Manchester Craft and Design Center

The Manchester Craft and Design Center is housed in a renovated Victorian fish and poultry market, about 10 minutes’ walk from the Arndale Center. It contains two floors of artists’ studios and a small café. I didn’t buy anything. I just walked around and took a few photos. Much cheaper. 🙂

Glass mosaic studio.

Studio interior. There was a work room on the left and a display room on the right. The box compartments hold small cards decorated with buttons.

Back to Hutzot haYotzer, 2011

We went back on Aug. 22 to Hutzot haYotzer, the International Arts and Crafts Fair in Jerusalem, and I bought a few small things, including a couple inexpensive pieces of commercial Ikat cloth. I chatted with Surendra Meher, the weaver in the photo above. As you can see from his work on the wall behind him, his weaving is quite impressive, very different from the cheap pieces that were for sale. I couldn’t get a close look because he was standing between passersby and the shawls, probably making sure no one would damage them. I also bought a shoulder bag because I liked the mixture of blues.

A Thai woman painted t-shirts and parasols:

The woman in the photo below was selling Chinese embroideries.

I love the colourful textiles at one of the Cameroon booths but I couldn’t really justify buying another bag!

Next door an Indian woman was selling batiks.

No Transylvanian castle should be without a Vlad the Impaler wall clock. Spotted at the Romanian booth.

They were selling fresh, very aromatic coffee in tiny cups at the Ethiopian booth. A couple women were also doing hair-wrapping.

I spotted a macrame border on this orange cloth covering the table at one of the Brazilian booths. I photographed it because lacy macrame is not too common around here.

I bought a wood wall clock from Israeli designer Ofek Wertman. He’s the guy in the back right corner in the photo below.

There were many interesting clocks for sale at the fair, but this one appealed to me as a personal statement (because I’ve created my life several times over) than as an artistic piece. It’s hanging on my bulletin board at work.

Basta had some lovely, simple pieces made from enameled metal.

Some of Nuni Yanai‘s beautiful stars. She imports her basket reeds from the US and dyes them herself.

Bezalel Art Fair in Jerusalem

What a great planter! It was on the sidewalk outside a small cafe. It is designed to look like a framed painting of a plant in a vase on an easel, with a real plant sticking out.

Last Friday I finally managed to visit the Bezalel Art Fair in downtown Jerusalem. The fair started in April, 2010, and seems to be an ongoing event, at least through the summer. It’s held on Fridays at three locations close to King George. It’s very similar to the Nahalat Binyamin craft market in Tel Aviv, but much smaller and less crowded. The quality of the merchandise was very high and I noticed quite a few English-speaking vendors. I really enjoy chatting with creative people!

There were baked goods, jewelry, clothing, bags (including beautiful little suede bags for 60 NIS, nicely finished inside, in colours like pink, powder blue, violet), some amazing hair clips made from real food (the artist was annoyed when I took a photo, so I won’t post it), books, photos, Judaica, mobiles, and a henna artist. If you’re looking for something to do on a Friday morning and you’re in the Jerusalem area, it’s a nice way to spend a couple hours.

If you’re hungry, CafeCafe is nearby and it’s kosher.

Simtat Bezalel Hakatan Street

Henna by Sienna Henna artist, Cheryl Stone

Oogies baked goods (I don’t think the head was for sale)

Bread by Metabelim bakery

Photographer Julia Schiller from Wisconsin. She uses an emulsion technique to apply photos to mezuzah cases and metal plaques.

Wind Spinner breeze catchers

Bezalel Art Fair

Web site (in Hebrew): http://www.bezalelfair.com/home
Location: Simtat Bezalel Hakatan Street, Shatz Street, and Gan Hashiver (the small park beside HaMashbir department store) in Jerusalem
Time: Fridays, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.,
Admission: free

Craft Cupboard

Looks pretty innocent, doesn’t it? It’s really the Israeli equivalent of the Bermuda Triangle, swallowing up all my unfinished craft projects and supplies that are too small to stick under my bed or in larger cupboards. I tend to accumulate small unfinished projects because large ones (like sweaters) annoy me too much. This cupboard hasn’t had a serious clean-out for years.

I spread out a few of the projects on a tablecloth and snapped this photo. Then I discovered even more projects stuck into little boxes in the mess, but I didn’t have room to photograph them as well. If you click the photo to go to the Flickr page, you’ll see notes describing what’s in the photo.

It’s time for a serious cull.

Crafts represented:

• Crochet (Irish, filet, hairpin, kippah/yarmulke)
• Tatting (lots of edgings and motifs, too many shuttles)
• Bead tatting (I was doing a couple test pieces for Nina Libin)
• Knitting (lace, miniature, regular)
• Knotted netting with shuttle
• Knotless netting (with needle)
• Bobbin lace (Milanese braid samples)
• Embroidery (miniature French knots)
• Decoupage

The projects that I knew I would never finish I cut off the balls of thread and pitched in the garbage. The ones about which I was undecided, I put back into bags and put on the top shelf. I decided to use the top shelf for projects and the bottom shelf for supplies. The baskets that are on the edge of the photo are mostly repositories of tools that really belong in other places (like my painting supplies, crochet hooks, and knitting needles). The tatting shuttles are small enough to stay where they are.

The only project I reject throwing out is the miniature knitted doily that I started (bottom of blue cloth). I simply can’t recall which pattern I was using and I don’t want to try improvising with a piece that is so fiddly (Honiton lace thread on .5 mm needles).

I’ll think about planting the cotton seeds this year, since this is the right season. On the other hand, I still haven’t spun what I’ve already grown. That would be a good incentive to haul out my tahkli, right? Although I own a spinning wheel, this cotton is much too delicate to spin on something that large, so probably best to spin it on a hand spindle.