Homefront: Blue Streak

A side chair that looks like the tree from which it was crafted, a squid whose metal tentacles form a kitchen whisk — who knew art could look like this?

At Blue Streak, one block from Wilmington’s hip Trolley Square, these items join pastels, paintings and mixed media as decoration

A side chair that looks like the tree from which it was crafted, a squid whose metal tentacles form a kitchen whisk—who knew art could look like this? At Blue Streak, one block from Wilmington’s hip Trolley Square, these items join pastels, paintings and mixed media as decoration for the home and stimulation for the mind.

“We love good, clean design and things that make you happy,” says owner Ellen Bartholomaus, who took over the gallery 18 years ago. “We think art applies to things you touch and use, not just what you look at.”

In Blue Streak’s warren of intimate rooms, visitors will find silver-over-bronze salad tongs forged in the shape of a lotus leaf ($100), big wooden bowls embellished with decoupage monkeys ($125 each) and Venetian-inspired mirrored boxes fit for a movie star’s dressing table ($40 each).

The gallery represents a slate of regional artists, including Rose Valley ceramicist Mary DeWitt, who makes striking primitive plates, and southeastern Pennsylvania’s Mitch Lyons, who creates stoneware clay vessels inlaid with porcelain figures.

Blue Streak, 1721 Delaware Ave., Wilmington 302-429-0506