(Video link here.) When we stumbled on the sleek, illuminated video, Love Letter to Plywood, on Kottke, we hadn’t realized it was by artist Tom Sachs. Of all the plywood “makers” we know, he is among the most inspiring. The guy seriously understands and works the stuff, from his plywood “concrete” block, to his black plywood…
Read More‘love letter to plywood’ from tom sachs (and from us…look what we did with it))
(Video link here.) Artist Tom Sachs, who we’ve posted about a number of times, recently made a video about plywood. He LOVES IT, uses a lot of it in his work, and has learned a great deal about handling it, which he summed up in this charming, illuminating video. It is totally after-are-own-hearts: in our…
Read Moretom sachs on transparent design -> making and fixing
We’ve written before about Tom Sachs, an artist whose philosophy of making we really love. Sachs’ work, like the chair seen above, shows its seams, and doesn’t conform to the idea that a piece of art – or anything – is ever “finished.” We recently came across this quote from Sachs; his attitude about transparency…
Read Moretom sachs’ philosophy of making
A picture of a chair made out of orange-and-white-striped wooden safety barriers that we saw on The Selby led us to discovering Tom Sachs. He’s an artist who makes elaborate recreations of modern icons: masterpieces of engineering and design of one kind or another, from Knoll office furniture to Prada to NASA (like this hilarious video). The all-seams-showing…
Read MoreHow to Neaten Up Stuff via Sachs’ Practice of Knolling
(Video link here.) At Things Organized Neatly, a website about exactly THAT, we found this terrific except from Ten Bullets, artist Tom Sachs‘ essential principles — “his code” — for employees working in his studio. Here he outlines something he called “knolling”, an action we’ve always done but never had a word for. Sachs’ interpretation is…
Read Moreunlikely inspiration: tom sach’s futurist cinder block
We often post ideas on ‘the improvised life’ that we might never make, like the futurist cinder block artist Tom Sachs displayed at recent exhibition Space Program Mars. There is a simple, practical logic to this: these creations remind us of do-able possibilities that, had we the time or wherewithall, we COULD make ourselves. Sach’s…
Read Moretom sach’s plywood fridge + a brilliant lesson in color
After we posted Tom Sach’s wonderful ‘love letter to plywood‘, and mentioned our idea to clad our ancient fridge in plywood, a reader sent us the results of her hungry search for MORE Tom Sachs. Somewhere along the line she stumbled on Sach’s video COLOR, about the strict paint color code he uses in his studio.…
Read MoreSleuth-Voyeur Dominique Nabokov’s As-Is REAL Interiors are a Joy
Photographer Dominique Nabokov was way ahead of the curve when she started using just a Polaroid camera to photograph the unstyled, unlit spaces of notable people “as close to reality as possible”. They are a joy and relief.
Read MoreMatthew Sporzynski’s Improvised Tech Screwdriver + Lesson in Knolling
Brilliant paper artist and Couturier de Cardboard, Matthew Sporzynski sent a truly wonderful insta-hack he devised recently when trying to fix a vintage toy parakeet…A valuable lesson in improvisation and knolling.
Read MoreMartha Antidote: Visit Alexander Calder in His Studio
(Video link here.) After we wrote about artist Tom Sachs’ practice of knolling, simple, incredibly effective steps he takes to neaten is very busy work space, we got an interesting comment from Kevin Neff, the engineer who helped us reason-out some of our vibrating bed experiments ages ago. He wrote: So interesting. I had been wrongly…
Read MoreHolly Soloman’s Kitchen: “A Painting I Can Walk Into”
In the annals of kitchen design, art collector/dealer Holly Soloman‘s has to be one of the most out-there. The dazzling, mind-boggling riot of colored mosaic was created artist Dorren Gallo as an on-site installation in the eighties. Solomon said to the New York Times in 1984, “I don’t know how to find an egg in it. But for me…
Read MoreShopping Cart Lawn Chair/Lounger
The supermarket shopping cart has always seemed to us to be a splendid raw material, its metal-grid walls and sturdy wheels rich with possibilities. Artists have long been hacking shopping carts, transforming them into moderne, beautifully-designed objects of leisure.
Read Morecheap + chic: how to install and paint plywood floors
When Remodelista recently featured a picture of the Laboratory’s painted plywood floors in Remodeling 101: Painted Plywood—The Best Budget Wood Floor, I figured it was time to show HOW my plywood floors actually were made, and to lend a little reality to what it takes to install and paint 1000 square feet of them. I love ’em, and…
Read Morediy minimalist stainless steel pot rack
For many years, I steered clear of potracks. I disliked the feeling of having things hanging above me when I cooked, the visual busy-ness they created, and the generally clunky lines of most commercial ones. In my old place, I hung my pots on wall racks made from sleek shower bars, in a nook that…
Read Morepaolo goldstein on how repair can be a way into creativity
(Video link here.) Paulo Goldstein sees himself as a craftsman in his approach to repair. It seems to us, he has the viewpoint of an artist, and certainly his repairs reflect a rare sensibility. We found this short video incredibly illuminating, for the many levels of living he addresses. Here’s the gist, but there’s way…
Read Morediy or buy: moveable magnetic plywood tiles, artworks…
Just as we posted about the many possibilities for using plywood as a wall covering, we learned of this brilliant play on the idea: moveable MAGNETIC silkscreened tiles made out of plywood. They are the brainchild of Giovanna and Matt Taylor, a couple who had never designed before. Remembering the blue-and-white ceramic tiles of her Italian childhood,…
Read Moreplywood veneers make cool walls + artful ceilings
Two images spotted on Japanese Trash recently opened our eyes to the possibility of using geometic cuts of plywood veneers as a wall covering. Ah, no, on closer inspection, the fireplace surround above appears to be stone…but it COULD be done with plywood… Why not? To get a sense of range of possibilities, we recommend
Read Moregood idea: an ipad on a fridge door
fridge + duct tape + tablet-or-phone…. A strangely swell idea, low on style (though it sure beats those ugly water dispensers.) It reminded us of the great video Jesse Rosten made showing how-to secure an ipad to just about anything using velcro, possibly a slightly more elegant and practical solution to the one above. We could see…
Read MoreAbout Improvised Life’s Laboratory
Improvised Life’s LABORATORY is a space where we experiment with all sorts of ideas for home and daily living. It’s transformation from homely, vin ordinaire apartment to a clean-lined loft-like space has been a lesson in seeing through the surface to the bones beneath, and envisioning possibilities. It started with a renovation and carried over into problem-solving…
Read Moretin-patched wood floor: kintsugi in action
Not long after we posted about kintsugi, the artful repair of damaged things, we came across these photos of a worn wide-plank Douglas Fir floor patched with tin in Mindy Marin’s renovated barn Bluewater Ranch. A perfect example of modern-day kintsugi: the undisguised tin becomes part of the design on floors whose age and wear makes them…
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