Creativity at its Finest
Applying a DIY attitude offers you the ability to turn the ordinary into the extraordinary. As I visit home design shows, museum exhibits or craft fairs, I am always blown away by the creativeness, inventiveness and uniqueness of the design. Here are a couple of the examples of what I mean.
Take Museum of Art and Design who exhibited Second Lives: Remixing the Ordinary (September 27 2008 thru April 19 2009) which was amazing. I saw a portrait make out of small black plastic combs, spools of thread that appears to be abstract art to the naked eye; however, when viewed through a convex glass ball, it transforms into a picture of the Mona Lisa. Garment labels arranged to form a picture of a women sewing, a chaise made from quarters welded together and beautiful chandeliers made from toothpaste tubes and syringes and beads. Some of these pieces can be found on their website; however, the photos don’t show the essence of the raw materials used.
Recently, I attended the Architectural Digest Home Design Show at Pier 94 in New York held March 26-29. Here is a little of what caught my eye. A woodworker named Palo Samko based in Brooklyn, New York had an awesome cabinet constructed from wood remnants, creating a butcher block effect.
Exquisite chandeliers made from pipes and crystal designed by Michael McHale Designs located in New York City. You can see more of his designs at chandelierical.com.
And then there was the furniture by Newell Designs in Denver Colorado. Co-founders, Jeff Newell, a self-taught furniture maker who majored in creative writing at the College of Santa Fe and his wife, Beth Newell, had beautiful furniture pieces on display. Candice Burns, his mother and exibit salesperson, explained to me that the circular pattern design is individually hand carved pieces of wood.
