Posts Tagged ‘Interior’

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All Twisted Up

For a splash of irony, note the watermark. And, no need to focus eyes, the buttons are of yet unattached.

Fessing up to being less than talented at something has actually never been my strength — nor pleasure.

I should be the best at all things mind and hand take to.

Bof, you exclaim!  This chic is bogus — Look at the name of her blog!

Months ago, I was proud to say that I was clueless at craft.  But as time has gone, I’ve become increasingly insecure about not being the best.  Or even broaching the best.

From the outset, my inner, most fierce competitor was merrily subdued.  But as craft has creeped its way from the conceptual to the real, I grow more intimidated and resentful. I can no longer hide behind the defense that craft was something that someone else did.

Reluctantly, with head hung and spirit exhausted, I present the scarflette. Unholy crap, did I really work so long to get it all twisted up?!

These embarrassing knit fits can make a tightly wound woman come fastly undone.

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Posted in Flustered, Judgmental, Melancholic | 22 Comments »

Scarflette Tartlette

Next year's scarflette

Next year's scarflette, perhaps?

A gorgeous sparkle flourish increases allure to this scarflette.

Valentine’s Day 2010 marks the first year I am deeply attached to two loves. C’est pas vrai?!  The forbidden love triangle!

The first love goes to my dashing husband.  We will be inseparable as we brunch and crush on one another and our much beloved New York.  The tie that binds, the capstone to the love triangle, is the delicious buttery texture of a handmade scarflette, wrapped come-hitherly round the decolletage.

It seals the deal on a year of love –  thoughtfully crafted in unison.  One in which a supportive husband believes that his wife’s entrepreneurial aspirations and craft life are worth exploring;  And, one where a wife believes her computer engineering husband deserves to live a life surrounded by art, craft, design, and all sorts of visual intrigue and expression.

I guess this is one of those rare occasions where we welcome a third party into our relationship.  It’s a symbol of love and cooperation.  We hope to continue to craft a closely knit marriage of mutual support.

More akin to my humble scarflette. On Saturday, I will be meeting with my faithful tutor Victoria to fix dropped stitches and add buttons.

~ Cheers to all Scarflette Tartlettes!

What do you share in your relationships, in your marriages?

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Posted in Appreciative, Playful, Sentimental | 14 Comments »

Auction Connection

A stunning pair of mercury glass obelisks that caught my fancy.

‘A symphony of plates, and vases, and silverware and candlesticks,’ he inevitably shouts my way, but I cannot focus. My peripheral vision has caught sight of a cobalt and salmon lustreware pitcher on the bottom shelf of a glass display case.  I fumble inside to inspect the piece firsthand, an activity that involves drawing it to the eye or under my handy magnifying loop, all while twirling and turning it around and upside down for signs of irreparable damage. ‘dances in your head!‘ he continues, ‘Is this (pointing at the lustreware in my death grip with a knowing smirk) going to be part of our symphony?’

‘Mayybe?‘ I  husband-probe, ‘How do you feel about it?’

And so goes the way of conversation after conversation hinged on our collecting dreams. Saturday afternoon’s grand tour of  Doyle At Home ~ Fine Furniture, Decorations, and Paintings unfolded in much the same way as previous auction previews. Whether collecting for pleasure or the pragmatic, the discussion invariably leads to chat of aesthetics and economics.  Do we both love it?  Can we afford it?

As young collectors, it is prudent to peruse the wares at as many fleas, estate sales, galleries, art and craft fairs, antique shows, and auction previews long before purchasing.

Below is a short, yet suitable list to familiarize you with the larger auction houses as well as smaller regional auctions. Wherever you are, there is an auction for you.

Interior Designers snap up settees like this for a bargain, refurbishing and reupholstering for a spectacular return.

Dizzy from the symphony of china and crystal dancing through my head, this velvet jewel-toned chaise lounge had just the right Hollywood vibe for a good faint.

Camel back sofa with great bones. The Euro-oriental kitsch and the pearlescent sheen of the fabric was a tad over the top.

Antiques and the Arts Online, offers a comprehensive overview of  auctions taking place across the United States

Bonhams and Butterfields

Christie’s

Doyle New York

Freeman’s, American Furniture, Decorative & Folk Art, English & Continental Furniture & Decorative Arts, Asian Arts, Fine American & European Paintings, Modern and Contemporary Art, Rare Books, Fine Prints, Oriental Rugs, Fine Jewelry & Silver, and 20th /21st Century Design

iGavel online auctions,  fine arts, antiques, and collectibles

Phillips De Pury & Company, specializing in contemporary art

Sotheby’s

Swann Galleries Auctioneers, specializing in rare books and works on paper

Tepper Galleries

Waddington’s

Wes Cowan’s Historic Americana Auctions, specializing in Native American art and antiques

Do you know of any well-regarded large or regional auction houses near you? What treasures can be found there?

