Pokate Update August 29, 2011

After a long time blogging and even longer working in technology I’ve been convinced to move my blog from WordPress.com over to WordPress.org. While this affords me all sorts of cool things like better design and more tracking it also means I’m going to be getting the site up and running for a bit. It’s been about 10 days since we started and myself along with a web designer and some of my co-workers are still negotiating some elements of it. It should be pretty great when it’s done, still recognizable and with all the content moved over but more professional and fun.

I can’t wait to show it to everyone, thanks for your patience! Fingers crossed it’s done soon after Labor Day!

Deanna Lee May 4, 2011

A few days ago I came upon the site Artsicle, a NYC-based startup designed to encourage art collecting. You can “rent” a piece of art (in NYC) for $50 and then, if it works in your home, buy it! It’s like Rent the Runway for artwork, which is a great idea! While I was trolling the site I came upon the drawings of Deanna Lee.

Of course I loved this because it’s a sheep and yarn! I also like that they look pretty cyclical and repetitive as well. It’s interesting to see people take new approaches to representing animals – I could easily recognize these but they were still a bit abstracted.

These are so cute. They remind me of so may artists I love already from papercutters to other pen / ink drawers. This one is entitled, “Boxer” – appropriate given the movement she’s able to create with the swirls.

Having gotten back into yoga a bit lately I can easily see this as its title, “Squatter” – my class on Sunday was a ton of squatting, I’m still in pain.

Ha – guess the name of this piece…”Thighs” – amazing. The curls remind me of animation and cartoons in a lot of ways. Deanna calls these “controlled doodling.” In her artist statement she goes on to say that, “the masses function as entities or characters that serve different roles in each work. I think of them as visual metaphors for social relationships and emotional states.”

I really recommend everyone check out both Deanna’s site and Artsicle overall – they have tons of cool young, new artists to check out and, if you’re in NYC, try out in your home. I hear Boston’s to come soon for their service, can’t wait!

Tamara Magel April 28, 2011

Two weeks have gone by in a blink! I’ve been busy on projects for our home, which include sewing curtains, cleaning the oven (it was a process), patching holes in the master bathroom (after therapeutically removing the drywall mollies), and more. But I’m back and in the time I was absent from posting, Tamara Magel’s online shopping site went up. Tamara is one of the coolest people I’ve met through Nest, a micro-bartering non-profit I volunteer with, which is saying something as the group attracts the coolest women out there. Tamara has a great showroom in NYC and when I visited in January I wanted everything – Tamara assured me it would all be up online soon and she wasn’t lying. It’s here and I love it all!

As someone not very familiar with interior design officially I can’t imagine defining Tamara’s style but she has some really cool table top items by artists that I absolutely adore like the long grassy ones above. They remind me of a meadow.

The above and below are pierced stoneware vases. I don’t think they’re lined so can’t hold water I don’t think but dried grasses would look great in them. They really are prickly to the touch – I saw them in person and they’re beautiful!

My mom has many an item that fall within what she calls her “useless vessel” collection including 100s of pitchers, vases and bowls. While these vessels too might not serve a functional purpose they are so awesomely cool. The prickly one below would be a great juxtaposition with some elegant flowers.

And as always, I’m still on the hunt for the perfect pendant light for our living / dining room. The more I think about it I feel we need something that has multiple bulbs as the room is so big and the ceilings so high but this industrial one is still tugging on my heartstrings.

Since we ended up going with more subtle fabrics for the curtains, no maze / trellis patterns were bought, I’m thinking more and more that we should get these pillows for the guest room to satisfy the craving.

Now I just need to figure out where to put the toile in the house to satisfy that need of a certain someone…

Mjolk November 24, 2010

While poking around on sites my boyfriend sent me I came across Mjolk Shop. I have long been a fan of Scandinavian design and this site blends Scandinavian treats with Japanese ones as well. As it’s the holidays I thought it was appropriate to share some of the coolest things I found on the site.

I think this blanket is to adorable but I do love scalloped everything. This was designed by Vík Prjónsdóttir in Iceland and made with Icelandic wool, my favorite!

Once you stop laughing at how silly these look you have to think they’d be pretty cozy. As it gets colder up here in Boston I can’t help but put these “sealpelts” on my Christmas list. They’re also made of Icelandic wool and carry on the Icelandic fable that seals are possessed by humans!

This lamp was created by Alvar Aalto off of a bilberry and it perfect as a spotlight. I like it because it kind of looks like a broken egg.

These steel baskets come from Sweden and are designed by Ola Wihlborg, who I’ll post more on someday. They come in various sizes and look like brick walls that are open to me!

The above kitchen funnel was designed in Denmark, which seems to make sense to me. When I was in Denmark years ago there were amazingly well-designed objects everywhere I turned. This one is collapsible and heat proof!

The above is called Plopp, it’s made when two steel plates are welded together and then inflated like a balloon and formed into a stool / art object. The link to the product page shows them in various other colors, so cool. Designed by Oskar Zieta, I could take a couple of these too!

And what would a post be without a felt rug? The above, Pinocchio carpet is made of tons of felt balls combined to make up a rug. Done by the design group HAY, I would obviously put that in the bottom of the yurt! So much to look at I suggest you stop by!

 

Catbird November 29, 2009

My mom and I made an impromptu trip to Brooklyn yesterday to visit The Yarn Tree when we came across a store called Catbird in Williamsburg. We went in because we are suckers for cute jewelry and found many amazing things that I just had to post!

The above are by Pade Vavra who sort of reminds me of Nava Zahavi, who I’ve posted about here before. I love the rugged quality of the stone with the gold — and truly they’re not that expensive for fine earrings.

