NewNew » Markets of New York

Photo of the Day for December 10, 2011 – Take Me Away! City Charms from Adornments NYC

Martin Lopez is the wonderful creator of Adornments NYC jewelry. His style is so unique – vintage, slightly Victorian, and elegantly sexy. And he always has something new in his display.

This past weekend we went to the NewNew Etsy Artisan Group’s Handmade Cavalcade, and we found Martin’s new Luggage Tag Jewelry! He uses real and often vintage coins from countries around the world and pairs them with fire-polished bit of filigree and a symbolic charm or a pearl or gemstone. He cleverly displays them on luggage tags with the airport codes for each respective city. You may know I’m a Francophone, so the French franc and three little letters CDG (Charles de Gaulle Airport in Paris) on this luggage tag evoke a lot of happy feelings in me.

We saw Martin’s luggage tags for LHR (London Heathrow), BCN (Barcelona El Prat), FLR (Florence), SYD (Sydney), FRA (Frankfurt) and BOM (Mumbai – I wonder if they’ll change their code some day to MUM).

If you have a favorite city in the world, maybe Martin will design a lovely necklace for you!

Find Adornments NYC online and keep in touch on Facebook. Meet Martin in person this weekend at the Astoria Market’s Columbus Avenue Holiday Pop-Up Market!

2011 New York Holiday Markets Guide (Updated 12/22)

NEWSFLASH! Now you’re really down to the wire! Buy all your last minute gifts in the Markets of New York City! You’ll be glad you did!

Check out Markets of New York City on NY1: Navigating the Holiday Markets! (List of the designers and markets mentioned.)

I am very excited to publish the 2011 New York Holiday Markets Guide!

The guide links to over 40 events throughout the boroughs, and we will be adding more as they are announced. Again this year, there are both traditional holiday markets that span the entire season and special one or two day events. From jewelry to perfume and soap, objets d’art to clothing and everything in between, New Yorkers and visitors to our fair city can find wonderful gifts for everyone on your list in the markets of New York City! I look forward to seeing you in the markets, and I will be posting as many of our finds as we can during the season.

Send me your event to add to the Markets Guide!! And remember:

Photo of the Day – July 12, 2011: WebbedWare Vintage Fabric Jewelry

Courtney Webb is the thoughtful and clever designer behind WebbedWare. Courtney uses vintage fabrics to create colorful, versatile, and very pretty cuffs, necklaces, earrings and rings. The fabric is affixed to the metal design foundation using a clear acrylic that not only protects the fabric and makes the entire piece more durable, it also enhances the colors. Each cuff and ring is lined with leather for a very comfortable fit.

To me, WebbedWare designs appear retro and modern at the same time, like the classic Diane Von Furstenburg Wrap Dress. They also have a preppy feel, with bold and classic patterns. You can wear every one of Courtney’s handmade pieces to any kind of event at any time of day.

Find Courtney and WebbedWare every weekend at the Artists and Fleas Market in Williamsburg, or visit her online shop. Courtney is also a member of the {NewNew} Etsy Artisan Group.

Weekend Market Picks: July 9-10, 2011 + Cherries!!!

It is going to be a fantastic weekend to spend outdoors in New York City. If you are second homeless and therefore staying in town all summer, then come hang out with me at the markets. And if you are visiting New York City, definitely check out the fantastic food and buy all your souvenirs directly from New York’s finest artisans!

And stop by any Greenmarket to pick up plump, juicy cherries, like the ones in the photo from the Cheerful Cherry Farm!

Saturday & Sunday

Brooklyn Flea: I’m definitely feeling the need to visit the Brooklyn Flea, as it’s been a few weeks. Looking forward to seeing my usual favorites and checking out what’s new in food, artisans, and fleas! Saturday in the Ft. Green location and Sunday in Williamsburg.

Hell’s Kitchen Flea Market and Sunday Gourmet Food Truck Bazaar: The Hell’s Kitchen Flea Market is one of the largest and best traditional fleas in the city, and they have invited members of the {NewNew} Etsy Artisan Group to add to the variety. The first Sunday of every month, they also host the Food Truck Bazaar, featuring some of the city’s fabulous food on wheels!

Saturday

Hester Street Fair: Gotta send you to the Hester Street Fair this Saturday! In addition to the well-selected vintage, flea, and handmade sellers there, they sent out the list of featured food vendors. Appetizers, main course, main course, dessert, dessert, dessert. Take notes and let me know what you ate!

St. George Greenmarket: This is a good weekend to hop on the Staten Island Ferry and visit the St. George Greenmarket. It overlooks the harbor and the New York City skyline, and it features premier Greenmarket sellers of fresh fruits, vegetables, baked goods, seafood, and more. This borough features amazing vistas, architecture, and even wildlife – more than 117 species of birds!