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Posted in Ambivalent, Aspirational, Creative | 22 Comments »

Auctions and My Art Story ~ An Approach to Collecting

By this juncture, I just may have established that I’m clueless when it comes to crafting.  What I have not said is that in other areas, well, I’m just not that clueless.

There, I’ve come clean.

While I don’t intend to debunk the validity of my clueless crafting – afterall, I relish in the freedom it has given me to fail with a smile – I don’t want to withhold what by nature captures my fancy.

Back Art Story

I’m trained academically in art history and professionally in the inside world of the art market at the Fashion Institute of Technology, New York (Click here for more on this amazing program).

I’ve plodded along in the fascinating fields of art appraisal and the recovery of stolen and looted art & objects.  Before this,  in a large bank organizing an art lecture series for prominent collectors.  And, delightfully true, when one lives in a center for art trade, how could she not have spent countless hours in galleries, museums and auction houses?

Future Art Story

Now I’m slowly transitioning to the other side:  the would-be collector.  If even I have auction apprehension, I can only presume that others do as well. But what makes me hopelessly attached to the auction format is the adrenaline rush of competition.  In my world, that plastic paddle is a menacing weapon, asserting autonomy and art audacity.  I’m declaring the right to make life beautiful and meaningful.  This right, however, only comes with work – your work.

Your Art Story

* Get acquainted with art and antiques that will financially never be within reach.  In the museum, works have been vetted by specialists.  They know (most of the time) what is authentic.  Put yourself in their eyes.  You may have seen a similar painting or sideboard in your grandmother’s attic, but how does the one in the museum differ?

* Go to auction previews.  They are free, open to the public, and welcome questions.  Specialists will be milling about, at the ready to answer your thoughtful questions.  So you want to look at the back of the painting for signs of restoration or damage?  Perfect! Ask to have them take it down so you can have a good look.  You can’t do this in a museum, so get in there and go for it.

* Go to galleries whose works most represent your taste. If you don’t know your taste, all the better.  Explore!  Begin to forge a relationship with the dealer, which will in turn allow you to profit from her expertise. Consider her a teacher willing to impart knowledge to a future client.  Afterall, if you do purchase, her commission is the result of your education.

* Do your own research.  Google. Read books.  Check online art databases for recent auction results for your artist, genre, Regency chair. Visit other galleries, museums, auction houses, non-vetted group shows, artists’ studios, non-profits, corporate art collections, the hospital waiting room.  Be autonomous. Be audacious.

I’ve been tromping around New York for years and I’m still not comfortable with the art and antiques world scene.  It’s a growing process.  Whether you live here or in a small town seemingly off the map, people are and have been creating exquisite works of expression.  The above tips are not relegated to my geographic location.  As art is everywhere, in subsequent installments I will share with you resources such as websites; books; online auctions; art & antique sale indexes; building relationships within the art world; and steps to ensure your purchase is indeed authentic.

Now, I’m curious.  Share a story or anything you know or want to know about acquiring art, antiques, collectibles, and furniture at auction.

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Posted in Aspirational | 24 Comments »

A Studio, the Aperture of Aspiration

Desk left, a tapestried wall reminiscent of art mounted in the salon style (I should note that this was sewed together all by my lonesome!). One day, a carefully curated collection will hang in its place. Desk front, a salvaged punched tin magnetic board. Desk right, the early stages of fabric bombing.

Had I known that carving out a creative nook in my New York apartment would be a feat of physical and emotional proportions, I may have outsourced the event.

I waffled. I pouted. I wailed.  I hit my head and teared to my husband.

I endured design distress.

What was this Blank Canvas?  It was doubt. For days I sat in paralysis, angered and frustrated by its sterile presence.  How would I summon the self understanding to make a space that reflected me – not only in this moment but through time?

The beauty and the beast of design is that it forces one to make decisions that most likely will not represent the future self.  It’s an exercise in value.  What object is worthy of wall space now?  How does one know?

You see, in the magazines the process and the product of designing a space happen at once.  At the end of the spread, there’s always a tidy, soul-fulfilling environment that speaks volumes about the person inside.  Within a single afternoon, meaning is ascribed to material.

But I can’t take the pressure, which is why I call my humble zone an “aperture of aspiration,” a place that I cannot yet attribute meaning (though, I’m sensing an inkling) but has all aspiration of evolving into one – over time.

