| (reference
to Ssusan Forte-O'Neill's Tote-able Art)
Best of the Shops
Where to get original
art, great toys and exotic clothes Ê By Cathy Alter
With
their inventories of plastic tomahawks, canvas tote bags, and collectible
thimbles, museum gift shops may not seem the place to find that perfect
hostess gift or wedding present.  But
you may be surprised by what's in store: original works of art, cleverly
designed household items, and, if your taste leans to highbrow kitsch,
Krishna lunch
boxes.
The
repository of a world-renowned collection of Asian art, the Arthur M.
Sackler Gallery (202-633-0483; freersacklershop.com) boasts a shop with
an amazing array of children's toes. Among the Chinese turquoise jewelry
and Dalai Lama chant music are colorful paper animal balÐloons ($1.50),
origami-influenced pinÐwheels ($4.50 to S14.95), and an assortÐment of
hilarious Parasite Pals ($8 for a package of four). What kid wouldn't
like Tickles Tapeworm, Dig Dig Head Louse, and Blinky Eyelash Mite (whose
package description reads "Blinky finds happiest days on external
part of eyelash")?
Paying homage to Frank Gehry's planned
140,000-square-foot wing, the gift shop at the Corcoran Museum (202-639-1790; corcoran.org/shop)
features a super-affordable collection of sterling-silver jewelry inspired
by Gehry's Bilbao museum in Spain.
Designer Paloma Caniyet has been influenced by Bilbao's undulating lines and organic shapes. The ring ($65) wraps
around the finger in sinuous layers, and the
choker ($29 for the small, $35 for the large) mimics Gehry's crumpled-paper-ball
building sketches. Other Gehry-related merchandise ranges from mugs with
a line drawing of the new Corcoran ($8.95) to miniature "wiggle"
chairs ($156).
Opened near Dulles in
2003 as an annex to the flagship museum on the Mall, the National Air
and Space Museum's Steven F.
Udvar-Hazy Center (703Ð572-4170
www.nasm.si.edu/visit/shops/shops.cfm) offers gift-shop items with the
glamour of The Right Stuff. Open your beer at Mach 3 speed with
a bottle opener shaped like the LockÐheed SR-71 BlackÐbird, one of the
sexiÐest and fastest airÐcrafts ever built. Maybe your golf game won't
break any records with a silÐvery Blackbird golf ball, but at $4 each
they're a fun converÐsation piece.
Freeze-dried-ice
cream fanatics take note: The supply at the gift shop here reÐportedly
lasts longer than that at the shop on the Mall. As one freeze-o-phile
noted, "They always run out this stuff at the other one.ä
There are two gift shops -- the Roanoke and the Chesapeake
-- at the National Museum
of the American Indian (202-633-7030; americanindian.si.edu). If you're
looking for high-end merchandise, bypass the dream catchers-and plastic
tomahawks-in the Roanoke and hit the Chesapeake.
This gently curved space on the ground floor offers a very good selection
of goods by native artiÐsans: brightly painted cedar-bark masks ($4,000);
a coterie of kachina dolls by Hopi Indian Henry Naha ($1,400); and stunning sunset-colored art-glass vases ($1,100
to $3,800). The Peruvian paintÐed gourds ($200 to $960) burst with colÐor
and detail.
The books in the National Building Museum store (202-272-7706; nbm.org)
range widely. Interior Desecration: Hideous Homes From
the Horrible 70s is shelved not far from Early Georgian InteÐriors. Besides
offering the expected-volÐumes on interior and exterior design, graphic
design, and garden landscaping the store sells esoteric books that are
more goofy than Gehry. The first page of Bitter
With Baggage Seeks Same: The Life and Times of
Some Chickens shows a yellow chick that looks crafted from pipe cleaners.
She's surrounded by fellow chicks in odd poses, and the text reads, "Maude
was peeved her 3:30 yoga class was full again. Didn't anybody
work in this town?"
A tiny jewel box
of a shop, the one at the Textile Museum (202-667-0441 ext. 29; textilemuseumshop.org) offers exÐotic
Kashmir shawls with silk embroidery from India ($130
to $150), one-of-a-kind playful handbags embellished
with ribbons and beads made by "Ssusan" Forte O'Neill,
and a fabulous library of books. To celebrate the museum's new exhibit
about textiles from Indonesia
and Malaysia,
the shop is offering Indonesian cotton and silk batik scarves and sarongs.
Prices range from $48 to $500.
........................
Washington writer Cathy Alter
works with an outreach committee at the Corcoran Gallery of Art.
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