Darling Jen Hartford the designer behind
Tasty Ties asked me to paint a few of her bow ties for the
imminent launch of her shop. They will be used in posters which I can't wait to share with you and I will as soon as I have them. Until then here are the bow ties in various stages along the way. Each one is named after a San Francisco neighborhood. Can you guess which ones these are?
Thank you ever so much
Jen Hartford for hiring me for one the most delightful projects I've had the pleasure to work on. Seriously, to get paid to paint beautful bow ties?! Somebody pinch me.
It's been awhile since I've posted an around the house. As you can see these photos were taken in the am and it's summer in San Francisco which means our mornings and nights are filled with fog. Cold, brutal, bone chilling fog. I have a bit of a love/hate relationship with this city and the fog is a perfect dichotomy of this.
Sometimes, I love it and think it's so romantic. Seriously, when you are downtown and you are enveloped in it and walking around with someone who's captured your heart it can be an incredible feeling, like you are walking around in your very own classic film. (also might I add for those who don't know the fog is only cold and bone chilling when it's coming in. Once you are fogged in it acts like a blanket and keeps the cold out.) But most of the summer you just yearn for those summers of hot hot heat, with sunshine galore and the ability to wear a sundress without the fear you will freeze your tits off. Then you think of how Los Angeles is this time of year and how it is all year round.... just sun, sun, sun, in your face and all the time like some coworker who is just so happy all the time and you think... what is the matter with her/him?! Out of fairness I wonder the same about the Eeyore's of the world always down in the dumps. It's the being on one channel that puzzles me. Anyhoo, a little off subject there but I do love having actual weather from time to time instead of endless sunny days.
I am curious how the weather affects you? I personally have a more difficult time getting out of bed on these gray mornings. Especially when I know the rest of the world is experiencing full summer glory. Perhaps you even have some tips? Does anyone use a sun lamp?
This is a bit of a late notice but my office mates
Alite have teamed up with the cuties at
Curiosity Shoppe for a pop-up of outdoorsy proportions. Do stop in and say hi if you can. I promise you won't be disappointed.
Our friend
Eric Pfieffer of
The Utility Collective has teamed up with Jaime Kasza to bring about the Stact wine unit. Well, almost... they are ready for production and need a little helping hand. They have pulled together an
immaculate kickstarter campaign. I know, I know, you are inundated with kickstarter campaigns but if you are in the market at all for a wine rack contributing would be worth your while as it actually goes towards a kit of your own at an entry level price. So wine enthusiasts and restauranteurs I'd head over stat as they have almost received full funding. Of course if you just love these guys and think it's a great project you can contribute as much as a dollar to get them off the ground too.
Head on over and check it out.
All photos and imagery via Stact
As a kid I was always intrigued by office supplies and desk accoutrement. What is that about do you think? A love for items that try to create order? My love for these utilitarian objects hasn't waned and I know for certain if I came across
Daniel + Emma's pieces at six my mind would surely be blown.
Their pieces are a desktop terrain of playthings for grown-ups (and kids;)
p.s. Be sure to check out their collaboration with
Guerlain + Wallpaper* I'm in love!
all photography via Daniel + Emma
You know when you see a piece and it never leaves your mind. You may forget it, you may not remember where you saw it or how long ago or even who created it but yet it stays lodged in the back of that grey matter sitting atop of your shoulders. That is exactly how I felt about Rick Owens and Michelle Lamy's furniture collection.
And then darling
Shara Lotfi popped by and shared this video by
Another Magazine thinking it would be something I would be interested in and then it all came flooding back.
Thanks Shara. I've long been a fan of Rick Owens and always a little bit intrigued by Michelle Lamy. What an incredible creative force. No?
I just can't think about this space this week. My brain hurts and is going in a million different directions at the moment. There are just too many things to do. I'll re-group and see you back here next week.
Illustration by Mary Kate Mcdevitt for Chronicle Books
We certainly have no shortage of incredible talent in California especially in the realm of ceramics and pottery. Something in the soil is surely the cause. The Mister is a huge fan and we have personally collected quite a few pieces in wide variety so when
Erin McGuiness popped up in my in- box I was instantly intrigued by her vessels and asked if she wouldn't speak a little more on her process of hand-coiling.
Coil building is this wonderful, "original" forming method in clay, the
same basic technique is used in native american pottery and many other
indigenous communities clay traditions. Thin snakes of clay are rolled
out and then stacked on top of each other vertically to form the walls
of a vessels. You may have used this method in grade school and ended
up with a sort of lumpy droopy thing (like I did). The difference is
that now I work on a lot of pieces at once and only build up the vessels
a couple inches at a time, then I let it harden and refine the form
before putting the next layer on, slowly building up so that it can
support its own weight.
