The Scout: Shopping in downtown L.A., including arts district and Chinatown

Folding Sunpocket glasses.  (Bob Chamberlin / Los Angeles Times)

Leather goods, hats, ties.   (Bob Chamberlin / Los Angeles Times)

Detail of the 1959 Fiat Abarth 750 Spider.

Alchemy Works, 826 E. 3rd St., Los Angeles.   (Bob Chamberlin / Los Angeles Times)

Custom shelving in Alchemy Works looks great and is local: The design was fabricated by a studio a block away. District Millworks has completed installations for an impressive list of restaurants, including Umamicatassen downtown. The studio also produces furniture for residential clients. 917 E. 3rd St., Los Angeles.   (Bob Chamberlin / Los Angeles Times)

Though it’s fairly modest in size, Poketo quickly established itself as a go-to shop for gifts downtown. Here at the intersection of Cool and Cute, you will find stationery, ceramics, candles and modern crafts.   (Bob Chamberlin / Los Angeles Times)

Chen Chen and Kai Williams mold petite pots into the life-size shapes of avocados, oranges and horned melons ($28 apiece).   (Bob Chamberlin / Los Angeles Times)

Lostine cutting boards with milk paint accents hang on like art on the wall.  (Bob Chamberlin / Los Angeles Times)

Mice for your tree.   (Bob Chamberlin / Los Angeles Times)

Baskets bring some color to home storage.   (Bob Chamberlin / Los Angeles Times)

Boccie balls with a mod spin.

Poketo is at 820 E. 3rd St., Los Angeles.   (Bob Chamberlin / Los Angeles Times)

House Industries’ Alphabet Factory blocks.   (Bob Chamerlin / Los Angeles Times)

Jason Wein buys up the nuts and bolts of closed American factories to create furniture and lighting with a pleasingly industrial bent. His business, Cleveland Art, feels part factory, part flea market. Pictured here: a Moto Guzzi motorcycle inside the cavernous shop.  (Bob Chamberlin / Los Angeles Times)

Heavy machinery gears turned into candlesticks.   (Bob Chamberlin / Los Angeles Times)

Lamps with an industrial edge, furthered by old-school Edison bulbs.   (Bob Chamberlin / Los Angeles Times)

Hand-blown glass bowls.  (Bob Chamberlin / Los Angeles Times)

A 1950s toy truck among the castoffs at the shop.  (Bob Chamberlin / Los Angeles Times)

Foundry letter boxes from the 1850s.  (Bob Chamberlin / Los Angeles Times)

Derrek Rivera adjusts a lamp behind a vintage bike. The bike, which dates to the late 19th century or early 20th century, has wooden rims and tires as well as wooden handlebars, but there is one somewhat modern convenience: an adjustable seat.   (Bob Chamberlin / Los Angeles Times)

Another vintage ride, hung from above.  (Bob Chamberlin / Los Angeles Times)

The tower to the First Street bridge is reflected in the front window of Cleveland Art, 110 N. Santa Fe Ave., Los Angeles.  (Bob Chamberlin / Los Angeles Times)

The art gallery scene in Chinatown has ebbed and flowed, but the neighborhood has endured as an entertaining place to visit -- and revisit.  (Bob Chamberlin / Los Angeles Times)

Jennifer Hanna stands among the modern housewares that fill the shop: vases, picture frames, toys and glassware.   (Bob Chamberlin / Los Angeles Times)

Among the draws at Realm: glassware you don’t see in many other gift shops. Antibes glasses with a festive hexagon design are $15.25 apiece.   (Bob Chamberlin / Los Angeles Times)

Dandelion glasses.  (Bob Chamberlin / Los Angeles Times)

Modern dolls make their home in a traditional Chinese porcelain bowl.  (Bob Chamberlin / Los Angeles Times)

Porcelain dog and duck creamers at Realm.  (Bob Chamberlin / Los Angeles Times)

Novelty candles at Realm, 425 Gin Ling Way (off Broadway), Los Angeles.  (Bob Chamberlin / Los Angeles Times)

The Jazzie Puppy toy from Jellycat stands near blue Chinese porcelain figurines.  (Bob Chamberlin / Los Angeles Times)

Robert Apodaca’s minimalist gallery is loaded with modern design amusements.   (Bob Chamberlin / Los Angeles Times)

A clever way to display a saddle bag for sale at Fifth Floor.  (Bob Chamberlin / Los Angeles Times)

At the high end of the designs at Fifth Floor: Jason McCloskey’s Wing chair, an ethereal swoop of bent walnut that sells for $5,500.   (Bob Chamberlin / Los Angeles Times)

A wider view of the Wing chair.  (Bob Chamberlin / Los Angeles Times)

At the low end of the gallery’s designs: $15 Fragment vases made with test tubes and wood scraps.  (Bob Chamberlin / Los Angeles Times)

A Fragment table light, made of remnant wood by Anzfer Farms of San Francisco.  (Bob Chamberlin / Los Angeles Times)

The turntable is part of a collection of analog machine pillows. Also available: the typewriter.  (Bob Chamberlin / Los Angeles Times)

A petite boulder planter set.  (Bob Chamberlin / Los Angeles Times)

The D-Torso assemble-yourself cardboard pig. Fifth Floor is at 502 Chung King Court (off Hill Street), Los Angeles.   (Bob Chamberlin / Los Angeles Times)

At Hong Kong Import Co., on the walk from Realm toward a different set of shops on Chung King Court, you’ll find a wide selection of inexpensive cloisonne -- metal pill boxes and animal figurines with painted enamel decoration and prices starting at $6.   (Bob Chamberlin / Los Angeles Times)

Cloissonne ornaments too.  (Bob Chamberlin / Los Angeles Times)

A cloissonne cup at Hong Kong Import, 950 N. Hill St., Los Angeles, (213) 620-9438.  (Bob Chamberlin / Los Angeles Times)

K&A’s window is filled with flat-packed wooden toys -- like puzzles in 3-D -- that assemble into tall ships, helicopters, the Eiffel Tower and a zoo of animals. Most are $3 to $10. The store’s address pops up on Internet searches as 487 Gin Ling Way, but the better address to use for GPS is 951 Sun Mun Way (off Broadway).

Read our full article on downtown L.A. shopping.  (Bob Chamberlin / Los Angeles Times)