Sunday

Astoria Market: Yes! The Astoria Market is back this weekend. Handmade and vintage goods at this artisan market in the Main Hall of the Bohemian Hall — you know, the one with the Beer Garden! Check out some of the very cool products you’ll find there this weekend on the Astoria Market Blog!

New Amsterdam Market: The New Amsterdam Market is back this Sunday after a July 4th hiatus. This weekend’s food market lineup includes breads, meats, mead, lobster rolls, artisanal sodas, sweets, imported tea, and many more edible luxuries.

Take pictures and let us know your favorite finds and tastiest treats! Someone is making me a cherry pie on Sunday! If you have a great recipe, please share!

Photo of the Day: Colorful Jewelry Designs from Yania Creations

Yania Mor of Yania Creations has a knack for color combinations. She creates a vast array of jewelry designs made with colorful stones and crystals in sterling silver and gold-filled settings. What I love about Yania’s work is the diversity of shapes and colors, with a distinctive style throughout the collection. She makes designs with large stones and settings, as well as dainty, refined pieces. You can get a sense for Yania’s designs from the range of earrings in this photo.

I have a pair small of amethyst earrings with a pearl accent that I wear constantly because they are so pretty. And I have my eye on Adeline, a pair of smokey topaz earrings with multi-colored tourmaline rondelles.

Yania sells her designs at artisan markets around the city. You can meet her this weekend at the Smith Street Funday Sunday Street Fair! Or shop from her Etsy.shop. Yania is also a member of the talented {NewNew} Etsy Artisans Group.

Artisans, Food Trucks and Fleas – Oh My!

The Hell’s Kitchen Flea Market has been doing some exciting things up in Midtown. Known for its classic flea market vendors selling vintage clothing, antique furniture, and other fascinating objects, the flea market is now home to the periodic Food Truck Bazaar. The food is delicious, and who doesn’t love to eat food from a truck? And now you don’t have to track down your favorite trucks all over town. You can go the Bazaar and find many of them in one spot. The food trucks that participated in the most recent event included:

And now the Hell’s Kitchen Flea Market also features fantastic local handmade Etsy artisans! The {NewNew} Artisans Group opened up their tents at the flea market in early April. Frankly, I was a curious as to how well the handmade products would mesh with the vintage and antique products at this well-established market. I’m happy to report that the artisans add a lovely new dimension to the shopping experience. Some fine examples of the variety of handmade products on their debut weekend included:

Saskia Devries, handmade Jewelry
Hanky Blanky, delicate baby blankets, clothing and toys made from vintage handkerchiefs
New York Clocks, featuring clocks made from any variety of nostalgic tins and boxes.
Lovely Day Designs by LuCraft, selling handmade light switch plates, glass paperweights, magnets, and more

So head over to the Hell’s Kitchen Flea Market on West 39 St. between 10th & 11th Avenue Saturdays and Sundays to check out all the amazing treasures there. The next Food Truck Bazaar is scheduled for Sunday, May 8th! Do we really have to wait that long?

Video of the Week: Windows of Agate and The {NewNew}

You may have noticed my project on IndieGoGo.com to add video to this site. The project is starting to gain momentum, and so I wanted to give you a preview of the kinds of video features we are planning to do a lot more of with the video equipment. So last weekend, we took the ferry to Governor’s Island to see The {NewNew}’s Treasure Chest boutique one last time. We shot this bit of video with our regular still-photography camera (Panasonic GF1). It was great fun, and I can’t wait to see what we can do with an actual video camera!

The {NewNew}’s Treasure Chest was held in an historical home on Governor’s Island transformed into a handmade wonderland. I wanted to document this shop and show it to you in case you didn’t get a chance to visit in person. We were fortunate to find the talented Karina Glaser, the artisan behind Windows of Agate, a line of soft and fun children’s toys. She agreed to be our first video story, and I’m so happy she did. Have a look!

The {NewNew]’s Treasure Chest boutique is closed for the season. Hopefully they’ll be back next summer. The great news is that you can find these artisans and their treasures at the markets and other events all during the year. The {NewNew} is an association of 250 artisans from the New York area who sell their work in the markets, on Etsy.com, and in other related events during the year. Check out their website for events and updates.

Please support our IndieGoGo.com project so that we can start having even more fun with our videos! And please share the link!

The Brooklyn Indie Market and The {NewNew} Present “Kidding Around” This Saturdayl

Matryoshka Doll Tee and Colorful Balls by Felt It

The Brooklyn Indie Market and The {NewNew} Etsy Artisans Group have teamed up this summer to bring us several special events focusing on sustainable living. The first one was “Handmade Hearth and Home” in June, featuring gorgeous handmade home decor items.