I love coiling for a bunch of different
reasons, the process itself is really slow and meditative. This allows
me to have a lot of time with the piece, tweaking and adjusting the form
to get the balance I like. The process is so "hand-on" that I think a
lot of the maker gets into the piece. Everyone always want to touch the
vessels and I think that is somehow related to the method used that a
viewers hand is just drawn to the form. Rather than use a glaze, I
leave the pieces raw with light washes so the finish is the texture and
color of the clay itself. The play between a really composed balanced
harmonious form and then the raw earthly clay I think is the strength of
the work.
Thanks so much Erin for talking about your process it's such a joy to learn new material in a field of interest. And if you live in the area you can see
Erin's work in person at the
Palo Alto Clay and Glass Festival. Read below for more information. I've actually never been and wish I had the weekend free to go check it out.
Hand coiled vessels - Heights 33" to 26"
From
10:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. on Saturday, July 14 and Sunday, July 15,
California sculptor, Erin McGuiness will show new one of a kind
hand-coiled ceramic vessels in booth #419 at the Palo Alto Clay &
Glass Festival. The
artist will be onsite to answer questions about the pieces that she
makes by hand in Berkeley California using her modern approach to the
age old technique of clay hand-coil building. Inspired by African &
Oceanic art and past masters such as Brancusi and Noguchi. McGuiness
architectural vessels play with the tension and connections created by
groupings
of forms. The combinations are conversations sparked by
different emotions. Each vessel expresses a feeling or thought so that the forms together become a visual chorus of ideas. McGuiness’
vessels balance the inherent raw and earthy qualities of clay against
the elegant harmonious proportions of her forms.
More
than 175 juried, local artists will present the finest in clay and
glass art at the 20th annual Palo Alto Clay & Glass Festival. Thousands
of attendees are expected for this free event hosted by the Association
for Clay and Glass Artists (ACGA) and presented with the Palo Alto Art
Center. The Palo Alto Clay & Glass Festival features a large selection of the best traditional and contemporary clay and glass art.
Saturday & Sunday, July 14 & 15, 10:00 a.m. – 5:00 p.m.
Rinconada Park
777 Embarcadero Road
Palo Alto, CA
Erin McGuiness Booth #419
I wish I could read the interview.
See the rest of the tour here on
Lifecycling which looks to be a home tour style blog produced by the
Japanese furniture shop IDÉE.
I've always been a fan of this aesthetic but the restraint in materials and color is not something that comes naturally for me. At least not in my
own home as you probably
know by now;)
I haven't been paying attention to
Front Design lately but
this sofa sure made me sit up and say hello to some old friends and peruse their website. One of the things I adore about
Front Design (besides the all lady crew) is their process and how they come to the final design. While there are lot of designers that spout about process I think very few allow for that process to inform their work so fearlessly. Bravo Gals!
Read about it here.
I'd also have a quick look at the
Chameleon Cupboard and the
Gentle Chair below.
All photography Front Design
I am so incredibly excited that
Heath Ceramics has just opened (Finally, and in my neighborhood, trouble.) in San Francisco. I know, I know, we do have Sausalito but I couldn't help but look at Los Angeles with green eyes of envy
every time they had another opening through some genius collaboration with a local artist. We weren't getting those at the original Sausalito location.
So when I walked by on their first day of being open and saw them pulling out these beauties I knew we were in for our very own show.
Heath Ceramics And
Akio Nukaga have teamed up again and the full collection will be on show starting July 14th Saturday.
The opening to meet the artist is July 14, 5-9 pm
San Francisco’s own Sylvan Mishima Brackett, of
Peko Peko, shares tastes from 5-7 pm, paired with wine and Japanese beer.
See the work: Wheel Throwing Demonstration
Sunday, July 15, 2 pm
A very unique opportunity to see Akio at work. Open to the public.
all photography via Heath Ceramics
When I saw sweet
Sergio's face on The Selby I couldn't help
but share his photos since visiting his office was such a fond memory for me. Before I met him on my trip to Rio (Psst, he's in Rio not São Paulo,
Selby) Everywhere my dear friend Jorge took the Mister and I, I kept seeing
Sergio's pieces everywhere and calling them out. And Jorge would say... "oh that's another one of
Sergio Rodrigues' pieces." I was obviously drawn to their form and materials. Then Jorge surprised us with a visit to his studio.
He was so warm and inviting for someone who literally just stopped by unannounced. He stopped everything to show us around his studio and show us all of his prototypes and what he was currently working on. He even kept a reporter waiting in the other room. ( I felt kinda bad about that one.) And before we left he asked to see my sketchbook and then signed it. (bottom photo) He's surely one of Brazil's living treasures.
p.s.
Some of my sketches while in Brazil.
All photography by The Selby except the final photo by Kelly Waters
Working on refreshing the PDF portfolio and I'm on the final page of various interests... sometimes editing is the hardest part.
Some other things you might want to know
Unless otherwise noted, all work © Kelly Waters.
If you re-blog my photos or work, please do link back to me.
I try my best to always link back to designers, artists, photographers, chefs, architects, funny people, Misters, supermodels, textile dj industrialists or whomever catches my eye and I end up posting about here but if for some reason you aren't happy with the recognition please say so and I will banish you, um er, remove the post immediately.
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