My Wish List

This year we’re indulging in a double Christmases. Why? Because we’re heading to Sydney to be with family for the real Christmas and I don’t want to take all our presents in a suitcase just to have to pack them and bring them all back to Los Angeles. So, we’re doing Christmas in LA and then Christmas in Sydney. As you can imagine this meant our kids had to write Santa a very detailed letter letting him know exactly where we’d be on the real Christmas day so he’d be able to find us. Hope he does.

And just in case he is reading this blog I wanted to include my wish list:

1. Tiny Chair Necklace These gold necklaces are handmade by Montreal’s Bruxe Design. At $750, the tiny Eames bentwood chair is more expensive than the real thing but I can’t wear that lovely walnut piece around my neck.

2. Any Hiroshi Sugimoto print from the “7 Days/7 Nights” exhibition. And if I can’t have that then his self-titled book please.

3. Themis Mobile by graphic designer and illustrator Clara von Zweigbergk for Artecnica. I was in A+R yesterday looking for last minute Christmas presents and came across this mobile. I love the colors and the simplicity of it. Plus it seems like a bargain at $27.

4. I have coveted the Eames Walnut Stool for longer than I can remember. I thought my 40th might have warranted a splurge but that has come and gone. Maybe Christmas?!

5. A dog. I know it’s not going to happen because our landlord doesn’t allow pets but it doesn’t stop me wishing. I am particularly partial to the Obama’s Portugese Water Dog, Bo (although we’ll probably end up at a shelter).

6. I don’t really want an office chair for Christmas but it is the one thing I actually need! I know my back will thank me for including an Aeron on my list.

Design for You: Andrew Holder

As promised here is the interview with Andrew Holder – the final artist behind the painted Eames rockers. The Design for You competition continues with three more weeks until entries are closed. You can read more about the prizes here.

How long have you worked in your current studio? And where is it? I moved from Pasadena to Eagle Rock about five months ago.  It is only about six miles away from my the old place but somehow it feels more “LA” to me.  I work from home so my studio consists of a spare bedroom and a garage which I have yet to take advantage of.  Eventually (hopefully soon) I plan on doing all of my printing and painting out of the garage but since moving here I have mostly been doing work for clients so there hasn’t really been a need to set it up.

Describe your style? How would you define your aesthetic? My style tends to be very graphic.  Geometric and organic shapes combined with a lot of different textures. Partly due to the fact that a lot of my work is screen-printed. Aesthetically, it’s kind of hard to say since I jump around a lot but it definitely has a nostalgic or retro quality to it.  I have heard my work be described as future folk before but I am not entirely sure what that means.

As an artist how do you keep your space organized? I’m thinking here of the physical space but also your computer. Are there any particular programs you find really useful? Shelves, lots of shelves and drawers.  Basically anywhere I can hide things.  Having a garage is great, I no longer have printers and power tools looming over my head waiting to attack with the next earthquake.

What would you change about your workspace if you could? The windows, though they are great and provide good lighting, swing inward and make it difficult to put furniture anywhere.  My desk and shelving are where they are because they have to be.  The mid wall light fixtures don’t help the situation either.

What do you most love about your space? The old beat up wood floors and, contrary to my previous response, the lighting.

Tell me about the experience of painting the Eames chair? How much prep did you have to do?  What inspired the final design? Well, since I had to finish the piece within a short amount of time I arrived knowing what I was going to do with a mock up in hand.  Admittedly, I was a little freaked out about being filmed but it turned out to be a great experience and I really enjoyed it.  It was good to put faces to names of people whose work I knew and admired.  The design I came up with based on the tag line of “for a better world around you”. I knew I wanted it to be simple and have something to do with nature so I came up with the bird/peacock design. It seemed to work well with the form of the chair.

What inspires you? Everything.  People, places, events etc.  I try to get out of the studio, experience new things and break routine as much as possible.  Sitting within four walls all day can be quite mind numbing.

ICFF: Herman Miller takes Times Square

Well, maybe that is a slight exaggeration. What we have done is place our ad on one of the electronic billboards in Times Square – the one above Toys “R” Us in case you were wondering. Maybe next year we can get everyone sitting in Eames chairs instead of the metal cafe chairs that populate the square now. Just a thought!

Paper Cuts

For some people procrastination comes in the form of cleaning or tidying (see Cameron Moll’s interview for example). I wish I was that sort of a person. For me it’s all about window shopping. I find myself surfing the net looking at ‘stuff’. I can justify it as part of my job…sometimes! One of the things I’ve been shopping for lately is art. I’m fascinated by all the amazing work you can find online. So I was thrilled to get this tip from Marcia, the Discover editor. A friend of hers sent us a link to UK-based Cut Out Paper. Of course, we were drawn to the ‘Chairs‘ piece above (recognize any of those designs?) But I also really like the ‘Beetles‘ below.

A Chair That Owes its Form to a Bike Pump

Charles and Ray Eames used a little magic, a whole lot of work, and a bicycle pump to perfect their plywood molding technique. In the early 1940s, they worked through the evenings in their small Los Angeles apartment molding plywood in what they called the “Kazam! Machine.” It was a hinged two-by-four frame that held a plaster mold with heating elements against which a membrane (inflated by a bicycle pump) pushed thin sheets of glued veneer. That humble technology allowed the Eameses to design a chair Time magazine named the Best Design of the 20th Century.

More Calendars

Let me know if you are getting sick of calendars. I still haven’t bought one so I continue to look. The savvy editorial team over at Design Milk offer up their calendar choices, including this one from Blue Ant Studio that is inspired by a mid-century modern aesthetic (yes, that is an Eames plywood chair by the pool). And Blue Ant are kindly offering the calendar for free – you just download the pages from Flickr and print.