more bell jars

Still musing on bell jars.  Here are two of my favourite usual uses.

This is a Tinysaur, made by Everything Tiny.  They also sell itty bitty bell jars (blown by Kiva Ford) to display your little beast in.  I love it!

I love this idea.  Taking a piece of mini mid-century modern furniture (like those by Vitra or a less pricy knockoff) and placing it under glass.  Other bell jar ideas: a Nerdbot or one (or a few) of these mini buses.

curiosities

Maybe it was seeing Sherlock Holmes four times, or perhaps the influence of visiting The Pink Palace, but I've had cabinets of curiosity on the brain lately, specifically bell jars.  All of a sudden, I can't get enough of them.

I love the idea that they're protecting something precious, but also enjoy the traditional use with flora and fauna (I'm not big on taxidermy, but don't mind fake animals--how wonderful is that little bird?).  I can definitely see myself filling a room with bell jars, big and small.  If only I had the room.  Coming by bell jars on the cheap is not terribly easy, although ebay has a fairly large selection.  You also see them in high-end garden shops (anthro has one that's designed to be a terrarium).

photo credits (from top: James Merrell (1 & 2), AT, AT, d*s, dsbrennan

art on styrofoam

Check out these fantastic little works by Cheeming Boey, done on styrofoam cups, usually with a sharpie.  See the whole collection here.

from here, via Autumn.

alma

Alma from Rodrigo Blaas on Vimeo.

My little brother, home from school, just took my laptop from me, typed a bit, then handed it back to me with this up on screen.  I love the music, the animation, and oh that gorgeous art nouveau styles.  But man, I hate dolls.

keeping up with the boneses

If you weren't already convinced of my frequently dark sense of humor, I'm going to seal the deal.  I adore this set of wall decals from Threadless by Blik.  It's called "Keeping Up With The Boneses," and I think it is perfect.

tower o' trikes

trike art in mt pleasant, originally uploaded by ustreetgirl.

I spent Sunday morning out on a photo shoot in southern VA with shutterbug Marley, and we saw a house with an old brass bed frame painted bright pink sitting in its yard. My friend Catherine saw this fantastic piece of lawn art in front of a house in Mt. Pleasant. Using junk to make lawn art has the potential to looks trashy, but when it's done well?  Hell, yes.

starck gnomes

I wasn't planning on doing a piece of the week this week because I am more stressed than I can every recall being and pretty much despise decorative arts at the moment. However, tonight was our very last lecture class in Survey of Decorative Arts, which means that I'm done with the "basic" overview. I really, really enjoyed both semesters of this class and am truly sad to see it done. So your piece of the week is the final slide we looked at tonight: Philippe Starck's gnome tables for Kartell (they each have names--I think the one on the left is Attila--but I am too bloody tired to look them up).

I can't imagine filling my house with these fellows, but just one sounds rather delightful.

elephant house end table

The piece of the week this week is not only late (midterms, sorry!), it is also truly odd. And awesome. It comes to you courtesy of Elephant House: Or, The Home of Edward Gorey by Kevin McDermott. As I've mentioned before, I'm kind of a big Edward Gorey fan. So when I spotted this book, it immediately went on my mental list of I MUST HAVE EET. I put it off, but a recent tax return convinced me to splurge a bit. It came in the mail this week and I read it immediately.I found so very much to love in Gorey's home (from the collection of finials to the hidden room to the 25,000 books), but this table took the cake. I'm sure you're thinking that it resembles something other than a table, yes? Well, when Gorey first moved into the house in Yarmouth, MA, he discovered an upstairs toilet with a decidedly pachedermal shape. He got rid of the bathroom, but couldn't part with the toilet, so, naturally, he turned it into an end table. It is also most likely the thing which gave the house its name, Elephant House.

Hope your week was amazing and the weekend even more so!

ps: be sure to pipe up if you've been the Cape May!

b-b-b-buttons?

Oh yeah, have I mentioned how much I loved Coraline? I saw it last Friday in 3-D (d...d....d...d...) (I always feel that 3-D should automatically come with a dramatic echo), and it was wonderful. If you and your honey (or any other companion, for that matter) are casting about for ideas this weekend, I highly recommend seeing this film. It is not from Tim Burton (not that there's anything wrong with him), and it is fantastic. Kudos to Henry Selick and Laika for making this film a success, and to Neil Gaiman for thinking the whole thing up to begin with (he won the Newberry, you know)!

