Meet Mike and Jess Carter, founders of Carter Studios at Frankford’s own Globe Dye Works. Married almost two years they’re current residents of Port Richmond, former residents of Fishtown and 2004 graduates of Philly’s own University of the Arts. And while it’s easy to define what our Jason Roberts is up to during his stay in our part of town, it’s more of a challenge with the Carters. They work with clay, with wood, and metal. They paint. They turn factory walls into tables. In the corner sits industrial plastic dye rollers waiting to be turned into…. I don’t even know, the idea for what they’re gonna be probably doesn’t even exist yet. I asked them what their motivation in coming to Frankford was, and Mike pointed out two things, “Space and Money”. The Dye Works affords them the creative freedom to follow where their artistic visions wherever that may take them without being tied down to producing in order to afford exorbitant rent. Mike followed up with saying “for us to have this much space elsewhere, it just wouldn’t happen” and they “get to use the space for whatever they want, whatever we can do to make a living.” They envision further growth into furniture making and interior design, kinda like a “do something with space” kinda crew. Very nice. Like those rollers and old factory walls, thank God someone is using Frankford for something useful again. Below are some pics of my visit.
below: this is a before and after pic of a wall from the Seal-Tite factory up on Tacawanna.
below: these dye rollers will be??
below: only peripherally related to this story is the Carter Studios ceiling, I just love rafters
below: Crosby man!
[link] http://claywoodsteelspace.com/
