Our post on artist Holton Rower‘s gorgeous d-i-y leather cabinet pulls has been one of our most popular in recent months, and continues to make its way around the internet. But until yesterday, we hadn’t seen someone take the idea and make it their own. Rikkianne Van Kirk’s post on Re-Nest gives a step-by-step of…
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(Video link here.) After we posted a video of Bjork frolicking in her “bell dress”, we got an email from a reader alerting us to the “sonic fabric” designed by Alyce Santoro. It’s a fabric made from polyester thread and audiocassette tape recorded with intricate collages of sound so that it is, literally, woven with sound. This…
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When we launched our fund-raising experiment, Friends with Benefits, we were amazed and heartened to get emails from some readers asking if they could pledge more than the $5, $7, or $9 monthly we gave as options on the PayPal menu. That’s possible now. THANK YOU to those who pledged and the many welcome single…
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We’ve loved Miranda July’s work for a long time because her work always directly addressed the INSIDE of our heads, all those crazy voices and opinions and questions that take up so much space, and are really NOT who we are. Suddenly she’s become pretty famous because of the Future, her recent film that is getting…
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One of the most inspiring ideas we found recently in a photo of scuptor and designer Harry Bertoia‘s living room [See the clarification in Comments from Bertoia’s daughter Celia] is not the famous wire mesh chairs he designed for Knoll in the ’50’s, but this simple hanging shelf. It’s made with cord strung through a piece of wood…
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(Video link here.) We wish we could put that wondrous bell dress on right now and make music while we dance. What a way that would be to start the day! Related posts: inside björk’s house (we’re back!) a non-ipad glimpse of bjork’s biophilia inspired makeshift: a year of personal fashion beth ditto is…
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We spotted this charmingly painted wall of a Berber house in Ouno’s great post about the beautiful “broken” geometry of Berber rugs from the Beni Ourain region. We were intitially inspired by the idea of chalking or painting an image/pattern like this on the side of ANY building – a sort of mental d-i-y fantasy…
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“People want to make a million dollars from my books,” Mark Givre says in the pause between rumbles from the elevated subway trains passing over his head. “They’re looking for rare first editions. But I just want to get people to read.” Givre says he’s on his second life now, and it’s an improvised one.…
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We used to really love Whose Line Is It Anyway, the hilarious TV show that featured daring acts of improvisation, live. The host provided the resident comedians with specific constraints – a character, challenge or scenario – and they then had to improvise with them on the spot. They came up with some brilliant, and…
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We put all the entries to our giveaway through random.org and the winner is Brenda Rowley Gray. Hey Brenda, please “Contact Us” so we can arrange to send out your book and say “Congratulations!” We’ll be starting another giveaway in the next couple of weeks. Stay tuned. Related post: free book giveaway: ‘handcrafted modern’.
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Harriet Bell alerted us to this beautiful candy wrapper chair and the story of how she found it…one thing leading to another in the course of a few minutes: Our friend Peter Davis just returned from San Miguel de Allende; knowing that I love handbags made from Mexican candy wrappers, he brought me three! One…
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Our favorite hunk from Just Kids, Patti Smith’s story of finding her artistic voice, in tandem with her friend Robert Mapplethorpe. Here, a life changing notion from Sam Shepard. Related posts: the possibilian explores time patti smith’s (+ ancient chinese) smile therapy brian eno on ‘structuring ideas’ in improvising tina fey’s 4 1/2 rules (in 4…
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Our giveaway contest for Leslie Williamson’s Handcrafted Modern: At Home with Mid-century Designers ends tomorrow – Thursday – morning at 10 am EST. If you haven’t entered, now’s your chance to do it: To enter, simply go to ‘the improvised life’s’ facebook page and “Like” us to become a facebook fan. Just type cut and paste http://www.facebook.com/theimprovisedlife…
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We worked with Jeffrey Miller many years ago when he was prop stylist and always marveled at his wonderful eye. We also marveled at the apartment he lived in, which at the time was a tiny studio with a giant window on the lower east side of Manhattan. We loved its extreme minimalism which combined function…
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This old pair of headphones still worked but one stem had broken. Rather than toss them, we asked our friend and sometimes assistant Tara Mann if she would do a visually-pleasing repair. Which she did, using colored electrician’s tape. We keep these old phones as back-ups to our regular ones, and find ourselves pulling them out…
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Cara De Silva alerted us to this compelling piece by David Brooks in the New York times. It’s a short profile about Philip Leakey, son of famed anthropologists Louis and Mary Leakey. We love the description of where he lives (though couldn’t find a photo of the “mountaintop tent”), his numerous projects, many of them…
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This photo of artist Lucien Freud painting was taken by his assistant David Dawson in 2005 when Freud was 82, five years before he died. We see a seriously ALIVE man in an aging body, a human being dynamically engaged in his work, flying in the face of populist stereotypes of old age. ….role model on…
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Two years ago, I started ‘the improvised life’ based entirely on the feeling that it needed to exist. Many people I knew were in critical transitions in their lives and facing the risk involved in new endeavors. A website about improvising as a daily practice—living more resourcefully and thinking outside-the-box—seemed timely. Creating this site was…
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We were researching the idea of making cardboard prototypes of ideas we have for furniture when we stumbled upon a series of designs, with pictures of folded cardboard furniture at DesignBoom. They are easily copy-able and stimulate thinking of cardboard furniture possibilities. Our favorite is this lovely “folding chair”/stool/side table designed by Carine Imhof: “Kui-Kui is…
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Don’t forget to check out the simple rules for entering our giveaway of Leslie Williamson’s book Handcrafted Modern. Contest ends 10 am Thursday morning EST.
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