MEMBER PROFILE // Jewelry Designer Bernice Kelly's On Fire

Irish designer Bernice Kelly works on small-scale pieces, but she dreams big. Her jewelry brand Macha—named for her Northern Ireland hometown (named after an ancient Gaelic mythological figure) is sold at Earnest Sewn in New York and select shops in cities worldwide.

At 3rd Ward’s jewelry studio, she’s found resources to match her vision. “I use it for all the projects that require bigger and better equipment than I own myself,” she says. “3rd Ward has some super big old oxy acetylene torches that aren't safe to have around the house. I do love to melt stuff!”

After working in corporate fashion design for nearly a decade, Kelly launched Macha in 2009 as an expression of her laid-back, non-fussy attitude and style. “I like to challenge traditional ideas about jewelry so am always experimenting with techniques to make metals appear more organic.”

Kelly, who shares tips with 3rd Ward’s “very approachable” jewelry instructors, wants to take classes across all different mediums. “Just throw yourself into the deep end, and don't be afraid to try something you have no idea about,” she advises new members. Her latest venture, a web design class, means exciting updates are coming to www.machajewelry.com. Stay tuned!

-- Cara Cannella  

TEACHER FEATURE // Annie Novak: Urban Farmer With Serious City Gardening Tips

Interested in growing your own garden? Well, solemnly swear no one who can give you better tips than urban farmer and 3rd Ward teacher Annie Novak.

Novak runs the Eagle Street Rooftop Farm and the non-profit Growing Chefs, in addition to working with the New York Botanical Gardens in the Bronx. "Spring is the season of seeding!" she says, and right now she's working on transplanting tomatoes and planning for summertime at the community garden plot that Growing Chefs started with Red Shed Community Garden, which is not too far from 3rd Ward.

Here are a few city gardening pointers from Novak: 

• Invest in good soil! Buy a nice organic potting mix with no chemical fertilizers. Or make your own using coconut coir, a bit of compost, and some internet research!
• Buy healthy plants!  Look for nice, upright plants with no roots showing on the bottom of the pot. Buy locally at the farmers' market for plants that have been grown in our growing climate. If it's a veggie, give it lots and lots of sunshine. 
• Sow seeds wildly! If you don't have a yard or rooftop, visit a native plant center or buy native seeds, then seed bomb with abandon in open lots! Think ahead 100 years to a better city: call 311 to get a street tree planted.

The Eagle Street Rooftop Farm is located at 44 Eagle Street in Greenpoint and his open for a farm market and a chance to volunteer this coming Sunday, May 15 and Sunday, May 22 from 9am-4pm. 

For more about Annie Novak check out a great profile of her on the Urban Outfitters blog.

-- John Ruscher

MAGAZINE LAUNCH // Outpost Journal: Profiling Creative Scenes In Small Cities

In New York City—and at 3rd Ward in particular—we have virtually everything we need right at our fingertips. In many smaller cities, though, creative scenes are thriving without such plentiful resources. That's where the new biannual non-profit publication, Outpost Journal, comes in. Each issue of Outpost will profile a different urban locale, investigating its creative hotspots, movers and shakers and more.

"Without over-romanticizing a 'small is beautiful' concept, we do firmly believe that smaller cities (as well as smaller neighborhoods in larger cities) can be fertile ground for testing new ideas in art, activism and lifestyle," Outpost founder Manya K. Rubinstein tells us. "But living in an 'Outpost' has a cost to it as well...how can artists and activists living 'out there' capitalize on the organic networks that already exist in order to make productive connections with artists and activists elsewhere? In addition, how do they get the notice they deserve for their work (and the possible economic opportunities/access to larger markets that can come with notice) not just in their own region, but also back in the main centers of art and commerce?"

Outpost's mission, she says, is "to create an experimental solution that bridges some of these gaps."