The Materials~

* A punched tin tile salvaged from a demo in the Lower East Side.  Perfectly so, these tiles are a fun magnetic surface for savory images, this or even that.

* Ghost Salon Tapestry, a nod to our collecting dreams. Comprised of black swatches that hang in lieu of the artworks that will one day hang, salon style, in our home.  I picked the succulent oriental motif fabrics, traced shapes using our favorite gratin dishes and bread plates, and finally sewed them onto the backdrop.

Tapestry detail

* Fabric bombing has begun.  Discarded seam binding, gift ribbons, scraps and swatches that I have used will be the only materials to wrap the unsightly poles.

* A miscellany of my own darkroom exposures, brads, pushpins, cards, ephemera, inspirations are welcome on all walls, tapestry and magnetic surfaces –  through time.

How have you shaped your studio?  How has your studio shaped you?

Oh, and a strapping hug goes out to each of you for helping me through this.  I brought all of you with me into the streets of New York and this inward journey!

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Posted in Aspirational, Creative, Puzzled | 23 Comments »

De Sign

I have often worried that design, a word I use as casually as the requisite articles a/an/the, had to be greater than the thoughtless contexts I accord with its name.  It is true, I have been guilty of emptying meaning in service of a simple way to express what I really see when I look about. So, I resort to exclamation points and ohh ahhhs.

A recent, soul-warming coffee clutch with a special blogpreneuse* at Wall Street’s Le Financier put words to my intellectual and, so it feels, spiritual conundrum.  Design talk is my cursory attempt to confer and convey significance without working on the substance beneath. In my world, you can believe I am always wearing a designer dress.

My way threatens to de sign design, to eradicate the historical, political, and social roots by looking into its shiny surface for the perfect reflection of myself.

From 2010 forward, I challenge myself to look beyond the surface, to research the antecedents of my visual desire and to know the history and emotions that thrust the object into my orbit.

I leave to you an excerpt on the etymology of design~

from its Greek definition, design is about incompleteness, indefiniteness, or imperfection, yet it also is about likelihood, expectation, or anticipation.  In its largest sense, design signifies not only the vague, intangible, or ambiguous, but also the strive to capture the elusive./Translating the etymological context into English, it can be said that design is about something we once had, but have no longer.

Dear Designers, Artists and Crafters,

How do you lend meaning to the objects before you?

*The special someone I speak of is @abcddesigns.  Find her.

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Posted in Aspirational, Intellectual | 14 Comments »

Textured Time

What a week! As I sit from my perch at the side of a quiet, yet dignified old brownstone fireplace amongst the personal effects that make my life meaningful: husband, heavy tomes + light novellas alike, a sundry of objets trouves from our travels,and one special piece I made called Textured Time, I sense an approaching serenity.

Quelle surprise. This is the sentiment of a woman who usually finds herself in a flurry of activity on Sunday.  Always. Wanting. More. Until sidelined with a physically debilitating and emotionally crushing flu that threw me into a serious bout of self reflection.

Last night when my husband buried me under the covers, willing my fever to break, a slew of images swirled about. In the onset of visual vertigo and a deafening – literally – ear infection, I relived the week’s monumental happenings.

The private event at the Museum of Art & Design, the culmination of a month-long sprint of politicking and art prattling, turned out to be one of the most rewarding art events I’ve planned to date.

This photo reminds me of the days I used to coordinate luncheons in the arts for prominent art collectors. This one, though, had the Clueless Crafter branded all over it: lighthearted exchange amongst a bevy of beautiful and intriguing decorative objects.

The article Don’t Do It Yourself, born out of a year’s rumination on the rewards and risks of the handmade life.

The handmade clock Textured Time (which I truly adore and therefore named!) is the result of the Bauhaus Lab I attended at The Museum of Modern Art.

My interpretation of a day recorded in the material world. Feathers mark daybreak; creams punctuated by black velour signify the struggle to wake; soft blues and silkyviolet show the daily humdrum; and, heavy orange plaids are the day's seconds woven together, fiery with hope and the prospect of another day richly lived.

And now last week’s excitement is screeching to a halt and another week is on the brink.  I am left with sights, sounds, and feelings of a time that will never have the same texture.  There is a profound sense of loss as I grapple with the past and the will to go forward.  What next?

The hard part about life is loss.  Sometimes all we can do is cling longingly to a relic.  I’m glad that this evening I have Textured Time with me.  Thank god I made it.

What textures of time gone by do you cherish most?

