Graphic Tiles

I'm back at ceramics — investigating type, surface, color... More to come.

Click

Gingertecture 2010

We won for best construction!

Last Day of Stasis

Two and a half years ago I covered this bulletin board with inspiration — pieces of design, photography, odds and ends that made me happy to have over my shoulder. I never took anything off. On a few occasions I added on to it, but mostly it remained static.

I cleaned the bulletin board off this morning — neatly filing away my inspiration into the same orange envelope from which I extracted it; the same envelope I filled up on the last day at my previous job. The envelope is going home this time, to an office in our dining room.

I am voluntarily disrupting the equilibrium of our lives. God bless my husband for holding steady as I move into the unknown. Teaching — new, uncharted stuff — should consume most of the fall. Hopefully some freelance will augment it. I have a deep rooted peace about the rest. I am finished wrestling with going or staying. The time for stillness is over. I am exploding with inspiration, this time from within. It is an extraordinary feeling. I can't wait to see what I do.

Stay tuned.


Oh, Bacon's last day at the office was Wednesday. He worked himself into a nap.

Extreme Home Makeover

We began on Friday night and finished Tuesday evening. All in all we put in an extra workweek of time on our kitchen over the weekend. We think it looks amazing compared to what it was. The black is chalkboard paint which was a last minute idea, saving the room from fading completely into a powder blue haze. It's been about 95 degrees everyday since the weekend and everything still feels a little tacky so we're afraid to close the doors just yet. Hopefully it will be completely cured in a few more days. Now on to bringing warmth back to the space by replacing the floors...

Honorable Mention and a New Part-time Gig

Neither *boy's or my apartment made it to the finals in AT's Small Cool contest but I did receive one of the few Honorable Mentions by the Northwest judge, Philip Wood. Yea! Who knew my little blue apartment would be so well-received. Wonder what my "special gift" will be...

On a related note, we got the AT Boston job! In the end all 4 Boston finalists were hired and we're meeting up in person this weekend to discuss how this will all play out as we develop the Boston branch of Apartment Therapy. Wish us luck!

Sustainable and Eco-Fashionable

*girl's superpower is an allergy to all metallic elements. So, more out of necessity than choice, we've been searching for non-metal wedding bands. I came across a number of unique alternatives including Easy Bake Oven rings, antique ivory, and tattoos but nothing felt right and the quality and longevity of some of these options seemed questionable at best. Wood was something we talked about early on but didn't seem like a truly appealing option until we found Nicola and David Finch of Touch Wood Rings. The quality and look of the rings is amazing. Best of all, we found them just in time to get on the schedule for August when David will take an entire month to make ours rings to our exact specifications. Now we just need to decide what we actually want and design them. A few examples:

Unintended Uses

Originally conceived as a simple replacement to an unsightly Kwansit tarp hut, The Shed, as it has come to be called, has taken on many additional functions beyond simply shielding the tractor from the elements. Much of the design was based on the fact that the entire structure had to be built by two people - my dad and myself - with very basic tools, and to reduce as much labor and waste material as possible. Even the detail of the rafter tails with sloping V's was based on the fact that our circular saw could only cut halfway through the beam. Two cuts were required and if they weren't straight it would never line up. 

Polycarbonate roofing was intended to not only bring natural light into the space but was a labor saving decision. The plastic roofing was much easier and safer to handle and cut than traditional metal roofing. Adding clear siding restored the clear view from the front of the house to the garden. All this light made the space an ideal workshop and now the back third of the shed is an officially that, complete with concrete pavers providing a hard floor and additional benches built into the simple wood frame walls. In the summer the space is used so much that the tractor is rarely parked inside. The overhang in the back created a small porch that became a place to sit and view the garden as well as a place to keep garden tools out of the rain. 

My first attempt at creating real built architecture will now make an ideal altar for *girl's and my upcoming wedding.

Maybe we'll move the garden hose and bucket for the big event...

Man vs. Wild

When I first saw the renderings of this building I immediately thought about blowing bubbles in chocolate milk as a kid. As a designer I guess inspiration can come from anywhere and sometimes the most unexpected things yield fantastic results. I’ll let the engineer and architects describe it as it may seem like a simple concept but the execution required some serious thought….

Its structural design is based on the most effective sub-division of three-dimensional space – the fundamental arrangement of organic cells and the natural formation of soap bubbles. This naturally-occurring arrangement contributed to this seeming random generation of structure, but it is in fact a solution that is extremely repetitive and highly buildable - removing the usual architectural inspiration that defines extreme geometry in building design, thus nature beats technology.