The journal's inaugural issue, due out this coming fall, will delve into the riches of Pittsburgh. "It is an incredible city, especially in regards to its arts ecology," Rubinstein says. "It is home to major cultural institutions like the Warhol Museum and the Mattress Factory (among others), full of beautiful and relatively cheap housing stock, a thriving DIY, crafting, printmaking, literary, filmmaking, performance and artistic community, a great art school and an incredible array of arts-based non-profits."

Interested? Help launch Outpost Journal by contributing to its Kickstarter campaign.

Curious about what you'll be able to find in the journal? Click "more info" for Rubinstein's descriptions of some features from the first issue. 

• "Secretly Famous," a profile of the most famous artist in Pittsburgh you never heard of, as told by his collaborators and acquaintances.
• Artist profiles of some of Pittsburgh's finest.
• A peek into some of the city's entrepreneurially focused arts-based youth programming and a story on the Waffle Shop, an experimental reality TV show cum Waffle House.
• Stories about punk houses, an artist collective practicing "deconstruction" in Braddock, PA, and a piece on adaptive reuse projects in Churches all across the city.
• A piece on a cardigan sweater we commissioned a local crafter to make for an 11-ft statue of local hero Mr. Rogers on Pittsburgh's North Shore.
• Native son Girl Talk's picks for his favorite spots in town.

--John Ruscher

DRINK-N-DRAW SPOTLIGHT // Scott Schultheis' Anthropomorphic Portraits

A portrait from Schultheis' "Receptions" series.Every Wednesday evening people flock to 3rd Ward for Drink-n-Draw. One of those people is Scott Schultheis.

Why does he come? "I come for the beer," he says. "Duh! Exercising life drawing skills doesn't hurt either—it's an all around great time."

"I make collages paintings and drawings about what makes people tick, what drives us to pursue the things we do and sell the things we do," Schultheis tells us. "This is a broad narrative but I'm illustrating it to prompt further introspection rather than arrive at definitive answers. Semi realistic, macabre, surreal, precious and absurd—these are the words I think about while I'm making work."

Right now Schultheis is working a series called "Receptions," which features "anthropomorphic, strange 'portraits' of these familiar but unnamed sculptural blobs." He's works out his studio in Bay Ridge through a Chashama Visual Artist Residency and also bartends at Bobo in the West Village. In the fall he'll be heading to Philly to get an MFA at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts. Slap your computer monitor and give a Scott a hi-five!

For now though, you can see his work in "Convergence," the Brooklyn Waterfront Artists Coalition's Spring Pier Art Show in Red Hook. The show is open on weekends from 1-6pm through June 12. 

We'll conclude with one more fun fact from Schultheis: "You know I really like you if I'm making Challah French Toast with bananas and a lil orange spiked maple sizzurp."

--John Ruscher

ALUMNI EXTRAORDINAIRE // Mike Rugnetta Writes a Book

The MemeFactory guys in a minimalist rendering

Can you imagine seeing Goatse in a college textbook? Mike Rugnetta sure can. Composer--and former 3^rd Ward education coordinator--is writing a book about the internet with his performance group, What We Know So Far. You may be familiar with WWKSF as they collectively produce the MemeFactory lecture series. The book’s Kickstarter page promises that it will be a usable classroom text, but may also feature an appearance by the internet’s earliest gross-out meme. 

MemeFactory is what Rugnetta calls a “really fast-paced multimedia lecture-based performance,” dealing with internet media trends and culture in a pretty funny way. MemeFactory performances have been going on since 2009, so the guys have come up with a lot of ideas about how people interact with the internet--though some seemed a bit too serious for the show. Not sure what to do with the heavier content, a friend finally suggested, “Dudes, you should write a book.”

So far, the book's Kickstarter campaign has raised $17,493--$1,493 over their initial goal.  WWKSF's giving the extra funds to a charity; with one possible cause that includes providing internet access to disadvantaged kids and defending net neutrality.

Roughly? The book's about internet memes, internet culture and the internet famous. Rugnetta explains that it’s not just for 4chan habitués, but anyone who uses or is even remotely interested in the internet: “My mom doesn't know what a 'lolcat' is, but would easily follow the stories we're trying to tell and ideas we're trying to develop. And (she'd) definitely laugh at all the funny pictures... of which there will be MANY.”

