Beauty.....

Everything is beautiful in Europe....I have taken thousands of photos of beautiful doors, beautiful frescoes, beautiful architecture.  Craftsmanship and quality seem more important to Europeans than budgets and deadlines.

Even the food is beautiful! Just look at this bread in a restaurant window in Venice.  Who wouldn't want to go in and see what else they offer?

Desserts are almost impossible to pass up with these kind of displays!

These are parma hams in the Mercato Centrale in Florence.  Even the bone is wrapped in gold foil at the bottom of the cut. My grocery store has a cold bin full of shrink wrapped pork, no bay leaf garlands or foil adornments!

Paris is the center of civility and beauty. This is the interior of  Ladure'e, a tea room where time slows down and people gather to talk and eat beautiful food!

Nothing is overlooked, even  hardware can be an elegant statement in beauty. 

Look at the detail in this hand made lace curtain. 

Here is a empire influenced sconce mounted on the arabesque panel.  Belle Epoch at it's best!

Who wouldn't be happy walking down the street when the covered sidewalks look like this? The city of Bologna, Italy is known for its' arched porticoes and has more covered sidewalks than any other city in the world.

And then there is the sidewalk itself, this is in front of the post office in Florence.

 Detail over a door in Florence 

 Doors are architectural delights. This one is in Paris, typical with its' bright blue color and street number in the stone pediment over the door.

I love looking at mailboxes. These are both in Italy, this one in Florence and the next is in Venice. 

What a lovely architectural  mailbox! I would kill for it! I always come home from a trip with new eyes to look at my old world. Try looking at your world in a new way and find something that needs to made beautiful in your world! Let me know what you change from a mundane object to a thing of beauty!

Chinoiserie....

("Yunnan" Brunschwig & Fils. Inc.)

I have always had a love affair with all things chinoise. Leaning  towards the blue and white palette of asian motifs, I was attracted to the "Yunnan" fabric on first sight....  Pagoda by Royal Limoges, Asian Toile by American Atelier, antique tiles of blue and white all live in my home and make me happy.

With that said, red is the more traditional hue associated with chinoiserie. For years , as I would enter the city of Paris from Charles de Gaulle airport, I would  pass this marvelous pagoda. A pagoda in Paris ! Even in my jet lagged mind, I made mental notes to find my way back to it.

The (Gallery C.T. Loo & Cie )Pagoda is a marvelous example of the traditional red hue associated with chinoiserie. To Buddhists,  red was associated with dieties  and  celebrations  and was used on pagodas as a religious reference. This structure was built in 1926 by architect Fernand Bloch. 

This post is dedicated to many of my favorite artist's and interior decorator's infatuation with all things chinoiserie....in any color!

This interior was created by Gerald Vann Underwood for a showcase home in Atlanta, Georgia. I love the delicate bamboo border at the bottom of the wall . The top border has moorish influence and would not be uncommon to mix with the asian theme. 

This incredible entry is from the New York home of Howard Slatkin. These photos  were taken by Pieter Estersohn  and are from the article  by Cynthia Frank - House & Garden  Sept. 1999. 

The entry is a combination of the mural View of Hindoustan and newer work on the opposite wall to mimic the original work.

This is such a wonderful example of what chinoiserie should look like! Done by the fabulous Michael J. Dute'.  To quote him, his work is like "entering a dream world, It's like living inside a painting". 

Influenced by Michael and the work of Graham Rust, I was hired to create a traditional red chinoiserie environment for a powder room this past year.  This was a dream job! I actually got paid for this!

Each wall is a different scene using traditional elements such as cherry trees, pagodas and bamboo.

This mural was done by Marty Joseph for clients in Dallas, Texas.  The scale of the mural is perfect for this powder room.

You can't say chinoiserie without thinking of Tony Duquette. This is just one example from the wonderful book by the same title. Pagodas were prominent in many projects by Duquette.   Tony had a wonderful garden with pagodas of wood, antlers, and other found objects. 

Hopefully, this post will make you consider your environment. Consider mixing styles , things that make you happy, souvenirs from trips. Your home should be your life story!

Soap....

Soap is one of those common denominators that we all share.  Gone are the days of just Ivory or Dreft. Soap is big business! With that in mind, there are a lot of choices in shapes and scents.

The turquoise soap shown above is a product found on  etsy.  Etsy is a wonderful online store featuring handmade items made by artisans.  (note-this item is hand made and not always available as many mass produced soaps are!) If it is not available, just keep checking back for new supplies to be listed.
Fresh is a brand that I love . Their soaps are oversized, great for the bath , hard milled to last and come in a number of scents . These bars are wrapped with decorative papers and tied with wire and a small polished stone centered over the label.

This is another soap found on Etsy. This amber colored soap  looks great in a powder room and has a wonderful dragon embossed on the front.  It fills the room with the scent of  pungent incense . This one is also sold out often due to it's popularity. Just keep checking back, for new supplies!

Marseilles is synonymous with the word soap.  Savon de Marseilles was an earth friendly green product way before the term "eco- friendly" was coined. Made from olive oil and sea salt, this soap is perfect for the kitchen, removing strong smells such as garlic from the hands without drying the skin.

This is a little whimsical soap with french influence...uh....in the form of french fries...get it? It would probably be best in a powder room as well or a child's bath. 

