Bauhaus Style

One of the most influential schools of art and design, The Bauhaus, involved everything from furniture to design to textiles, from ceramics to painting. The Bauhaus thrived in post WW I Germany, and was shut down by the Nazis in 1933. Credited with the flourishing of modernism, the Bauhaus attracted such greats of the early 20th-century as Vassily Kandinsky, Paul Klee, and Mies van der Rohe.

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Coal, just in time for Christmas

The last time I visited the DWR Tools for Living Store, I was instantly smitten with their collection of natural coal purifiers from designer Louise Vilsgaard. These black pieces of "white charcoal" made from Korean oak come in a variety of forms and can be used to purify your water, deodorize your refrigerator, or simply left en plein air to purify your whole living space.

Simple, elegant, utilitarian - oh yes, I think this is the first time I have ever wanted coal for Christmas!

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I Want One: Time in A Bottle

How do we measure the passage of time? Digital numbers changing, hands on a clock turning, shadow on a sundial?

How about ink spilling forth from a bottle?

Get a load of this "Ink Calendar" by Oscar Diaz. He is really one of the most inventive, interesting designer/artists we've encountered lately. He's in London.

Here is his own explanation of it, from his website:

"The ink is absorbed slowly, and the numbers in the calendar are "printed" daily. One a day, they are filled with ink until the end of the month. A calendar self-updated, which enhances the perception of time passing and not only signaling it.

The ink colors are based on a spectrum, which relate to a “color temperature scale”, each month having a color related to our perception of the weather on that month. The colors range from dark blue in December to, three shades of green in spring or oranges, red in the summer.

The scale for measuring the “color temperature” that I have used is a standard called ‘D65’ and corresponds roughly to a midday sun in Western / Northern Europe.

The "Ink Calendar" was developed for “Gradual “, an exhibition featuring works, which were evolving during the exhibition time at the London Design Festival 2007."

See more of his very cool work here: http://www.oscar-diaz.net/

My Big Fat Front Hall, Part Eight

I finally buckled down and cleared off the bookcase and did some organizing. Wow. This took me about an hour, to take the books off the shelves and find another place for them, clean out two of the drawers in the cabinet, and find the two dark wicker baskets which were not serving much of a purpose elsewhere in the apartment.

One of these baskets will be designated for “general small stuff” like the bag of coins I’m meaning to take to the bank and get magically made into money or the disappointing book that has to go back to the library. The other basket is for mail---both outgoing and incoming.

Here's the bookshelf, before and after:

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My Big Fat Front Hall, Part Seven

I found the drawer pulls! Online, at a place called House of Antique Hardware, which, by the way, also has all kinds of old-fashioned door knobs and door hardware, those little things that people used to make so they'd be pretty as well as practical.

So, I may be able to Save the Cabinet after all. (And save, really, 1500 bucks by not buying the gorgeous thing from Urban Oasis.)

They’re lovely, old-fashioned glass, and come in pretty colors, and they're like $3 or $4 bucks a piece. I think one of the blues, the green or maybe the red. I think any of these would look great with the wall paper from Stroheim & Romann.

I would love to hear readers' opinions. Here's the cabinet again

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