SantaFe.com

Balinese art and furnishings are a big part of Barbara Millstein’s life. Her Santa Fe area home is filled with an exotic selection of teak furniture, lontar grass baskets, decorative umbrellas and colorful paintings.

“I’ve been going to Bali for 30 years,” she said. “The first time I visited was right after I finished serving in the Peace Corps (in Micronesia). I fell in love with Bali. I’ve made a point of going there two or three times every year.”

Millstein has been racking up even more frequentflier miles since she opened Bali & Beyond in June with her friend, Pamela Nittolo. The...

Tuesday, September 2, 2008
by Emily Van Cleve • Journal Santa Fe

Finding 500 pieces of good-quality baby clothing was the sign from heaven that Miranda Linson was looking for one Friday in July.

Linson and her husband, J.C. Linson, were ready to sign a lease on a commercial space so they could open their new business, Boomerang Baby, but Linson was experiencing last-minute nerves.

“I was a stay-at-home mom and knew I’d be disrupting my children’s lives,” she said. “As I was driving around town one day and saw a garage sale that had beautiful baby clothes, I knew that everything was falling into place.”

Linson negotiated a price for all 500 items and...

Tuesday, August 26, 2008
by Emily Van Cleve • Journal Santa Fe

You know the drill: slather on the sunscreen, wear a hat and take water. Plan your attack like it was D-Day. But the barrage of pottery, jewelry, carvings and rugs can overwhelm even the most serious collector at the Santa Fe Indian Market. Filtering through the glitter and the dust can be a daunting experience. Seven authors of Southwestern art books offered stories and tips on surviving the 87th annual Santa Fe Indian Market at the Wheelwright Museum of the American Indian Thursday. The largest and most prestigious event of its kind in the United States, the market runs 7 a.m.-5 p.m....

Friday, August 22, 2008 at 11:00 AM
by Kathaleen Roberts • Journal Santa Fe

From punk-meets-the-pueblos to beadspeckled leather, this fashion show shatters boundaries.

With native couture often reduced in popular myth to Navajo ribbon shirts and broomstick skirts, the Wheelwright Museum of the American Indian’s first wearable art show could dispel some misconceptions.

Slated for 10:30 a.m. today, the event will showcase designs by Patricia Michaels, Margaret Wood, Penny Singer, Pilar Agoyo and Dina One Heart Gilo slinking down the catwalk, before the museum’s benefit auction.

All five designers are known for incorporating a distinctively native flair into their...

Friday, August 22, 2008 at 11:00 AM
by Kathaleen Roberts • Journal Santa Fe

August 23, 2008 - August 24, 2008

Drum beats reverberating from the Plaza have barely begun to fade when the murmur begins anew. And the murmur this year is a little louder, livelier and more vibrant. It builds as 1,000 artists from nearly 100 tribes prepare to show their finest work in more than 650 booths. They prepare for what is undeniably their most significant exhibition and competition. Indeed, it is the world’s largest and most acclaimed exposition of fine art by Native Americans: It is the 87th Annual Santa Fe Indian Market sponsored by the Southwestern Association for Indian Arts (SWAIA).

For 87 years, Santa Fe Indian Market has been the place where Native American art meets the world. Join the thousands of collectors, artists, volunteers and visitors who return from across the United States and around the world to join in the festivities that celebrate American Indian culture and artistry. The outdoor market provides a unique place to meet and buy directly from over 1,000 of the nation’s top Native American artists, including youth, who represent nearly 100 tribes. Demonstrations by Native American groups and artists allow visitors a chance to learn more about different...

Linda Prager, owner of Kioti, an upscale women’s clothing and accessories store in Sanbusco Center, apologizes if she has to end our interview early. “I have a new puppy, a German Shepherd. This is our third shepherd, and we can tell he will be the last puppy,” she says.

Our interview starts out chatting amiably about dogs, children and the joys of small business ownership. Prager and her husband David Muller started the business that would eventually become Kioti in Michigan in 1984. Fueled by a passion for the folk art and antiques of Indonesia, as well as a desire for travel and the hunt...

Sunday, June 1, 2008
by Kelly Koepke and Nikesha Breeze (Photographer) • localflavor magazine

Beckie Hammer has proof positive that it is the cover that sells a magazine. Hammer is the attendant at the Burro Alley newsstand four days a week.

A few weeks back, the little blonde cuties of the TV quasi-reality show “The Hills” were featured on the cover of Rolling Stone magazine. Then, she said, the next issue came out with the Eagles band on its cover.

“Even though it was a week older, buyers were still reaching past the Eagles to get the one with the blondes,” Hammer said, shaking her head. “That’s when I realized: People don’t buy magazines. They buy covers.”

Tuesday, July 22, 2008
by Kate McGraw • Journal Santa Fe

In deciding on a name for her new store four years ago, Beverly Ungar put together a list of words that she hoped would describe its environment.

“Oodles is a fun word, and this store is a fun place to be,” she said.

So Oodles Yarn & Bead Gallery, an opportunity for Ungar to turn her passion into a money-making business, was born in 2004 at 411 W. Water Street. At the time, Ungar took advantage of a new wave of interest in knitting — she says it was sparked by actress Julia Roberts, who knits her own scarves — and an abundance of beautiful and exotic yarns on the marketplace.

Tuesday, July 22, 2008
by Emily Van Cleve • Journal Santa Fe

Over in Santa Fe’s historic Railyard district, you’ll find an up-market store full of both fine contemporary arts and crafts and old ethnographic pieces from across the length and breadth of Africa. The five-year-old Casa Nova is the brainchild of Natalie Fitz-Gerald. Born and raised in Johannesburg, Fitz-Gerald speaks six languages, is an ardent traveler and collector and the first woman ever to be seated on the South African Stock Exchange.

When she moved to the States and married, Fitz-Gerald filled her home with art, tableware, dishes, decorative accessories and textiles from the...

Tuesday, July 15, 2008
by Leslie Clark • SantaFe.com