Lapin Curiosities: Art, Jewelry And Gifts That Inspire Your Inner Creativity
Follow the rabbit to a wonderland of whimsy at Norad Mill in North Adams.
It was The Messenger that led me to Lapin Curiosities, a shop of art, crafts, jewelry and other assorted items that will appeal to anyone with a sense of wonder and whimsy. The Messenger is artist Douglas Gilbert’s illustration of a rabbit running in midair, which became the logo of Cristina (Cri) Barbedo’s business. Located in the Norad Mill in North Adams, Lapin Curiosities is part gallery, part gift shop, and part salon, where you can chat with Barbedo and her artisan sister, Bea Barbedo, about the artists whose work (including the sisters’) inhabits the bright, cheery space.
Barbedo, a trained potter turned jewelry maker, had a studio in the mill, but wanted to work with other artisans and champion their work. Last August she moved into a different space at Norad and opened Lapin as a business with her sister and husband, Douglas Gilbert. Cutouts of Gilbert’s illustrated rabbits keep watch over the myriad of fanciful objects. This is a family business, so there are handcrafted jewelry and woven bags by Cri and Bea Barbedo, and fine art by Gilbert, including the rabbits, but also intricate illustrations of the natural world —dragonflies, flowers — in graphite and charcoal that mesmerizes. Bea, who spends several months in this country working on her art, the rest in Italy, also contributes amigurumi — crocheted figures that are stinking cute. (In Japan, their aesthetic characteristic is being adorable, and they are).
Cristina Barbedo and her sister Bea Barbedo
Multifacted artist, artisan and author Tricia Tusa, a Williamstown resident, is well represented at Lapin. She’s written and/or illustrated over 40 children’s books, some of which are in the shop. Her playful pottery — vessels with legs and wheels, ceramic doll heads with precious expressions, and a doll collection entitled “The Ladies” are big favorites with customers. Tusa also sews, and her diminutive blankets (larger than a doll blanket but smaller than a comforter) are available in a range of patterns and colors. Who wouldn’t want to take a nap under one of them?
Barbedo has also put together art supply kits that include blank books, graphite pencils, erasers, watercolors — whatever materials need go with each art-themed package.
Barbedo and Gilbert left New York to live in Brazil, her home country, for a year. When they returned, they re-evaluated their post-pandemic re-emergence. They looked for affordable studios (New York? forget about it) and landed in North Adams (Gilbert has a studio down the road at Greylock Works). Barbedo’s vision to work with other artisans and inspire people to create art themselves has found a home at Norad.
“People respond so well to Lapin,” she says. “They walk in here and they get what we’re trying to do.” Either you respond to the aesthetic or you don’t, but it seems most people do.
Barbedo would like to engage more artists and find a bigger place at some point. There are so many artists and artisans in the area, she says, but they stay quietly in their studios. It’s her mission to make sure that their work is seen (and purchased).
“It makes me super happy, meeting so many people,” she says. “I like the unique people we make things for. We like to say ‘the piece is made, and the person we made it for is coming for it.’”
Lapin Curiosities
60 Roberts Drive, Suite 303, North Adams, MA
Open Wednesday-Sunday, 10 a.m. - 6 p.m.; Sunday 10 a.m. - 3 p.m.
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