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Pens are a simple source of great pleasure for anyone who likes to make marks on paper.
Above set of six seen here
Above Cross pen can be viewed long and up close here
That’s an Alibi pen up there. Strictly for getting yourself out of hot water. Go here
Of course there’s a Fountain Pen Network, see here
And of course there is a Pen Addict.com right here
This one above has a see through tank, for ink voyeurs. At His Nibs, here
Cobalt blue, Levenger True Writer, circa about 1995 at fountain of pens here.
This is a Pelican, 75th anniversary, coveted, here.
And another pelican, at the Pen Hero
If you love pens or even the idea of making a mark with metal and ink on paper, we hope you have a great pen shop in your town, like this one in Vancouver seen here
And Art Brown’s in New York, image from here.
Ink up.
When the weather is warm and dry, lots of us get it into our heads to find a spot in the wilderness, set up camp, build a fire, and get closer to the natural world. Just for a few days. As did the folks above spotted here.
Here’s a family group on a spot in the wilderness that happened to have a mowed lawn. They seem happy enough, even in black and white, seen here.
This man, in his TRAILER for TWO is well off the beaten track and looks ready for anything. In particular he is ready for someone to join him to make it a trailer for two. Found here.
Now here we have an open trailer in the urban wilderness , nicely decorated and outfitted to tempt even the most reluctant camper. Found at design vagabond, from this source
But to some, trailers do NOT represent true camping. Authentic campers, like this above, choose canvas for their home away from home. These two are camping near Ayers Rock in the middle of nowhere, central Australia. Discovered here.
Well this nice campsite for tenters above is in the middle of somewhere, not exactly sure where, in the wilder part of England. Found here
Now that, above, looks to us like the real, wilderness (well, with well groomed tentsites) camping. At a place called Juniper Ridge, more here.
And if you can find a spot next to the ocean, you’ll find you sleep better–so long as your tent is above high tide. This above is Hawaii, the Kalalau Trail, found here.
This dry wilderness is not all that far from Las Vegas Nevada, in a place called Big Springs, in Paria Canyon, Southern Nevada. Seen here.
Above is camping in Spain. SPAIN!!! Wow, seen here.
This is…somewhere nice enough to inspire you to rearrange your life, for the better, in the glow of the tent in the middle of that landscape. Happy. Camping.
Seen here
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John Pawson is an architect who designs buildings and spaces that are as quietly beautiful as you are likely to see, whether you are a shopper at Calvin Klein or a Cistercian Monk at Novy Dvur in the Bohemia area of the Czech Republic shown above. Two photos by Ståle Eriksen.
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He does a nice job of people’s homes, as well. Above known as North Sea Apartment
photo by Friederike von Rauch. All images from John Pawson’s website http://www.johnpawson.com/home
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Another lovely place to live would be the Van Royen Apartment, above, photo by Ian Dobbie.
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Mr Pawson designed his own house in London 1999, photo above by Todd Eberle again.
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But he didn’t just sit back and enjoy it. This house above known as Tetsuka is in Tokyo. Photo Edmund Sumner
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And then the Neuendorf family got this house in Majorca.
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Houses need tables and this American Cherrywood table was designed by John P for Driade.
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Closer to his home, he was asked to design a walkway across a lake at Kew Gardens.
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So he did, and it is very very nice. Photo Richard Davies
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John Pawson has produced a number of books to spread the word about the sweetness of pared down architecture and design. We agree that such places–when designed by someone with humanity as well as aesthetic purity, like Mr P–allow for a deeper, more rewarding experience . His book Minimum is full of such places, large and small.
For me, the work of Donald Judd has a deep emotional impact that is hard to account for since he made, mostly, groups of pristine objects with the simplest shapes possible. Donald Judd was born in 1928 in Excelsior Springs, Missouri and died in 1994 in New York. Exhibit above is on permanent display at the Chinati Foundation in Marfa, Texas. Image seen here.
Above is slightly different angle of this piece, called “100 untitled works in mill aluminum“. They are installed in two former artillery sheds. Pic from here.
Above is from here. The piece is known as ” real materials existing in real space “.
A variation on the same idea, done in brass in 1965, and seen here
Multi colour, from 1993, up for auction in 2006 for an estimated $2 t0 $3 million. Seen here.
In red, and horizontal, from 1974, it is one of the 35 works put on view at the Simon & Schuster Building in Manhattan that the Judd Foundation was selling in 2006. Story from the NY Times here
One of a series known as Progressions.
After having achieved success as an artist working from a studio in New York, Judd chose to make Marfa Texas his home in 1972. He lived and worked there until he died, purchasing 34o acres of land that was once a military base that he transformed into one of North America’s must-see places for people who love looking at wonderful manmade things. The town is located in south-west Texas on the road from San Antonio to El Paso and is situated on a high plateau of the Chihuahuan Desert. Pop is 2400. (Pop NYC: 8.3 million)
Marfa changed during the time of Donald Judd’s residence there, and it continues to change. Above pic from a blog called How Judd Gentrified Marfa, found here.
The Prada Marfa did open, but not as an expensive store. It is an art installation (“an experimental art installation, with unopenable door, housing 6 handbags and a gaggle of left-foot heels…god bless you, Marfa”.) Pic from here.
The land, buildings, and much of the work Judd created in Marfa is now managed by the Chinati Foundation.
Marfa’s a long way away from most places, and you might not want to make the trip. You can find a piece or two of Donald Judd’s work in galleries all over, like the MOMA and the Guggenheim in NYC. And someone did make a movie called Donald Judd’s Marfa Texas that you might be able to track down.
For me, like a lot of things, I’m just going to have to put it on the list of Things to do Before You Go Blind. Though somehow I think even a blind person would feel the message of Marfa, not that you could ever hope to explain it.
Glassware is something everyone uses, mostly without much thought. Luckily, some designers do our thinking for us. The above lovely glass from Vancouver’s own, Molo Design.
Above wine glass also from Molo, the series is called float, and it has won plenty of awards as well as happy customers. Images seen at inhabitat, here.
These eye-catching beauties spotted by boing boing, godblessem. They are the work of Dutch designer AMT who say “all glasses have the same outer shape, but pour in a drink and the glass’s inner identity appears.” seen here.
These above are for your most sophisticated friends, from here.
Nice double wall glassware from Bodum, spotted here.
These look a bit like an award for outstanding performance, called Bric, from here.
Anything with a Fornasetti image looks good to me. These spotted by katy elliott
Aw, just look at that sweet stack o’ glass. From the always just so, Moss of NY, here.
The above 4 coloured glass cups were done by a Brazilian textile designer named Patricia Miranda. Spotted here. Her blog is here: Patricia Miranda.
InsideOut glasses for your bubbly, another from Dutch designer alissia-melka-teichroew (AMT) Double-walled glass keeps your champagne cold for much longer. Worth having something to celebrate, I’d say. Seen here
I’ll give the last glassful to our local designers, Molo. Now that’s a stylin’ martini.
