Building shift

Count down to driving to Maine. In fairness to Starkville-since I photograph alot in Maine I have started to document things I see around here. And you must suffer through video learning number two!

Life building

The assemblages work of British duo Hannah Plumb and James Russell is great to explore. The retail world owes quite a bit to their very pure outlook. The concrete seat looks like velvet, is concrete...there are alot of ideas in that one.

Building summer reading.................

Look what's first on the reading stack this summer a book about Mark Twain AND local food! My heart be still. Thank you author Andrew Beahrs for the perfect combination.........

Building Architecture

Our friend Will came back last weekend telling of a building adventure. He got to explore by himself
E. Fay Jones' Stoneflower House. The name itself brings up some fine stories. He says you can stay for a weekend there by contacting the Red Apple Inn. He says that you live in the trees and the shower is a stone cave......

Building meaning in upholstery....2

It seems that there are other people who see the upholstered piece as a medium for political comment. South African artist Steven Cohen layers,layers of uncomfortable imagery of his country's past on these baroque forms to make his point. In my opinion, this is the most successful of his work-the unassuming parlor is the place to put such comments.

Word building

I am very interested in the work of Robert Barry from learning about him during the Vogel documentary. He is interested in the space between objects and the provocative quality of nothing......

building light

Lighting is a tough design prospect. Function, price, beauty all play a part in what a designer would chose in a project. I actually always error on the side of 'it's simply great" and rely on other light sources for the function part. I think this piece is great. From South African design studio Mud Studio this "leaf pod" is made of many ceramic leaves. It would be a friend for life.

building lightly on the earth

I am very enamored with the work of Richard Tuttle these days. Part intellectual puzzle, part Montessori art project. The temporary quality and the amount of choreography that goes into the pieces is quite fine.

Building space with bodies

I could write for a week about the work of choreographer William Forsythe. For me he is a great architectural mind. This piece- "A Matter of Fact Choreographic Object" was installed at the Venice Biennial last year. His work with Ohio State, the synchronous object project, is insight into choreographic thinking...which is the kind of insight a designer needs.......

Building Vogel

One thing Mad and I got to do in Jackson was see the gift to the Mississippi Museum of Art from the Vogel Collection. Mad actually sat and watched the documentary on view with me and proclaimed Archie Vogel (the cat)the real art collector....As a person intersted in spacemaking the a peek of the Sol Lewitt bathroom was atreat. If you can see the documentary or parts of the collection-go! You will see that nice=great....

Building film

Please indulge me in in this.....I have long felt that the still image of an architectural space is a sad illustration of the choreography that is in involved in the design of a truly great space. So I have gotten myself an I Phoneand I am going to try to video our building visits this summer. This is my first a stop on a Saturday morning at the War Memorial on North State Street, Jackson, Mississippi. Please excuse Madeline teaching me how to use the thing but enjoy being IN the space.

Chair stories

When friend and former professor David Gregor sent us this images from Beijing I could not help but be reminded of the Ernest Hemingway challenge to write a story in one sentence-or in this case a photograph....

building abroad

Finally a design fair blog that is worth something-see the Design Miami/Basil blog and learn something about what's going on! Posts include this tid bit about the origin of the this chair. Made for the Duchess de Parma in the early 18th century it was acquired by Karl Lagerfeld for his atelier. Dealer Bill Pallot sold it to Lagerfeld then acquired it recently. The story includes the making of the chair with golden thread that has now changed to the color of silver.....modern furniture with fairy tales interspersed-my kind of blog.

Building America

Madeline and I have actually decided to stop at Monticello on the way to Maine this year. I have never gotten to see it and am very excited. We will be there right after July 4th. I'm excited to see this chic red patent leather chair.

Building Commerce

Madeline put together for us a "shop" for the furniture work that I have been doing. I'd like to see how they would do in the market place and the audience here is a good place to start. I will keep Chairs and Buildings purely full of ideas and try to keep commerce elsewhere.ie facebook page (yes, there is one) and the new
shop chairsandbuildings. I will probably include some flea market finds, but mostly work that I have designed myself. Feedback is always welcome!

fashion building

I rarely get excited about fashion....much to my daughter's chagrin. But this caught my eye-beautifully tailored dress by Alberto Marani photographs by Matthais Schaller printed on them. Quite wonderful.


