NY Handmade Collective Member, Caroline Keogh shares her responses to the COVID-19 pandemic. Caroline makes packaged loose leaf tea and coffee. The NYHC is a team of almost 200 small businesses hand making goods in the New York City Area. We’ll be sharing our how this developing pandemic is affecting our lives and business here.
Read MoreNY Handmade Collective Member, Rebekah Thornhill shares her responses to the COVID-19 pandemic. Rebekah makes sustainable, bold, and fun 3D printed jewelry. The NYHC is a team of almost 200 small businesses hand making goods in the New York City Area. We’ll be sharing our how this developing pandemic is affecting our lives and business here.
Read MoreNY Handmade Collective Member, Andi B O'Connor shares her responses to the COVID-19 pandemic. Andi crochets silver jewelry. The NYHC is a team of almost 200 small businesses hand making goods in the New York City Area. We’ll be sharing our how this developing pandemic is affecting our lives and business here.
Read MoreOur theme for the 2019 Holiday Handmade Cavalcade is “coming together.” In the age of the Internet, this notion has undergone a radical readjustment. Even when we are oceans apart, we can communicate with an immediacy that was unimaginable not so long ago.
For the members of the NY Handmade Collective, togetherness takes many forms. We interact with and support each other in both real and virtual spaces. In fact, we came into being as a team of sellers on Etsy, the online headquarters for all things craft, and we’re thrilled to have them as a presenting sponsor for this year’s Cavalcade.
As the world’s most vibrant online marketplace for handmade, Etsy is the ultimate gathering cyber-place for people who make things and people who love things that are made by hand. Its platform plays an important role in creating opportunities for Internet shoppers everywhere to find and support independent makers. In the case of the NY Handmade Collective, it allowed us to find each other!
As the seasons change, temperatures fall, and daylight shortens, our friends in the animal kingdom prepare to face the cold by drawing on an impressive range of survival adaptations. Those not designed for an enviable migration to warmer climates or hibernation in a cozy den must embrace the third option: go about their lives using the special skills with which nature has blessed them. We marvel at their resilience and their ability to adjust their habits and bodies to ensure their safety and warmth. Their indomitable spirit and their innate understanding of the value of working together inspire us, so we have chosen winter animals as the visual theme of our 2019 Holiday Handmade Cavalcade.
Like the animals who stick around, we are also busy getting ready for the season using our own specialized skills. Our members are so talented and resourceful, but one challenge we as New Yorkers, and especially makers, regularly face is limited access to space, funding, and large or expensive equipment. That’s why we’re so thrilled to share with you the offerings of NYDesigns, joining us as a first-time sponsor for this year’s Cavalcade.
NYDesigns is a hardware and design incubator and makerspace in Long Island City, Queens. Since launching in 2006, it has helped more than 100 startup companies raise over $120 million (!). Its 5,000-square-foot FabLab gives artists, inventors, and designers access to the tools they need to bring their ideas to life, including 3D printers, laser cutters, CNC routers, and a full woodworking shop. Its facilities are open to the community through memberships and workshops designed for makers of all levels – from beginners just getting started on their projects to seasoned professionals.
If you’d got a great design idea but would rather leave the making to someone else, you’re in luck! The FabLab also offers custom fabrication services; just submit a design and NYDesigns can manufacture it for you. As part of LaGuardia Community College, NYDesigns reflects that institution’s commitment to enhancing communities across New York City through job creation and innovation. That’s absolutely something the NY Handmade Collective wants to celebrate, and we’re so glad to welcome them aboard the Cavalcade!
The winter animals we are featuring in our Holiday Handmade Cavalcade visuals and decorations have the instinctive ability to resist or tolerate the cold weather. They fluff their feathers, tuck their tails, and grow thicker coats to protect them from exposure to freezing temperatures. We, on the other hand, must pile on the layers.
Choosing between comfort and fashion is always a challenge, as are the radical shifts in temperature one encounters during the average NYC commute. Fortunately, special places like Purl Soho have everything you need to create something warm and fabulous using the finest natural fibers, high quality supplies, and sophisticated designs and patterns.