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Posted in Appreciative, Candid, Disillusioned, Melancholic, Puzzled, Reflective | 16 Comments »

Blank Canvas

The year has begun, but not for all it seems.  Unfortunately for me, a crafter who needs expert supervision and a pat on the back for a job well – okay, partially well – done, the closure of Etsy Labs for the holidays has thrown me into a funktastic internal drama sesh. I need help and a whole lot of community to get back to pre-holiday craftercising.  My hands are getting flabby already!

Harumphhhh. Yet, thankfully. . .

Holiday Hubby bestowed in my tiny hands a huge gift-burden:  the first sewing machine.  Wow does it look menacing with its coterie of presser feet and tiny parts that go here or there.  Change is underfoot chez nous, though, as we work to divide our office space into a zone for our computers and for a new sewing-craft area.  Must say it feels transcendent to work amicably beside the one you love.

Here’s my new duppy

I’ve got a blank canvas and need your help, dear readers.  Behind my desk is a white wall craving craftervention.  I need ideas stat before I hop online and use my credit card to fill the void.  Any suggestions, especially one that involves sewing, will be taken with glee. I will not, however, make anything that involves gummy drops and toothpicks.  That was so last year.

To stir your thoughts (or make you cringe), here are photos of architectural elements in our apartment that may inform your suggestions.

Pink glass sconces original to this brownstone frame the studio space

Across from my desk, these paned glass windows filter light from the living room

A small portion of the art history and criticism texts we keep above our desks

The sad sewer hangs its head at the sight of the blank canvas

I’ve considered knit bombing the pipes like Lion Brand Yarn has done to the bike racks outside their West 15th Street storefront in NYC, but figure that since I can’t knit all meaning just may be lost in the art act.

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Posted in Aspirational, Flustered | 33 Comments »

Who Your Duppy?

Millie making her fabled curried mutton while Oswald models the proverb plate.

Millie making her fabled curried mutton while Oswald models the proverb plate.

Fresh from a Jamaican holiday where I spent an entire week doing nothing myself – Yah mon, meals, beds, and laundry were all done by dear Millie, Oswald and Angela, the villa’s staff – I had all opportunity in the world to become an arrogant, mindless, tourist-jerk.  And, quite frankly, I came close.  Fortuitously, I was saved by a decorative plate and its intriguing description, “Ebery cave-hole hab him own duppy.”

Now, I have been confused by Jamaican patois many a time.  This dialect comes straight from the slaves who cleverly devised a method of  communication to befuddle their masters.

But, as we bridge the New Year, I want to talk about our duppies.  A duppy in Caribbean folklore is a malevolent spirit.  In the inscription “Ebery cave-hole hab him own duppy,” the duppy stands for “troubles.”  As we walk, crawl reluctantly or sprint toward a new year, we must acknowledge what troubles us.

In 2010, what will will your duppy look like? Will it create or destroy?

Who your duppy?

*For more on the etymology of duppy, amuse here.

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Posted in Analytical, Aspirational, Reflective | 21 Comments »

Armed and Aproned

Terrified I would be imprisoned by a virulent strain of the Betty Draper Disease, I for months shied away from this project.  Apron equaled apathy.  Apron equaled anxiety.  Apron equaled Anger.  Apron equaled adultery.

The only Betty I wanted to be is Betty Friedan, but with the blonde bombshell body of TV Betty, of course.

Necessity got in the way.  I love to cook, to play with culinary concepts of balance, precision, and chance.  This evening,  I’ll be working on the braising technique for  a homemade veal Osso Buco.  All this fun can get messy, though, and a mess always leads to cleaning.

Apron

I needed an apron to be effective.  I needed an apron to do battle in the kitchen without reservations.  I wanted to be armed.

By reshaping the significance of the apron, I no longer feared it.  In  my world, the apron would be armor.  A rather colorful form of protection, yet a worthy and kitchen-capable one nonetheless.  Most noteworthy element of its design? It’s my hand craft.

Etsy Labs’ Church of Craft (first Sunday of  the month) provided the sewing machine and  fabric remnants.  In line with efforts to green the globe, the apron has also come to symbolize a dedication to my belief system.  I’m a recycler! Not a drippy Draper!

bath-towel-apron

The closeup doesn’t show it, but I’ll fess up.  The stitching is slapdash at best, zig-zaggy drunk at worst.  I used directions to get the basic format and dimensions of a typical apron, but from there I flew wildlike into the unknown. Improvising is a great quality, but patience and an ability to decipher directions would be a plus.

Seizing the moment, without judgment, is an intoxicating high.  Armed with my apron and a the scent of an apple pie bubbly baking, I’ve crafted a high that never ceases to pleasure.  If only Betty Draper were armed with this aroma.

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Posted in Confident, Creative, Witty | 7 Comments »

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