friendship bracelets

started working on some plastic bag braids last night, to be made into friendship-type bracelets. thinking of mixing the strands in with some chain and metal work.

feeling graphic-y

hey, you might have noticed some janky behavior on my home page's slide show. sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't. I decided to go back to a static image and started working on it last night. here it is so far...

Mr. Bookshelf

posted by "and friend"

Mollie's constant emphasis on recycling is having an impact on me.

A few days ago the neighbors put some 30" pine boards in the trash - old Ikea detritus. I grabbed them.

While making tree branch sculptures in the back yard (from an old dead tree I sawed to bits), I took some time to glue n' screw together a book shelf from as few pieces as possible.

It took 3 of the planks to make a shelf: One for the back, one for the side and the 3rd plank jigsawed into diagonals for the books to rest on.

I designed it to mount at an angle on the wall so the books self-right themselves into place.

Not sure if the 3 drywall anchors I used are enough to hold it, but here it is with 48 pounds of books piled on.


For wall anchoring with very little back side clearance, I recommend Triple-Grip anchors from Cobra Anchor Corp.

onward and upward

This week b and I took several trips to the storage unit (it's called treasure island) in order to make this (smaller than the last one) apartment more manageable. my idea was to store anything non essential- books and tchochkes, excess kitchen equipment, along with the furniture that we couldn't fit through the front door. the place is slowly but surely coming along. b turned the g4 tower we had rescued from a bed-stuy sidewalk into a file and print server, requesting that I return from my manhattan appointment last week with a new monitor. we have two desks facing the front and the only two light-emitting windows, (second desk also salvaged from the trash) and they were cleared off in time to schedule a work day with Felecia. The pieces I had her work on continue in a similar vein to what I've been doing, but I'm yearning to create something new.

So I plan on devoting some time to playing. Playing is the way to come up with new designs for me. Pull out the materials, see what's hiding in there that I haven't considered for a while, think about new shapes, and be inspired by some of the newer pieces I've acquired.

Being inspired for me also involves purging and moving things along. try as I might to make my etsy shop a go, sales have been dead and I'm finally over it. Red Hook seems like it would be a great neighborhood in which to set up a table and sell stuff. We've been putting out a "free box" in front of the apartment and every last item has disappeared- so that means good food traffic. Can't wait to set up and free myself of some of the lower-priced vintage and excess materials.

So we were treated to free tickets for the Architectural Digest Home Design Show this weekend. by a great design couple I've only met through email conversations! I'm going to jump into the shower now and see if b wants to go today.

be sure to get out in the nice weather this weekend, people!

pleasant wayne

Actress and environmental activist Pleasant Wayne loves to wear eco-friendly designs. Here she is at an Oscar event, wearing a necklace I made for her. It does look great on her, huh? (clicky for a larger view)

new apartment, new neighborhood

february was incredibly busy for us. after returning from florida, we had 3.5 weeks to find an apartment, pack up and move. I had finally had it with our super, our landlord and bed-stuy in general, and convinced b it was time to get out of there. granted we were giving up cheap rent, lots of space, sky-high ceilings and 10 foot windows. but seriously. the lack of a decent grocery store was starting to get to us. so we conducted the craigslist hunt and ended up in red hook. it's not a neighborhood I ever thought I'd find myself in- a bit off the beaten path. but come to find out that despite the neighborhood's lack of train service, it's ridiculously close to all the other good neighborhoods. and tiny as red hook is, we have nearly everything we need just a few steps from our door. plus it's this really cool, old port neighborhood- I can hear fog horns as I write this.

so the selling point on the apartment we took is its back yard. yay-oh-yay, we have a back yard to play with. the weather suddenly turned beautiful on sunday and I couldn't resist getting out there to clean up. I love picking through an old garden and seeing what's there. the landlord is letting us keep whatever we want, and he's picking up the rest of the junk on saturday.










see that? it's a lavender bush!!!


weird little clump of grass on its own.