Tag Archives: Susan Forker

The All-Artisans Gift Guide

SCAVENGING

Everything’s produced locally, in small batches and sourced by our resident scavenger, Susan Forker, an artisan herself.

The holiday season is one of my favorite times of the year. The temperatures cool, the fires are stoked, and we reflect on giving. Buying handmade and local has always been an integral part of my gifting for many reasons, not in the least, the foothold it provides to the small businesses in our community.  Mostly, though, it’s an opportunity to support the artisans who create unique, thoughtfully made products that have a story behind them. Here’s what caught my eye this season.

Woven Tote/Caryall | arden + james | from $320
A technically skilled artisan with the keenest intuition, Bri Brant’s work draws its beauty from natural media and her deep respect for the environment. The leather in her handmade bags is produced locally at a historic tannery, one of only two in the country that employ an eco-friendly, vegetable tanning process. The other materials in this tote, a true keepsake, are treated with the same level of care, right down to the hand-hammered copper rivets.

Artisan Candles | Zoet Bathlatier | from $20 each
Beautifully packaged and made in small batches from 100-percent vegetable wax and pure essential oils, these candles will intoxicate your senses. With fragrances like Fir Needle & Clove, The Woods, Caramel & Woodfire, simply light one and you’re transported to another place. The stated desire is to provide a sense of renewal and wellbeing with each. Mission accomplished. And then some.

 

Daisy Necklace | earth and wears |  from $30 (each)
Lyn Carey recently celebrated the eighth anniversary of her Dallas, Pennsylvania, shop, earth and wears, and the ninth of her pottery and ceramic jewelry line, which goes by the same name. Finding inspiration in natural tones and textures, Lyn hand-forms and -glazes these stunning pendants, leaving the back untreated for diffusing essential oils. One drop lasts about eight hours.

 

 

Assorted pillows | Tamme Handmade | $20 (each)
Funky. Flirty. Retro-glam. Tamme McClelland’s eclectic line, Tamme Handmade, has a definite swagger. The images are printed directly onto the fabric with water-based, eco-friendly dye. These pillows are especially appropriate for the literature lover, the nautical enthusiast and the anglophile on your list. Frida Kahlo and Eleanor Roosevelt are her best-sellers. I’m partial to Charles Bukowski.

 

DIY Stitch Kit | Popped Stitches | $12
Popped Stitches is the brainchild of Melissa McCullough, who displays a wicked sense of humor in her original cross-stitch and embroidered creations. Much of her work references an affinity for pop culture, geekery and salty quips, like, “Don’t summon my inner bitch, she doesn’t play nice,” that are bound to make you laugh out loud then race to hang it. This stitch kit (available exclusively at Philadelphia Independents is the gift that keeps on giving—because the recipient is bound to brag about his/her ability (and neglect to mention the kit) to anyone who comes into contact with it.

 

Susan Forker is the owner and designer of the Doylestown-based joeyfivecents, a line of one-of-a-kind jewelry and accessories.

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Clear Eyes, Full Heart, Can’t Lose

SCAVENGING

The art of discovery at a flea market is more about an open mind and sentimentality than it is resale values.

By Susan Forker

 

Much of the allure of the flea market for me is the potential. I draw a lot of inspiration digging through the forgotten bits and bobs piled in dusty heaps and buried in bulging boxes. I never know what I’ll find, but I’ve come to trust that I’ll find something—materials and props for my jewelry, fuel for my imagination. Here’s a sampling of some of what’s made its way home with me recently.

 

A study in artificiality

I’ve made no secret of my adoration of vernacular or found photography. Lately, I’ve been drawn to old images of pairs of people. It’s something about the dynamic—the strained admiration between sisters, the hidden tension among lovers. The story simmering behind the façade’s been preserved as much as the hollow expressions. I culled this batch together from various fleas and shops. I love their awkwardness and symmetry. I may frame them together and display them as a collection.

 

Tokens of a not-so-distant past

Who didn’t collect these as a kid? The handle-and-crank flattening machines were once ubiquitous at every carnival and tourist attraction. You can still find them here and there, but they’re not the same, and the pennies are too shiny. But the patina and texture of these are perfect. Being a New Yorker at heart, the iconography doesn’t hurt, either.

 

The mannequin becomes the art

I can’t exactly qualify this dress form as a random find. I bought it off a maker friend who’s moving. I’d been looking for a mannequin like this for some time. It’s a 1963 Wolf dress form, the cage and rolling casters still intact. I’m planning to use it as a prop and product display, but she looks right at home near the French doors in my studio. So much so that I’m finding I treasure it more as an objet d’art than a utilitarian piece.

 

Take a seat (or two)

I was set up across the aisle at a recent show from a vintage dealer who was selling this chair set. It caught my eye immediately. I thought they were movie theater seats. Turns out, they were from a grange hall. And in need of some repair, which made them surprisingly affordable—and all the more charming. That they folded up and fit in my overcrowded car confirmed that we were meant to be together.

