view from the rafters

Hello! Here's the newest pic from our shop building adventure, we're just about done with the end walls and those barge rafters (the ones that overhang on the ends). It's been tough motivating ourselves on these dang cold mornings.

We have some new kittens in the house so cats and coffee are much more appealing than frosty hammers. We've taken to working into the evenings quite bit, the rafters are a nice place to watch the sun set over our little country village.

Here's a link to our shop progress if anyone out there is interested ... we're hoping to be under roof for a New Year's Day move in. Then it can snow!

finito

Here are some final shots of a lovely custom order I made for a great customer I met at the PA Guild Show in Rittenhouse Square this spring. 

I've really excited to see this all finished up and ready to go.

I was especially excited to give my usual 2D pieces some curved features, I love how my customers can give me little insights into directions I always wanted to go but never did for some reason.


I also made up these cool little bags since these pieces didn't fit into the fun tins I usually use. Kudos to all of you stitchers out there, these bags nearly made my dyslexic brain explode.  The fabric had a cool swirly wave thing going on.

Here's some shots of the monster cloud cuff - can you guess how many hours it took to hand cut this gorgeous thing? I'm not telling ...

summer come fast

I'm getting anxious for summer already, and the James Turrell exhibit opens at the Guggenheim in June so that is making me want that warm weather even more.

 If you don't know his work, he specializes in giant light and space installations influenced by his Quaker faith.

at Gagosian gallery

This is what the Guggenheim is going to look like.  Which is insane if you realize that these circles are oblong and the circular ramp in that space is perfectly round.  My brain is having trouble here ....

Guggenheim digital rendering

and here he is, looking all super cool in front of his Roden Crater. Yep, he bought that crater and is making a giant celestial phenomena observatory. (what?!)  Good luck getting in, it may/may not be for rich people only.

mind = blown. I love it when that happens.

in progress ...

Just popping in to show some in-progress shots for a few custom pieces I've been working on. I'm so happy to find a kindred design spirit - someone who loves my asian cloud pattern as much as I do.

Here's a nice biggy necklace to match the medallion hoops she purchased from me earlier. I'm loving the new little guys on the sides ... I need to find a way to use them in the future.

This pic isn't the best but this linked bracelet has curved clouds that match my single cloud necklace and earring set.  I guess this is my first bracelet! I'm loving the way the curves feel on my wrist, it's such a nice complement to a big pair of earrings when a necklace would be too much.  I'm going to have to incorporate some more bracelets into my line for sure.

And this in progress shot is for another bracelet - this time a very decorative cuff.  It's a heavier gauge and rather large so it's been a bear to hand cut, but I can't wait to see it all shined up and formed.

I really can't get enough of this pattern, I keep seeing it in historical patterns ...

From the Public Domain Review

but I'm really loving it's more modern interpretations ...

Photo by Ben Sloat

The erin adams collection for new ravenna and housefiftytwo.com

Awesome dresser do-over

Jason Wu Fall 2012

and come on?! cloudy pants? YES!

(I have a whole pinterest board dedicated to these floating babies if you are interested...)

think people

Untitled (Think)
From the portfolio Artists and Writers Protest Against the War in Vietnam, 1967
Permanent Collection of the Philadelphia Museum of Art.
William Nelson Copley, American, 1919 - 1996. Published by Artists and Writers Protest, Inc., New York.

well today is an intense day - I hope you are all doing your part and voting.  I hate that I get so stressed and worked up about this, I can't believe we have to do this every 4 years for the rest of my life!

patterned tats

I don't have any tattoos, mostly because I can't commit to one thing forever.  But am I loving this new approach of large cohesive patterns.   very medieval somehow, very cool.

if someone out there can help me figure out how to find the
original images sources through tumblr I'd appreciate it! 

Tattoo by German artist Gerhard Wiesbeck

Tattoo by Argentinian artist Nazareno Tubaro

This girl looks how I feel on a good day. Make sense?  she seems so pulled together - fierce yet sweet, intelligent without being condescending. she could whip up some mean french toast while simultaneously securing major contracts.

new work!

I haven't posted new work on here in a while, I've been expanding a few of my designs -  so here's a little riff on my classic scales motif.

I'm still not sure what to call them, little scales? little scallops?  I'm really into the repetition of smaller works now. I love that they look a bit lacey.

I've been wanting to mess around with that quatrafoil pattern for awhile, it's nothing new but I love it when anything goth goes mainstream.

It's a staple in Gothic Architecture ...

Bury Parish Church

College Hall, University of Pennsylvania

but it's also really prominent in Morrocan tiles. I LOVE IT when cultures and patterns cross over.

