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Fiber An elegant, hand-painted silk scarf from Nicole Donson’s Silken Dreams will make a beautiful gift for any woman on your shopping list. All of Donson’s scarves are individually hand-painted on 100 percent silk and have been steamed, washed, and dry-cleaned to make them colorfast. The lightweight scarves are available in a variety of designs, including flowing floral and leaf patterns and abstract arrangements. Donson, a Brookline resident, incorporates bold, rich colors with softer, calmer shades to create a mix of effects and designs. The scarves can be ordered through her Web site, or by visiting Fire Opal or the Cambridge Artists Cooperative. Donson and her scarves will also be at the Harvard Square Holiday Crafts Fairs. Anna Shapiro of Jamaica Plain creates elegant but funky shawls, ponchos, and scarves ($65–$275) made from various blends of wool, acrylic, nylon, cotton, and silk yarn. Shapiro’s refreshing, non-traditional designs are sculptural in effect, draping elegantly and effortlessly over the shoulders. She uses a manual knitting machine, unconventional knitting techniques, and original patterns to create each piece. Shapiro’s work can be found at Fire Opal as well as at the upcoming Brookline Arts Center’s Crafts Showcase and the Cambridge Center for Adult Education’s Holly Fair. She also accepts orders through her Web site. Pottery The Leafware collection from Kaleidoscope Pottery in Easthampton is a fabulous assortment of beautiful, durable pottery ($16–$110). To create the pottery, artisans use different types of leaves to impress images onto each piece. After a 16-stage process, the final effect is a beautiful fossil-like image on the face of each piece. The pottery is made by hand without a potter’s wheel, and is dishwasher-, microwave-, and oven-safe. All pieces are also lead-free. The Leafware collection can be purchased at the Cambridge Artists Cooperative or ordered online. For additional everyday pottery, be sure to check out Fort Point artist Gabrielle Schaffner’s beautiful ceramic tableware ($14–$250). All her white earthenware pieces are either hand-built or wheel-thrown before being glazed, stained, and etched with simple images. Once the pieces receive a final firing, the stains melt and fuse with the glaze to produce beautiful, one-of-a-kind works of art. Although Schaffner’s pieces are highly decorative, they’re also functional and intended for use; she never applies lead glazes to her work, and an occasional trip through the dishwasher won’t cause them any harm. Many of her pieces can be found at Fire Opal and the Society of Arts and Crafts, as well as at the upcoming Fort Point Holiday Sale. Greeting cards/paper products Boston’s Kathianne Sellers turned her creativity and business savvy into her own greeting-card company, producing crafty, clever greeting cards ($3–$6/each; $15–$30/sets) for all sorts of occasions. Some designs incorporate high-quality card stock and Italian paper with sparkling butterflies, rhinestone detailing, hand-drawn artwork, ribbons, and origami paper. A distinctive part of her business is her Couture Cards ($35/five-card set). They can be specifically designed for the recipient, based on a personality description that you provide, and are presented in an organza bag with a personalized gift tag. As a perk, Sellers plans to donate 25 cents from the sale of each card to Operation Smile, a nonprofit organization that provides free surgery to children with cleft palates and other facial deformities. To purchase any of Sellers’s work, visit Cibeline or order directly from Sellers’s Web site. For greeting cards with both simplicity and wit, you’ll love the clever line created by Boston’s Martin and Michelle Yeeles. They began Bob’s Your Uncle in May 2001, naming their company after a popular British catch phrase. Their amusing greeting cards consist of brief phrases spelled out in big, bold letters across the front. Choose from occasion-specific cards such as "Coochy Coochy Coo," to offer congratulations on a recent birth; "Sugar Pie Honey Bunch," as a romantic gesture to your significant other; or "Sleep in Heavenly Peas," to humorously celebrate the upcoming holiday season. Their line of greeting cards, gift wrap, notepads, and disposable placemats ($2.50–$22) is sold worldwide and is available at several Boston-area stores. Visit Black Ink, Paper Source, or the upcoming Fort Point Holiday Sale for Bob’s Your Uncle products. Nikki Rivera’s Cambridge-based company, Pin-Up Revolution, is a great source for journals, date books, address books, photo albums, and scrapbooks ($20–$40). Rivera began making her saucy books two years ago as a hobby. She gave them as gifts before finally turning her craft into a small business. "People loved them so much that I got up the courage to bring them around to a few stores," she says. Each of Rivera’s clever handcrafted books boasts a "pin-up girl with attitude" and is bound with a four-needle Coptic binding stitch and protective seal. This type of binding is long-lasting and allows the books to open and lie flat for easy writing. Pin-Up Revolution products can be found at Pluto and Buckaroo’s Mercantile, or ordered directly from Rivera’s Web site. Darcy Heitzke can be reached at dheitzke[a]phx.com page 2 |
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Issue Date: December 10 - 16, 2004 Back to the Seasons 2004 table of contents |
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