Meet the Makers Behind the Work at Artrider's Spring Crafts at Lyndhurst May 3–4
- Hudson Valley Happenings
- 2 hours ago
- 8 min read
Spring Crafts at Lyndhurst in Tarrytown NY, brings together makers with real command of their craft. This article takes a closer look at the artists behind it, the people shaping the materials, making the decisions, and building work that holds up long after the first impression. It’s not a full list, just a selection worth spending time with, each one bringing a distinct point of view and a level of craft you can feel right away.
This isn’t a show you rush through. Moving from booth to booth, you start to see how varied the work is, not just in style or category, but in how it’s approached. Textiles with real weight, jewelry that respects the material, wood shaped rather than forced. The kind of work that naturally slows you down.
What stands out most is how much of it feels built to last in your life. These aren’t impulse buys or pieces you’ll forget in a week. They’re objects and garments that quietly become part of your daily space and routine, things that often improve the longer you live with them.
Sculptural Objects and Furniture That Feel in Motion
KÓKILI, led by So Jung Lee, moves across scent, object, and furniture, from sculptural incense holders and aromatic pieces to small furniture and design objects, all tied together by a consistent point of view. Forms that feel like they’re in motion even when they’re still. Curves that carry through, surfaces that shift with the light, objects that hold together without feeling rigid or overworked. There’s a continuity from piece to piece that makes the whole body of work feel intentional.
The process is tight. Close collaboration with makers, real materials used directly, small-batch production that gives each piece time to resolve properly. Nothing rushed, nothing forced into place. The finish reflects that. You can see the decisions behind it, not just the result, whether it’s a scent object, a vessel, or a piece of furniture built to live in the space, not sit apart from it.
It feels new but immediately right. You’re not trying to figure it out or decode anything. The longer you stay with it, the more it opens up, subtle shifts in light, proportion, and surface that keep pulling your attention back without needing to demand it.
At a Glance
Instagram: @kokili_projects Website: kokili.com
Specialty: Sculptural objects, design, scent, and furniture
Embroidered, Quilted Pieces That Wear In, Not Out
Gia Andre, the maker behind Woman To Women, works directly with material, building each piece from the fabric up rather than starting with a finished idea. Natural fibers are chosen for how they feel in your hands and how they hold up over time, not just how they look on a hanger.
From there, the pace shifts. Hand embroidery, quilted kantha construction, velvet cut and worked into coats that feel like they’ve already lived a life. There’s a lived-in quality that isn’t manufactured or distressed into place, it comes from how the piece is actually built. Nothing rushed, nothing overworked, just steady decisions that add up.
The range moves across sherpa, embroidered velvet, cotton linen, denim, but the throughline is consistency. Small batch, deeply considered, and built with a level of construction you don’t see often anymore. These are garments that stay in rotation because they earn it, not because they’re new, but because they hold up every time you reach for them.
At a Glance:
Instagram: @womantowomen1 Website: womantowomen1.com
Specialty: Handcrafted garments, embroidery, textile work
Wood Art Designed to Shift Space and Light
Philip Roberts builds wooden wall pieces that sit between sculpture and structure. Large circular compositions built up from individually cut and layered wood sections, pendant lighting that changes how a room reads before you've even registered why. The work takes real time at both the design stage and in the shop, and the finished scale makes that apparent. These aren't things that happen quickly or accidentally.
There's a balance between modern fabrication and hands-on process that's genuinely hard to achieve. Precision without losing warmth. Complexity that resolves into something clear instead of turning into noise. Roberts stepped away from running a national furniture operation specifically to find that balance, and the body of work he's built reflects exactly what that kind of focus produces.
The range runs from accessible entry pieces to large-scale installations, and the care is consistent across all of it. Same rigor, same material honesty, regardless of size or price point. These pieces don't just occupy a wall. They pull focus, shift the temperature of a room, and hold up to long, close looking.
At a Glance
Instagram: @Fil_Roberts Website: philip-roberts.com
Specialty: Wood wall art, lighting, sculptural installations
Sculptural Jewelry That Balances Stone and Steel
The stones lead everything. Irregular shapes, unusual color, raw texture, the kind most jewelers would pass on. Erin Nelson builds around them instead of correcting them, working stone-first and letting each piece take its direction from the material. Oxidized sterling and touches of gold come in after, supporting the stone without trying to control it.
The balance is what holds it together. Metal does one job, stone does another, and neither takes over. It’s not about showcasing a single element, it’s about how everything sits as a whole. Every decision feels deliberate, nothing drifting into excess or decoration.
The range moves across earrings, necklaces, rings, bracelets, all handmade, all carrying that same control. These aren’t pieces you pass by quickly. You step closer, and they start revealing more than they gave you at first glance.
At a Glance
Instagram: @erinnelsonjewelry Website: erinnelsonjewelry.com
Specialty: Handmade jewelry, rare gemstones, mixed metal work
Design-Driven Bags That Solve Everyday Carry
These bags are built around structure first. Quad, Diamond, Arc, Ray, each form solves something specific. How it sits on the body, how it opens, how it moves with you through the day. Arza Gilad has been developing this system since the early 2000s, working at the intersection of industrial design and fashion, where problem-solving drives every decision. Convertible sizing, bracelet closures, expandable bottoms, compartments that actually hold what you carry. Nothing added for show, nothing left unresolved.
The leather is cut and worked by hand, and the color choices don’t hesitate. Black, graphite, red, patterned runs, all used with intention. That background shows. Years working with color and form at a high level translate directly into how these pieces read at a distance and hold together up close.
