The Improvised Life

throw some wildflower seeds for surprising urban gardens

Sally — Fri, 17 May 2013 07:53:07 +0000

Susan Dworski

We have a nasty patch of rubble in the back alley guarded by unsightly bent pipes that protect a gas meter. Every fall I throw a packet of wildflower seeds down, scratch them in, and wait to see what the rains will bring. It’s different every year. Nasturtiums and poppies duke it out neck and neck for starters (below). Quickly followed by the big guys: penstamom, coreopsis, feverfew, lupine and cosmos (above).

photo: susan dworski

I like to carry a packet or two of wildflower seeds in my pocket and play Johnny Appleseed in neglected patches of urban dirt while out walking. Big rewards for pennies, and fun to track when spring cuts loose.

Artist and calligrapher, Sue Nan Douglass, created this playful, delicate piece, “Wildflowers II” using Steig lightfast color markers and eraser stamps she carved. The stacked, packed repetition of the names of flowers with repeating stamps on 8″ x 10″ paper testifies to the unexpectedly big power of small.

photo: susan dworski

Walt Whitman described the power of small in “Leaves of Grass,” a monumental and quintessentially American book that he spent his entire life writing and revising, from its first publication on 1855 until his “death bed edition” published in 1892, two months before his passing..

I believe a leaf of grass is no less than the journey-work
of the stars,
And the pismire is equally perfect, and a grain of sand, and
the egg of the wren,
And the tree-toad is a chef-d’oeuvre for the highest,
And the running blackberry would adorn the parlors of
heaven,
And the narrowest hinge in my hand puts to scorn all machinery,
And the cow crunching with depress’d head surpasses any
statue,
And a mouse is miracle enough to stagger sextillions of infidels.

—Susan Dworski

Editors Note: We asked Susan if we could STILL throw a handful of wildflower seeds and have them come up. Her answer: “Wildflowers always find a way.”

how to to store extra chairs + stools, on walls + shelves

Sally — Thu, 16 May 2013 18:52:24 +0000

http://arollingcrone.blogspot.com

Stumbling on this wonderful image of sculptural black-painted chairs on a wall of the La Gran Francia Hotel in Granada, Nicaragua got us thinking about ways to store un-folding chairs. This assemblage is a more playful, freeform take on the Shaker-esque practice of hanging uniform chairs on hooks (below).

Then, moving too fast as we scanned Remodelista, we mistook Williamsburg’s (and now San Francisco’s) store The Future Perfect as someone’s HOME, and thought, how cool is that: line up interesting chairs, and even a bench or two on a shelf, like a display of sculptures.

Sarah Lonsdale/Remodelista

It’s along the same lines of storing a bicycle on a shelf. And dig the wonderful detail: shelves that are longer than the wall they are hung on.

We also love this little stool stored on the wall:

Sarah Lonsdale/Remodelista

…a play on this:

clever shelving configured for bicycle storage

hangable, folding stools and chairs

maria robledo’s stunning instagrams will change your view

Sally — Thu, 16 May 2013 08:40:59 +0000

Maria Robledo

We’ve just discovered photographer Maria’s Robledo’s crazy-beautiful Instagram, a trove of images that will make you SEE the everyday differently and put you right in the moment. Only Maria could have come up with this simple, curiously moving arrangements of pussy willow blossoms (which people usually just throw away once they’ve been knocked off their stem). The image shouts SPRING. It seems the perfect accompaniment to this 4-line gem of a poem by Su Tung-p’o written over a thousand years ago:

Pear blossoms pale white, willows deep green –
when willow fluff scatters, falling blossoms will fill the town.
Snowy boughs by the eastern palisade set me pondering –
in a lifetime how many springs do we see?

Pear Blossoms by the Eastern Palisade is from one of our favorite books, Selected Poems of Su Tung-P’o. It and Maria’s images are both about seeing the NOW.

Maria Robledo

Check out more of Maria’s Instagrams here.

pop-up guest rooms + room dividers redux

Sally — Wed, 15 May 2013 17:42:39 +0000

Of the many imaginary inventions in my head, a pop-up guest room has had many iterations. Living in a moderate-sized New York City apartment with only one bedroom, I’d love a separate, somewhat private space to offer guests who come to sleep in my big open livingroom/kitchen/workspace. My latest inspiration comes Fabrica, Benetton’s communication research center in Treviso, Ialy.’Next Cabane’ was a design exploration spurred by a foldable wooden structure found in a dark corner of an antique market in the south of Scotland. Fabrica’s designers viewed envisioned it as movable rooms that can be carried from place to place.

‘small, temporary spaces where we can set our boundaries, seek shelter or simply live a different life rediscovering the quality and simplicity of things.
personal, intimate havens in harmony with their surroundings; they reflect on subjects like work, pop-up culture, loneliness, games.
alternative settings were one can live in a better way with more awareness, where design is at the service of research into materials, forms and structures.’

