On Wednesday, I confessed to being an overzealous DIYer, and part of what comes with that territory is a lot of boxes of supplies and unfinished projects. Bradford Shellhammer, creative jack-of-all-trades, is similarly afflicted but decided to do something about it. In 2010, he resolved the best way to tackle his tendency toward unfinished projects and focus on his goal to create more art—making a commitment to produce 100 paintings in time for the holidays.
And through a process of painting, taping, cutting, sorting, and arranging, he did. Shellhammer created 100 original 5″x7″ collages from painted bristol paper and chronicled the experience on his blog. Something about the idea of producing not one, but 100 pieces resonates with me. Often the blank canvas and desire to make a single successful project is intimidating. I think knowing that you have 99 more after that first would actually be quite freeing. (Or maybe I’d just end up with an even bigger box of unused supplies? I’ll have to think of a good way to test this theory.) You can see all of Shellhammer’s 100 paintings and read what he has to say about the endeavor here.
{Art and Images via Bradford Shellhammer}
{ Photo from Bukowskis }
While there are lots of things about modern-day travel that I appreciate—like in-flight movies and wi-fi—there’s one bygone practice that I wish had stuck around: luggage labels. In the late-1800s to mid-1900s, it was common for hotels to offer these labels so that guests would adhere them to their suitcases. It was a way for hotels to promote themselves, and for travelers to track where they had stayed.
The other day, I spent a few hours on eBay and Etsy searching for labels of hotels that I’ve stayed at over the years. There’s a certain romance to collecting these vintage labels, isn’t there? I’m thinking of rounding up a handful and having them framed for the art wall in my bedroom. Seems fitting since some of these labels are like little works of art.
{ Hotel Astor – via V Books }
{ Inversnaid Hotel - via Villa 15 Vintage }
I admit to being an avid DIYer, to the point where it really is a fault. I see something and automatically start thinking about how I could make it myself, or make it better. Despite my extreme approach, tackling a whole mattress had never crossed my mind before stumbling upon Open Your Eyes Bedding. Now that I’ve seen their beautiful products, I can’t shake the idea.
Open Your Eyes sells kits to make all-natural mattresses. Each mattress is composed of a series of fabric pods that are filled with buckwheat hulls and then twisted together to create a continuous surface. They have kits that require different levels of involvement, from sewing the pods yourself, to simply filling and twisting them. The result is so beautiful, I can’t imagine covering the mattress with bedding. I’d love to try one of these out and see what it would feel like to sleep on, and can imagine making a series of smaller cushions to stack in a living room space for extra seating.
{Images via Open Your Eyes Bedding}
Alexis’ post yesterday—about the awesome lighting installation at UBIQ in Philadelphia—reminded me of another cool retail interior: that of LYNNsteven in Vancouver, BC. The architecture firm McFarlane Green Biggar devised a cylindrical form in the Gastown boutique. While it looks amazing, perhaps the best part is that it’s comprised of paperback books sourced from Craigslist. (The structure houses a washroom, changing room, and storage.) I haven’t had the pleasure of visiting LYNNsteven yet, but you can bet I’ll remedy that the next time I’m in Vancouver.
P.S. The shop is an Anthology stockist, and they should be receiving Issue No. 10 soon!
{ Photographs from McFarlane Green Biggar }
{Image above via The Cool Hunter}
Not long ago, Meg, Anh-Minh, and I took a trip to Philadelphia to explore. It was my first time visiting and I was so impressed by the city and everything it had to offer. (You can read all about our excursion in the soon-to-be-released Issue No. 10!) One afternoon while wandering back to our hotel, we stopped in at UBIQ, a sneaker store in Rittenhouse Square. While Anh-Minh browsed their extensive collection of shoes, I found myself mesmerized by the fixtures.
Designed by Architecture at Large, Ubiq’s interior is a mix of industrial and luxe finishes. The thing that really caught my attention was the custom lighting system in the main showroom. A geometric maze of copper pipes and ceramic sockets zigzags across the ceiling illuminating the space with dozens of incandescent bulbs. They converge over the registers, where a series of dimmers controls the whole room. While the store looks incredibly bright in the architect’s image above, the fixtures provided a pleasant glow in person, and the effect was pretty stunning. And I must admit, this system plus a little inspiration from Lindsay Adelman’s instructions has the the DIYer in me excited by the possibilities.
{Images above by Alexis Birkmeyer}
