From 12-4, VIX Emporium (5009 Baltimore) hosts a trunk show for Clay Studio ceramic artist Amy Esther, who will bring her potter’s wheel and demonstrate her technique right before your eyes. Her sizable collection of distinctive tableware and vessels is available exclusively at VIX. Light refreshments will be served.

Plus, the gallery at Younglove’s (5011 Baltimore) opens a new exhibit, paintings by John I. Williams. Dock Street (705 S. 50th) has happy hour specials on food and craft brewed beer too. It’s always a fun time!

We’ll be hosting a “Han-Made” pottery demonstration by Carol Han of Snowday Ceramics from 12-4. Carol’s distinctive work has a wonderful sense of whimsy about it. Her multi-handled mugs have a definite Dr. Seuss-ish quality to them while being totally functional, inspiring and beautiful. She will bring her potter’s wheel and show us how she does it. I can’t wait to watch the artist in action!

Our new neighbors, Younglove’s Vintage, will be joining in the fun too. They have yet to have a “grand opening” because of plans for imminent yet indefinite new improvements to their storefront, but they will have festivities of some sort. If you haven’t checked out their shop yet, do it now before everyone catches on to their amazing collection of vintage men’s and women’s clothing and accessories, new and used vinyl, musical instruments, magazines and more. It’s right next door to VIX at 5011 Baltimore.

Want to vend? Spaces are only $15 for a 6×6 spot and $25 for 10×10. Email satellite2ndsaturday@gmail.com to register. It’s outdoors on the triangle in front of the Firehouse, BYO table and canopy if desired. (This show is for local artists/craftspeople to sell their own creations. No resellers, importers or the like, please.)

trunk show Saturday, Feb. 13, 2010

VIX Emporium announces a Second Saturday trunk show and craft demo featuring Philadelphia artists Sharif Pendleton and Shera Simon: “Cards, Scarves and Emotional Scars”, an exploration of love, hate, fashion, romance and Valentine’s Day.

Simon, aka Shesherara of Girlyfied Gear, will cap off her current “Love Him/Hate Him” project, in which she asks women to have her “girlify” a shirt belonging to a significant man, past or present, and tell their story on her blog. Whether she will love him forever or would rather forget his name, Shera transforms his tee or button-down shirt into a frilly scarf, pin or bag as a keepsake. She will bring her sewing machine and “girlify” pieces for guests at the show, or garments can be dropped off at VIX ahead of time for completion before Valentine’s Day.

"shot through the heart" necklace by Sharif Pendleton

Sharif Pendleton is the creator of the “Emotions Can Be Dangerous” collection of laser-cut jewelry. His images explore the sharper edges of love and relationships, combining Valentine hearts with implements of destruction, such as a gun, a noose and a knife. Sharif will screenprint Valentine and Anti-Valentine cards at the show using some of these provocative motifs.

Also featuring live music by Jonathan York, plus refreshments. Saturday, February 13, 12-3 pm.

scarf made of man's shirt by Shera Simon, embellished bra by Nicole Rae Styer, key necklace by April Dawn Reigart, bullet casing necklace by Etcetrix, chunky gem necklace by Krista Peel, handwarmers by Fabrik, studded bike tube cuff by Eleanor Buffam

VIX is pleased to be a part of Love Him/Hate Him, a Valentine/anti-Valentine project by fashion designer Shesherara (Shera Simon) of Girlyfied Gear. She is on a mission to transform mens’ garments that have a story to tell into womens’ accessories. Bring in a man’s t-shirt or button-down and have it “girlyfied” into a flower pin, frilly scarf or mini messenger bag, just in time for Valentine’s Day. You could do this symbolically, to celebrate a good man or to purge memories of an annoying ex. Either way, she’d love to hear about it, so you’re encouraged to tell your story on her blog. We think it’s an interesting project and hope we get lots of gear for her to girlify!

glassblower Kim Fraczek

The first was a pair of glass bulb pendants with tiny stone fossils trapped inside.

fossils - before

finished fossil necklaces

Another was a piece for this little girl, a small Swiss coin trapped in a glass bubble. Perhaps the coin was a gift from the Tooth Fairy! Here’s a video of Kim working on it.

A little girl shows off her new trapped coin necklace

She also made a ring for Phil in purple and green to match his bowling ball.

Phil and his new ring

glass ring by Kim Fraczek

The weather was not great at first but it cleared up, becoming a lovely day for a craft show.

Kelly Werkheiser and her jewelry

Salihah Moore and her Lion of the Sea booth

And Jonathan’s jazz guitar set was low-key and lovely.

Jonathan York

Our next Second Saturday event will be November 14. It will be hard to top this one, but it will be our Second AnniVIXary party that day. The craft show will be on too, moving indoors to Danger Danger Gallery, 5013 Baltimore. (Email satellite2ndsaturday@gmail.com if you are interested in vending.) Hope to see you there!

In August, we hosted an opening for Jen McCleary, a local artist who does collage, digitally manipulated imagery and jewelry. Shakey Lyman belted out the blues and vendors enjoyed the clear bright sunshine outside.

Jen McCleary with her artwork and jewelry (August)

one of Jen's collages

Shakey Lyman and Blondie (August)

Krista Peel at her jewelry booth (August)

Wilder, Ellie, Mike and Mike's jewelry

In September, the dreary weather kept a few vendors away, but Nora did manage to score some awesome baby leg warmers. Our featured artist, Sara Selepouchin of Girls Can Tell, showed visitors her screenprinting process and even debuted a new diagram, “knitting”. Kassie Richardson played some old-time favorites and some of her own tunes to a rapt audience.

a gray day for a show (September)

sara explains her printmaking process (September)

knitting diagram newly printed on a t-shirt (September)

sweet, sweet music by Kassie Richardson

We’re really excited about October’s event, coming up on the 10th. Jeweler Kim Fraczek will bring her torch and do some glassblowing. In the store, no lie. She can even do custom pieces, like encapsulating something in a pod, like this.

seed pod earrings by Kim Fraczek

We’ll also have jazz guitarist Jonathan York as well as a diverse assortment of vendors on the triangle. Snacks too. See you then, OK?

50th and Baltimore

The 71 new old-fashioned streetlamps were installed between 45th and 50th streets along the commercial corridor in an effort to make it more inviting. They stopped just short of VIX though, since we’re a few steps beyond 50th. We felt a little left out about that.

Not for long, though! Construction just began for more pretty lights on our block and the 5100 block of Baltimore. Yay! That will be great for us. It will also be great for our new neighbors. Rumor has it that we will soon have a vintage clothing shop next door, and a certain local businessperson has just bought the storefront three doors down. We are very excited about this!

More construction and destruction is happening across the street, at the Philadelphia Federal Credit Union. It used to look like this:Now it looks like this:

It’s weird to see all that empty space on the corner! The new building will go up soon though and it promises to be a big improvement with the ability to serve more customers, whom we also look forward to meeting.

It’s really great to see so much renovation on this block, though it will be nice when all the noise and dust of construction is over. Hopefully by the holiday season there will be lots more to love about our neighborhood…