All it would take to make the frame is a some drilled slats of hardwood, jointed with hex bolts and wing nuts* nut whose “wings” provide a grip for the thumb and finger. You tighten the wing nut to secure the form; untighten it to fold it up for storage.

This 15 second animation of a folding scissor fence gives the idea (video link here):

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lowes.com

Then, like a kid, start draping fabric over the form, fortlike…

*How curiously fitting that ‘wing nut’ can also mean ‘one who advocates extreme measures or changes’.

via designboom

staircase of succulents + succulent sculpture

Sally — Wed, 15 May 2013 08:23:28 +0000

insideinside.tumblr.com

Dig this wondrous display of succulents on an unused staircase (well, er, we assume it’s not used, otherwise it would quite an unusual challenge to navigate)!

It shouts JOY and a kind of uninhibited artfulness.

Succulents are in the wind…or are we just SEEING them now?

Maria Robledo brought us one as a house gift. We lifted it out of its plastic pot and plunked it into a jar. It looks like a sculpture…

Sally Schneider

via ? (we can’t remember) via InsideInside

essential read: the new yorker’s innovator’s issue

Sally — Wed, 15 May 2013 07:37:15 +0000

Christoph Niemann for The New Yorker

Speak of the devil! Christoph Niemann created this brilliant cover for the new New Yorker’s Innovator’s Issue. At the New Yorker blog, Niemann has again illustrated his process , which AGAIN involves nixxing an idea, only to have it come back at him in a completely unexpected way. We GET and love that the brilliant guy struggles a bit to create his wonderful stories and illustrations.

We are looking forward to diving into this issue, especially IMAGINED INVENTIONS by some notable folks —our own imagined inventions would fill a library— and Susan Orlean on the future of treadmill desks.

Here’s Niemann’s website.

our 7-step guide to buying hardware online

Sally — Tue, 14 May 2013 17:26:28 +0000

modknobs.com

When we saw this cunning walnut doorknob from ModKnobs, we imagined it to be the perfect knob for our bathroom door. But when it finally arrived, the knob we thought so fab turned out to be huge and clunky, way out of scale for the space (see photo, below). We had neglected to take note of the knob’s actual dimensions and hold a template up in the space to see if it would work. Not only did we have to pay return shipping but a restocking fee as well, all because we had neglected a simple step.

It reminded us of other common mistakes we made when ordering hardware online during the Laboratory’s renovation. We learn our lessons the hard way! Like all lessons, some good came out of it; it lead us to create our 7-Step Guide to Buying Hardware Online so you can avoid our mistakes when you buy hardware:

Sally Schneider

1 – If possible, check out the item in person before buying, either at a showroom or at someone’s house. It may well look quite different in real life than in the picture on a website.

2 - Note the item’s measurements. Make a rough mock-up or template to hold up in the space the hardware is to be used to see if its proportion is pleasing.

3 - Make sure the item can be installed where you want it; there may be quirks that get in the way. The gorgous pocket door handle we ordered fit the door but not the minimal jamb the door fits into. We ended up selling the handle on Ebay.

4 - Read the fine print of the online store’s Return Policy. Some stores, like the horrific Alema Hardware, will not accept returns. Others, like MobKnobs charge a hefty restocking fee—as much as 25%.Coupled with the return shipping costs, you can lose a chunk of change.

5 - Check ratings and reviews of stores you plan to purchase one, especially their reputation for customer service. If we had read the terrible reviews of Alema, we never would have ordered from them. Yelp is a good source.

6 – If possible, check ratings and reviews of the item you plan to buy. Just in case. Find out about defects, diffulty installing etc in advance. (And, you do others a big service by leaving YOUR comments and experiences about products as well. How else will someone know that the porcelain sink you bought is prone to chipping?)

7 – Once you’ve placed an order, if you do not receive a confirmation email immediately, CALL the store to verifiy the sale. Our Alema disaster occurred when we received no acknowledgement from them, assumed the sale hadn’t gone through, forgot about it, and ordered the same items elsewhere.

max lamb’s dim shelving built from hardware store finds

nina’s tool bucket: essentials for doing-it-yourself

pegboard 101: for tools, jewelry and beyond

how christoph niemann’s app failure was a big success

Sally — Tue, 14 May 2013 08:21:34 +0000

Christopher Niemann for The New Yorker

When the wise, inventive, not-terribly-technological Christoph Niemann tried to create an app, it became pretty “interesting. He documented the process in the New Yorker recently and in doing so, a wonderful distillation of the creative process and struggle:

I explored countless (but crucial) dead ends, and it all came down to the most important struggle at the center of all creative pursuits: being the artist and the editor at the same time.