The work evolves slowly. Forms aren’t replaced, they’re refined, adjusted, tested, and pushed until they function without explanation. Production stays tight and controlled, small runs, real materials, no shortcuts. What’s here isn’t reacting to trends or chasing something new. It’s the result of decades of editing, built to work the same way every time you reach for it.
At a Glance
Instagram: @arzadesign Website: arzadesign.com
Specialty: Handcrafted leather bags, functional design, structured forms
Hand-Forged Jewelry With Weightless Presence
Every jump ring is made by hand. Every clasp shaped and finished individually. At the bench, working between a hammer and a vintage anvil, Lauren Passenti builds each piece through repetition that never settles into routine. Metal is cut, formed, and worked until it holds tension the right way. The surface carries that history, oxidized, polished, and marked through process, not decoration.
The work has presence without weight. Pieces that look substantial but sit lightly, balanced so they move with the body instead of against it. That control doesn’t come quickly. It’s built over time, through refining technique, understanding how the material behaves under pressure, and knowing exactly where to push and where to stop.
Much of what shows up here is one-of-a-kind. Even within limited runs, variation is built in, no two pieces resolving exactly the same way. You’re not looking at something standardized or scaled. You’re looking at work that was made, handled, and finished individually, then let go once it was right.
At a Glance
Instagram: @laurenpassentijewelry Website: laurenpassenti.com
Specialty: Hand-forged jewelry, oxidized metals, one-of-a-kind pieces
Hand-Turned Woodwork Shaped by Natural Grain
You see it right away in the wood. Grain, figure, natural character, none of it hidden or corrected. Ron Grieco works on the lathe by responding to what’s there instead of forcing it into something it’s not. The cut follows the material, not the other way around, which is why no two pieces ever resolve the same way.
The forms come out clean and direct. No stain, no paint, nothing covering up the material. What you’re seeing is exactly what it is. That restraint is where the strength comes from. Edges are intentional, proportions feel right, and the finish lets the wood do the talking instead of trying to improve on it.
There’s a focus to the work that reads immediately. Somewhere between instinct and control, where decisions are made in real time but never feel rushed. Every piece is one-of-a-kind, constantly turning over, and once it leaves the table, it doesn’t come back. What you’re holding is a moment in the process that won’t repeat.
At a Glance
Instagram: @RonGriecoWoodworking Website: rongrieco.com
Specialty: Hand-turned woodwork, bowls, sculptural wood pieces
Handcrafted Glass Pieces Using Light as Material
This work is built around what light actually does once it hits the glass. Color shifts, reflections scatter, surfaces change depending on where you stand and how long you stay with it. The material matters, but what it does in the space matters more, pulling the room into it instead of sitting quietly on its own.
Using traditional stained glass techniques with a contemporary approach, Elle Yi builds pieces that hold movement even when they’re completely still. Dichroic glass shifts color as you move past it, beveled edges catch and redirect light, and the geometry isn’t just visual, it’s functional, designed to break, bend, and return light back into the space.
Placed near a window, the work doesn’t just sit there, it activates everything around it. Walls pick up color, shadows sharpen and soften, and the piece keeps changing without ever actually changing. You don’t look at it once and move on. It keeps pulling you back as the light shifts throughout the day.
At a Glance
Instagram: @glassonhudson Website: glassonhudson.com
Specialty: Contemporary stained glass, light-based sculpture
Bold Pop Art Paintings and Custom Portraits
The color hits first. Bold, bright, immediate. Work that reads across the space before you even decide to walk over. Then you get closer and the detail starts doing its job, layering, line work, and control that keeps everything tight and intentional rather than loud for the sake of it.
Katz works across portraiture, cultural figures, pets, and commissions, all within a visual language that holds together. You recognize the work immediately, but it never feels repeated. Each piece carries its own charge, tied to a specific subject handled with a specific point of view.
There's an energy here that pulls you in and holds you longer than you expect. It's not just the palette doing that work. It's the confidence behind every mark, the sense that each piece was made by someone who knew exactly what they were going for and got there.
At a Glance
Instagram: @ozogart Website: ozogart.com
Specialty: Pop art painting, portraiture, custom commissions
Hand-Forged Knives and Traditional Ironwork
Everything here comes out of fire, hammer, and repetition. Knox Trail Forge works across hand-forged knives and ironwork, both built with a clear understanding of traditional technique and what it actually takes to apply it properly.
The knives are made to be used. High-carbon steel, balanced geometry, handles that feel right the second you pick them up. Nothing added for show. Every decision tied directly to function and what the piece needs to do ten years from now.
The ironwork follows the same standard. Hardware, hearth pieces, architectural elements that feel like they've been in the room longer than you have. The weight is right, the finish is honest, and nothing is included that doesn't earn its place. Built to last because that's the only reason to build it.
At a Glance
Instagram: @knoxtrailforge Website: knoxtrailforge.com
Specialty: Hand-forged knives, ironwork, traditional blacksmithing
Artrider Spring Crafts at Lyndhurst is the kind of show where you don’t just walk through and leave. You start paying attention to how things are made, why they feel the way they do in your hands, and what separates a piece you’ll forget from one that stays with you.
You might come for one booth and end up circling back to several others. That’s how this work operates. It doesn’t hit all at once. It reveals itself as you take your time.
You can find all of these artists and more at Artrider’s Spring Crafts at Lyndhurst, running May 3 and 4. Walk the grounds, meet the makers, and spend some time with the work.
Never Stop Exploring
HVH Team