Regarding his tenure at 3rd Ward, Rugnetta says, “3rd Ward was my introduction to the Brooklyn—and, by extension, NYC—arts community. 90% of everyone working there is extremely friendly and interested in what they are doing in an earnest and un-self conscious way. Really simply: there are no suckas.”

In addition to working on the MemeFactory book, Rugnetta is working overtime as a composer. You can hear his pieces at CPR (Center for Performance Research) on May 13^th, with choreography by Benn Rasmussen; and at the Chocolate Factory in Queens on May 17^th, with performer Madeline Best. He's also working on pieces with choreographer Aynsley Vandenbroucke, and director Brian Rogers, and has written music for two pieces which will have their outdoor premieres this summer: “Light and Shade” by Hilary Easton, and “H to Oh” by Pele Bauch.

Sounds like Mike's doin' A-OK out there.

-- Anastasia Friscia

WEEKEND WORKSHOP // Take the "Starving" out of "Starving Artist"

If you could use a reminder that “creative” and “broke” need not go hand-in-hand, we have just the set of tools you need.

This Saturday, May 14, head to The Art of Money: Personal Finance Resources for Artists, a FREE workshop held from noon to 5pm at the Bedford Stuyvesant Restoration Corporation in Brooklyn (1368 Fulton St at New York Ave).

This one-day event, organized by NYC’s Department of Cultural Affairs and the Department of Consumer Affairs Office of Financial Empowerment, is specifically designed for artists and arts administrators from all disciplines.

Highlights include:

• a free, confidential, one-on-one consultation with a financial counselor
• tips on how to learn how to access and use credit, reduce existing debt, and plan for the ups and downs of erratic income
•  advice on how to navigate home ownership and the mortgage process (Yes, we’re talking to you about owning a home in NYC, the place where all your dreams are supposed to come true!)

After patting yourself on the back for spending a Saturday so responsibly (remember Woody Allen’s observation that “Eighty percent of success is showing up”?), kick back at the Networking Reception in the Skylight Gallery from 5-7pm.  

Space is limited! RSVP to rsvp@culture.nyc.gov.

 --Cara Cannella

Member Group Show // Photos Are Up!

Thanks to all who came out to support our Members for our first ever Member Group Show! See below for some selects from the night and visit the 3rd Ward Facebook page  or Flickr to see the entire album.

If you didn't make it out for the opening, you can still swing by and see all of the work!  Our lobby is covered floor to ceiling with work from our Members until May 22! 

DRINK UP // Caroline Mak's Brooklyn-Made Soda

Caroline Mak wants to get you carbonated. Mak, a former 3rd Ward teacher, and her partner Antonio Ramos, have gone and launched their very own homemade soda company, Brooklyn Soda Works. Intimidatingly donning a bachelor’s from Stanford in Biological Sciences and an M.F.A. from the University of Chicago in Sculpture and Installation, Mak's sort of a force to be reckoned with.  In addition to her newfound company, Mak's visual work is about to be displayed at two upcoming shows (more on that below),

Brooklyn Soda Works started last year, when Mak and Ramos “wanted to make the perfect ginger beer for our dark ‘n’ stormies." Mak tells us, "We didn’t have a particular passion for sodas, but just wanted to make a fizzy drink that we'd enjoy drinking and mixing with for cocktails.” So far, they've got cucumber, lime & sea salt, apple & ginger, and grapefruit, jalapeno & honey.  All are made with fresh juices (ain't no syrups here!) -- and all make us want to whip up a cocktail first thing this morning (don't judge.)

After a successful Kickstarter campaign got BSW off the ground, the two applied for a spot at the Brooklyn Flea and--unsurprisingly--got in. Now, in addition to being sold at the Flea on weekends, Brooklyn Soda Works is available on tap at Beer Table in Park Slope, 61 Local in Carroll Gardens and Untitled at the Whitney Museum. With a few limited bottles being sold at Palo Santo in Park Slope, Porsena in the East Village, and Blue Hill Manhattan.