Christopher Niemann for the New Yorker

Niemann learned a lot in the process:

Simplicity is not about making something without ornament, but rather about making something very complex, then slicing elements away, until you reveal the very essence.

Curiously, his words echoes Marina Abramovic’s in yesterday’s post.

Athough Niemann’s app failed, the process of trying to make it was a big success. He made big discoveries:

After all the slicing away, you may realize, now that you can clearly see the idea, that it’s actually not very good…

…The painful and inevitable struggle remains to create in a childlike and openhearted manner, but to be un-wistful and cruel when judging one’s creation.

…and turned it into a fabulous New Yorker piece.

an outdoor room made of flower pots

Sally — Mon, 13 May 2013 19:42:39 +0000

designboom.com

We are big fans of outdoor rooms—outdoor spaces defined in such a way as to make them feel like rooms in plein air— and have featured a number of them over the years. (One of our favorites is the lovely outdoor “room” that Constantino Nivola created on his Long Island property.) We were smitten when we saw this outdoor pavilion designed by pedro&juana, on show in the gardens of Archivo Diseño y Arquitectura, Mexico City. It references traditional terra cotta flower pots and vases used in the former garden of architect Luis Barragán (situated next door). Bright yellow and green tops made of MDF are randomly placed on some of the vases to offer tiered seating.

designboom.com

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designboom.com

Although the terra-cotta forms were custom-made for the installation, we couldn’t help but imagine some sort of hack of flower pots, a meld of two to mimic the form, and thus take the idea as inspiration for our own outdoor space.

designboom.com

It doesn’t have to be terra cotta. This galvanized Huson pot from Ikea has possibilities…

More at Design Boom

marina abramovic: the artist is present

Sally — Mon, 13 May 2013 08:24:38 +0000

(Video link here.) Marina Abramovic The Artist is Present is a stuning documentary portrait of artist Marina Abramovic. She explores themes we are always mulling: pushing one’s limits, the nature of will power AND being truly present in one’s life. Here we get to see them in action as Abramovic weaves them through her art and life.

The title of the film comes from her 2010 MOMA retrospecctive: whenever a visitor entered the museum, she was present. Six days a week, 7½ hours a day for 90 days, Abramovic sat without eating, drinking or moving from her position as a series of museum visitors lined up to sit opposite her, one by one, for often incredibly moving, wordless interactions. Six days a week, 7 1/2 hours a day being present…

It is extremely difficult to be like a mountain, to create stillness in the middle of hell.

We can’t recommend the film highly enough. Abramovic is a role model!

The hardest thing is to do something which is close to nothing because it is demanding all of you.

Marina Abramovic The Artist is Present is available at Amazon, or possibly on HBO on demand.

improvisation of the day: spread love!

Sally — Mon, 13 May 2013 06:46:56 +0000

Maria Robledo sent us these words from Mother Theresa. They’ve been reverberating as we think of the people we know that really live them…wondering if we can find —improvise— ways to do that daily.

omg recipe: dorie greenspan’s armagnac chicken

Sally — Fri, 10 May 2013 08:41:51 +0000

Sally Schneider

The headnote to Dorie Greenspan‘s crazy-simple, unbelievably good ‘M. Jacque’s Armagnac Chicken’ begins “This recipe, une petite merveille (a little marvel), as the French would say...”. The recipe IS une merveille, taking almost no work to make, with the most ordinary of ingredients, yielding spectacular results, as we discovered when cooking dinner for friends the other night. Chicken and vegetables cook at once so you only need serve a salad and a great dessert (We recommend Sally’s chocolate cake.) We only got as far as photographing “the before”, above. All thought taking an “after” fell by the wayside with the heavenly aroma of the finished dish, and very good wine. We found a picture of the finished dish at Bake Away With Me.

The recipe is, very simply, a life essential; have it in your head and you’re covered for life.It is worth investing in a bottle of Armagnac to have on hand just to whip together this dish (we used the less expensive Bas Armagnac). The recipe is from ever-trustworthy Dorie’s wonderful book Around My French Table: More Than 300 Recipes from My Home to Yours, as reprinted from the New York Times.

bakeawaywithme.com

Recipe: M. Jacques’s Armagnac Chicken

Serves 4

This recipe, une petite merveille (a little marvel), as the French would say, was given to me years ago by Jacques Drouot, the maître d’hôtel at the famous Le Dôme brasserie in Paris and an inspired home cook. I’ve been making it regularly ever since. It’s one of those remarkable dishes that is comforting, yet more sophisticated than you’d expect (or really have any right to demand, given the basic ingredients and even more basic cooking method).

1 tablespoon olive oil or vegetable oil

8 small thin-skinned potatoes, scrubbed and halved lengthwise

3 medium onions, halved and thinly sliced

2 carrots, trimmed, peeled and thickly sliced on the diagona

Salt and freshly ground white pepper

1 thyme sprig

1 rosemary sprig

1 bay leaf

1 chicken, about 3½ pounds, preferably organic, trussed (or wings turned under and feet tied together with kitchen string), at room temperature

½ cup Armagnac (Cognac or other brandy)

1 cup water.

