DIYthing

Well if you haven’t heard - Brooklyn Flea is in high gear - the first weekend was a huge success. Every Sunday from 10am to 5pm—rain or shine you can gather with your best buds and check it out at Bishop Loughlin Memorial High School in Fort Greene, Brooklyn, on Lafayette Ave. between Clermont and Vanderbilt Ave. You can expect to see about 200 vendors selling vintage furniture, clothing and antiques plus what we find neat - local makers. There’s even a slideshow of last week’s event. With all of these vendors, you will find great items to upcycle for your green projects.

Check out the April 13th Market Layout to see who will be where.

Are you in a DIY decorating mood? Are you looking for really unique, artsy pieces to spruce up your apartment? If so, you might want to pay a visit to your local architectural salvage store. In NYC there are several. There is a huge one Demolition Depot located in Harlem. This architectural salvage store is located at 216 East 125th Street (between 2nd & 3rd Ave). You can find all sorts of unique vintage and antique items such as windows, doors, shutters, plumbing fixtures, railings, gates, grills, mantels, stone and terracotta pieces, and religious objects. This store is well worth the trip. You can also view their inventory online. Prices can be reasonable, but can also climb quickly for the really unique find. I love their sign, it is made entirely of salvaged parts. The owners have published a book Irreplaceable Artifacts: Decorating the Home with Architectural Ornament by Evan Blum and Leslie Blum.

Architectural salvage stores can be found across the U.S. If you are looking for one in your area you might want to start with this guide of Architectural Antiques and Salvaged Building Materials maintained by Traditional Building. It is not an exhaustive list, but it is a good starting place. Using salvaged architectural pieces is one way to support sustainability and eco-friendly practices. And, the artistic value of many of the pieces is often difficult to find today.

See the inventory online at demolitiondepot.com.

Photo Credits: DJ Elzie

Are you hankering to build something solid? Is so you should check out the Introduction to Furniture Design class at 3rd Ward in Brooklyn. Nao Matsumoto will be your instructor. He is a sculptor and wood furniture maker who has taught at Pratt Institute since 2000.

You will get a chance to design furniture while learning woodworking techniques and gain some woodworking skills that may help you in other projects. If you are new to woodworking you can relax, you will even learn about woodshop machine use and safety to get you started.

So start thinking about your project idea and head over to 3rd Ward’s website for more details.

Dates:
Saturdays June 30; July 7, 14, 21, 28; August 4
Times:
5p-8p
Registration Deadline
June 26

We love highlighting artists that we meet. Sometimes we meet people through the Web as well. Last weekend I visited BKLYN Designs and got a chance to see Daniel Moyer’s booth. I had blogged about his interview with BKLYN Designs 2007 last week. He e-mailed me this week and thanked me for the public appreciation of his work. That was nice. It is always great to hear from artists that we highlight. I mentioned to Daniel that I would love to know more about his work, especially his use of whimsy, as I find it really interesting. He took a moment and shared some of his thoughts with me and I thought I would share them with you as well here at aDIYthing.

“The whimsy is really interesting to me as well. Without it, I don’t think I could produce at all. I rely almost entirely upon it to inform me as I work; it answers all of the small questions about scale and placement and combination, usually before they are even asked. More profoundly, the whimsy offers outlandish answers to standard questions of form: what holds this up? What keeps this together? The whimsy provides balance and interest and inspiration. It is a functional whimsy. My whimsy works in collage in the back of my mind in a kind of catalogue of visual memory. It’s more like a bucket; only whimsy knows how or if it’s organized. I’ve been feeding the whimsy observation all of my life [I think]; she’s been returning dreams and vision for as long [I know]. I hope you can see the whimsy in my work [she can see you].
Sorry about that.” — Daniel

The visual memory that Daniel talks about is very interesting to me. I have research interests along these lines. The whole concept of his collage in the back of his mind suggests that artists work out problems in their minds by manipulating images, rotating them, breaking pieces apart and putting them together again.

We also talked some of my son’’s interest in skateboards. My 18 year old son is skater boy. I was telling him about Daniel’s skateboards this past weekend, and he was wondering if they are heavy since they are hardwoods. My son is very artistic and is starting to paint boards for sale.

Daniel said that he’s correct: “ounce for ounce, hardwood boards are heavier than either fiberglass or plywood. The natural structure of whole hardwood is slightly less strong than the glues and resins that support the other two; therefore extra thickness is required leading to more weight. HOWEVER, that same natural structure provides a far superior natural springiness that plywood and fiberglass can only poorly imitate. Also, the natural structure of whole wood is designed to support a tree’s lifetime of flexibility as the breeze blows through its’ leaves; everybody who rides the other two knows how soggy the flex gets after the binders get tired. Now if you’re doing tricks or riding bowls, lightness might be more important than flex. Carving the hilly streets of Brooklyn on a longboard is all about flex. And anyway, if your board is under your feet, who cares how much it weighs? Just don’t ever get off [I carry mine into and out of the subway and so far it’s OK].”

Hope you get a chance to see his designs at his sites or catch him at one of the design shows.
www.danielmoyerdesign.com or www.funkinfunction.com

BKLYN BUZZ has a great interview with designer Daniel Moyer. Daniel uses local hardwoods to create fine furniture. Check out his one-of-a-kind “high-art skateboards”. His company will debut this weekend at BKLYN DESIGNS™ fifth anniversary show in DUMBO. The show is this weekend, May 11 – 23, 2007. The show features Brooklyn’s “hottest new designers and manufacturers of contemporary furnishings.” It will be buzzin’ with energy in these venues:

St. Ann’s Warehouse, 38 Water St.
Smack Mellon, 92 Plymouth St.
BKLYN DESIGNS Annex, 81 Front St.
DUMBO, Brooklyn (Down Under the Manhattan Bridge Overpass)

And if you are a struggling college student you can attend for $5 with a valid student ID.

Show hours are: Friday, May 11, 10 am to 8 pm; Saturday, May 12, 10 am to 7 pm; and Sunday, May 13, 10 am to 6 pm.

Take a look at some of the artists and design studios who will be exhibiting this weekend.
andreaclaire lighting

Aswoon/ Susan Woods Studio

Amy Helfand

Paul Loebach

Brooklyn Glass Inc.

City Joinery

Clerkin Higgins Stained Glass