I’m taking a break to hang out with this little one. Thanks for your patience — I plan to start posting again in the fall!
{photo by Julia Lehman-McTigue/Vision 13}
Eme-co-ca cola chair
Hanover, Pennsylvania is home to Snyder’s, Utz, and Emeco (which I blogged about visiting here and wrote about for US Airways magazine). The company releases its newest design at the Milan Furniture Fair this week — it’s the “111 Navy Chair,” a version of the iconic 1944 Navy chair that’s composed of recycled Coke bottles.
The 111 bottles in each chair make up 60% of its content; the other 40% apparently gives the chair as much strength as its original aluminum incarnation. Since 2000, Emeco has been collaborating with designers (Philippe Starck, Frank Gehry, Ettore Sottsass); the partnership with a corporation, and the focus on materials over form, is new.
The chairs are pretty handsome. The color of the one in the top photo is, of course, Coca Cola Red. They’re high and lo, just like Hanover’s Emeco. They’ll fit in at Milan and they make snack-sense alongside Utz chips and Snyder’s pretzels. I’m excited to see one in person when they goes on sale next month at Design Within Reach.
(photo courtesy of Emeco)
Clover Market debuts this Sunday
Check out this new outdoor arts and antiques market that’s fashioned after Brooklyn Flea and Portobello Market in London, debuting this Sunday in Ardmore (and alternating Sundays through June). I wrote an article about it for last Friday’s Inquirer. Here are some of the vendors:
Paintings by “barn lady” Sherry McVickar.
A Square Deal, whose roster of more than 100 artists go to town on 20cm square masonite panels. Above is “Italian Market Sweep” by Julia Blaukopf.
King of Shabby Chic, Dan Elman aka Kitsch-n-Kaboodle, who saves and restores unwanted furniture.
And Chairloom, a Philly-based artist/designer who’s a favorite at Brooklyn Flea. Molly Worth upcycles old furniture by upholstering it with eco-friendly textiles by indie companies like Hable Construction and Mod Green Pod.
Go forth and shop!
(all photos from Clover Market’s blog, except for the Chairloom photo, from Ready Made’s blog, Design Binder.)
IKEA springs eternal (new stuff for spring)
I saw an interior designer-type absconding from the South Philly IKEA with a cart full of RENATE cushions ($14.99) last week. Get yours before the rest of the hoarder designers descend.
The HALSA steel vacuum flask ($5.99) to load up with coffee before heading out to early-bird the flea markets.
The URBAN chair ($39.99) was always lovely, and now it’s particularly lovely in sky blue (not available yet in Philly stores, but will be by the weekend).
The MIKKE workstation (this combo is $110) in orange and white.
And I love the VARMT HUND fabric ($3.99/yd), now in black and white. Hang it in a window for a glowing hund.
nursery prints from local Etsy sellers
I’ve been searching for art for Baby Design-Phan’s nursery, and the offerings on etsy are amazing. I’m forcing myself to leave some white space (or, rather, pale blue space) to adhere to my goal to create a soothing environment, but lord is it tempting to buy and buy and buy. Instead I’ll post them here.
Three favorites from local sellers:
“Peep” ($20; 5″ x 5″ image on 10″ x 8″ paper) by Mike Geno (mgenomgeno) who also makes very cool meat-themed artwork and housewares
“Bee Happy” ($17; 8″ x 10″) by Melanie (spreadthelove), based in Kutztown.
“I Like To Rock” ($25; 11″ x 14″) by Jaime Derringer (jaimers), the blogger behind Design Milk.
the Sigmund pouf
Picasso and the Avant-Garde in Paris, at the Philadelphia Museum of Art through May 2nd, confirms for anyone lucky enough to see it that there’s always more to learn about Picasso.
And there’s a bonus for furniture-design aficionados: a very substantial pouf custom-designed by Philadelphia artist Virgil Marti for the exhibit’s Salon Cubism room. This room replicates the Salon d’Automne of 1912 both in palette and in the way its “salon-style” groupings are mixed in with sculpture.
Curator Michael Taylor told a group of us you’re meant to recline on the pouf and look up at the very high-hanging Nude Descending A Staircase whose landscape emerges clearly from that perspective. At eye level, he said, the painting has more of a patchwork-quilt effect.
It was funny he used that descriptor since Marti’s pouf is certainly quilt-ish — not in a serene Amish-quilt kind of way but more like “I tried to use up all my fabric scraps in one project.” The fake fur button at the pouf’s center grounds the radiating wedges of pattern (floral, peacock) and texture (velvet, wool) that are footed with curtain fringe. Just like a Cubist painting, it’s a lot to take in.
