Sarah Jane Williams

I will be the first to admit that I am sucker for well-constructed luggage that conveys a sense of adventure by its mere presence. I was unprepared for Sarah Jane Williams' absolutely staggeringly beautifully crafted sculpture masquerading as baggage. If you look to one thing to inspire you today, let it be this.

Williams British Handmade (via the often wonderful Marieunet)

New Jenny Hart Show in Austin

D+R pal, D+R blogger, modern craft innovator, microbusiness owner and artist Jenny Hart is having a new solo show of very special drawings at Domy Books in Austin. No matter when you went to high school, I am certain you will see personalities that will ring true. Best of luck, Jenny!

Jenny Hart at Domy Books, Austin, May 1

Supreme Book

Supreme Monograph

A.M. Cassandre Hermes Scarf, c.1951

Some interesting things in Swann's upcoming Modernist Posters auction, but this 1951 Hermes scarf designed by A.M. Cassandre caught my eye. Cassandre was a big deal in the pre-war graphic arts scene in Paris, but except for his YSL logo, none of his later work has stuck with me.

Swann says the scarf shows "an elaborate, Escher-esque architectural construction with a sophisticated play on perspective," none of which, obviously, is the case. But it still rocks.

Modernist Posters, May 3, 2010 - Lot 62: Hermes Silk Scarf, est. $600-900

Home Ec - Shop in Silver Lake

What a wonderful, modern craft store. Beautifully curated and extremely charming - just the antithesis of the soul sucking experience of going in a dingy, tired, shop worn Joanns Fabrics. A very inspiring place as the selection of products, supplies and books are so well edited that you really feel you can do no wrong. Pick-up anything and create something beautiful. It feels that simple and accessible. Plus, monthly bake sales!

Microbusinesses are a gift. Rock on, Jenny Ryan!

Home Ec in Silver Lake

Ric Ocasek's Drawings at Cinders Gallery

Ric Ocasek's first art exhibit in New York is in its last week at Cinders Gallery. The show closes April 25th and includes drawings, video and a zine by Ocasek called "Teahead Scraps" (also the name of the show). Many prints and copies of the zine are available for sale on the gallery's website.

Link

Related:
Touch and Go
Hello Again (this video is filled with icons of the 80's NYC club and art scene, and includes a very young Gina Gershon)

Anatomically Correct Potholders by Marcel Duchamp

So MoMA can turn Meret Oppenheim's fur teacup into an icon--and it's full of nude actual people right now!--but it shies away from revealing the little muffed and stuffed genitalia Marcel Duchamp attached to Couple of Laundress' Aprons, his 1959 potholder readymades?

Created in Paris after a [penis- and/or merkin-free] original purchased in New York, twenty sets of potholders were included in a deluxe edition of a Surrealism exhibition catalogue. Toutfait.com has the details--and the full frontal photos.

Couple of Laundress' Aprons, (1959). Two multiples of cloth and fur [moma.org]

Makedonium Has Landed

click photos for flickr originals

Greetings earthlings. We come in peace. Enter the sky-pod. Assimilation will commence.



Makedonium monument

More Makedonium photos

thanks grain edit

American Indian Art at Sotheby's

Northwest Coast Polychrome Wood Frontlet

Kiowa Pictorial Beaded Cloth Cradle

Sotheby's American Indian Art Auction

Big Lots Canned Goods

Realizing that commentary on odd, expired food at 99 cents stores is a pursuit as old as 99 cents stores themselves, I was still powerless to resist snapping a photo during today's trip to Big Lots, where I went looking for rumored $4 gallons of paint. These cans don't look like they expired last week, they look like they expired two decades ago. At 60 cents, I wouldn't dream of eating those peas but the can sure would make a nice pencil cup.

It is easy to assemble a fictional narrative of how these products ended up on Big Lots' shelves but I bet it would be less interesting than the real story.

Some Less Artistic Crazy Guy's Home

Public Collectors scanned in this image from Michael Schmelling's new book, The Plan

Between 2003 and 2005 Michael Schmelling photographed a number of residences in the accompaniment of Disaster Masters, a New York-based company that specializes in cleaning homes and counseling hoarders.

Wow, 624 pages, 543 photos? That is quite a collection.

Michael Schmelling books [michaelschmelling.com]

Henry Darger's Home

The Private Collection of Henry Darger at the American Folk Art Museum

Maarten Baas Real Time iPhone App

Dutch designer Maarten Baas has collaborated with Jan Svarovsky to produce Real Time, a 12-hour film of actors painting to indicate the time. It is available as an iPhone app.

I've stared at it for quite some time now, and the only problem with it, is that people come up to you to see what you're watching--and it turns out you're watching a clock.

maarten baas real time digital analog clock [itunes via design boom]

Lost and Found Cartoon: Howdy Doody and His Magic Hat (1953)

This stylish short paper animation directed by the brilliant Gene Deitch was lost for 57 years and just discovered in the deepest darkest archives of the U.S. Library of Congress in Washington D.C. Watching it tonight, I am so inspired!

Thanks to Jerry Beck at  Cartoon Brew and Dave Gibson for finding it!

