If you are looking for a special way to celebrate this Mother’s Day weekend, make your way to Heath Ceramics. The beloved California ceramics company is hosting its annual open studio at three locations: San Francisco, Sausalito, and Los Angeles. You can get a behind-the-scenes look at the Heath story on tours of the factory, the glazing and mold-making processes, and the new San Francisco creative campus. In addition to these tours, each location will have a variety of activities including tile glazing, flower arranging (with Moon Canyon and Studio Choo), and even a chance to cast and glaze a classic Heath bud vase. Some activities are RSVP only, so visit the Heath website for more details and to sign up.
{Photos via Heath Ceramics}
{ Image above via Artisan }
Last week, Meg and I had the pleasure of attending an event hosted by West Elm and Studio Choo. Alethea Harampolis and Jill Rizzo—the floral designers behind Studio Choo—were celebrating the launch of their new book, The Flower Recipe Book. The duo gave a lesson on how to make a beautiful arrangement using peonies, ranunculus, roses, honeysuckles, pokeberry, and crabapple. At first, I felt overwhelmed by all the options and had a flashback of the sad centerpieces I made last Thanksgiving. But just like in their book, we were given step-by-step instructions and felt at ease when it was our turn to make our own bouquet (shown below).
If you’d like to create your own bouquet, good news: The Flower Recipe Workshop is coming to West Elm locations nationwide this Saturday, May 11. That’s right—you can learn how to make a carnation flower arrangement just in time for Mother’s Day! Tickets are $65, and the cost includes all materials as well as the vase. Attendees will not only take home a floral project of their own creation, but a copy of The Flower Recipe Book, too. Those of you in Seattle get an extra-special treat: Jill and Alethea will be at the Seattle store on Saturday. Call your location West Elm to register (more information is available here). And don’t miss West Elm’s video on the workshop!
On Sunday, I attended Amy Azzarito’s event celebrating her new book, Past & Present. Part book-signing and part craft workshop, it was held at Terrain in Glen Mills, PA. If you’re unfamiliar with Terrain, basically it is a magical wonderland of handsome gardening supplies and rustic home decor with a 12-acre plant nursery and one of the best brunch spots in town. With a carefully curated assortment of items and enough plant knowledge to keep even me from killing plants, Terrain truly is special.
Based on Amy’s popular column on Design*Sponge, Past & Present focuses on DIY projects and essays that explore how the past seems to always resurface in modern design. To take it a bit further, Amy outlines the history of a particular style, and asks various creatives—such as David Stark, Grace Bonney, Todd Oldham, and Anthology‘s own creative director Meg Mateo Ilasco—to contribute related DIY projects. For example, an overview of 17th-century Venetian mirros leads to a mirror mosiac planter project designed by Grace.
During the workshop, Amy explained the history of Native American trade blankets and then walked us through the related DIY project design by jewelry and textile designer Caitlin Mociun. While sipping ginger lemonade, we fashioned napkin rings out of PVC couplings with brightly colored duct tape applied in geometric designs. The end result is a relatively simple project that you can easily update for different occasions. As you can see, some attendees got very detailed with their napkin rings!
Many thanks to Amy and Terrain for putting on such an inspiring event!
{photos by Joanna of Jojotastic}
While we have some stunning green spaces in San Francisco, like Dolores and Golden Gate Parks, the parks I’ve been particularly excited about lately are on a much smaller scale. Tiny urban parks, or parklets, have been popping up along some of San Francisco’s busiest streets. Occupying space that used to be reserved for cars, I’ve come across several of these miniature oases outside of coffee shops and cafes. They provide a perfect place to enjoy a cup of coffee and take a break from the usual bustle of the street.
Curious about where these tiny spaces got their start, I looked into the brief history of the parklet. From what I can tell, the movement began in 2005 when design studio Rebar installed a single parking space-sized park in a metered spot for two hours. That first installation led to Park(ing) Day, an annual event where people across the country create temporary parks in parking spaces. And from there, more permanent mini-parks began to take hold.
If you aren’t able to enjoy these particular parklets as a Bay Area resident, don’t worry. They are showing up in other cities as well, like the newly opened Logan Parklet in Philadelphia, which was actually funded through a Kickstarter campaign. And if you think your neighborhood could use a bit more green space, consider taking part in Park(ing) Day 2013 this coming September. It’s not too soon to start planning!
{Images above via SF Pavement to Parks}
{Image above via Logan Parklet Kickstarter}
{ Image via Camp Grounded }
I know, it’s only the second day of spring, but I’m already thinking about summer—specifically, summer camp. That’s right, summer camp. It’s not just for kids anymore! The other day, Twitter conversations about a couple of summer camps for grown-ups caught my attention. (Participants in the online chatter included @rena_tom, our market editor, and @jojotastic, a contributor to our blog. And you can follow us @anthologymag!)
Camp Grounded will be happening in mid-June on an 80-acre property in Mendocino County, California. Organizers encourage attendees to ”Trade in your computer, cell phone, Instagrams, clocks, schedules, and work-jargon for an off-the-grid weekend of pure unadulterated fun.” Activities will range from yoga, writing sessions, and barefoot baking to hiking, stargazing, and rock-wall climbing.
While The Unique Camp also advocates unplugging from technology and takes place in June as well, it has an emphasis on entrepreneurship (“Take your business and your ideas to the next level,” reads the website). The four-day creative conference in Big Bear, California, will offer workshops on topics such as finding investors, product photography, and being a great boss, plus camp favorites such as archery, horseback riding, and poolside lounging.
Just the thought of going to summer camp puts a smile on my face. And now I’ve got the urge to watch Moonrise Kingdom again!
{ Image via The Unique Camp }
