Like lots of people in the city, I get all excited when the red-and-white striped booths go up in Union Square every year after Thanksgiving. Even though I don't celebrate the holidays, I love the shopping, especially this kind. I've always been a sucker for crafty stuff and bright-and-shiny gimcracks, so even if I don't buy anything, I love just wandering around in the frosty air and looking at things. I've gotten some cool stuff in past years: recycled silk "yarn" mittens and gloves, some amazing jewelry, great tea.
This year, since I've been walking up to Grand Central a lot now that it's on my way home, I decided I'd check out the holiday fair there. It's rather more upscale than Union Square, overall, and much smaller, but I wasn't impressed with much in it, for all its purported selectivity. There were some beautiful glass mosaics (way out of my reach), some cool lithographed pieces and a booth with some great prints, but only one booth really caught my eye, and one piece in particular, though there wasn't a bad piece in the booth. Here's the piece I'm ready to pawn something for:
Actually, there were other amazing pieces in Pat Lee's booth that I was drooling over avidly, including his wife's work, but this one caught my eye first because it was being "demonstrated" and it cracked me up.
It's a teapot.
You can't see from this angle, but there's a lid in sumo guy's back, between his shoulders, and his topknot is the handle. To make it pour (out of his mouth) you hold him by the handle and grab his ass. It's big, befitting its subject, and looks like it holds about a gallon of tea, so it's really not very practical, but as a novelty teapot—hoo-boy; they don't get much more novel. It's hilarious. Heavy, too, since it's made out of raku clay. And, sadly, it's $800. Also way out of my league, but I would say worth every penny. Had I that kind of folding money, I'd buy something from these two, if not the teapot. (photo by Alan Teitel)
Veronica Casares-Lee's work, which you'll also see on their site, is winsome and beautiful. Pat's is rougher, sometimes dark, and very interesting. Check them out at Grand Central before Christmas Eve.
Down to Union Square next week.
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