Modest Craft

My first mood board

2011-09-16T01:20:00.000-07:00

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

2010-01-10T21:48:00.000-08:00

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

2010-01-05T01:37:00.000-08:00

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

2010-01-01T19:39:00.001-08:00

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

2009-12-31T19:46:00.000-08:00

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

2009-12-26T20:37:00.000-08:00

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

2009-12-26T00:00:00.000-08:00

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.

Lighting from Gallery of Functional Art Store

2009-12-22T21:34:00.000-08:00

The Bergamot Station Gallery of Functional art had a terrific shop, with a number of brilliant lamps.

Clockwise from top left: a spoon lamp, swirl paper pendant, paper candlesticks, origami moose lamp

Bergamot Station

2009-12-22T20:36:00.000-08:00

I made a field trip to Bergamot Station, a fantastic set of galleries in a former industrial space--it was originally a Los Angeles streetcar station, followed by celery packing plant, followed by water heater factory. It converted to a gallery space in 1994 and is slated to be a light rail station at some point. The venue maintains an industrial, upcycled feel. This was in playful evidence in the the old Mercedes used as a planter in an outside corridor.

As far as the art, there was a lot to see, and much of it excellent. I barely scraped the surface of many exhibits. Standouts for me were the Lillian Bassman exhibit in the Fetterman Gallery, and the fantastic metal gowns from John Petry at the Gallery of Functional Art

Gallery of cells

2009-12-21T01:14:00.000-08:00

From "The gallery of cells"

Back in my college days, I spent a stint studying nerve cells of obscure snails. As I recall, I spent most of my time making and breaking glass micro-electrodes. I remain seduced by the miniature universe one sees peering at cells under a microscope. Highly magnified images can be at once realistic and abstract, organic and geometric. The repetition alone is pleasing.

These prints of collages from Jenn Ski have lovely composition--I'm really digging the asymmetry and the yellow-on-yellow cutouts. The idea, however, seems like it would be easy enough to try myself with some nice craft paper.

Prints available from Jenn's Etsy shop

Later note:
Here is my study of the original cell collage that I tried tonight, using card stock, construction paper, and bit
s and pieces from an issue of the New Yorker. I gained an appreciation for the tension between producing the appearance of randomness and a pleasing composition. I also like the cropping technique--pasting it all up, then cutting off the edges so it it has the look of a photograph.

I decided to use a float frame for display to evoke the slides one uses for plating cells under a microscope. After putting it together, I felt it still lacked balance, so I cut out the extra hole that just lets the light shine through the glass. I quite like the true negative space element of the collage--and this effect is not one that I've seen over and over.

Thistle

2009-12-20T11:40:00.000-08:00

I'm a big fan of dried thistle in winter flower arrangements. They are the opposite of fussy: if a flower could be at once subtle and fierce, these are they. By themselves in a glass vase, they make unexpected and modern table arrangements--and they last forever.

I picked these up at the market yesterday, and on the way home I got no fewer than 4 compliments from complete strangers!

Entry Lamp

2009-12-14T01:48:00.000-08:00

My entryway has been lacking a proper light since I moved in a year ago. A few weeks ago, I finally found a solution. I bought a five dollar rice paper lantern at the local japanese import store and a variety pack of patterned origami paper. I cut out the paper in simple leaf shapes and glued them on the lamp. The illuminated patterns on the paper are quite beautiful, but the simplicity of the overall design prevents it from looking overly busy.

Low Hanging Fruit

2009-12-13T20:48:00.000-08:00

This project was inspired by the gorgeous but unattainable paper lights by Le Klint (especially this one) and this blog post. I used a thin rice paper, which was a bit challenging to work with but has a nice ethereal quality. It is hung from the door frame with fishing line to give the appearance of floating. Due to concerns about fire dangers and the fragility of the paper, I chose to just use it as an ornament.

Historical note: This picture is one of the early Le Klint workers (maybe 1950's?) folding up a similar lamp. The methodology looks similar to mine, although I had to do a lot more manipulation to get the folds into their proper place.