bangin’ pair of vintage horsehair duster earrings by Dollybird are on my holiday wish list. Gift guides to come!
P.S. That lip color is something else. I want that too!