Not a bad start, BSW.

Of her time at 3rd Ward, Mak says, “I liked the flexibility that 3rd Ward gave me in creating a syllabus. I have a diverse academic background so it was nice to know that 3rd Ward were supportive in the lecturers that they hire.” Adding, “The classes are as wide-ranging as the artists in Brooklyn are!”

And about those gallery shows of hers: both are coming up this September. Starting September 17^th and running for a month, she’ll have a solo show at Gallery Aferro in Newark. Mak says, “I’ve been fascinated with the idea and process behind biological repair for a while… scabbing, bone healing, etc, and have been applying that concept to found objects.” And starting September 23^rd, she’ll be transforming the hallway of the Brooklyn Arts Council into a continuous wall installation as part of the DUMBO Arts Festival.

In the meantime, put down the Four Loko and get your hands on some of that delicious-soundin' Brooklyn Soda Works bubbly.

-- Anastasia Friscia

MEMBER PURSUITS // Michael Wong's Walnut Waterfall Table

Amazing creations seem to emerge from the 3rd Ward wood and metal shop on a regular basis. Take this one for example: Michael Wong's gorgeous Walnut Waterfall Table.  Wong's taken the natural contours of a slab of black walnut and subtlety, skillfully transformed it into an elegant piece of furniture.

"I like to think that when I create something,  design or production-wise, that I can bring insight or a focus on a certain quality that's trying to emerge...but needs help," says Wong. He created the table not by imposing a strict form on the wood, but by reinforcing and refining its natural beauty and vigor. Wong used butterfly joints to prevent the wood from cracking, as well as three invisible joints inside the 45-degree cut. Then came fine sanding and a week's worth of oiling and waxing.

For Wong, a trained sculptor and architect and the founder of ETHER Atelier, the 3rd Ward shop has been a place not just to create but to learn. "When I joined 3rd Ward, I had really basic skills," he says. "I've designed a lot of spaces and cabinets but that doesn't really get you too far in the shop. People are generous with giving advice, and eventually things got more serious through weeks of helping people and sometimes getting work from them."

Wong now plans to start making his own collection, which will be done in metal. (Don't worry, we'll post that work as well.)

For now, click after the jump to feast your eyes on a few more images of the Walnut Waterfall Table and its creation.

-- John Ruscher

Bike & Design // Gage + Desoto

For Bike Month, we’re bringing you a series of conversations at the intersection of cycling, art and design. We spoke with Mike Spriggs and Brett Cleaver of Gage + Desoto, who specialize in marketing, branding and design services for cycling companies.  Catch Mike out ahead of the chase group while fashion blogging for Rapha's Survey.

This Friday night, check out G + D's new location, shared with Trimble Racing, at Trimble's Red Hook Criterium Photography Exhibition Benefit! 70 Van Dyke, Red Hook Brooklyn, 7-10pm.

3rd Ward: What is Gage + Desoto?

Mike Spriggs:
G+D started as a design outlet for me. And where else to start but with t-shirts? I've always had a love of typography and logos, and I was able to bring a little of that to my friends in the cycling community.

Brett Cleaver:
Mike and I met at a bike shop, hit it off and have paired up on cycling related projects since. By pooling our resources we've turned his T-Shirt company into a unique marketing, branding and media experience.



3W: Why bike?  Do you think cycling has changed you physically, psychologically, or philosophically?

MS:
I grew up in the suburbs of Boston, and biking was just something we did, we didn't even think about it. My friends and I would map out routes all over the city.  Cycling connects you to a place unlike any other mode of transportation. You can certainly get that same benefit from walking, but in a city this size it would take you forever.

BC:
It’s certainly changed me in many ways, the most obvious being mentally and physically due to the hours and miles I log each year from training and racing. Also, the cross country honeymoon journey my wife and I undertook last summer saw us both overcome numerous tests of will on a bike. It's been a true progression that is more for me than anyone else.

3W:Tell me about cycling and design.  Does design bear a new relationship to cycling right now?  Has there always been a strong nexus?  Why?



