Virginia Key Grassroots Festival was here in Miami for the first time, the second weekend of February, for 4 days in a row. Starring an evening of great organic food, a lot of interesting characters, and many banjos WFK got down and dirty with the hoolah-hooping crowd and interviewed a couple of very talented artisans. Who says hippies don’t have style? Not only do these skilled designers have a taste for a unique style sense but they know the value of hand-made quality. Take a look at what we found:
Robert Andrews Custom Leather
Absolutely blown away by the fine quality of his hand-made designs. I stopped to talk to this seemingly interesting designer. All his crafts are made from recycled hides he’s collected from friends and local hunters. He reuses the scraps to make beautiful purses, belts, beer-holders, and much more. But more interesting is the story of the man himself. Andrews lives in the woods of Northern Florida, he ventures out for events such as the Grassroot Festival to mingle and sell his goods and then returns home to his wild turkeys. “I always feel like I can connect more with the animals, most of the time I go home and talk to my wild turkeys and just say… You wouldn’t even believe what this crazy human said to me”.
Mexican Crafts
We spoke briefly with artisan Gabriel Rodriguez and his view on his hand-made leather crafts was that of survival. “I learned how to do this because I had to learn, it’s been passed down in my family for generations and its how we survive.”
Nile G. Fahmy (Tattoo tinker Studio)
Beautiful hand-made jewelry that were miniature sculptures in themselves. Using a traditional hand blowing technique along with a hammer. The pieces he creates are magic. What I loved the most about this designer is the fact that he makes art out of anything he can get his hands on. He was kind enough to show us beautiful pieces that were originally a piece of scrap metal and even rings made of pennies and dimes. I couldn’t leave without snatching up a beautiful dream catcher he had made and a custom flower necklace. Check out our interview with him as he explains a traditional jewelry making technique:
Video:
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More info:
Andrews Custom Leather
Robert Andrews
P.O. Box 53251
Sarasota, FL 34232
1bobcat1340@gmail.com
941.923.9624
Tattooed Tinker Studio
Nile G. Fahmy
www.tattooedtinker.com
tattooedtinker@gmail.com
Mexica Crafts
Gabriel Rodriguez
P.O. Box 1114
Woodstock, NY 12498
www.mexicacrafts.com
mexicacrafts60@hotmail.com
Energy Aura Aum
Ariella MJ Luke
www.etsy.com/shop/energyauraaum
Wasabi:::Fashion Aficionado/puzzle solver
Creator of Wasabi Fashion Kult. A magazine documenting how the underground culture is expressing itself through fashion, music and art 
