Babe's house

I walked into Babe's house this morning with bags of pillows to install in the window seat in her bedroom. Walking through the kitchen I did a cartoon double take at this jacket handing from the cabinet handle. Unbelievable!! I made this jacket 35 years ago when I was living in Aspen. Where she found the jacket and how long she has owned it, I have yet to hear the story.

This pair of alabaster lamps are in Babe's dining room. The fabric is a pale blue, ribbed silk and the trim is vintage with semi-precious stones decorating the bottom edge. The trim at the top is folded and pleated grosgrain ribbon with tiny covered buttons.

This is one of Babe's pottery lamps that lights a bookshelf in the living room. The fabric is a plain silk with more than a few trim choices.

One of my rock lamps in the living room.

The designer, Mary Hansen found this mirror and had it built into a sconce which is hanging in the stairwell. I made the 2 little square shades with an embroidered sheer fabric and decorated with vintage trim and semi-precious stones.

This lamp shade is one of my signature shapes. I love to make the borders with a contrasting fabric shirred as it allows the light to play through the pleats. The fabric is an embroidered silk from Cowtan & Tout. The trim is vintage. The dog is "Moose"

Sconces in the bathroom

Mary found this brass object and had our friend Stephan at "Landbridge Lighting" build and wire the sconce. I made the shade with 2 colors of plain silk and I sewed some little beads on the vintage trim.

This is the latest project, I installed this morning in the window seat in Babe's bedroom. The quilted mattress is down filled and soft as a cloud. The aqua floral fabric on the pillows is Colony by Scalamandre.

Natalie's Lamps

Natalie and David brought me this suite of vintage chalkware lamps a few months ago. They had been in storage for a decade and were in bad shape. The plaster was broken and cracked and the floor lamp was missing some huge chunks. The glass on one of the table lamps was missing.

My friends Stephen and Jesse at Landbridge Lighting are masters when it comes to this kind of repair work. You can see their work at http://www.landbridgelighting.com

They found glass to match and had new pieces cut, did all the repair and repainted all three lamps. They are as good as new now and rewired.

I made the lampshades with a woven, off white fabric by Braquenie.

Fire pit

We have a yearly tradition here to open our home for a house party for Romie and Hess. Our kids have their birthdays 5 days apart in mid december and the occasion of their birthdays is always wildly fun. This year we decided that since the winter party is so well attended that we would create a new summer celebration.

In preparation for this event, 2 months ago we began the front yard transformation from a stinky pond to outdoor patio and fire pit. What a big job it turned out to be, good thing we allowed ourselves plenty of time.

The party is next saturday and we're getting down to the wire so Hess came to help yesterday with the brick laying. The project is not completely finished, but here are a few photos of the transformation.

Chris will finish the benches in a few days and I'll post new photos of the patio full of friends next week.

Pillows

If you are reading this blog and you arrived here by way of googling "Custom Lampshades" you're probably wondering "what the............????"

This a a house of many projects. I have the sewing studio here where I make lampshades and also all kinds of soft goods, cushions and pillows, slipcovers and table coverings. My clay room is upstairs and the kiln is downstairs. The whole first floor, about 1200 square feet is the woodworking shop where Chris builds cabinets and furniture.

But today I'm going through my photo archives to post pillow pictures. Working as a seamstress for 45 years, I've accumulated a fairly large collection of fabrics and trims. I've noticed that there are other lampshade makers who also make pillows. They seem to go hand in hand, small items that can be made with the tiniest amount of fabric and trim. Both can have a huge affect on the beauty and comfort of a well designed room.

Often a client will provide me with fabric left from their interior project, extra fabric from upholstery or window treatments, or perhaps textiles collected in travels. These I'll use with pieces from my collection to fabricate an assortment of pillows or cushions.

The Elusive Horse Continued

I had planned to photograph this horse every morning before I started a new day of work on him. But the last week has been a quick one and I haven't been able to stop to pick up the camera. I'm flying out of bed almost predawn to make my coffee and run to the studio without my requisite hour of reading. He's finished and I like him.

Till this month all the ceramic work I've done has been to make lamps. My friend Mary was here last week and looked at my whole new group of animals and suggested that I move away from focus on making lamps and allow them to stand alone as sculpture.

This thought has been in my mind also.

The Elusive Horse Figure

Ever since the very beginning of my clay education the horse figure has been one of my favorite subjects and the most difficult to execute. I don't know horses at all so I've had to rely on photos and pictures I've found in books. A horse has a big, heavy body and really long skinny legs. The way I was taught in pottery class to make this figure was with an armature. Every time that I've attempted this, I end up with an animal with short legs because as I'm working the clay slumps and slumps till at the end the legs are stumps.

So, this time I'm trying a new way of building. Instead of using an armature, I'm making the body out of slabs and the legs separate which I'm drying to leather hard and then attaching. This figure is not finished yet, but the following pictures show the progression for 5 days of work. For the next week I'll be continuing to carve the legs and add the details, but I like the form so far.

I know my figures will never achieve realism so I'm aiming for a stylized look.

I'll post more photos of this figure when it's finished.

Joni's House

My friend Joni has a house full of pattern and color. We've been making projects together for several years. I've done lots of cushions and pillows and slipcovers for her as well as the lampshades in these photographs. We went to Paris together and found lots of fabrics and trims that we used here.