In her online shop Cloth & Goods, Melissa Newirth stocks rare finds, exclusive (or nearly exclusive) imports, and creatively repurposed beauties. She hunts down merchandise during international travels and out-of-town curation projects, and draws on trusted scouts to spot objects and materials that fit an aesthetic that's equal parts simplicity and hand-hewn, imperfect texture. Three prime examples:

1 She found her crisp signature pottery, for example, in England, sourced from a husband-and-wife operation in Stoke-on-Trent that Newirth is a bit leery of naming. "I'm pretty sure that at the beginning," I was the only shop in the US carrying them," she says. "The colors, the patterns—it all just fit with the look and feel of the whole shop."

2 She curated her current favorite, a selection of framed and unframed drawings on vintage African cloth made of bark, while working on an antique show in East Hampton, New York. "They're rustic and modern, and I really haven't seen anything like them."

3 In a similar vein: Japanese katagami stencils framed in Lucite.

"I try to curate really specific and unusual things," Newirth says.

Photographs by Lisa Warninger, courtesy Cloth & Goods.