Center a rack in the oven and preheat the oven to 450 degrees. You’ll need a heavy casserole with a tight-fitting cover, one large enough to hold the chicken snugly but still leave room for the vegetables. (I use an enameled cast-iron Dutch oven.)

Put the casserole over medium heat and pour in the oil. When it’s warm, toss in the vegetables and turn them around in the oil for a minute or two until they glisten; season with salt and white pepper. Stir in the herbs and push everything toward the sides of the pot to make way for the chicken. Rub the chicken all over with salt and white pepper, nestle it in the pot, and pour the Armagnac around it. Leave the pot on the heat for a minute to warm the Armagnac, then cover it tightly — if your lid is shaky, cover the pot with a piece of aluminum foil and then put the cover in place.

Slide the casserole into the oven and let the chicken roast undisturbed for 60 minutes.

Transfer the pot to the stove, and carefully remove the lid and the foil, if you used it — make sure to open the lid away from you, because there will be a lot of steam. After admiring the beautifully browned chicken, very carefully transfer it to a warm platter or, better yet, a bowl; cover loosely with a foil tent.

Using a spoon, skim off the fat that will have risen to the top of the cooking liquid and discard it; pick out the bay leaf and discard it too. Turn the heat to medium, stir the vegetables gently to dislodge any that might have stuck to the bottom of the pot, and add the water, stirring to blend it with the pan juices. Simmer for about 5 minutes, or until the sauce thickens ever so slightly, then taste for salt and pepper.

Carve the chicken and serve with the vegetables and sauce.

Serving: You can bring the chicken to the table whole, surrounded by the vegetables, and carve it in public, or you can do what I do, which is to cut the chicken into quarters in the kitchen, then separate the wings from the breasts and the thighs from the legs. I arrange the pieces in a large shallow serving bowl, spoon the vegetables into the center, moisten everything with a little of the sauce and then pour the remainder of the elixir into a sauce boat to pass at the table.

Storing: I can’t imagine that you’ll have anything left over, but if you do, you can reheat the chicken and vegetables — make sure there’s some sauce, so nothing dries out — covered in a microwave oven.

Bonne idée: Armagnac and prunes are a classic combination in France. If you’d like, you can toss 8 to 12 prunes, pitted or not, into the pot along with the herbs. If your prunes are pitted and soft, they might pretty much melt during the cooking, but they’ll make a sweet, lovely addition to the mix.

Editor’s Note: We salted and peppered the chicken the night before as a good amount of time lets the salt permeate to the bone, seasoning the bird throughout. Helpful but not essential.

weekend fun: steve martin is the great flydini

Sally — Fri, 10 May 2013 03:55:42 +0000

(Video link here.) Apparently, some readers were turned off by Louis C.K.’s vulgar, and to our minds perspective-inducing reflections on “what comes with a basic life”. Susan Dworski sent us this brilliant few minutes of Steve Martin as the Great Flydini as “an antidote”. Like all great magic, it appears to just happen— an improvision in the moment— although it is, in reality, the result of brilliant calculation and mastery.

Thanks a million, Susan!

how to make tree trunk furniture, max lamb style

Sally — Thu, 09 May 2013 17:17:18 +0000

One of many things we love about artist/designer/craftsman/journeyman Max Lamb‘s work is that he ALWAYS has an unusual take on the practical AND he loves to reveal his process, offering in a powerful lesson in EMPOWERMENT. This video shows him making a wood stool out of huge chestnut tree log he hauled home from Springfield Park, London. It especially interests us because we lugged home several fallen tree hunks on our trusty Magna Cart after Hurricane Sandy, then wondered what to do with them, having no access or facility with a chain saw. Fallen trees are a readily available raw material for a lot of people.

The big revelation from Lamb: you can fashion rough-hewn slabs and furniture parts out of fat tree trunk by using Steel Splitting Wedges, axes, hammers, a drawknife and a good amount of muscle and gumption.

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Once he fashioned the stool, it was sent to Wajima in Ishikawa, Japan to be lacquered by Hidetaka Wakashima, a master of traditional lacquer ware.

We’d love to make something like Lambs rough-hewn bench:

Max Lamb

Now that we know how (roughly), we just might try…

leaping and flying, underwater (via mark tipple)

Sally — Thu, 09 May 2013 08:00:29 +0000

Mark Tipple

Many of Mark Tipple’s photographs of swimmers and surfer’s diving UNDER waves look like people flying and leaping…underwater. They are, in a way, in a different medium than air…

because there are many….ways….to….fly……and…………………..leap!

Mark Tipple