Handmade & Bklyn Designs with Brooklyn Modern

brooklynmodern

Story by brooklynmodern

Published on May 16, 2009 in Events

Photo by Moco Loco, Palo Samko's bench made from reclaimed pine.

Brooklyn Modern‘s Gerald Lastarza taps into the vision behind cutting edge handmade furniture. Gerald is a furniture maker and blogger based in New York.

A walk through the aisles of Dumbo’s Bklyn Designs will give you a good idea of why it’s better to buy handmade products. The show, set in the former industrial area of Brooklyn known as DUMBO (Down Under the Manhattan Bridge Overpass), features cutting-edge furniture made by artists who reside in Brooklyn. All of them have gone through a rigorous selection process to be accepted into the show. A central theme to this year’s exhibit was “green,” and many of the featured pieces were made from reclaimed wood and organic material.

For instance, there was always a crowd around Palo Samko’s large dining table pictured below. It is constructed from reclaimed wood and then bleached, burned, and stained it dark green. Samko comes from a mountain town on the Czech/Polish border and is a self-taught builder. He has a passion for handmade structures from the 1920′s, such as zepplins and buildings. He brings this appreciation of craft to his work and applies a modern design sense.

table       photo
Samko’s reclaimed table. Look at the scenery when you dine.

Craftsmanship and artistic vision are indeed fine reasons to buy handmade products. But there’s another one. Eric Manigian, a master woodworker who exhibited at the show, says that custom work never ends up in the landfill: “It will be held onto for a long time, as opposed to being replaced in a few years, thus not endangering natural resources.“ When Manigian takes on assignments, his clients often consider their children or grandchildren when making decisions. Thus your handmade product is more likely to stay in your life, reducing your use of raw materials.

When you buy handmade, you also support artisans, people who practice skills that have nearly become extinct because of mass production. These skills are part of the human knowledge bank. Once forgotten, they may never be recovered. Woodworking, metal working and weaving are just a few of the trades seen in this show.

   

Manigian’s table is held together by complex joinery, not screws and bolts.
Joinery is an art that dates back thousands of years.

A nice thing to see at the exhibit was the media coverage. Everyone from the NY Times to local blogs covered the event. Inhabitat, one of my favorite sites, gave a green guided tour of the show. With press like this, there is no doubt that the public’s appreciation of handmade goods will grow.
Check out Bklyn Designs next year and if you’re in New York this weekend, the International Contemporary Furniture Fair (ICFF) is happening May 16-19, 2009. For Etsy furniture finds, peruse our picks below.


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