Michael Maharam makes textiles, many echoing the avant garde design schemes of the 20th Century. This week he is hosting a tour of his studio in New York for the MFAD first year students.

The New York Times notes, "When it comes to bespoke bicycles, Michael Maharam happily calls himself a dilettante. A lifelong collector of one-of-a-kind bikes from around the world, Maharam, of the New York textile company of the same name, recently made friends with a true expert — Sacha White, a master builder who owns Vanilla Bicycles in Portland, Ore. Together, they conceived an exhibition devoted to the work of craftsmen like White, who make a living cutting steel, welding and filing for weeks on end.

He was responsible for ‘‘Bespoke: The Handbuilt Bicycle,’’ that opened May 12, 2010 at the Museum of Arts and Design, where he showed 21 of the finest contemporary examples from America and abroad, from charming, Old World road bikes to aggressively styled titanium and steel mountain bikes.

See more on Maharam.