December 29, 2011

Happy New Year, everyone! I don't think I'm alone in saying that this last year has been a tough one, so I am sincerely happy to usher it out the door. Here's to a fresh, new year - may it be gentle, fruitful & sweet! All the best to everyone - á vos souhaits!

December 23, 2011

happy holidays

Enjoy the festival of lights, the longer daylight & garlands of light strewn about... happy Hanukkah, Solstice & Christmas, everyone!

December 22, 2011

holiday sweets

This holiday season was all about caramel: butter, sugar & salty/smoky/bitter flavors – what could be better? May your holidays be sweet!

more here

December 21, 2011

top shelf atelier






Cleaning out & setting up my studio has made me even more interested in artists' live & work spaces, & how they divide & incorporate their living & working worlds. Johanna Burke creates magical & wondrous window displays for Bergdorf Goodman, & her home is in the same industrial building as her studio. Her living area is a well-thought out space with a spectacular wall of paned windows, shelving galore & beautiful columns & walls that show their patina. Her home has the aura of an incubator to me, with rows of books, tools at hand & pieces of art & interesting objects to inspire. And oh, that view. And that light.
Her studio space feels equally as stimulating, yet simple & practical at the same time. Definitely a place where you can roll up your sleeves & get lost in your work, with no worries about leaving a mess or roughing up your more precious possessions; separate enough from your living space, yet conveniently in the same building. Precisely what I would like to achieve, though on a much smaller scale in my little subterranean studio (yet with lovely natural light & a wee garden view - lucky me) in our home.

from here via here

December 15, 2011

happy weekend

More wintry weather is moving in, creating just the right ambiance to finish up some holiday cooking & baking. The studio is getting a good clean & reorganization, in preparation for some new projects I have planned for the upcoming year.  Happy weekend, all!

December 14, 2011

well edited collections




Lara Melchior's Parisian atelier is a beautiful space in which to both create & live; I love spaces where a person's work blends into their daily lives, & so stylishly. Her space is so serene & simple, with interesting details & collections that draw one's eye about & inspire. It's not surprising that her work is absolutely stunning, as well.


photos by Garance Doré
from here

December 9, 2011

to the letter











monogram scrimshaw necklaces

The two-sided design on the disk shows the capital letter on one side & lower case on the other. The K shown here is on a strand of vintage c1920s metal beads.

There are just a few available now, but if people fancy them, I will begin taking orders for custom pieces.

Cheers!

happy weekend

Winter weather is upon us this weekend in New England - button up, wrap up & pour yourself a stiff, hot drink (hot cocoa & whiskey works for me). Cheers!

December 8, 2011

poetic gesture












In light of the season, this post caught my attention about mysterious paper sculptures magically appearing in the city of Edinburgh's public libraries. Earlier in the year, exquisitely crafted small works of art were discovered with notes attached supporting public libraries & the written word, & no one knows whence they came.

It started with your name @byleaveswelive and became a tree.… ... We know that a library is so much more than a building full of books… a book is so much more than pages full of words.… This is for you in support of libraries, books, words, ideas….. a gesture (poetic maybe?)

My favorite piece is the wing made from book pages. Incredible.

Here's to public art & anonymous gifts! Inspires me to hatch a little plan myself...

more here

thanks, desha!

December 3, 2011

happy weekend


Here's to adventures!

December 2, 2011

this is beautiful











Andrei Tarkovsky remains one of my favorite filmmakers of all time; capturing a random still in one of his mesmerizing & visually abundant films unerringly results in a beautiful image that could stand on its own. Unsurprisingly, his photography is equally astonishing. First published in 2006, his c. 1970s polaroids of Russia & Italy have recently all been digitized. His masterly understanding of light & depth of field is utterly otherworldly.

from here 
merci cz & jhs