more stained glass.....

I love stained glass and can't figure out why the stained glass that shows up in front doors and other places today is usually so cheesy looking.  A few years ago my friend Deb easily talked me into taking a stained glass class with her at the Eliot School, a fantastic place in Jamaica Plain that offers classes in Fine Arts and Crafts.  This is the window i made for my guest bathroom.  Supplies were obtained at a shop in Brookline called Stained Glass Works.  The process was surprisingly easy with relatively modest equipment needs (soldering iron, glass cutter, and a few specialized hand tools).  In fact, Old House Journal has a great article this month (on web here) on how to repair stained glass---just skip first three steps and it is a how-to-make-a-stained glass window article.

Life imitates Art, or Art imitates Life?

Prosperpine, Dante Gabriel Rossetti, 1874, modeled by Jane Burden

Yesterday's post reminded me of a book I read in the mid-90s called Pre-Raphaelites in Love by Gay Daly.  This book was such an eye-opener.  Both the front and back inside covers of my copy are filled with notes about who loved whom, who was married to whom, who lusted after whom, etc.  It was fascinating reading.   William Morris's personal life was no exception.  Morris fell in love with a stablehand's daughter named Jane Burden, who had been discovered by, and modeled for, Dante Gabriel Rossetti, who was a founding member of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood and one of Morris's best friends.  Morris and Jane married but for many years Jane carried on an affair with Rossetti, with Rossetti even living in their home with them for a number of years.  All very unvictorian I would say.

This painting "The Tree of Forgiveness" by Edward Burne-Jones is on the hardcover edition of Daly's book.  The original is at the Lady Lever Gallery in Liverpool, England.  From their web site:

"After the conquest of Troy, Demophoön stayed at the Thracian court where Phyllis, the king’s daughter, fell in love with him. They agreed to marry but he had first to return to Attica. He delayed there so long that Phyllis doubted he would ever return and killed herself. The gods turned her into an almond tree which here the penitent Demophoön is embracing, to find the tree suddenly blossoming and Phyllis reappearing to him.  As so often with Burne-Jones, violent sexual passions — love, betrayal, remorse and forgiveness — are visualised within the context of myth and within an abstract linear design of great sophistication. This greatly enhances the expressive power of the story’s climax."

While Burne-Jones carried on a passionate affair with his greek model Maria Zambaco, his wife Georgiana found solace in the company of family friend William Morris.  It is speculated that they too may have had an affair.

Sex and drugs and paints and easels....

Wow! Imagine my excitement upon discovering that the BBC has a new mini-series on the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood called Desperate Romantics (see also here).  I've already ordered the bookfrom Amazon and can't wait till the DVD comes across the pond.

Third big weekend with deck

Still not done but far enough along to envision the first cocktail party.  I made a  key strategic move last week and hired a contractor to shingle the corner posts.  This past weekend, way too much time was spent dicking around with the stair stringers, some of which were slightly different even though they are all "factory-cut".  The silver lining of this cloud?.....an excuse to buy a belt sander :-)

William Morris meets Adams Family mansion....

Happy Halloween!  I love this wallpaper called Elysian Fields from Flavor Paper......."paradise waits in these immortal fields of bliss."  It is completely in the William Morris style with intertwining flowers and winged creatures (of course WM typically used birds)---here it is bats and carnivorous plants.  I'm trying to think of where I would use this paper---it would have to be a guest bathroom, maybe over dark charcoal beadboard wainscoating.  Plus, at $150 a roll, you'd go broke doing a real size room.   I can't believe the designer Dan Funderburgh was not  thinking about Morris when he designed this paper.  His web site describes his work as "a repudiation of the fabricated schism between art and decoration".  WM would approve.

Flavor Paper also sells another paper they call "Kabloom" that is a copy of J. H. Dearle's famous paper "Seaweed" (1901) in cool modern colorways.   be still my heart.....
 

William Morris stained glass

Wm Morris stained glass in Walthamstow (this beautiful photo, by Barry Lemmings, can be found here)

A sketch by Wm Morris for a stained glass (Tate Gallery, London)

 Some simpler designs by Wm Morris (above, detail from his home Red House; below, detail of panel in Victorian and Albert Museum, London).  "Si je puis" or "If I can" (on window above) was Wm Morris's motto.

