Found - Russell Kagan Raku

Found - fantastic RAKU vessel by raku master Russell Kagan - the shape is beautiful and begs to be opened which makes the metallic effect on the inside a much sweeter reward than anything that the vessel might be hiding.

Frankenshimas

Once upon a time there was a young couple with a fondness for hand-crafted organic modern furniture. Though their tastes varied, his a bit more masculine and hers a bit more feminine, together, they enjoyed the discovery and adventure in the hunt.  They could not believe their eyes one day while perusing online when they spotted two chairs with the stink of Nakashima on them in a place called Cedar Hill.  In case you have never been to Cedar Hill, it has no reputation for being a hotbed of iconic furniture.  These looked exactly like the famous three legged Mira chairs (the chair Nakashima named after his daughter) ... at least the top of the chair looked like a Mira chair.  The bottom, however, had one extra leg. 

Their first reaction naturally was "I guess not" but you could feel the internment camp in this photo of the chairs.  They sat down together at the computer with squinted eyes - shaking their heads, perplexed at the extra leg in the front.  They laughed and made jokes at the expense of a hillbilly they had never met "fixin' these funny lookin' chairs with Granny's broomstick and Pa's cane." They imagined maybe times were hard and these people needed "some kindlin' for the fireplace." Their laughter faded as the husband decided to make the rush hour hall down to Cedar Hill to meet the heir of these fine chairs.  Tears fill his eyes as he flips the chairs over to find the slaughtered remnants of the third leg, stumps crying out that "Yes!," they were once legs crafted by a master.  He slumps over as he sees the remnant of the tag with that four syllable name that conjures up images of something exquisitely beautiful.  It takes all of his strength not to curse this woman's grandfather.  He calls his wife, who is also heartbroken, but clearheaded enough to advise him not to swear at the innocents but to purchase the chairs anyway as they may be able to have them repaired.
 
He heads back North crestfallen, pulls in the driveway, carries the chairs inside and sets them down less gently than he may have if they were in their original state. He and his wife sit down, squinting their eyes again like they are looking at their own ugly newborn baby and they imagine ..... to be a fly on the wall that day when the Frankenshimas got their extra legs.

Our little Frankenshimas

Hurts...Doesn't it?

The amputee

Painful yet?

Vieux Covets

Check out these beauties by semi-local Michael Yates of Austin.... Hans Wegner meets Frank Lloyd Wright meets Japan - TRIFECTA!!!!!

Japanese Weekend

We had a very big weekend - we found a fab Danish couch with pristine upholstery and the "butterload" (my six year old's word for motherload) of Asian smalls, we scored a cerused black mid-century bedroom set, a very large red buddha, a round yellow Asian / midcentury table, at least a hundred pieces of 50s and 60s clothing and lots lots more but my favorite far and away are five antique stained glass panels....check out these three

Kintsugi and God Damn Verbs

Kintsugi photo via yoheitanabe.com

Kintsugi photo via Keramik Glas und Restaurierung

*one of two groups of Japanese verbs ending in u

The last year I was in high school, they added Japanese to the standard host of languages offered - and at that time, being the kind of a girl who did not "waste" her electives, I pounced upon the opportunity. Perhaps it was my curly haired Japanese sensei with her ear to ear grin who never quite understood why the entire class would burst into laughter when she would order us with her lovely accent to "Conjugate your Godan* verbs,"  but I began a love affair with all things Asian.  I enjoyed each second as "Momoko (peach)" in my Japanese class that year - so much so that my idealistic little self was positive the college professors would be as dedicated and charismatic as my sensei. I frequented a tiny sushi shop on the drag in Austin where I would savor the extravagance of each roll while studying my Kanji.  I soon realized I was no match for the non English speaking Japanese teaching assistants and left my Japanese studies behind,  but I continued to accumulate all things Asian until no corner of my home was untouched by the East.  Today, my home is more Danish than Japanese (as if there is a difference) but something about Japan's approach to dwelling still just seems "right" to me. 

We have established that I have an obsession with things that have the "stink" of life on them.  So Vieux covets, Vieux hoshii (wants) all things kintsugi.  Kintsugi is the Japanese craft of mending broken objects with a gold lacquer resin so that these "shattered" pieces become these landscapes with winding rivers and fissures of light, each piece richer because of its past, its texture, its journey.  If only we could remember this about our own imperfections and scars. Our thoughts are saturated with erasing our history, these wildly beautiful places that life has taken us - perhaps a little carefully orchestrated celebration of these flaws will help us remember how our mended but unbroken selves arrived.