And yes-I am not quite sure about the new template either-don't be surprised if I default it back.....

building materials

This project has been in my folder for a while. The Japanese studio Drill Design actually invented the material "paperwood". They then put it to the test by making various products, blocks, trays and recently these stools. I love how you understand the absolute minimum material needed to be a stool by examining the construction.

Building witty

Okay I am late to the party on this one. The Studio Dror peacock chair was introduced last year at the design fairs and I did not spy it. But it has all the things I like in a design piece. An earnest exploration of One material(felt); not just for its aesthetic qualities but its structural properties and its ability to say something..."peacockish" with its form.

Building in a landmark....

I try not to crib from other blogs but deezen has had some very good posts. This one is particularly of interest. The oh so current Bouroulle Brothers got an opportunity to furnish an apartment in the Unite d'habitation in Marseilles- Corbusier's most successful housing block. The result is awesome. Note how well their way of doing things "goes" with Corb's teak wall window units.

new thinking

I am always on the look out for new ways to 'do" upholstery. This is a very new idea-young designers
Jos Kranen and Johannes Gille became interested in the lightening bolt motifs in the film Metropolis. This garnered some interesting items but the most successful to me is this upholstery piece with the lighting bolts expressed in the quilting......not so crazy about the expression on the back-

Making new messages

I was captivated by last weeks Design Sponge debate on the Civil War post. Mostly because the war has been my source material for awhile and secondly I do think that every design decision is a political one. In the debate someone mentioned the Harlem Toile designed by designer
Sheila Bridges. This work is great work and brings me too my most famous story on why design is political. One of my first "favorite" clients loved toile...but her job and politics did not love toile-at the time (pre-toile boom) all the patterns were vaguely hinting at Harriett Beecher type narratives and the other were hunting scenes-the client being a public defender and an animal rights activists was appalled....all choices are political. Ms. Bridges has solved a problem beautifully.

building connections

I am just starting to find Lawrence Weiner interesting after a Dwell magazine article. And then I found this image.....the words next to the red velvet bench upholstered with brass tacks is so right.

building inversions 2

So here is another interesting material inversion. These Jasper Morrison tables are a limited edition Carrara marble table system. The material is seemingly luxurious but really in Brooklyn you can get just about anything made "rather" inexpensively in marble-here in Mississippi as well at the largest tomb stone factory in the country..... I am curious about the actually cost to make these-maybe in Paris they are more dear.....

building inversions

I came upon the work of John Dickinson in an old copy of Nest Magazine. This amazing piece is so interesting because galvanized metal is a very cheap and easy to fabricate material- almost crude in technique. This piece makes it look like its the most expensive material on earth....what an idea-what craftsmanship.

Building within

I am completely transfixed by what is going on in the Chinatown gallery-W Project Space. A 150 foot space is the staging ground for quick and dirty installation work by artists and designers. Its on my list for the next NYC trip.

building wimsey

I saw an article in Elle Decor last night about Bauhaus artist Anni Albers and neatly tucked at the end was this 'washer" necklace. It reminded me of Charlotte Perriand's chrome ball necklace and other such-"make your own world" endeavors. Hum isn't that the difference from DIY and an designer/artist? An designer/artist touches everything rather than just on the weekends......

Building understanding

On the home stretch with the Vicksburg Chair. I happened to come upon Amy Merrick's designsponge post. I have never known designsponge to be controversial but this one brought up some of the political issues I have been thinking about while working on the General Grant work. I have found myself as I have been stitching battle maps more anti war then ever. The slow process of stitching a number like 40,000 as in 40,000 men on to a "place" means that that many men were in danger. All artifacts of design that come from history come from a political consequence..Merrick's post touches on that a bit. Bravo to designsponge for putting forth that inspiration does not always come from pretty places.

Building Thoughts

I thought I would use this image to make some connections after reading more of the Betsy Ross. Marla Miller gives a loving description of the role drapery workrooms play in the life of the colonial Americans. The bed was the most opulent piece of furniture in many colonial houses-the textiles and tapestries used to drape the bed were expensive and ornate. The testers and canopies were not decorative but place -making devices because the bed was placed in the "best room"(canopies and testers afforded privacy) a public room in the colonial house-one would show off all the textile work on the bed to show the families status. In short the writer says-"the bed was a place not an object".