Most people who know me know that I absolutely adore the hair forks made by 60th Street Productions. These have been an obsession of mine for almost four years now, I think.
You can find
60th Street Productions on Etsy if you are lucky enough to catch an unsold listing
. They have their very own well constructed
website where they sometimes have sales on a particular style or shape of wood. I find it best to keep an eye on this website weekly at a minimum, just in case.
Pink ivory jeni, Gabon ebony amie, Bloodwood daisey, Tasmanian Blackwood Bev, Osage Orange lynne.
These are the same forks again to show the beautiful flash in some of these woods.
This small family business, where all of the hair forks are created by one man, Jim, is to thank for originally triggering my passion for beautiful wood. The photos above are forks which have all been created from natural woods, finished in a way to enhance their natural grain. I would never have discovered the beauty of flawlessly finished timber if it were not for these forks, so all of my subsequent discoveries are in some way thanks to these people. For that I am incredibly grateful.
In the spirit of honesty I must also credit Jan and Jim from 60thstreet for reaffirming my faith in the innate good of people at a time in my life when something truly awful had just happened. The kind communications from complete strangers when I was grieving the terrible loss of my first niece, who was still an infant, just went above and beyond anything I had experienced before outside of my family. Many beautiful souls have revealed themselves to me since, but I will never forget this moment in my life. So I must point out that although I am slightly biased because I know how good-hearted the people behind this business are, regardless I believe that everything I say about the hair forks is entirely true.
As you can see, they do incredible work with natural wood. The forks are flawless, with a gentle head curve for comfort and fine tapering prongs, but they are much stronger than they appear and can hold huge amounts of hair effectively.
Jim also works with brightly coloured dymondwood, which is a compound created by impregnating birch with coloured resins. It is compressed and becomes extremely strong when set and is water resistant. 60thstreet polish this to a high gloss, with a hair friendly, glass-like, shiny appearance. These are one of only a few other hairtoys with a comparable finish to that my beautiful
Elymwold hairsticks and forks. The only other seller with a glass-like finish that I have tried is
Timberstone Turnings, which I hope to blog about when I have a few of their creations one day.
Here are some photographs of beautiful dymondwood creations from 60thstreet which are currently for sale.
There is a selection of multicoloured dymondwoods available
Also colours with a more solid appearance.
The forks are made in a variety of different styles, prong number and spacing and topper shapes. If you visit their website and look through the fork styles and available woods or browse through the sold items on Etsy it will give a better idea of the huge variation between individual fork styles, but one thing always remains the same, their perfect workmanship and their simple and elegant shaping. I like to choose forks with a shape that will flatter the particular wood the most.
These forks have become increasingly difficult to get a hold of due to their increasing popularity. People from all over the world are mad about them. Jan and Jim have their priorities absolutely right and put their family life first, whilst maintaining their business with professionalism and putting quality ahead of quantity. I respect their decision, but I wouldn't mind adding another few natural four prong forks to my collection one day if I can catch them on Etsy.
Hope you're having a great weekend,
Cardi.
