Brooklyn Flea

Could the Flea be more beautiful? You've shot so many great photos these last couple weeks!

Keep sending us your pics via Twitter (hashtag: #bkflea), Facebook or our Flickr group, and we'll try and showcase 'em here.

Many thanks to this week's contributors DianimalK, Gina Herold, Liza deGuia, Ben Levine, erinandcamera and slowpoke_ny.

The green-thumbed girls from Groundworks Gardens, Alice and Carmen, return to the Flea on Saturday to sell their selection of plants and soil; their professional plant advice is free, so ask away. They are the creators and cohorts of We Dig Plants, a radio program on Heritage Radio Network, Sundays at 3:30pm. A percentage of the proceeds from each bag of soil sold will be donated to the Brooklyn Botanic Gardens' Children's Education program.

While in the green theme, also stop by perennial favorites Twig Terrariums (both days this weekend) and their tiny plant worlds. On Sunday, keep an eye out for a new vendor, Melanie Jelacic, who uses vintage pots and liquor bottles to create ready-for-display terrariums.

It's a fine weekend ahead, with the Hunt offering jewelry on Saturday and original art on Sunday. (Since you've had two weeks to ponder the earrings, we expect that prize to go fast.)

When you find one of the items above, which can be hidden in any vendor booth, it’s yours, absolutely free! Then we post your photo with the generous vendor here on the blog on Tuesday. You can only win once per calendar month. Items posted every Friday at noon.

From left (click to enlarge):

1. Saturday: Sterling silver hammered-bar earrings. New/Handmade
2. Sunday: Print of Brooklyn Bridge Park. New/Handmade

Note: The Flea happens outdoors every Saturday in Fort Greene and every Sunday in Williamsburg. The markets are open every weekend, 10am–5pm, rain or shine. For maps/directions, click here.

Starting May 21, we're launching an all-food bonanza called "Smorgasburg"—every Saturday at the new Williamsburg site from 9am to 5pm. Smorgasburg (thank Brownstoner for the name and Camden for the awesome design) will feature 100+ food vendors—packaged, cooked, raw, Mason Jar'd, and more—as well as a bonafide GrowNYC Greenmarket with 15-20 farmers (see lineup below).

We'll have lots of updates in the weeks to come (sign up to receive news at Smorgasburg.com; follow us on Facebook and Twitter). But right now what we want are the very best food vendors/purveyors/growers anywhere to apply for Smorgasburg, so we can create the next phase of local/regional market, and also make the tastiest/healthiest/friendliest food available to as many people as possible. If you're interested, click here to apply. And help spread the word if anyone you know would be perfect for Smorgasburg. Thanks!

Here are our goals with Smorgasburg: directly connect local/NYC purveyors with regional farmers/producers; make good, fresh, affordable food accessible to as many people as possible; provide purveyors and farmers with a platform to sustain their businesses; and create a market that makes eating and buying food fun, democratic, and easy.

But that's not all. We'll also have a kitchenwares booth by the fine folks at Williamsburg's Brooklyn Kitchen; an interactive kids activities area organized by Moomah, the awesome Tribeca playspace, featuring Moomah's signature art projects that foster connections to each other and the world around us—at Smorgasburg the projects will explore the foods found at the market as well as the sights and sounds of Brooklyn; Kickstarter, the largest funding platform for creative projects in the world, will bring inspiring work from its creative community to market at its Smorgasburg/Flea Pop-Up. In addition to Kickstarter publications and products, visitors can purchase wares directly from local Kickstarter project creators, participate in workshops and meet-ups, or just learn more about them; and special chef demos, food-education events, scavenger hunts, and more.

Here's what to expect:
* 15-20 GrowNYC/Greenmarket farmers
* 100+ food vendors of every stripe (hot food, packaged goods, cheese/dairy, meat/fish, sweets, baked goods)
* A kids play area with weekly activities organized by Moomah
* A cool Kickstarter booth
* That beautiful skyline view, with access to East River State Park to the north and The Edge's public park to the south
* Easy access from both the Bedford Ave. L train and the new East River Ferry service at the North 5th St. pier (coming in June)

GrowNYC/Greenmarket Farmers:
Beth’s Farm Kitchen
Body and Soul
Brooklyn Grange
Consider Bardwell
Divine Brine
Grady's Farm
Hudson Valley Duck
Jersey Farm
Healthways Farm
Hot Bread Kitchen
King Ferry Winery
Lavender By the Bay
Nature’s Way Honey
Red Jacket Orchard
Ronnybrook Farm Dairy
So Fun Farms

Your reality-TV dreams are about to be realized at the Flea! On Sunday, a few Williamsburg booths will set the stage for a flea market–inspired TV show where professional pickers repurpose vintage and antique items for resale. And you, Fleasters, have the opportunity to buy these cool items and be a part of the show.

The stars of the program jazzed up a Schwinn Stingray with a chainsaw motor, while another two-wheeler was reincarnated as a Pee-wee bike. (Much cooler than your average Williamsburg fixie, for sure.) Other random items you might find in their booth include records turned into bowls, drive-in movie speakers, a raffle-ticket drum and an adding machine. Haggling is encouraged.

Stop by Sunday for your star turn; we know that some dedicated shopper out there is ready for her closeup.

(Bike photo—not the bikes that were reworked, it should be noted—courtesy Flickr group member dmgrabon.)

Lots of great new vendors this week, with a few repeats from last Saturday's rainout (second time's a charm).

Fort Greene (Saturday)

HA Dunne - An extensive and unique vintage NYC photo collection with over 5,000 images, mostly photographed between 1880 – 1950. You'll also find a large collection of antique maps, advertising art and other ephemera.

Rebecca Thienes - Rebecca brings her one-off stoop sale to the Flea.

