March 2009

It’s going to be a couple months before the summer art fairs get going, but in the meantime there’s March’s Handmade Market this Saturday at the Empty Bottle bar, 1035 N. Western, from noon until 4:30. Thirty-two vendors are showing wares and demonstrating crafts, ranging from jingly-jangly jewelry to cards ‘n’ candles, scarves woven from handspun wool, Megan Lee’s sock dogs (above) and even bedazzled hula hoops (no kidding), all made with loving hands at home. The overall vibe is hipster/rocker, with lots of repurposed vintage items and affordable prices—a perfect spot for last-minute Pi Day gifts for your mathlete team. Empty Bottle opens at noon, so (if you’re 21+) you can grab a bloody mary, shop around, then go next door to Bite Café for brunch.

—BRADLEY LINCOLN

Interior designer Laura Soskin, whose home was featured in our magazine in Winter, 2006, loves a good vessel. She also loves collaborating with her many artist and designer pals. So she came up with a concept—an exhibit revolving around a huge 300-year-old Mediterranean olive storage-jar that for a long time stood in her dining room (see above). She asked 16 talented cohorts—her husband/artist Dave Soskin, sculptor Lucy Slivinski, lamp-maker extraordinaire Ted Harris, local shop owners Michael Del Piero of Good Design and Larry Vodak of Scout, to name a few—to create something, anything, inspired by this vessel. “The results are so diverse, it's amazing,” says Soskin. The show, called “The Vessel Magnifique,” opens this Friday, March 13 (reception is 7-11 p.m.) and goes through April 12 at Las Manos Gallery in Andersonville. Check out the cool promo video one of the participants, artist Chuck Meyers, created for the show here. Of course, the original muse—the vessel magnifique of which we speak—will be present, in addition to a couple others that Soskin has picked up.

—Gina Bazer