Design exhibition showcases women designers

NEW YORK (FOX5NY.COM) - Welcome to Designing Women II: Masters, Mavericks, Mavens, an all-female design show hosted by female-led design studio Egg Collective. Co-founder Stephanie Beamer gave us a tour of the exhibition, starting with a beautiful walnut Mira Nakashima console.

Mira, the daughter of George Nakashima, took over her father's design studio after he passed away in 1990. She operates out of Pennsylvania.

Next, we checked out one of the oldest pieces in the show, a tapestry by Lilian Holm dating back to 1945.

Stephanie Beamer, Hillary Petrie, and Crystal Ellis started Egg Collective in 2011, specializing in the design and manufacturing of residential scale furniture. They met while studying architecture at Washington University of Saint Louis.

They launched their business in New York City, Crystal says, because there's no better place in the world to do what they do.

Egg Collective launched the first Designing Women show last spring to spotlight great work by females in a very male industry.

Other works in the current show include a piece by the late Mary Giles, a textile artist who works in weaving and basketry. Mary hand-wove her pieces. She was the wife of an undergraduate professor the Egg Collective founders had in college.

Below the Mary Giles piece are ceramics by Natalie Weinberger, a Brooklyn-based artist whose ceramics are incredibly precise and unique.

Even some pieces from Egg Collective are in the show. Hillary describes their design aesthetic as contemporary design with a nod to tradition. They design and make all of their pieces and have their own wood shop in Sunset Park, Brooklyn.

The women hope people will visit Designing Women II and be taken away by the quality and diversity of the work in the space. Featuring 40 pieces by 20 women, the show is open from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday through Friday and from 12 p.m. to 6 p.m. Saturday, through June 1.