 

Susan Forker is the owner and designer of the Doylestown-based joeyfivecents, a line of one-of-a-kind jewelry and accessories.

Photography by Susan Forker

Behind the Craft

SCAVENGING

A look at joeyfivecents’ new, locally inspired collection.

By Susan Forker

 

Last month marked an anniversary of sorts. Exactly 10 years ago, we moved our family from our Southern California home to come and settle in Bucks County. It wasn’t all that difficult a transition—my husband and I were born and raised on the east coast, and we frequently brought the kids back east to visit. Actually, I think we naturalized quite quickly to the changes in climate and culture.

In our time here, I started a small business and subsequently developed my own brand. joeyfivecents, a vintage-imagery-based line of handmade jewelry and accessories, came about a few years after the move through a leap of faith and a nod to my former career as a film editor.

It seemed appropriate, when I began to think recently about expanding, that I should take a cue from my surroundings. After a concentrated workshop in the Pacific Northwest last spring and an intensive summer of trial and error, I unveiled the anniehall collection. Extoling seasonal palettes, botanical patterns and textures, influence is gleaned from what I see in the garden, like moss between the stones, and the landscape I’m surrounded by every day—algae-covered ponds, working farms.

anniehall also represents a bit of a departure in methodology. In place of vintage paper and resin, I’m using epoxy clay and colored pigments to evoke an organic vibe that celebrates nature’s imperfect beauty—and the place that helped me and my family to feel so at home so quickly.

Susan Forker is the owner and designer of the Doylestown-based joeyfivecents, a line of one-of-a-kind jewelry and accessories.

Photos courtesy joeyfivecents

My Morning Soundtrack

SCAVENGING

Before I plug in, I meditate on the wonders of the natural world. All I need to do is stand at the kitchen window.

By Susan Forker

I’ve developed a slight obsession. With birds.

Between a feeder we installed last spring outside our kitchen window (last year’s Mother’s Day gift) and another, larger one that went up this spring (this year’s Mother’s Day gift), we seem to have created a thriving haven on our patio. Every morning, no matter the time of year, there’s a constant flurry of activity and birdsong. I’ve come to start my days watching for a while from the other side of the window, coffee in hand.

I’ve managed to start identifying some of them: the tufted titmouse, catbirds and Carolina chickadees, all uniquely fascinating in their mannerisms and singing. The tiny downy woodpecker, with the graphic black-and-white pattern of his feathers punctuated by a bright slash of red down the back of his head, used to drill at the delicious seasoned wood of our barn siding with a loud rat-a-tat-tat. He now appears favor the fancy suet cakes that we put out for him. That may just be wishful thinking, though. And there’s a red-breasted house finch who we nicknamed “Bullybird” because he scares away every other bird that lands on the feeder while he’s eating.

My favorite guests, though, have to be the cardinal couple, which I’ve never seen apart. It’s the male, I’ve come to learn, who boasts the iconic deep red and the beardlike markings around the beak. The female’s more of a tawny, pinkish-brown. I often find the pair perched in the shrubs for many minutes at a time, seemingly content to watch the world go by like an old, married couple. Once, I convinced myself that I even saw them kissing. I did a little research and found out that the males will feed their partners seeds beak to beak during courtship and mating, and most cardinals will stay together for life. How sweet!

The detritus of seeds and sunflower hulls litter our patio, and the squirrels are usually lurking in nearby bushes for a chance to steal from the feeder. No matter. It’s all worth it for the songbirds. I’m getting a little better at distinguishing their calls, but, for the most part, they still blur into one sprawling composition. Or what I’ve come to consider my morning soundtrack.

Susan Forker is the owner and designer of the Doylestown-based joeyfivecents, a line of one-of-a-kind jewelry and accessories.

 

The Awakening

SCAVENGING

Premature as last week’s heat wave was, it was enough for now.

Text and photography by Susan Forker

The winter can be long and tedious. Unless everything is covered with a fresh blanket of snow, which is generally spectacular, the leafless trees and the crackled and brownish land casts an overall dullness over everything, including our moods. Never is that feeling more acute than during these waning days of March—especially when there’s a nor’easter in the forecast.

I enjoy the change of seasons, but like most around here, I go into a mental hibernation until I see that first glimmer of spring. Amid the lovely, unseasonable warmth last week, there it was. Speckled among the dead grass were patches of bright green, spotted with the lone crocus. A purple hellebore peeked out from petrified leaves. The branches of forsythia held buds that promised of yellow blooms to come. And hundreds of straight and tall daffodil stems were suddenly ubiquitous, with the occasional bulb barely able to contain itself.

Those first warm breezes and the surprise sighting of snowdrops clustered in the woods never fail to stir something in me—hope, excitement, impatience—even after a (mostly) mild winter.

 

Susan Forker is the owner and designer of the Doylestown-based joeyfivecents, a line of one-of-a-kind jewelry and accessories.