My first mood board

Yes I entered Apartment Therapy's Cottonelle-sponsered mood board contest for a bathroom inspired by their toilet paper packaging redesign (upper left). It's a floral pattern reminiscent of Orla Kiely's stem pattern. But I can't resist pink and green, and I think the result is pretty cute!

Avant Garden

Since this project --and the acquisition of a giant circular hole punch--I've been thinking about the possibilities in flowers made out of simple circles. I am not alone in seeing the beauty of this form.

These chairs are upholstered with circles sewn together at triangular intersections. The covers are reversible, and the petals look spectacular when on the underside of the seating area.

This scarf (spotted in the MOMA catalog, no longer available) uses a similar construction.


I undertook an easy project that uses these forms for a 3-dimensional refrigerator "installation" piece. Each flower is formed by a combination of circles: black, white, and remnants from a Georgia O'Keefe calendar. Ideally, I'd like to glue some magnet tape on the underside of the flowers. I love tactile things that people can play with. The effect is cool in a gum-wall-meets-garden kind of way, and the three dimensionality is a fun effect.

Marbled Paper

I have a serious weakness for marbled paper, and a serious lack of surfaces in my small apartment. If you want some drool-worthy examples, check out the University of Washington's digital archive of historic marbled paper patterns. Marbled paper originated in China, but became quite popular in Europe, especially in the 19th century. Here are a few examples from the archive:

Anyway, although it is reasonably inexpensive, the marbled paper I have is so gorgeous and decorative that I am loath to destroy it in unsuccessful projects.
So far, I've made a few mini canvases covered with it, and tonight I cut out a piece to fit over a cheapy Ikea lamp shade. It works better with dim light than a 60 watt bulb--so I determined its best use might be as a shade for the an unused portable LED light I have around the house. It looks rather nice as a night light.

Lessons in geometry

I've been playing a lot with paper items recently and wanted to share some of the three-dimensional shapes I've made. Both are made with twenty pieces (circles/triangles).

On the left is a icosahedron (20 triangular faces) made of water-colored cardstock.

The second is a small triambic icosidodecahedron (that's a mouthful!) found on George Hart's website and shown in much better detail here.



I'm digging the triangles on the triambic icosidodecahedron and the graphic quality of the black and white. They remind me a little of the Sven Markelius' Pythagorous textile.


These shapes--and ones based on other simple polyhedrons--are used a lot in build-your-own light kits, such as the IQ-lamp, left, (See here for a good DIY), and the particularly beautiful Mokusei lamp,right, made out of maple veneer.

Tortoise General Store

Tortoise General Store is a housewares store on Abbot Kinney Boulevard in Venice, CA, that has a nicely edited selection of Japanese objects, many hand-crafted or of particular high quality design.

Giant black and red goldfish "Welcome" soap--perfect for a housewarming gift--in beautiful packaging.


A gorgeous array of Japanese tenugui towels--I especially liked the navy blue one with the egg pattern, and the taupe one with the white bowls and spoons. Sadly, not available online. Supposedly tenugui towels are used for everything from headbands to dish cloths to gift wrap.


Keisuke Serizawa Calender for 2010--Serizawa was a master of the katazome stencil technique. These calendars are reissues of his classic designs.


A lineup of classic Noguchi lamps

Japanese paper framing project

I love Katazome paper, which is hand-made in Japan with a laborious combination of stenciling and resist dying. The stuff is gorgeous--see fineartstore.com for an excellent selection of the patterns. I got my hands on a few pieces this Christmas and framed them today to put up in the house.

One is a waves and spires design, that would be well suited for any modern interior. The other is a somewhat more traditional floral--that reminds me almost of a William Morris pattern. Together, they form a perfect modern-traditional (mod-trad?) pair.

Elephants in the room

I spotted these completely charming elephant stools during some last minute Christmas shopping at Turpan in the Brentwood country mart.
It turns out these adorable beasts are Vitra's production of a child's toy Ray and Charles Eames designed in 1945 but originally never went beyond the prototype stage. Vitra released a plywood version in 2007 (for a cool 2007 dollars) and a plastic version in 2008 (for a mere 290 dollars).

I don't know if I'd drape towels over it if I had one--but it would look terrific in a nursery or even as a humorous footrest/table in the living room.

I was inspired to make little cardboard elephants in the same spirit, with absolutely no use except to look cute on my desk. A whole herd would have some visual impact.


They were dead easy to make though, beyond the pattern making.



I traced out a head and body pattern on cardstock (the head was rather challenging, and I'm not sure it's quite cute enough). I scored the fold lines with a knife, folded it up, then stapled the two pieces together--though there's no reason glue wouldn't work well too.