Gift Building 2

"Purchase with a Purpose" is the mantra of designer Tori Higa and the work she does with I Sanctuary. One Saturday at Little Building we will have a trunk show with work buy Tori as well as the I Sanctuary items. These are items made by young girls who have been helped through the I Sanctuary organization. Please come-very fine holiday gifts to be had......

Gift Building

Okay, Count down to Christmas...I have a very mixed relationship to gifts at Christmas-its more my style to present someone with something in July since it reminded me of them. But for the sake of my daughter and trying to tone down all the weird things I do-I will present you with Twelve days of holiday gifts. I would love to get for friends and family historians this ten volume set of architectural history of the south by the famous Beehive Foundation. Beautifully made, they remind me of why I wanted to be an architect.

Building Grant

Many of you know that I have been absorbed in a project about Ulysses S. Grant and all things in the decorative arts within his realm.....Well oddly enough in Natchez this weekend I found myself in another place that Grant spent. Rosalie on the Natchez bluff was chosen by Grant to be the Union headquarters after the fall of Vicksburg.
Its also the headquarters of the largest collection of John Belter furniture- which evidently was carefully wrapped and put in the attic by a thoughtful Union general during the occupation. The house is mostly great because of stories like this. I would like to write a biography of Grant through the buildings where he kept counsel.

Building woman......

We are off to Natchez for the night....maybe we won't do the usual antebellum thing. This is
Mammy's Cupboard for the lunch....

Building hope and happiness

I am going sign off for a few days for the holiday. I wanted share this lovely image by Mark Seliger of Merce Cunningham's beautiful hands. Wishing you and yours all the best. Annie

Building Color too........

I have had this terrific image of Hope Ginsberg's work at this summer's Maker's Mart in Queens for ages. Take a look at her work, felt intertwines with community and other visuals......craft matches on.

Building lots of color

I am very much reacting to my moody hip hotel in NYC....lights too low as was furniture and mood. I found these images as an antidote. respectively-roche bobois Mah_Jong sofa, Diana Fayt ceramics, and Christien Meindertsma poufs.....

Building warp

One of the many fascinating things at the MOMA Bauhaus show are the fabric/weaving samples from the textile workshop lead by Gunta Stolzl and work done by Anni Albers its a wonderful insight into the structure of fabric and the ideas behind the product. My favorite Bauhaus text on this particular workshop is Woman's Work by Sigrid Wortman

Building Color

I talk about the Joseph Albers Nesting Tables quite a bit when I get to the Bauhaus in History lectures-but I was thrilled to see and learn that the tops are actually back painted glass and not a hyper gloss finish. For me this really points to the fact that Albers used the Nesting Table project as a model for his paintings. great!

building space

Just in time to start reading again for the springs history course I saw the Bauhaus show at MOMA. Its exhaustive and I will post some things that I spied and am so happy to have seen in person-nothing like that!
At the end is prominently displayed is the Bauhaus Staircase by Oskar Schlemmer. Painted three years after his departure from the school is a cleaver comment on the dawn of modernism and its future. I think this is the painting that made me want to be a designer rather than a painter....I was so much more interested in the space than the painting.

Building sanctuary

I spent a meditative morning at the final resting place of Julia and Ulysses Grant. Nothing like a little classicism to get you going in the morning.

building minimal

I popped over to Sebastian + Barquet to see this Donald Judd show of furniture. The gallery is quite a nice backdrop with a Flavin type wall construction. The metal pieces are very interesting in that you see the complexity of the construction not evident in the minimalist's text and the scale of the chair series is quite small maybe too small for common consumption? You wonder what Judd was thinking. These production pieces are nice to see all in one room but sneak over to Andrea Rosen for the real deal in the back room-real craft....

Composition building

I love this idea of a small contained exhibition for sale-all the pieces being carefully chosen by one eye. This work called Come Darkness is an exhibition in Portland Maine. It is curated by Maria Alexandra Vettese and is at Chellis Wilson Through December 1st.

Store Building

New York may be a little busy this trip but I would like to visit a few places that I am intrigued by. First off this Kiosk place downtown. I might need a paper folder from Lisbon?

building on history

I am off to Brooklyn to tell about how I re-designed Ulysses S. Grant eastside brownstone.......and divulge how Mrs. Grant was very house proud.

Building Blue

I got my annual issue of Food and Wine for the Thanksgiving build up and I was thrilled to find an article about LBC photographer Rinne Allen and her Athens buddies. I have admired Rinne's sunprints and love how they make this room like living in Wedgewood.

Building energy

I am sure she was not the first but Louise Bourgeois taught us all to be provocotive via cross-stitch.

Building longing.....

When I saw this bedspread in the designsponge sneek peak this past week I wanted to explore what makes a woman(mostly) make? The author of this is Brooklynite illustrator Sophie Blackall-she tells the story that she did the panel while riding on the subway....such a "mom" thing to do-making every minute count creatively. I have a new big crush on Sophie's current project "missed connections". Move over Maira, Sophie has human hope and longing down......

