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Tinsel Trading Company

Posted on | August 16, 2013 | No Comments

Today I had lunch with the lovely Melissa Wehrle – I’ll write about our discussion in a future blog post devoted to highlighting her recently published book, Metropolitan Knits: Chic Designs for Urban Style. But for now, I wanted to mention our quick post-lunch visit to Tinsel Trading Company.

I was introduced to this shop by a friend who’s very much into card crafting and makes the most gorgeous, tasteful, thoughtful cards. When I first visited the store with her, I was definitely overwhelmed. I stood meekly in the corner, flipping through Treasured Notions (a craft book inspired by the products of Tinsel Trading) while she confidently navigated aisles stacked with boxes of silk flowers, rolls of lace, and drawers of beads. Just to give you an idea of how random some of this stuff is – one jar was filled with tiny bird figurines made from paper feathers, another had small discs of carpet, and a third contained old, yellowing matchbooks.

The shop owner’s grandfather was apparently a bit of a hoarder and spent his lifetime collecting odds and ends from all over the world. The result is a fascinating and contradictory blend of found treasures and random flotsam. Stepping into this warehouse of new and vintage notions, ribbons, lace, and paper products feels like entering the world’s biggest garage sale or a great aunt’s forgotten attic, a feeling heightened this month by the moving sale currently underway. Yes, Tinsel Trading Company is moving to somewhere on the upper east side – and to lighten their moving burden, they’re having a huge sale through the end of this month. I didn’t have much time today, but I think I’ll be back to collect a few trinkets to bring home to Olivia. She’s recently gotten into crafting (through art classes at Gymboree) and she’d get a kick out of making collages out of some of this stuff.

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