H. H. Richardson meets book artist Angela Liguori

click to enlarge

 

Two nights ago I went to a "trunk show" hosted by artist Susy Pilgrim Waters that showcased the work of numerous talented local (Boston area) artists.  I particularly liked the work of book artist Angela Liguori, a Roman who creates beautiful pieces with paper, ink and binding.  I bought some cards made with vintage stamps featuring H. H. Richardson (see posts here and here) and another 19th century architectural star, Frank Furness.

Here are a few more examples of Angela's work from her website.

 

Angela also had an incredible collection of beautifully textured and colored ribbon, tapes, and twine for sale that she imports from Italy.  While talking with her I discovered she wrote the guide to Rome on Design*Sponge that I had coincidentally printed out months earlier (it lists artist supply and fabric shops in Rome).

Finally, here's a link to Angela's Etsy shop.

 

Stairway to heaven...

My friend and artist Julia Talcott brought me to an amazing store last Sunday---descend into the basement of 580 Mass Ave., Cambridge, and find an arts and craft paradise!

Artist & Craftsman Supply
Central Square
580 Massachusetts Avenue
Cambridge, MA 02139
(617) 354-3636
www.artistcraftsman.com

William De Morgan in burgundy

It has been said that no William Morris interior would be complete without the ceramics of his friend William De Morgan.

 

One of the largest private collections of Pre-Raphaelite art in the world is held by Andrew Lloyd Webber.  In 2003, the Royal Academy of Arts, London, mounted an exhibition of his collection which included many items from the Decorative and Applied Arts (I'm not sure why I capitalized those words).  The pics above are taken from a beautiful book that was published to accompany the exhibit "Pre-Raphaelite and Other Masters - The Andrew Lloyd Webber Collection".

An earlier post on De Morgan ceramics can be found here.

William Morris in real life -- "Compton" wallpaper

"Compton" was designed by John Henry Deale for Morris and Co. in 1896, the year of William Morris's death.  Upon Morris's death Deale was appointed Art Director of Morris & Co. 

Ceiling plastered and painted, floors refinished, paint stripped off bricks on fireplace, woodwork given a good cleaning, wallpaper.

"Stonehurst - An America Masterwork"

On the left side you can see the Japanese family crests that are stenciled on the walls of the great room.  Apparently Richardson had done this in his office/study and the Paines liked the look.  I like it too--there are dozens and dozens of designs that you download in traceable pdf format here--future project!

The Egyptian screen that provided obvious inspiration for so many of the carved oak "screens" around the house (that can be seen in different places in all of the above pictures).

 

 William Morris's "Marigold" wallpaper in the master bedroom.  They bought it at the same place I buy my Morris paper, Waltham Wallpaper and Paint.

Check out the wooden toilet.

These few photos just give a taste of this amazing house.  I'd like to thank Jennifer Meader for giving me a lovely in-depth tour of the house and grounds (I shall return when the rhododendrons are blooming!).  Much more information about the house can be found on the Stonehurst website.  The labeled photos were taken off the Stonehurst website.

Richardson and Olmsted's "Stonehurst"

The most famous American architect of the 19th century was H. H. Richardson (think Trinity Church in Boston).  The most famous American landscape artist was Frederick Law Olmsted (think Central Park).  They both worked out of Boston and last week I visited Stonehurst, originally a private residence (now owned by the town of Waltham) designed and built by Richardson and Olmsted for the Paine family in 1883.

(these first two pics are from the Stonehurst guidebook)

The house is a bit of an architectural oddity as the Paines insisted on moving to the site and incorporating into the new structure their twenty-year-old Victorian mansard-roof house.  You can see it on the left side of the house in picture above.  Richardson wrapped the stone towers right around the old house and Olmstead trained wisteria up every side of the old house in an effort to disguise it.

The setting on top of a hill is incredibly naturalistic (Olmsted's hallmark) but, while it looks natural, the landscape was in fact sculpted extensively by Olmsted including scraping bare the large glacially-striated bedrock seen at left.  Here are a few more pictures of the landscape and Olmsted's graceful curving walls that almost remind one of an Andrew Goldsworthy sculpture......

 

All the stone for the house and walls was collected on the estate, partly by deconstructing the older colonial stone walls.

The sundial you can see on the second floor of the tower in the first pic.

A side entrance with a characteristic Richardson "eyebrow" roof line.

The front entrance.

Detail of carving on front entrance.....look at lion carved out of sandstone.  And when the porch starts to sag you prop it up with 2x10s painted to match the house!  Sadly, this place seems like it is barely surviving financially; lots of obvious water damage in house, holes in ceilings, broken windows, leaking chimneys, etc. 

Tomorrow, the interior......

Motion sensors and porch ceilings - electrical, part 3

Having exterior lights on motion sensors is great for a number of reasons, including safety and energy efficiency.  Unfortunately, most exterior lights with built-in motion sensors are ugly.  A solution to this problem is to buy a motion sensor unit (without the light) and install it yourself in some discrete location near the light.  If the walls/ceiling are open this is obviously easy; if they are closed up you will need to snake wires.  It's a little more complicated than installing switches so you might need to call an electrician.

Two earlier electrical posts:
     In praise of push buttons -- electrical, part 1
     In praise of dimmers -- electrical, part 2

FYI:  The porch ceiling is made of 5" x 10 ft lengths of pine beadboard that had three coats of exterior-grade spar urethane applied before being nailed up.

Tile wall, Istanbul

...and a great strip quilt pattern.  There is something profoundly beautiful about turquoise tile.

Marsh Plaza, Boston University campus

Some tiles designed by William De Morgan, one of William Morris's greatest protégés:

Along the silk road....

Yesterday's post reminded me of a visit to an Anatolian rug factory a number of years back where I saw a demonstration of how silk thread is made.  It starts with hundreds of cocoons of mulberry silkworms that are soaked in a vat of water to soften them up.  The dead worm can be heard rattling inside the cocoon if you shake it (silk-wearing vegans take note).  After the cocoon gum softens, a "threader" will use a whisk to "grab" the ends of silk threads off the cocoons and drape the filaments onto a reeling machine.  It seems like this should be really difficult but it happens quite easily.  A single cocoon can give up to 1500 m (almost a mile!) of filament, 4 to 18 strands of which are then twisted together to make a silk thread.

The finished product, a Hereke silk rug with the one of the highest knot counts in the world (wish I had written down the number).  The photo doesn't do the spectral vibrancy of this carpet justice.   This is a rug connoisseurs put on their wall.