The design of the Water Cube is derived from theoretical physics, and the steel frame that encompasses this aquatic centre is based on what is known as the Weaire-Phelan structure, which describes the most efficient way to divide space. This is in fact the same way that bubbles form in foam. Whereas soap bubbles can be divided into two shapes - three quarters of the cells have 14 sides and the remainder have twelve - the engineering solution to make the Water Cube a reality requires over a hundred different ones. However, in spite of their seeming randomness, bubbles always touch each other with a regular geometry and it is this simple fact that makes the design feasible.




This abstraction of a natural phenomenon into a geometric form gives the building a direct relationship to nature while satisfying the rationality of human thought and order. It is this thin line that some of the most exciting and groundbreaking architecture seems to be located. It is only with a scientific and analytical abstraction that we can harness the wealth of knowledge hidden in nature to create more sustainable and interesting world.

National Swimming Centre2008 OlympicsBeijing, China
By PTW CCDI and Arup

more images here

Irony & Life

*girl has been learning to cross stitch over the last week. Her first foray into the world of cross stitching is a little sign, complete with pink bunnies, that reads "IRONY IS NOT DEAD" -for the past week it read "IS" then "IS NOT" and finally last night the completed phrase.

How appropriate that we, after expressing our disdain and disgust for the act of legally binding oneself to another person and doing so in a pageant of bad taste and excess, have come to the conclusion that we're never going to find anyone else who shares those same feelings, so let's do it. What may be even more ironic is that it took our office "prom" and a few dirty martinis for either of us to admit to the other that we wanted to make it official. We will do our best to avoid the pageantry and excess, beginning with a more modest version of the rock.

We're pretty sure we are crazy, and that everyone else will agree, but I haven't been this sure about anything in a long time and I know *girl is who I want to spend my life with doing ironic and ridiculous things.

Modern for Two

I was looking at two of my favorite lounge chairs recently and had an idea that would allow *girl and I to enjoy them together. My first concept turned out to be a design that was produced but very rare.

Eero Saarinen Womb chair (1948)

the love seat version: the Womb Sette


The second concept is based on the LC4 by Le Corbusier (1928) and something that if I believe would be a very simple hack to produce a beautiful double chaise that would allow you to face each other or one direction as the seat and base are separate pieces.

LC4 by Le Corbusier (1928)
My concept

Christmas in Pixels

Living in a small apartment and traveling during the holidays leaves little opportunity for a real Christmas tree - especially when your tastes are more modern. So instead, *boy had the wonderful idea of creating an economical, low-maintenence likeness of a tree over our "hearth" (a.k.a. the huge silver radiator). We think it turned out quite nicely.

Its a post-it note pixel tree.



And beneath the tree - Chinese newspaper packages, tied up with string.



Of course *boy had it all planned out for us...



And then we both had the idea for the perfect tree topper. It just needed a little support...



Its a modern angel with wings.

Chile Corn Chowder

3 Tomatoes
1 Onion diced
2 Poblano Chiles diced
6 Tbsp Butter
5 Cups Frozen Corn, divided
2 tsp Salt
1 quart Milk
1 cup grated Monetary Jack Cheese

In a cast iron pan roast tomatoes until charred outside and soft inside. In a soup pot, saute onions and chiles in butter over low heat. Add tomatoes, 3 cups corn, salt, pepper, and milk. Bring to scalding point (when bubbles form around the edges of the pot and the milk starts to foam). Do not boil! Remove from heat and let cool. Puree in a blender or with a stick blender in the pot. Return to heat and add remaining corn. Bring to a simmer and taste for salt and pepper. Garnish with cheese and croutons. *girl and I had leftover toasted pumpkin seeds from our light fixture that matched perfectly.

Experimenting with Plastics

For a little less than a year now I have been experimenting with HOLGA – a bulky, plastic, medium format, "toy" camera from China. It is a delightful cult phenomenon which anyone who enjoys picture-taking should read much more about at this website. The joy of the HOLGA lies in the unknown. With only two real manual functions – a 4-step focal length ranging from "one person" to "mountain" and a simple light setting to distinguish "cloudy" from "sunny" – this is one camera where advanced knowledge of camera mechanics does you absolutely no good.

The manual wind is completely free moving which means that sometimes I wind too far and end up straddling frames.



Or I don't wind far enough and end up splitting frames.



Or, when I was first starting out, I would forget to wind altogether and superimpose frames.



I also forgot to remove the lens cap a time or two during that first roll (the viewfinder and the lens are not connected). I won't bother posting those shots here.

Delightful accidents happen all the time with the HOLGA. But sometimes I try to make accidents happen and end up with trash.



HOLGA is 100% plastic, lens included, which means all sorts of light seep into my exposures. Sometimes its sort of cool.



HOLGA has a mind of her own – she will focus (or not focus) on whatever she wants and cruelly crop on a whim.





But even with all these variables and amidst the inevitable blank frames and undistinguishable shots, there is also beauty in the most unexpected places.

















HOLGA has taught me its OK to let go a little, to just let things happen.
Thank you, HOLGA.