The Vintage Industrial - Hand-made furniture from reclaimed wood salvaged from structures in NYC like rooftop water towers, the Coney Island boardwalk and different structural timbers sourced from around the five boroughs.

Speedy Romeo - Former Jean Georges chef Justin Bazdarich makes homemade mozzarella balls that will be available ready to take away or to be served onsite with crusty bread and olive oil. Flavors include classic salsa verde, oven-dried tomato basil, roasted fig honey almond and more.

Waverly and Irving - Waverly and Irving produces handmade, aromatic soy candles set in original vintage and antique vessels like depession-era glass, vintage advertising tins (above) and specialty glass.

Riccardo - Riccardo Fenoaltea is a self-taught painter who creates replicas of famous artists' works as well as original paintings, still lifes and abstracts.

Williamsburg (Sunday)

Ancestral Cookware - Nathalie Herling brings her collection of vintage and contemporary handmade clay cookware, artisan pottery, ethnographic art, beads, jewelry, clothing from the 1940s and a mixed bag of antiques.

Melanie Jelacic - Vintage pots and liquor bottle terrariums from a new plant company that sells greenery in ready-for-display containers.

Fine and Dandy - This online shop sets up live at the Flea with dandy-inspired men's accessories (ties, bow ties, handkerchiefs, tie bars, sock garters, etc.) many of which are made in NYC by old-school custom artisans.

Steve's Key Lime Pies - Red Hook's famous pies will be at the Flea for the first time and we couldn't be happier about it. Their booth will feature their mini key lime pies and the famous Swingle (frozen pie dipped in chocolate, on a stick).

Lowry.Voisard - Shopmates Forest Lowry and Joel Voisard will showcase custom, handcrafted furniture and goods, as well as architectural salvage.

Pink Pigeon Vintage - Performance artist and filmmaker Dina Seiden is, in her words, "a pathologically gifted purveyor of valuable junk, a bargain artist, if you will." Look for posters, photos, books, clothes and jewelry.

Cornelis Vanderloed - An old-fashioned collection of antique lamps, hats, furniture, mirrors, old wooden scythes and other old tools, wooden oxen yolks, horse collars and old army clothes.

There are those New York icons that you see every day but barely notice, the industrial detritus of a hundred-plus years of history. Pete Hildebrand's Live Poultry brand of T-shirts and totes immortalizes these old signs that we usually ignore, transforming the images of falling-down, forgotten details of Brooklyn into very cool wearable items. "The symbols of new Brooklyn are the forgotten remnants of the past," Pete says.

What's in a name? Pete moved to Brooklyn from Seattle 20 years ago, and his choice of industrial neighborhoods (Greenpoint, Red Hook) usually included proximity to one of the borough's most uncharming scenes: a live poultry slaughterhouse ("the perfume is unforgettable," he says). You can tell what parts of town he frequents from the images you see on his shirts. Note the backwards R on one of his tees—for anyone familiar with that sign (along the East River, just north of Red Hook) it's obvious where Pete was standing when he sketched it. "The designs come from a variety of sources: hand- or computer-generated drawings, paintings, prints and photographs," he explains, and tells us that the Kentile Floors image (a huge, scaffolded sign in the Gowanus area) is the most popular one he sells. At his booth at the Flea, the shirts are displayed with explanatory cards, detailing the history of each sign and symbol.

Live Poultry was hatched about four years ago when Pete took his graphic design background and applied it to Alternative Apparel T-shirts, selling his first round of tees at the Red Hook bar Hope & Anchor. A year later he started at the Flea, and has been with us ever since. Find him in Fort Greene and Williamsburg all season long.

Another rainy Saturday (grrr) meant that one of our Scavenger Hunt items remained unfound. But no worries: the pretty silver earrings will be up for grabs again on Saturday. Check back at noon Friday for the second of this weekend’s items.

(Click image to enlarge):

Sunday: Jacob and Gabby from Plainview spotted the marquetry picture from 1980, composed of different types of wood and signed by the artist. What will they do with it? They're gonna look at it, reports Jacob, and Gabby says they'll put it in the living room. Budding interior decorators, obviously.

Vendor Adele Amore has been with the Flea from the early days, selling her wide selection of estate and costume jewelry as well as antiques and collectibles. (Appropriately, the wood picture she generously donated to the Hunt is reminiscent of a jewel, with its clean, faceted angles.) Peruse her collection for well-priced pieces from Victorian styles to current trends; Adele also encourages special orders so ask her to keep an eye out for that perfect brooch you've always dreamed of. Watch her in action in this Flea video from last year.

Saturday was a bit of a wash (what a terrible, rainy day!), but Sunday showed us the full potential of summer's sunny glory. We love what you see at the Flea, so please do send us your pics via Twitter (hashtag: #bkflea), Facebook or our Flickr group.

We'd also like to highlight an extraordinary style blog, The Aveder Outfit, whose photos prove that you are all stunningly gorgeous and stylish.

Special thanks to Flickr Fleasters Shawn Hoke and Polysonic for the use of their shots.

We're getting back to the elements in the Hunt this week as our prizes are made of silver and wood. Maybe next week it'll be gold and diamonds? You never know.

When you find one of the items above, which can be hidden in any vendor booth, it’s yours, absolutely free! Then we post your photo with the generous vendor here on the blog on Tuesday. Only one winner per calendar month. Items posted every Friday at noon.

From left (click to enlarge):

1. Saturday: Sterling silver hammered-bar earrings. New/Handmade
2. Sunday: Wood marquetry picture, circa 1980. Vintage

Note: The Flea happens outdoors every Saturday in Fort Greene and every Sunday in Williamsburg. The markets are open every weekend, 10am–5pm, rain or shine. For maps/directions, click here.