For such a petite person with an equally petite shop, Kanela Studio founder and owner Karen Springer doesn’t think small. There is no “can’t do” in either of the languages she speaks fluently.
What began as a side hustle making pretty little woven bracelets when she was pregnant with her first child grew into her now decade-old shop, where everything is handmade and all the wares are made by women. “I saw how hard it was to have kids and a career,” says Springer, who started out as a journalist in her native Costa Rica. “It’s not easy to be a woman.”
Festooned in flowers, ever-open turquoise French doors and a cheerful multi-colored awning, Kanela Studio (16 St. Mary’s Road, Shelter Island, 917-971-6156) sells beautiful handwoven purses, one-of-a-kind jewelry, summery dresses fit for island life and other interesting finds, all made in Latin America and mostly sold on the honor system via Venmo. Has anyone ever stolen anything? “Once, someone forgot to pay — but they eventually did.”
1. Mochilas crocheted cotton bags, $100-$165 Springer goes to Colombia and buys directly from the indigenous women of the Wayuu tribe in the La Guajira Peninsula, who make these gorgeous purses and totes. Each takes about a month to make and carries a traditional meaning woven into the pattern. Springer pays full, not wholesale, price for them, as the money collected by the Wayuu goes into the community food pantry.
2. Handmade bracelets, $12-$35
Springer weaves these swim-safe, intricately designed bracelets on a tiny little loom, using 50 to 70 threads per design and, on some, sterling silver beads. “I have some people who buy a new one every summer to remind them of Shelter Island,” says Springer. “I have one customer who wears eight of them on one arm!”
3. Arrow Cane Indígena purses, $50-$100 Made from natural, sun-dried caña flecha palm fronds by the women of the Zenú tribe in Colombia, each bag’s stunning patterns are created using an ancestral weaving technique.
4. Nut rings, $12 Often called vegetable ivory, tagua nuts are found in the rain forests of Brazil and Colombia, and their natural color indeed resembles that of the off-white hue. “To get the colors, they put the nuts in bags of ink and the nut absorbs it,” says Springer. They’re then polished and sometimes hand-painted for extra flourish.
5. Custom cover ups and dresses, $75 The youngest of four girls, Springer and her sisters all learned to sew, along with other crafty skills. She creates the patterns for these cover ups and dresses, using a light and airy chiffon to be cool and stylish in the summer months.
6. Santo Bamboo woven necklaces, $65 Striking and colorful, if you’re looking for a piece of summer statement jewelry that garners oodles of compliments, these will fill the bill. Made in Brazil, the necklaces are woven from a multitude of wrapped, colorful threads.