Now we're talking elegance! I absolutely love these soap leaves. They look great in a powder room, laundry room, master bath, wherever you please! They are formed from real mango leaf impressions and are honey scented. Twenty leaves to a box!

This soap comes with a Parisian ribbon and the wonderful blue graphic PARIS on the paper. It would make a great presentation for a gift basket.

How can I forget the dudu-osun soap from Africa? This black soap is made from native plants and herbs, long sought after for it's cleansing properties. The color is great for a man's bath or a mud room where dirty hands need a little help! 

Soap is something that most people will touch while in your home. You can make a statement by purchasing something unique and as individual as you are! Remember, it's all about the details!

Curiosity Cabinets....

Being a woman and a natural "gatherer and hoarder", I have always been drawn to curiosity cabinets.  Their origins trace back to the 1500's with the first collections featuring oddities from the animal, mineral and vegetable kingdoms.

Google image

These early collections were precursors to science museums.

Collections evolved to contain religious artifacts, art and oddities from travel abroad.  Featured in cabinets or on table tops, these curiosities would be focal points of parlors to spark conversation with guests that visited the room.

                      Maison et Objet Paris 2008

This is where I begin to salivate! In 2008,  I attended  one of the largest european  decorative trade shows,Maison et Objet, where there is a entire section devoted to curiosities!

                                                    Maison et Objet Paris 2008

                                    

Rows of fossils and minerals on display stands along with groups of books bound with string were staples for collections.

                                                  Maison et Objet Paris 2008

                                                   Maison et Objet 2008

Corals, sponges and other marine creatures available to the trade.

Here is a great example of true curiosity cabinets!

If all of this is just clutter to you, consider the work of Andy Paiko. He offers a  modern twist on curiosity collecting.  Working with glass, he creates wonderful display domes often featuring glass coral in the stems.

Personally, I am looking for a taxidermist to replicate this "Shakespearean" mouse to cram into my already over cluttered collection! Whatever your passion, your home should invite people to touch and converse about your treasures!!

Special thanks goes to Lynne Rutter of  The Ornamentalist. She provided me with the source for the "Hamlet Mouse"( found at Paxton Gate in San Franciso). Lynne, you made me very happy!

The Stigma with Stenciling......

Photo of Ann Gish linens, unknown source

I recently needed a stencil with geometric lines to define the edges of a client's  mural from the unadorned walls around it.  I began to research motifs such as "greek key" and "fretwork" and decided on the look seen above.  I began to see this motif in the oddest places.....on buildings...

                             

Photo-Lafayette, Indiana

On people's clothing......

and , those lovely Ann  Gish textiles!  

    In college, I studied design, life drawing, intaglio and art history. It was understood that my work must be "original"with no short cuts or aids.  Under our breath, we serious art students scoffed at the art education majors that incorporated sponges and stencils in their projects......when was stenciling reduced  from an art form  to a craft?  When was stenciling equated mainly  with the work of  itinerate artists in the 1800's linked to early american  decor  producing rows of pineapples and  fruit on Hitchcock chairs? 

    

 

 The word  stenciling derives from the french verb estenceler(to sparkle) and the latin scintilla(to spark).   A stencil  is a template used to reproduce  a symbol or shape through drawing or paint in a uniform,  repetitive manner.  Adele Bishop and Cile Lord marketed the first stencil kit in 1968 for the masses. It included stencils based on designs from the 50's along with the paint and brushes needed to complete a project.  These kits could be compared to the current popular  ''...for Dummies " series of books teaching everything from how to use a computer to how to learn to cook. Bishop and Lord  took simple designs ( no theorem stencils here) easy for a beginner to use and made them accessible to the masses.  No longer did  the artisan control the market for stencil work.  The costs of elaborate theorem stencil designs had a competitor! Simple, repetitive designs done by the homeowner soon became the rage and the more expensive and laborious artistic interpretation began to decline.

    I still scoffed at the use of stencils throughout my career,  the stigma with the whole  "craft" thing " bothered me.  Serious artists, in my opinion, just didn't use stencils! My attitude was about to change when I was asked to bid on a restoration job of turn of the century stencilwork in a local historical home.

      WOW! This was a dream come true!   

                                 

The entryway to this 1888 home was covered from floor to ceiling in theorem stenciling. The detail was incredible....well, what I could see of it. When I came in, around one third of the work was deteriorated. 

I had to make acetate overlays  of the intact designs to repair the areas decomposed.

I used Farrow and Ball paint to repair the missing designs and touch up faded sections. My attitude changed overnight about the use of stencils!

There was no space left unadorned in this entryway. History is sketchy on it's origins. It was not original to the home but was done sometime in the twenty year period between 1888 and 1908. 

The complexity and composition is a work of art in itself!  The blue border around the top of the walls does not repeat! TRUST ME! It has some similar motif sections, but each wall has a distinct identity.

This was work done by artisans based on their standards. They painted many things that only a trained eye would be able to appreciate.  One day, when climbing the scaffolding, I was working about fifteen feet up near the ceiling. I looked at the small "nails" holding the blue ribbon and noticed a faint shadow painted for each nail! From the ground, this is not discernible but, it was painted because, the artist knew it would be there in nature. No corners were cut, no details were left out. It was a pure joy to work on this project and learn that stenciling can still be an art form, depending on who holds the brush.....