Building close up....

Sweet 305 Greensboro got its close up moment on designsponge this week. Editor Amy Azzarito walked us through the process in a lovely way and Starkville, Mississippi is now well thought of in the design world.

The meaning of furniture

There is an article on Tracey Emin in the New York Times and not really being a followers of Contemporary art I did not know that one media that she uses is stitching. Most of the the work, I am not hip enough to handle-my inner southern mom kicks in-but this piece was really of interest. Entitled
There's Alot of Money in Chairs, it is embellished with applique letters, words, hints of conversations with Emin's grandmother. I am working on the Faulkner chair in such a way.....chair as memory jar.

Re-building toys

I am sorry I missed this exhibition of Maya Lin work at Salon 94 this month. Lin made a series of disguarded toy planets that seem to float around the room. The size is interesting if you look at the installation photos, not too big not too small...just right for small toy planets.

Building Ideas

I am excited to present a new project to the audience at the Between the Lines series next week at BAM. Curated by Brigid Hughes of A Public Space and BAM, it promises to be a fun evening.

Building Color

I looked for more in depth information on artist Eiji Shibata and the Mangrove Chair...but came up short. For now I like it because I am owning up to loving enamel painted finishes on anything....and what that means environmentally...sadly it might mean a hand painted finish..more research to come.

Product building

Our dear friend Mark Naden has just sent word that his London studio is up and running. Mark set out in the product design world in the late nineties and has brought the world some of its most intriguing objects-the Oxo uplift kettle being our favorite-except we really would like an orange one......

Word building

Remodelista had some great examples of words on decorative objects. I am huge fan ever since we put a Nietzche quote in subway tile letters on a famous playwrite's tub surround. I saw this image of Elsie De Wolf's Villa Trianon and if you look closely the pillows have words, phrases on them... Some very witty french phrase I am sure.

Building drawings

Final projects are due for the furniture class in a few weeks and we have been enjoying gaining inspiration from this book: The Cabinet Maker and Upholsterer's Drawing Book. Beautifully rendered plates show dimensions and specifications for the 18th century's best in furniture.

Building a frame

So I have divulged a short list of designers that I am currently learning from and interestingly, most started out styling rather than through design school??? It is telling because I think that the role of an interior designer is the role of one who finishes a project, the one who makes the room. And I have great admiration for anyone who can finish a room. At the top of this list is Isle Crawford-editor for Elle Decor for years she is a wonderful room maker.

building rigorously

I deeply admire the work of Paris based architect and designer India Mahdavi. She really exhibits the control that I think you need to pull off some very interesting hospitality work. Th.is image from L'hotel Contessa shows perfect balance in color-although unexpected and a range of furniture intrigue that I really like. I enjoy the promise of never having been in a space like this before.

Building Pearls

I have a couple of more deadlines to pull off but I am looking forward to working on the Pearl Street house come the holidays. I am thinking of it in terms of wood, painted black wood and native Maine soapstone. A Nathaniel Hawthorne vibe if you will. The fabrics are from Country Swedish and lights will be from Schoolhouse Electric because the ceilings are quite low (the Nathaniel Hawthorne part of the project) and they make very stung fixtures.

Building fantastic

I admire and are slightly jealous of the work that comes out of London's Studio Toogood. Lead by former World of Interiors stylist, Faye Toogood's vision well should be the way the world looks-I would be quiet happy if it were all this interesting. The web site is inspiring and delight.

Career Building

Students asked me during this last trip what designers do I like the most. I have to say I tend to look at and admire designers that have successfully controlled their career and are building a significant body of work for the right reasons. The woman on top of this list is New York architect Annabelle Selldorf. Whether composing the an apartment's simple kitchen or orchestrating a HighLine condo she seems to have perfect pitch.

Building calm......here

This Douglas Friedman image from NYC's HighLine park says it all for me. The beautiful rhythm of the concrete planks are what make the peaceful tone of New York's newest oasis.

Chairs that dance.....

Billy Elliott dances with a chair....And I cried almost throughout the performance. I am forever amazed at the power of the Broadway community to discuss potent political issues. Give it a shot it is an amazing piece of art.

Building in a space

The most powerful images that I have from my trip to NYC this week is the installation of Anish Kapoor's Memory at the Guggenheim. A massive 24-ton volume of Cor -Ten steel, it looks like a landmine got stuck on the east side...very stunning. Not to miss.

Library Building

Just back from a trip to NYC with students and why do we travel? "To go to book stores!" I found the dream book.....The Candida Hofer In Portugal at Potterton Books-a favorite book store. This book makes you want to jettison all of your shelter magazines and just look at interiors through the eyes of Hofer-what if she was the only one to photograph interiors?...so beautiful.

Building quiet

I am always excited to see what is on tap at the Museum for Art and Design. This stop will be to see the work of Japanese design studio Nendo and a full installation of their work.