This weekend’s event is Kidding Around, focusing on handmade items for children. The participating artisans create a collection of handmade treasures that you just won’t find in a store. Here is a sampling of the kinds of wonderful things you will find this Saturday, from colorful soft toys and organic crib bedding, to all kinds of fun clothing and things to decorate your kid’s room:

Felt It – Eco-Felt Hand-Applique Items. The photo above is Felt It’s Matryoshka Doll tee and handmade soft felt balls.
Rosirouge - Handmade Children’s Clothes and Blankets
Over All Baby – Handmade Overalls for Infants and Toddlers
WoollyBoo – Handmade Organic Crib Bedding, Crib Sets, and Sleep Sacks
Purty Bird – Art and Decor Featuring Mostly Flowers and Several Monsters
Playground Rockstar – Great T-Shirts for Kids

They are also holding a book swap for children’s books! So bring the one’s you and your kids have already memorized, and take home some new ones.

Kidding Around – Saturday, July 17, 11AM – 7PM at the Brooklyn Indie Market on Smith and Union Streets in Carroll Gardens, Brooklyn

Opening Day of the Hester Street Fair

Today was Opening Day of the Hester Street Fair! I got there a little bit after it opened at 10 AM, and things were already in full swing. Everyone was commenting on the great vibe of the market and the lovely setting under a canopy of London Plane trees. By the end of the day, the total tally was over 11,000 visitors!

Vintage and flea market type vendors are there selling furniture, clothing, posters, decorative items, and much more. I saw a set of four Arts & Crafts style dining table chairs for $40. A wide array of artisans are also selling beautiful handmade items, from throw pillows and greeting cards to jewelery and clothing. The talented and diverse NewNew Etsy artisans group will have different members participating each weekend day. The Hester Street Fair has a balanced mix of vendors, and the quality level is outstanding.

The Hester Street Fair also has a delectable assortment of wonderful food, including breads, pastries, and other delicious things prepared on the spot, following the excellent example of the Brooklyn Flea. There will also be fresh produce vendors at the market each weekend. There was a lot of buzz around the omelettes from toogood Traders. I watched them fry up a huge toogood Greens omelet with “3 eggs, spring onions, kale, spinach, asparagus, fiddlehead ferns, and stinging nettles.” The line for Luke’s Lobster Rolls was impressive for 11 AM, although what could be better than a buttery lobster brunch? For me, the most amazing discovery was a S’Mores mini pie from First Prize Pies, with its graham cracker crust, delicious layer of chocolate, and golden brown top coating of marshmallow. A sweet mini slice of heaven.

One of my favorite aspects of the Hester Street Fair is its focus on the community. The founders of the market live right nearby, and they are committed not only to providing a great resource for the neighborhood, but also to bringing visitors and revenue to the area as well. Among their partners is the Lower East Side Ecology Center, which “works toward a more sustainable New York City by providing community-based recycling and composting programs, developing local stewardship of green space, and increasing community awareness, involvement and youth development through environmental education programs.”

So go check out the Hester Street Fair, and make sure you bring your market bag — and your appetite!

Big Weekend for Markets in New York City!

Handmade Cavalcade, April 24, 2010 at Berry Park in Williamsburg

Market Season is definitely upon us! Here are some great events to help make this a spectacular weekend:

Saturday, April 24:

Spring Handmade Cavalcade – Sponsored by the NewNew Artists Group, featuring over 25 vendors selling their wonderful handmade designs. Berry Park in Williamsburg, 10am – 5pm

Saturday and Sunday, April 24 & 25:

Brooklyn Flea Annual Plant Sale – In partnership with GrowNYC, Greenmarket vendors will be selling “annuals, bulbs, herbs, perennials, vegetable starters, you name it.” Don’t miss this once a year event! Saturday at Ft. Greene location and Sunday at One Hanson.
Crafts on Columbus – The American Arts and Crafts Alliance, Inc. hosts this long-standing craft fair over three weekends through May 9. Make it a day by visiting the Greenflea and the Greenmarket on Sunday too! Columbus Avenue between 77th & 81st Streets.
Hester Street Fair - The Hester Street Fair launches this weekend. Loaded with artisans, farmers, food vendors, and flea vendors, Hester Street Fair brings the traditional markets of the Lower East Side back to life. Hester & Essex Streets, 10 – 6 pm

Also launching on Friday, April 23:

Homemade Brooklyn - Homemade Brooklyn opens a week-long pop-up store featuring artists, artisans, a film screening and more. 522 Metropolitan between Union and Lorimer, 12 – 8 pm

See you on the streets and lots in the city. Rain or shine, it’s all good!