Making by Hand

We at Rare Device (the royal we) pick out products for you that are beautiful, well-designed and lovely to hold/smell/look at. Some of our products are manufactured in a conventional sense but we especially love the ones that are handmade. One of our newest ceramics vendors, Dovetail from Colorado, has put up a slideshow of the entire process - starting with a big lump of clay and finishing with packaging the finished product to ship. I really liked "seeing" how my designers work! We have items from Dovetail's "Neighborhood" line in the store for you, they are completely charming.



At the other end of the spectrum, coming all the way from Sweden to our shop are Prima Lux ice scrapers from Simplicitas - it's a fun, beautiful and entirely useful design object, and I just can't resist that! Besides being good for scraping icy windows, there is a little wedge built in to de-ice your wiper blades as well. I am getting the bright orange version, so you will never lose it in your glovebox or back seat of your car, and also the fancy stainless steel version which comes with its own leather case. These should be here in a couple weeks, as it is never too early to think about winter around here.





One last thing - I have a few styles from Paperbird Clothing from Vancouver...if you are fond of wide-neck tops with a sweet, somewhat 1950s air about them, this is the line for you.

Fall Fun

I am back from California and have seen many fun things and eaten much sushi and Mexican food! I'll try to get some pictures up later - highlights included the new De Young Museum and the dahlia garden in Golden Gate Park, and a brief jaunt to Napa. I also saw the new Ruby Gallery on Haight Street, the adorable Relish At Home in Berkeley, and I peeked at a great new jewelry atelier by Claudia Kussano in the Mission District.

It's a little crazy at the shop today, about 15 boxes arrived from all over the globe. Here are new items or restocks:

midcentury piggy banks
fun buttons for your bag or lapel
beccalights candles
new serrote notebooks
melie bianco bags
new ceramics from dovetail studio
fabric-covered journals from paper cloud
keyaki wood teacups back in stock
polli jewelry back in stock
more great amy tavern jewelry
k. autumn birdies
fokus fabrik totes and skirts
the first of the autumn scarves from pistil

Whew! I'll be unpacking for the next couple days so we'll be all ready for the first really fall-like weekend. Come by early for the best selection, we stock limited quantities and things move fast!

And some Brooklyn sidenotes: design*sponge has put up a brooklyn shop and eat design guide for people wondering how to tackle the neighborhoods, and the new Brooklyn Not For Tourists guide is out (we have them instock) - Rare Device and our neighbors Greenjeans are some of the new mentions for the Slope. Finally, Sodafine is having an opening party on September 16th in their great new space!