Granada Tile

Here are some more great pics from the Bury Parish Church which has a slight Moorish feel to it due  to the incredible tiled floors.

On a super side note - check out that candle holder. It reminds me so much of those swinging incense burners they lit up on Vespers.  I actually did think of foiled swinging incense burners when I designed the earrings.

I grew up going to a pretty serious Catholic church and I loved that dang incense burning ceremony even though I had no idea what was going on.  It nearly sent me into asthmatic fits but holy heck do the Catholics know how to create a vibe ...

and my blog wouldn't be my blog if I didn't go into some super crazy historical tangent ...

Let me introduce you to the world's largest incense burner: the swinging Botafumeiro!

This incense burner is in the Santiago de Compostela Cathedral in Spain.  Imagine a 5 ft tall gorgeous brass and silver burner weighing over 180 pound swinging over your head at 40 mph! AWESOME!




and of course here's a video of it.  it's C-R-A-Z-Y.  Watch it just to see the poor monk who has to tackle the thing and goes spinning around to make it stop. SO FUN.



It has had some accidents, it went flying through a window when Catharine of Aragorn passed through on her way to infamously marry Henry VIII in 1499 (love her!)  She also apparently has a thing for little monkeys (love her more!)

well, there's your random fact for the day, if you win a million bucks on a quiz show you owe me.

taschen love

Have I publicly expressed my love for Taschen publishing?  Well I'm going to do it now. I love them. I love them so much I avoid their store because it would hurt my heart to have to leave it.  They are too much for my sensitive little body to handle in big doses, I can barely make it through their catalogs without getting weepy.

Last year I picked up the World of Ornament and it never ceases to inspire. It's the kind of book that can only be looked at a few pages at a time, my brain starts freaking out and immediately demands a nap to process the images.

It looks insane right? Baby angels and overflowing scroll work ... here are a few of my favorite plates:

As you can see, these historical patterns are constantly informing my silver designs.  I've yet to see a Taschen book on Pennsylvania Dutch patterns (Hey Taschen! If you need a dutchie art enthusiast / design librarian for help on this you know where to find me.)

Here are some other crazy awesome titles I'd love to peruse ...

Crazy awesome right? these pretty much cover a few of my major loves - circus freaks, japanese architecture, apes, the illuminati, vintage food stuffs, and 80's movies.   schizophrenic much?

the power of craiglist & a library card

I have to admit, things have been pretty slow here in the studio - I'm dealing with the struggle of the juggle.  I seemed to have lost my flow in the last few months. I'm working on getting it going again, but first we have to wrap up some major projects.  The main one being this giant workshop!

To be honest, this has been tough.  We lost most of our project savings in the big "stock crash" of 2008 (ouch!) so in order to keep the dream alive we had to resort to doing every single aspect of it ourselves and doing it on the cheap.  It certainly helps that my husband is one of those mechanical engineering / woodworking / photographic memory guys.

We craiglisted everything from the concrete block to the timbers, and schooled ourselves at the local library.  To be honest, I was mostly on cooking duty for this project but now I can say without a doubt I know exactly what you need to do to excavate a site for a radiant heat concrete pad, and maybe by the end of the month I'll know how to put up rafters.  (please note, I am not physically capable of doing any of these things, just good at talking about them.)


so here comes the slide show ...

Day 1, scraping the yard flat

RIP miss greta, the best project supervisor ever!

Ben having fun on his little rolling machine, making a mess

digging the ditch to the house for water and electric

finally got to pour the footer after many monsoons and many evenings of bailing out the ditches. not fun.

Laying the corners out - I seem to remember talk of the Pythagorean Theorem. You actually do need that in real life!

this pic is a million moons later, laying block TOOK FOREVER. enough time for grass to grow inside the building!

At this point we accepted the help of some college kids next door to flatten out the crushed stone. Remember those 100 degree days this summer? that was this day.

laying out the vapor barrier getting ready for the insulation and radiant heat tubes.

those pretty red radiant heat tubes. dreaming of cozy snowy nights.

FINALLY pouring the floor, that was a good day. we enlisted the help of our awesome neighbors.
the virginville crew kicks ass! 

ben using yet another fun machine to get the floor smooth. 

I don't think you can measure the happiness we felt being out of the mud and onto the fun stuff. wall building!

again, our neighborhood crew gets together for a wall raising. amish style!

this is where we are today, another wall up, another one in the works. 

We hope to under roof by Thanksgiving - and I hope to be back to designing and making shiny things by the holidays ... anyone out there doing any big fun projects?