Another lovely customer became so enamored with Keith Brymer Jones pottery that she dreamed up her own personal pasta bowls. To augment her collection at home, she decided what was missing was a customized bowl perfect for pasta and the like. The word she keenly chose for such an enlisted piece of tableware was "tasty." When they arrived, albeit after several months in production and a few fits of frustration, they looked fantastic. The potter and his distributor assured me that despite the trials of customization, the delays and frustrations were things of the past. . . I wholeheartedly believe that.
And, although they were a bit smaller than we specified--I can only hope it was the potter's conversion from inches to centimeters--our customer loved them just the same. And, in fact, they inspired another bowl, deeper and wider, for hearty soups and big, fresh salads. The soon-to-be-produced bowls, with the very possessive "mine" stamp, are due to arrive in a month or so.
Keith Brymer Jones is a London-based potter. He remains one of the few potters we work with outside of the state of California. We've sold his work for several years and it continues to be perfectly suited to our customers' gift-giving tendencies and personal collections of fine, hand-thrown pottery. The other thing that impresses me is that his shipments arrive all the way from the UK (by FedEx), wherein each item is wrapped in little more than the pages of the London Times and nary a chip occurs. Pieces start at $13.50.
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July 2008
July 29, 2008
July 22, 2008
Old School Stationers : summer camp
Summer isn't quite over, so for you camping fans you can still get your camp-on. If you can't make an excursion into the great outdoors you could settle for a couple gentle and artistic reminders of camping in a bygone era. These letter-pressed wall plaques (top, 6.5in x 9.5in, $46.00) are perfectly rendered and produced by Old School Stationers of Portland, Oregon. Old School has been one of our favorite printers over that last several years. Our customers enjoy their unique flavor of whimsical illustrative style. Rich, pulpy paper provides for deep impressions leaving behind an extraordinary palette of inks. Also available are journals (below, 4.25in x 6.25in, $22.00); which offer a couple more images to reminisce over. Are the days of Polaroid cameras and pop-up campers gone forever? I, for one, hope not.
July 07, 2008
Artist: Raymond Difley
For several years now at the store we've featured the art of Raymond Difley, and it's high time I blog about him. His work is both vibrant and stark, rich and quiet. Although Raymond creates in a variety of formats, in the store we show only his smaller works. In our little space these seem more appropriate than larger pieces. He is quite comfortable doing commission work, for which he is highly sought after. I'm sure in part because beyond his amazing talent he is also a down-to-earth, easy-going person.
Raymond's paintings on mulberry paper (on wood panels) are abstract and echo light, structure, and color from the intangible intelligence of our visual world. To me, the imagery is almost fantastical and physiological. Like the flashes of shape and color when you look into a bright light and quickly look away or, in a weird way, what you see when you're eyes are closed. They are like space if it could be portrayed and the architecture of dreamscapes. The texture Raymond employs by layers of paint and strokes provide dimension. It is deliberate and effective.
I thoroughly enjoy working with Raymond. He is patient with me as I attempt to curate his work for the store. We have several pieces on display at the store including those pictured here.