It occurs to me that this post does not make that much sense. There are far too many parentheses, for one thing. Forgive me, it's late and I've been staring at my C.V. for far too long. Bottom line: see the film. (IN 3-D!!)

hourly

So this may have been the worst idea ever (well not ever), but this morning, after learning my class today was canceled and seeing so many wonderful hourly comics, I decided to try one. I actually had a fairly unusual day (for me) yesterday, so I went with that. I know this isn't very good, but at least none of it is lies. Click on each to see it larger.

There's a lot I don't like about them, mostly stemming from the fact that I'm not an artist. It's all in pencil because I wasn't sure I'd even make it to noon, much less finish the day (and I did wimp out at the end), and you can tell how nervous I was about attempting to draw myself as I put it off for as long as possible. Anyway, gripe gripe, I did something I've never done before, and I think that's pretty cool!

the duck refused medical treatment

Some Thursday humor. I came across this website of funny police blotter excerpts in my research at work and decided I should share. Here's a small taste:

nerdbots are go

Meet the Nerdbots, my new best friends and--what the heck, let's make 'em the piece of the week. Found object sculpture is always awesome. Here we have Klorg, Lewyt, and Nodaway. Oh, if only I were rich man (metaphorically speaking, that is) and not a poor, poor student...imagine the vast armies I would build. Via swissmiss.

whaddaya want

That is the most awesomely angry dog ever. Photo by Jacqueline Veissid via the blog All Things Bright and Beautiful, which appears to have mysteriously disappeared.

and this is why inflatable sculptures of poo are a bad idea

When I was a kid, a local car dealership had this giant Betty Boop balloon as a promotion for something. Well, one day Betty demanded freedom and the balloon simply drifted away. For weeks afterward there were frequent Betty Boop sightings and she caused some trouble for local airports. For my brother and me, keeping an eye out for the giant flying Betty Boop was just another way to alleviate boredom while in the car.

The inflatable sculpture that recently flew away from its moorings in Switzerland is a different animal altogether.

“A giant inflatable dog turd by American artist Paul McCarthy blew away from an exhibition in the garden of a Swiss museum, bringing down a power line and breaking a greenhouse window before it landed again, the museum said Monday.

The art work, titled “Complex S(expletive..)”, is the size of a house. The wind carried it 200 metres (yards) from the Paul Klee Centre in Berne before it fell back to Earth in the grounds of a children’s home, said museum director Juri Steiner.”

Quote from here, via the Flickr blog.

I challenge you

to look at this and not laugh.That duck is objecting. From a series by Catherine Ledner via beachbungalow8.

shovels

One thing that I've seen repeatedly in my recent magazine and internet wanderings is the use of old shovels and other yard work ephemera as decor. I can't locate one striking image I saw of shovels hung on a slant up a stairway wall, but the above image gives the same idea. The below images are of two collections available at Lost Found Art.There's also the artwork of Cal Lane, which presents the same idea with a bit of a twist.

rockin'

One of the recurring design themes this summer seems to be bringing the outside in. I've got no beef with that, I love the outdoors, I love being indoors, let's combine! Mostly this shows itself in various kinds of greenery (am I the only one not growing succulents in my shower?). But why not other outdoor things? Ronel Jordaan makes these fantastic rocks (well, very large pebbles) out of wool felt. I love 'em!You can get an idea of interior scale from Jennifer Carpenter's home as seen in the recent O At Home. If you don't have room for those big guys, Jordaan also makes smaller cusions or, my favourite, a pebble rug resembling a creek or riverbed.via poppytalk

odd little globes

Walter Martin and Paloma Muñoz create these wonderful snowglobes featuring sad little scenes. On the one hand, they're a little dark, but on the other, the lonely little folk within them make me want nothing more than to bundle them up and take them home with me. I'm sure they've all got incredible stories to tell.via Fabulist (and I think that link has the artists' site running slow, Googling works just as well)