Lifestyle
9 Products for Your Home, With a Sense of Style
This article is part of our Design special section about the reverence for handmade objects.
Today, in a world overrun with technology, with artists still dealing with the isolation and preoccupations of the pandemic, we’re seeing a robust revival of handicrafts for the home. Below, some new objects from established leaders of the pack.
Step on It
Based in Philadelphia, Claudia Mills began by weaving rag rugs from recycled fabrics; today she works with new cotton so that her pieces are machine washable and colorfast. The rugs can be used for upholstery or hung as art, but all are made to be walked on. “We send every rug out of here with a nonskid pad,” she said. From $195 for a 2-foot-square to $1,360 for a 2-by 8-foot runner. Custom designs are $95 a square foot. claudiamills.com
After her self-described failure as an actress, Shelley Simpson started playing with clay in a backyard shed in Melbourne, Australia. Thirty years later, her company, Mud Australia, employs 80 people to produce handcrafted dinnerware — and now lighting. The portable and rechargeable Pop Lamp is handmade from a single piece of porcelain. Available in six colors for $520. mudaustralia.com
A Delicate Balance
Born in Japan and educated in London, Hiroko Takeda came to New York City in 2001 to work with the eminent textile artist Jack Lenor Larsen. In 2010, she opened her own studio, in Brooklyn, which creates art pieces and fabrics for interiors. (A solo exhibition of her work is on view at Hunter Dunbar Projects, in Chelsea, through April 19.) For one of her latest textiles, Macaron, thick wool slub yarns are twisted and interlaced to create airy panels. The fabric is 48 inches wide and $500 a yard. hirokotakeda.com
Fuzzy Logic
Jessica Switzer Green, a former technology marketing executive, fell in love with wool after moving to a farm in Sonoma County, Calif., in 2018, and working with the local sheep. She founded JG SWITZER to produce hand-felted fabrics, blankets and pillows using a technique she described as “painting with wool.” The Shetland Cloud reversible throw is approximately 70 by 50 inches and $895, and the Black Saffron hand-felted pillow is 36 by 28 inches and $780. jgswitzer.com
Andrew Iannazzi began blowing glass as a student in upstate New York and opened his studio in 2013 in Cambridge, Mass., but his craft is an outgrowth of European traditions, particularly the 800-year-old glass industry on the Venetian island of Murano. Mr. Iannuzzi described his Spout pouring bowls as “retro,” inspired by humble kitchen housewares from his youth. They come in three sizes and are $185 to $325. vitriccaiannazzi.com
Knots and All
The latest work of the furniture maker Chris Lehrecke, who has been in business for almost four decades, celebrates catalpa, ambrosia maple, black walnut and turkey feather ash — all types of wood from trees that surround his Hudson Valley home. He said he loved everything about those trees, including their defects: “Maybe, as I grow older, I feel more of a connection to the imperfections.” His Turkey Feather Ash Screen with handcrafted steel knuckle hinges is 60 x 72 inches and $11,000. ralphpucci.com
Cache and Carry
Inspired by French fishermen’s baskets that he saw in a Danish museum, Zach Matheson, an artist in Portland, Ore., designed baskets from upcycled materials like plastic zip ties and polyethylene fencing trimmed in leather. He began selling the baskets through Room & Board in 2020 and two years ago handed off the production to Softline, a company in Minneapolis. The baskets, called Fletcher, come in five sizes and cost $99 to $159. roomandboard.com
Opposites Attract
Working with the technique known as sgraffito, the ceramics artist Jennifer Falter, who in 1998 founded a studio in Springfield, Mo., with her husband, Nathan Falter, scrapes away the liquid clay coatings of her pieces to expose the solid layer below. ”I settled on just working in black-and-white because that made the strongest contrast,” she said. Her $425 Ginkgo vase is 10 inches high and 8 inches in diameter. springfieldpottery.com
Steel Crazy After All These Years
Founded in 1845, Shin In-Young’s ironmonger shop is the oldest in South Korea. Using metal from discarded train tracks, Master Shin, who began apprenticing in the family business in 1966 at the age of 13, makes an assortment of kitchen and gardening implements, including this carving set whose knife and fork have handles of chestnut or oak. (The carbon steel knife blade needs sharpening only every two or three years.) The set, which is packaged in a leather pouch, is $620. ameico.com
Lifestyle
Rob Reiner and Wife Michele Had Throats Slit By Family Member
Rob Reiner And Wife Michele
Throats Slit By Family Member
Published
|
Updated
Rob Reiner and his wife Michele had their throats slit by a family member, possibly after an argument inside their Los Angeles home, leading to their tragic deaths … TMZ has learned
It’s unclear what exactly triggered the violence, which went down Sunday afternoon in Brentwood … but we’re told one of Rob’s daughters found her parents dead and told police a family member had killed them. PEOPLE reports the couple’s son, Nick, is being questioned in connection with the murders.
Our sources also say the daughter told police the family member “should be a suspect” because they’re “dangerous.”
TMZ broke the story … Rob and Michele suffered lacerations consistent with knife wounds and LAPD’s Robbery Homicide Division is investigating the case.
broadcastify.com
Dispatch audio captures a firefighter calling for backup to the Brentwood mansion around 3:30 PM … though it doesn’t provide any further information about the circumstances in the abode.
Rob was 78. Michele was 68.
Lifestyle
Sunday Puzzle: Major U.S. cities
Sunday Puzzle
NPR
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NPR
On-air challenge
I’m going to read you some sentences. Each sentence conceals the name of a major U.S. city in consecutive letters. As a hint, the answer’s state also appears in the sentence. Every answer has at least six letters. (Ex. The Kentucky bodybuilders will be flexing tonight. –> LEXINGTON)
1. Space enthusiasts in Oregon support landing on Mars.
2. Contact your insurance branch or agent in Alaska.
3. The Ohio company has a sale from today to next Sunday.
4. The Colorado trial ended in a sudden verdict.
5. Fans voted the Virginia tennis matches a peak experience.
6. I bought a shamrock for decorating my house in Illinois.
7. All the Connecticut things they knew have now changed.
8. Can you help a software developer in Texas?
Last week’s challenge
Last week’s challenge came from Mike Reiss, who’s a showrunner, writer, and producer for “The Simpsons.” Think of a famous living singer. The last two letters of his first name and the first two letters of his last name spell a bird. Change the first letter of the singer’s first name. Then the first three letters of that first name and the last five letters of his last name together spell another bird. What singer is this?
Challenge answer
Placido Domingo
Winner
Brock Hammill of Corvallis, Montana.
This week’s challenge
This week’s challenge comes from Robert Flood, of Allen, Texas. Name a famous female singer of the past (five letters in the first name, seven letters in the last name). Remove the last letter of her first name and you can rearrange all the remaining letters to name the capital of a country (six letters) and a food product that its nation is famous for (five letters).
If you know the answer to the challenge, submit it below by Thursday, December 18 at 3 p.m. ET. Listeners whose answers are selected win a chance to play the on-air puzzle.
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