More of his incredible glass work can be seen here:

http://www.stainedglassphotography.com/Galleries/Morris/Morris1.htm

You're never too young to learn how to use a crowbar

Thanks to kate and charlotte for pulling nails out of the old floorboards---they will be recycled into a fence in my neighbor jay's back yard.

The deck progressing....

The last two weekends had pretty crap weather but i've gotten in about 2 more days of work on deck.  Using the lumber from the old deck the corners were framed in (these will eventually be shingled) as well as the lower sides (to provide nailing surface for trim boards).  The corners were also clad with exterior-grade plywood.  The mahogany decking was sealed with a product called Penofin Penetrating Oil Finish and a cement pad poured for the bottom of the stair stringers to rest on.  With the help of a small assembly line of my brother Dan, sister-in-law Jodi, and my dad we cut the diamond design in the side rails (to match front of house) and started filling in the sides.  Can't wait to find another sunny day to do more but, in the meantime, back to my day job....

350.org International Day of Climate Action

http://www.350.org/

Think local.....

I'm sure if Wm Morris were alive today he would be all over the modern locavore movement.   He would undoubtedly be in communications with Micheal Pollan, author of  The Omnivore's Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals, the best book about food i've ever read.  In the late 19th century, Morris and his colleagues led an analogous revolution in architecture.  "It is not until we get back to the work of the earlier builders that our hearts are touched and thrilled by the strange charm of the building art as then practiced," wrote M.H. Baillie Scott.  Scott and his colleagues, including Voysey, Webb, and Morris, "chose to make their buildings from indigenous materials and strove above all to follow local traditions" (P. Todd, The Arts and Craft Companion, 2004).  And from E.P. Thompson's biography of Wm. Morris, "To-day Red House may no longer excite wonder: but in its time it was revolutionary in its unashamed use of red brick, its solid, undisguised construction, and absence of fussy facades and unfunctional ornamentation."

I send kisses and love, my littles....

Sidewalk owl, Bremen

This little owl was randomly stuck in the sidewalk at the university in Bremen.   Cute.

Falling Water, PA

"All artists love and honor William Morris" --- Frank Lloyd Wright

Clay pots - Alhambra, Spain and my porch

Clay pots---classic, simple.  Plants all moved inside last night...snow today.  Not looking good for deck carpentry tomorrow.

Morris patterns: Compton, Snakehead, Pomegranate

Rebuilding deck, part 2

deck with new corner posts and mahogany decking (bought on craig's list).  two people, a nail gun, and a chop saw.  later in project i will use a circular saw to cut the edges on sides the same length.

Rebuilding the world's ugliest deck

This is the back deck of my house which probably dates to the seventies.  That's right, there are no steps to the yard!  When my kids were younger we had a slide from the deck to grass.  Yesterday, i used a hand sledge to knock all the railings off, used my sawzall to saw off posts and lag screws, then pulled up all the decking.  The framing is sturdy and today i added blocking between joists (cut from pulled up decking) and dug two holes at outer corners which were filled with gravel and cement.   Tomorrow i'll put a prefab cement footing from home depot in each hole and add two more vertical posts which will tie into framing at corners.  Here is deck after a few hours of demolition:

Thanks to my neighbor Jay and houseguest Mick for help!

William Kamkwamba, extreme DIYer

Wm Morris was a champion of the handmade.  He was also an influential socialist who fought on behalf of the working classes.   He would embrace this William!  William Kamkwamba of Malawi just published an amazing book about his life called "The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind".

My Wm Morris Quilt

 

 

I used Wm Morris print cotton to make this "strip" quilt.  Really easy pattern and relatively quick (for a quilt) as you can cut and sew long triple and quadruple strips together before cutting them to patchwork length and sewing them together.  There are a few places to get these Morris cottons on web (for instance, The Quilted Fox, Old Trinity Schoolhouse Quilt Shop, or barbarabrackman.com).  I used a navy blue flat sheet for backing, added some batting between, then "stitched-in-the-ditch" to pull it all together.  The homemade headboard was copied from a similar headboard in the Stickley-Audi furniture store and is made out of cherry and mahogany.

gold and brickwork, Böttcherstrasse, Bremen

 I love all the gold touches on the Bottcherstrasse in Bremen.