Issey Miyake

Issey Miyake Pleats Please

Lost Lake-monster!

Yesterday my 12 year old son and his friend posted these notices all around our neighborhood. So far, Nessie has not been found.

click photo to enlarge

Jean-Paul Goude

Janet Jackson

Grace Jones

Dazzling work held captive by the worst website interface.

Jean-Paul Goude

Paola Navone at Milan Design Fair

From T Magazine blog:

The owners of Barovier & Toso, a 700-year-old Murano glass company, were so entranced by Navone’s work that they hired her to create an equally dramatic installation.

Paola Navone

Roman and Williams Design on the Ace Hotel NYC

Roman & Williams from The Scout on Vimeo.

(via Opening Ceremony)

Isamu Noguchi Prismatic Table

In 1957, Isamu Noguchi was commissioned to create a concept for an affordable aluminum table as part of the Alcoa Forecast Program. The result, the Prismatic Table, was not intended to go into production, only to appear in ads, like this one, photographed by Irving Penn, which ran in the May 11, 1957 issue of The New Yorker.

Interestingly, the ad says the table's three elements are interchangeable, not just, as the little illustration at the bottom indicates, the tables themselves.



Anyway, only four original tables are known to exist, none of them purple. The Carnegie Museum has a pair painted in Alcoa colors. And two too-tastefully anodized ones, which sold separately in 2006 [$132,000] and 2008 [$290,000].

Noguchi originally costed out the manufacture of the table at $13, or $98 in 2009. With soft costs and keystoning, we're still talking about a $400 side table in the best of cases. Recently, the Noguchi Museum licensed Vitra to put the Prismatic table into production. In black or white, for $630.

Garage Sale Report - April 11, 2010

Molokai Skateboard, Chicago clay wheels
Now for sale at Coco's Variety

Drinking glasses from cut bottles, black glass,
marked "Mission Sparkling Water" on bottom, set of 6

New Coop Painting

Whew. Coop killed this one. Killed it. Perhaps his very thoughtful post will defray some of the unavoidable criticism regarding the, admittedly, profane subject matter. Well done.

Close Friend (The Origin of the World) (NSFW, not for the timid.)

Derby Champions Model Kit

When I was 8, this is the life I dreamed I would live at 13. Though I built crude (and terrifying) coaster go-karts, I never made it to Akron, Ohio.

Soap box derby kit at The Magnetic Brain (Thanks, Coop)

Elegant Homemade House Numbering

From the often inspired Ready for the House:

I made these house numbers in wax doweling (freewheeling the font) during foundry lunch break today-to be cast in bronze-tapped and fixed to the house with brass pins....more details if they survive the fiery furnace.

You could do it yourself! Though, unless you have lettering skill in spades, it might not look quite this elegant.

Ready for the House

Skull Molds

Look, anyone can make tiny skulls a hundred at a time. The real trick is to make them 104 at a time:

Lot 917
Stanley Szwarc. Industrial Skull Molds.
Industrial Skull Molds.26 molds on each plate. 4 plates, top and bottom sets. Provenance: The Clay Morrison Collection to benefit SAIC. Solid aluminum. 13.75x 3" x 1". Est. $100-300.

Slotin Folk Art Auction, 9:00 AM PT - May 2nd, 2010 [liveauctioneers.com]

Joseph Beuys Shelf

In that moment in 2008 right before the roar of the art market turned into a crash, I missed the news that Edition Schellmann had launched a small collection of artist-designed furniture.

Which includes this rather sweet looking shelf by, incredibly, Joseph Beuys. The story goes that Beuys created the shelf, Royal Pidge-Pine, along with three tables, for a collector in 1953-4, and that while researching the designs, his widow and son later "discovered complex contexts and links into the oeuvre of the artist." And so they are now available in an edition of either 30 or 60, depending on which screen you're reading.

There's also a replica of his light-bulb-on-a-stick studio lamp.

Schellmann Furniture, Munchen [schellmannfurniture]

Droogbell

Kevin's post reminded me my own first doorbell love.

I bought Peter van der Jagt's Bottoms Up doorbell for Droog the second it went into production. It's still tucked away in its box, waiting for the right door.

Doorbells, Sleigh Bells, Schnitzel with Noodles

We just installed an antique "twist" bell on our front door, and all I want to do now is ring it.

Dog Poo Bags For The Pleasantly Gay Professional

Since they have actually been completely absent and impotent in regards to the actual attainment of GLBT political goals, I've come to see the Human Rights Campaign as the bumper sticker company for gay folk who don't like putting rainbow flags on their cars. It's not a question of being out, just of not being, you know, tacky.

Now the HRC has expanded its product line to serve the non-driving market. So if your choice of dog breed doesn't already send subtle hints about your orientation, let the Official HRC Dog Plastic Bag Carrier make the point for you, tastefully.

Official HRC Dog Plastic Bag Carrier, $8 [shop.hrc.org via andrew sullivan]
Related: Not That Kind of Gay by Dan Savage [the moth, via odeo.com]

Tauntaun Sleeping Bag

Tauntaun Sleeping Bag by ThinkGeek