Alchemy & Co. is Crafting a New Way to Manufacture
Brooklyn, NY, December 7, 2016 (Newswire.com) - In a world seemingly made of disposable furniture from big box retailers, Alchemy & Co. is breaking the rules. They are creating custom handcrafted heirloom quality furniture at accessible price points. The company is owned by Crystal Goldenstein who cut her teeth in high-end boutique manufacturing at the helm of Urban Archaeology’s production department.
Crystal is a 3rd generation Blacksmith, she grew up working in a metal shop outside of Phoenix. When pressed about it she told us “working and designing with metal is not so much a passion but that it is apart of my DNA…it’s mixed in with all the magic and possibility that courses through my veins. It is, and was, inevitable”
There is nothing greener than buying an object one time and keeping it forever because it is made well and you love it.
Crystal Goldenstein, Owner
The Company was born in a very dark moment six years ago. Crystal having left Urban Archaeology (insert long story here) was broke and lost. That month one of her closest friends paid her rent on her Ft. Green apartment. Sitting on her illegally built roof deck [she remodels every apartment she rents] she contemplated what it was that truly makes her happy and what it was she wanted to do with her life.
“In that moment, I decided that it was time to be authentic and true to who I am. I love to make things, I always have. So I decided to make things again and not just manage the process.
I was disgusted by the manufacturing world with its environmental impact, over packaging, foam… Styrofoam is everywhere… it’s all so toxic…and the process of importing goods from overseas from manufacturers with questionable safety standards. I didn’t want any of that. So I wrote down a few guiding principals to build a company around:
1. Don’t be an a-hole to anyone you work with
2. Make things that are worth having and keeping
3. Limit waste of supplies and packaging
4. Build an ethos of safety, both for workers and for the environment
5. Be chill, do not get caught up in status
And more than anything… Have a sense of humor about it all. Seriously our number is 1-844-MAKEPRETTY.“
Alchemy & Co. has an office in Brooklyn but has just moved their main work studio to the Catskills, which seems true to #5. Crystal is sitting in a flannel shirt with cowboy boots resting on a coffee table in Alchemy’s & Co.’s showroom, which is a (5) bedroom 1914 farmhouse that is slowly getting remodeled and furnished with custom furniture and antiques.
“We are hoping to have this house/showroom completed by the end of 2017. My dream is to be able to throw the keys to this place to a designer and have them stay for the weekend. Give them time to relax with their family and friends, enjoy the clean air, and to let them tumble around with our objects to get a sense of what we do.“
Alchemy & Co. carries no furniture “line” but produces some private label lines for a few boutique retailers in New York City. Alchemy & Co. works mostly with Architects and Designers to produce custom furniture and interior metalwork packages. They seem to be pretty tight lipped about whom they are building things for, which honestly is refreshing. Name-dropping can be obnoxious. Thumbing through a portfolio which can only be seen in person (they have a policy of not releasing images digitally) will show an impressive scope of work ranging from built-ins, free standing furniture, to large doors and gates.
Their website (www.alchemyandco.com) is a catalog expressing what it means to “DO WHAT THEY DO”. When asked if it was ever a problem, not having images of their work online, Crystal ever charming laughed and said, “Yes, always. It’s hard to explain to someone in this world of over promotion, that we are not interested in showing our clients designs to the world, if they want that our clients can put our work on their websites. We rely on word of mouth and repeat clients. Also it’s limiting. As a company- I am not interested in being pigeon holed into a certain type of work, because that is all someone thinks we can do. In reality if you can draw it, we can make it.”
Source: Alchemy & Co.