The exhibit shows how Cubism breaks three-dimensional objects into fragments. Is the Sigmund pouf doing the same with centuries of design tropes? I’m probably just overanalyzing this piece which is inarguably a comfy place to perch and ponder the Salon Cubists. I wonder where it’s headed after the exhibit closes.
UPDATE: Since I posted about Virgil Marti’s Sigmund Pouf, I saw that the Museum of Art has a great pouf post on its blog. Click here to check out a video of Marti talking about how the faux ostrich signifies “denial” and “burying one’s head,” and the eyes fabric alludes to insight. A bonus: There’s footage of the artist and curator demonstrating how to lounge on the pouf.
(photos by Contance Mensh, courtesy Philadelphia Museum of Art)
Philly Pride
As Philadelphians dig out from beneath 24 + 18 inches (two blizzards’ worth) of heavy snow, local letterpress mavens, Louella Press, have released these beautiful, limited edition Neighborhood Prints ($25 each). The first is inspired by stops along the R5, which meanders through Philadelphia’s Main Line…..
And the second by the charming/gritty/electic nabes that surround Center City and inspire fierce devotion from those who know and love them …..
Collect them both along with Ork Posters’ Philadelphia Neighborhood Poster ($22) for a wall that says, “I’m a fan of typography; I heart design; and I know better than to ever call Philadelphia ‘the sixth borough’!”
[photos from Louella Press' etsy shop and orkposters.com]
you’re my arty valentine
Despite being a Libra and ruled by Venus, I’ve never been that into Valentine’s Day — Hallmark holiday and all that. But Mara Zepeda of Neither Snow and her new Project Valentine is making me into a believer, at least into a believer of limited-edition calligraphed valentines with vintage postage.
Zepeda rocks a calligraphy style that manages to be simultaneously sumptuous and whimsical. (She also happens to be a fellow journalist and Philadelphian.) With Project Valentine, she’s paired her gorgeous script with groupings of vintage stamps on an oversized envelope that opens to a card with a short (20 words or less) message or quote. At $45, this wee work of art is bound to be much more memorable than the typical chocolate and roses .
Zepeda is taking orders at her etsy shop for these custom valentines until February 6 — she’s only making 100. The full range of stamp sets is here and there’s something to please everyone’s sweetie, from Robert Frost enthusiasts to train buffs to fans of Toto.
bright student
I blogged just before T-giving about seeing Marcel Wanders receive Collab’s 2009 Design Excellence Award. Someone else received an award that night, too —Philadelphia University sophomore, Jordan Cammarata, won Collab’s Student Design Competition.
This year’s competition guidelines challenged students to “design a ‘tabletop luminaire’ in the style of Marcel Wanders that included a careful examination of historic references, creative use of materials and technology and that appealed to the human experience.” Easy peasy, right? The judges unanimously chose Cammarata’s design, PULL, to receive first prize over 70 other entries. It obviously appealed to those humans. See if PULL appeals to you:
The lamp is a riff on Harvey Hubbell’s pull-chain socket, patented in 1896. In Cammarata’s lamp, the pull is the stand and the lamp. Seven LEDs are encased within polyethylene spheres dusted with a light coating of metallic paint for a traditional brassy sheen. The electrical components are concealed in the base and the lampshade.
Cammarata says he came up with PULL after doing about 20 sketches to perfect a design that “maintains the proportion of a tabletop luminaire and incorporates the pull chain as a stand.” He even found a way to keep the orientation of the pull chain left of center, as it hangs in regular lamps, for that x factor that’s universal in all winning designs: the one that brings the “oh!” and the smile to the end-user.
Calling Kikkerland …
cash for covers
First there was Cash for Clunkers. Then there was Cash for Couches. Now Kellijane, the high-end (i.e., your Snuggie probably won’t qualify) bed, bath, and table linens shop off of Rittenhouse Square is offering a Blanket Exchange through the end of December. Bring in a gently used blanket or throw for 20% off a new model. Kelly Monk Reed, owner of Kellijane, is donating the blankets and throws she collects from customers to Philadelphia’s DHS, to be used in kids’ group homes.
Some samples of the merch:
• Snuggle up on the couch with this luxe purple throw, called Oliver, by Italy’s Cecchi e Cecchi — originally $295, it’s $236 after the discount.
• Or outfit the guestroom in style with a microcotton herringbone queen blanket from Home Source International — originally $290, it’s $232 after the discount.