Weird Things

When I go to Marfa, Texas, I make weird things.  I show up at my little adobe house, unload my tools, and dive into my lumber collection.  I have brought to Marfa old redwood panels from my wife's childhood home, doors, windows, plywood, 2x4s, etc. from California.  Now I have a nice little clutch of materials to choose from when I need to make a weird thing.  What is a weird thing?  A weird thing is a piece of furniture that addresses a specific need in the house, made of lumber I have on site, and built in under an hour using nothing more than a skilsaw and an electric drill/driver. (There may or may not have been a router, planer, or sander used on some of them, but mostly its the drill and saw).  It is all certifiable Chop 'N' Screw Domestic Solutions.  Weird Things:

 

 Extra weird thing.  So weird Danielle had to paint it white to tone it down a little.  That horse head is an unfinished half scale carousel animal.  I come from a long line of carousel builders; my great great grand uncle brought the first carousel to the USA (more here).   Sometimes I have to save things from the burn pile at my grandma's house, like wooden horse heads.  Weird.

My First Sony

This is the first custom piece I did in Paris.  It is a wall mounted box closet for Imelda and Francesca, two wonderful people.  When I made this, I tested and proved to myself that in small apartments, big furniture feels significantly less imposing if you lift it off the ground.  I have since mounted a few more things to the walls of Parisian apartments (coming soon to this blog).  This room also houses a couple pieces by Nathaniel Russell.  Good company, all around.

Light Green Leaves

Life triumphs over long distance travel!

I brought a couple of sprouted acorns back to France (smuggled in my toiletries bag) from my mother's backyard in Santa Barbara, Ca.  I think they're Valley Oaks, but I'll have to double check (I know the tree from which they fell, and as the saying goes, it was not far). The original leaves withered as the trauma set in. Then, after some time in the sun in some fresh, moist soil and many encouraging words, a pair of soft, fresh, spiny leaves unfurled.

Bou!

There is a new show up at Galerie Kreo in Paris showing new works by Ronan and Erwan Bouroullec.  I did a lot of work at UFACTO on prototyping and fabricating the wall mounted lamps and the shelves.  They are both made of molded fiberglass with immense attention paid to the finishes: the lamps are a glossy piano black; the shelves are a grainy, felty, matt charcoal grey.  If you are in Paris go by the gallery and check it out.  I'm very proud to have had a hand in this show.  Not only is Erwan a friend, he is, alongside his brother, one of the most creative and tasteful designers working today.  More here, and here.

Parabolic Pink

I made a couple of these lamps last week at UFACTO.  Named "Parabola" and designed by Pierre Charpin, these pieces are made at UFACTO for Galerie Kreo.  Kreo represents a smattering of high-level designers, mostly from France, and produces pieces that would usually be impossible to fabricate in a large-volume, industrial manner.  This means that the pieces designed for Kreo are usually both quite large (the Parabola stands about 7.5 feet tall, and requires at least that much free wall space to hang) and quite expensive (six digits, in Euros).  Kreo consistently has these pieces, especially the molded fiberglass ones, made at UFACTO.  Each piece is produced in an edition of 12, and sometimes just 1.

The bell is made of two separate fiberglass shells, glued together at the outer edge and at the center.  Quite flexible when separate, the bell stiffens up considerably when both pieces are fixed to each other.  

You might not be able to tell from the image of the finished lamp, but the bell and the stand are not attached.  Rather, the bell, or shade, is fixed to the wall and the bulb stand is stationed in front of it.   Fun fact: the shade of pink was chosen by Charpin to match a faded t-shirt he was wearing while going over the fabrication with David Toppani (master craftsman of UFACTO).  The rosy reflected light is beautiful in person.

Half Pint

I was over at a friend's house the other night for dinner and ended up installing some curtains.  To do the job, I was presented with this charming little chickadee.  I want one.

They All Lived In There

Can someone tell Ringo to move his "ride"?  It's blocking the delivery truck.