MS:
Cycling and design have always been intertwined. From an industrial design perspective, cycling is constantly evolving. Newer, faster, lighter, more efficient - that has been the dictum since the invention of the safety bike.  And that draws in a certain type of individual - the tinkerer, the inventor. As bikes become more lifestyle-centric, it makes sense that there's a new wave of products to fit a new user group. Whether it's the perfect mini-pump or the brightest flashing light or the sleekest helmet, people will always want to update the look (and hopefully the functionality).



In relation to graphic design, I have always been drawn to its strong presence in pro racing, (particularly in Europe). Whether it's trading cards, downtube logos, team kits, or posters, graphic design is everywhere in professional cycling. Pro teams are rolling billboards for various brands that come and go. Bicycles themselves are often made to be replicas of what the pros use, right down to the lettering and decal placement. Vintage european bicycles are currently eclipsing fixed gear bikes as the must-have accessory, and what people are responding to are the colors, the designs and the evocation of an era.

BC:
I've always been a fan of bold designs and colorways. I pride myself on unique and outspoken accessories - having that one item that everyone comments on. The pro peloton really takes hold of that premise - being able to spot your teammate or your logo on television or having that slight bit of graphic edge over a competitor. Granted some of the designs are gaudy, but they all serve a purpose and some of the worst designs are looked back at in reverence. So, there has always been a strong bond between design and cycling. It's certainly why a Mapei jersey will always bring a smile to my face.

3W: What's exciting to you at the intersection marketing or design and cycling?

BC:
All of it. If there is a rule book or limitations we're not bound by them.

MS:
I am truly excited about the idea that someone will actually make a practical, durable, and affordable city bike that anyone can use, every day. In the daily ride category we currently have: crappy bikes from China that literally fall apart in weeks; "hybrid" bikes, which is a mountain bike crossed with a road bike, and is therefore practical as neither; we have fixed gear bikes which exclude anyone new to cycling who just wants to get around town; and we have bespoke handmade bikes that no one in their right mind would lock up on the street, ever. Missing from that is a proper townie bike. Upright and stable, relatively light, with a coaster brake, rack and basket. Nice, but not so nice that you can't lock it up to a pole while you go to the movies.  Very low maintenance. We are starting to see brands like Linus, Civia, and Public fill this void a bit (the magic will be when the price v. durability issue is balanced), and I hope that niche keeps growing.



3W:What are some of the unique aspects of your business?

BC:
G+D offers companies a fresh approach, often on a grassroots level paralleling a punk rock band or streetwear brand. If bike brand x needs to meet record label y, we bring them together.  If we think an event would be cool at a coffee shop, we make it happen. We take what some may think are absurd ideas and run with them, because no one else is going to. At the end of the day, we want people to say "Gage + Desoto did what? Oh snap, that's a great idea, actually!!"



MS:While the bike industry is small, it's still pretty far flung geographically, and a lot of deals are made over a handshake with a trusted partner.



3W:What's a cycling story you like to tell?

BC:
The most memorable isn't very positive, but somewhat humorous. It involved a series of punctures on a 18km climb in a stage race, Vuelta Nicaragua. I double flatted without realizing it at the time and stopped with the team car to fix the front wheel. Of course, only one guy on the team brought a spare set of wheels and they were his time trial wheels. So, the spares were a deep dish carbon front wheel and disc rear wheel. Guess which gringo went up part of the mountain with a disc wheel before getting his original wheelset back? Yup, I then proceeded to close a 10-minute gap that had come out of my three stops with the team car. The week didn't get much better, unfortunately.



3W: Who are a couple of your favorite people in cycling and why?



BC:
Those willing to take a risk and pursue something because they think it's rad.

MS:
My favorite people in cycling are actually the folks who get on crappy bikes and ride to wherever they are going, every single day. They do it without pretension, not expecting any recognition, not as part of any group or fad. They have been riding the same bike forever, they have no need for bike lanes, or advocacy, or fancy accessories. They just ride. And they are everywhere in NYC.