Gluhwein, Gold and Diamonds: Warm Winter Wednesdays at Fassbinder Smith Street

Fassbinder Smith Street, the pop-up shop by uber-cool jewelry designer Sonja Fries, is hosting “Warm Winter Wednesdays” events, started Nov 5th and continuing the 12th and 19th at the new location for the legendary jewelry atelier. There will be warm German Gluhwein, cookies, raffles, prizes, special offers, Prosecco and… just possibly a visit from a jolly man in a red suit and hat(!).

FASSBINDER JEWELRY REOPENS ON SMITH STREET FOR THE HOLIDAYS

233 Smith Street between Butler and Douglas

Fries, recognizable as a wide-eyed svelte Bavarian gamine, is a meticulous goldsmith from Germany whose sublime jewelry seduced Michael Stipe, The Scissor Sisters, and Julianne Moore from her opulently bohemian shop in years past. Sonja Fries has owned and run galleries as far afield as Berlin, Hamburg, and Bangkok, and a decade long stint with partner Hal Ludacer at the beloved Fassbinder gallery in the heart of New York’s Greenwich Village.

Sonja has been enamored of Smith Street and its environs for some time and has decided to reopen Fassbinder to interact again with customers while promoting jewelry and other select objects as art in a cultural framework in the store. Sonja says: “It’s going to be great to be back in the middle of it all again, and I look forward to the time on Smith Street in Carroll Gardens, there’s nowhere else I’d rather be right now.”

Her own jewelry harkens back to her Bavarian upbringing with many of her pieces having textures found in nature such as snakeskin, bark, and wood. Her pieces combine elements of angular German geometry and European minimalism, with soft, feminine features. Before coming to New York, Sonja’s work took her from Munich to Hamburg, making one of a kind pieces working in the latter for Hilde Leiss, an internationally renowned jewelry designer. Sonja Fries produces her pieces by hand using traditional methods. There are no mass-produced, one-piece castings. Much like an architect she sets out with a unique vision and carefully selects her materials. In her own words: “You design a piece and then you start constructing, layer by layer.”

The holiday shop will be open November 8, 2012 through January 31, 2013. The store is located at 233 Smith Street between Butler and Douglas in Brooklyn. The store is open Monday to Sunday 12 – 9 pm. In addition to her holiday shop, her work can be found at www.sonjafriesllc.blogspot.com or http://www.sonja-fries.com.