Stephanie Simek’s pussywillow earrings are perfect for holiday parties. My mom thinks she can make these herself but the way that each pod is capped in silver makes me think this may be a purchase one has to make through the Catbird site as it’s an exclusive design to them.

The above necklace is by Katie Diamond and it’s a light labradorite. She too uses larger more voluminous stones in great gold settings, which I absolutely love.

And as one can imagine I completely loved this necklace/locket by Moss Mills as it’s of a mussel…one of my dominant food sources these days! All in all it was a very very successful trip to Brooklyn. Lots of wool and lots of jewelry oogling — the best part is that it’s all available on their site online!

And if anyone is trying to marry me the Willow ring above will work — and it’s $112 — I’m a cheap date…though I suppose a girl can dream about the Blanca Monros rings below! Wouldn’t you say yes to that little cluster?

Lonny Magazine October 2, 2009

The brilliant minds of Rubie Green and Brand Arts, who frequently team up on projects like Lonny Photo, have unveiled their latest and greatest as of yesterday — Lonny Mag.

Many are calling this the follow-up to Domino, which sadly closed recently due to the economy. I have talked to many friends since the launch yesterday and all have been excited to read the magazine online, lust after the pictures and goods, and share it with their friends too. Congrats to everyone involved!

Pieke Bergmans June 27, 2009

While at Droog today I fell in love with a huge work that they have in the store now by Pieke Bergmans. I had never heard of her but she’s Dutch, of course, and works largely in glass. As a reformed glass blower myself I know the basics of the process and when looking at the table I couldn’t figure out a piece of the process, which inspired my fruitful conversation with the shop clerk.

Yes, that is what it looks like, the glass was put directly on the table burning it richly in the creation of the vases.

In exploring her site it was evident how it’s done. The glass blowpipe is held above and gravity does the work, the pieces catch on fire and the glass vase top is cut and polished with a torch I think. When they’re cool enough to stop being maleable, but not too cool that they begin to crack they’re taken and stuck in the annealer to cool slowly. Then they’re rejoined with the other elements.

Droog is actually selling each of the vases separately in this case though frequently her works are sold with the furniture item and the glass work with them. Like the ones below.

I love all of these pieces.

Pieke also experiments with putting the glass on other surfaces – this one was from the Mother of Pearl line.

In addition to her virus works, which is what all of the glass globules are considered, she also makes lightbulbs – but they’re not your typical bulb – they’re the definition of bulbous – irregular, oversized, and bizarre.

Yeah, that’s a lightbulb dripping out of its fixture.

As you can see the bulbs themselves even drip down onto the floor and chairs themselves.

The above is my favorite – what a great tablelamp.

Her tape vases are also beautiful – I like how she creates vessels in irregular ways using familiar materials.

This piece, from her Unlimited Edition, looked to me like felt, but no – it’s ceramic!

You have to go look at her site to see how these are made, they’re awesome.

The Institute for Figuring May 27, 2009

As I get more and more into crochet and what one can do with it I find myself learning about pretty odd things – one being The Institute of Figuring, which has an amazing section on hyperbolic space and its representations in crochet and how that can be used to represent Coral Reefs – see Margaret Wertheim’s speech at TED. What I learned today was that the piece I made for my mother at Christmas was a very banal form of what they’re teaching and making – increasing stitches in some regularity essentially changes the course or definition of a line.

To me this looks much like my amoebas and makes me think that potentially I could make mine with one single strand of yarn.

Many of them look so much like coral and on the site they show some underwater pictures of sea creatures that have hyperbolic “fringe” on their bodies – this effect is something that happens naturally, which I love. The group has created an entire crochet coral reef – the details of which I’ll post soon! It’s amazing.

This also made me realize that my very first college level fibers project was based around this very concept – I made, for the annual fashion show, a series of dresses that all had drop-waist tutus and the tutus themselves were vertical as opposed to the usual circles around the body. I found that by cutting the tutu pieces into crescents as opposed to half circles I could achieve an amazing curl to my fabric, which in tulle produced an amazing effect. I was smarter than I knew!

I love the changing colors on this one – most of the site is in single yarn colors.

If that’s not an anemone I don’t know what is. I can’t wait to sit and try to make of of these myself soon. All the how to is on the site as well as models of the progression of making one of these. Very interesting and mathy. Also of note is that the  institute isn’t an actual place, its home is its website.

Droog April 9, 2009

The online shop, Droog, brings together many designers that I normally may not have come across. What first led me to it was seeing this Hare Mat in a photo of someone’s apartment. My first and only pet in my life was a rabbit once upon a time and this large mat reflects my longstanding love of the bunny – it was designed by Dutch artist, Ed Annink.

Other products and artist’s they are able to make available include Rody Graumans 85 lamps, which I’m pretty sure Anchor & Hope had hanging from their ceiling in San Francisco a few weeks ago.

I also find charming – and would be perfect for my parent’s house in New Hampshire the below Tree Trunk Bench by Jurgen Bey.

I also adore how whimsical the below ShadyLace Parasol is – and I love that great green and the bird on top – all designed by Chris Kabel – who was looking to create the shadow of real leaves and branches via the parasol.

AreaWare April 7, 2009

My mom brought this site to my attention – AreaWare – they have so many awesome items that seem to speak directly to me and my past including the below flying rat, in pink.

This pigeon is by Ed Carpenter for Thorsten Van Elten.

War Bowl by Dominic Wilcox for Thorsten Van Elten – I love that it takes the game-related, trivial model warrior and melts him into a household item.

The Dot Kuma by Ross Menuez is hand silk screened with environmentally friendly materials.

A fruit bowl, made of itself!