There is an idea in environmental psychology that suggests you can understand a person more quickly by walking through their home than by sitting across from them in conversation.
Craft is often defined as skill in making things by hand, but this interpretation is being challenged by AI. Craft transcends physical interaction; historical figures like Mozart and Beethoven exemplify mastery without traditional methods.
The new webpage, entitled 'How have objects come to be in the V&A?', points out that for some objects, their journeys have involved known histories of violence, coercion or injustice, while for others there remains uncertainty over exactly how they came to be here.
In the digital world that we're in, you know, negative videos are what goes viral. People are always knocking people down a peg and it's really easy to fall into that. If something bad happens-which, when you own your business, something bad happens every day- it's easy to circle in despair. But my challenge is to look for the positive and figure out how to pivot, and if something isn't working then figure out a different way to get it done.
I knew I needed help, so I put an ad in MySpace. A woman named Beth responded and I met her for an interview at a coffee shop. As we talked I realized she had all the skills I didn't have. She had a design degree. She had business savvy and technical skills. And she was wildly smart and more importantly, kind.
From unassuming hunks of Carrara marble and limestone, Matthew Simmonds carves realistic, miniature gothic cathedral arches, stairwells, and colonnades. Often based on architectural details of real places, such as cities around Tuscany and Germany's Bamberg Cathedral, the sculptures portray intimate details of corners, vaulted ceilings, arcades, and stairwells that can sometimes be peeked through additional apertures.
It's not a house of outstanding art, being a self-taught carver whose skills evidently advanced over the years, as you can see the evolution from fairly rough carving on the stairs to the very skilled work in the living room. He also created the paintings on the walls - talented chap - but never finished the carving in the living room, as his time finally ran out.
Off the Grain works out of Halifax in West Yorkshire, handcrafting every piece to order. Forget flat-pack or particleboard - here, it's all about real materials and genuine expertise. Skilled craftspeople cut, join, and finish each item by hand. You can pick your dimensions, wood, and finish, so the final piece fits your space instead of the other way around.
Gropius, who from 1919 to 1928 directed the Bauhaus in Weimar and Dessau, designed the house in 1921-22 for lawyer Fritz Otte. The property is considered a dramatic evolution of Gropius's earlier seminal Haus Sommerfeld, which was also located in Berlin, but destroyed in World War II. The Bauhaus founder embraced a forward-looking approach with an unadorned, sharp-edged structure that rejected the heaviness of 19th-century historicism.
Sentimental Value is very much a film about a house - a Victorian " dragestil," or "dragon style," home in Oslo where generations of the same family have lived for more than a 100 years. Director Joachim Trier, who found the house in Oslo's Frogner neighborhood, called its role in the film "a witness of the unspoken ... a witness of the 20th century."
One of those timeless items is the instantly recognizable federal-style convex mirror. These gilded mirrors have been adorning American dining rooms and foyers since the 1700s, when the centuries-old European style was given a uniquely American touch - an eagle sitting proudly on top. Looking to add a touch of American history to your home? Authentic federal-style mirrors dating back to the United States' earliest days are going to run you into the many-thousands of dollars, there are also reproductions that have been made for decades. Here's what you need to know about federal-style mirrors, how to source them, and how to style them in your own home (even if they're the only Americana piece you ever collect!).
Inspired by Margot's post last week on the stellar, nontraditional kitchens she spotted on the websites of European real estate firms, I found myself perusing the listings of my favorite U.K. agency, The Modern House, and there, I came across an especially dreamy offering: a rambling two-acre, multi-building property purchased by a pair of artists, Leila El-Kayem and Sophie Mayer, who lovingly transformed the dilapidated Victorian walled garden into a stylish retreat that's appealingly rough around the edges.
Not every home is willing to play a supporting role. Jess Cooney's has always demanded top billing. "It's been a main character in my life-we've had a beautiful journey," says the AD PRO Directory member of her 6,000-square-foot house in Great Barrington, Massachusetts. "And it also drives me insane." More than two decades ago, Cooney returned home from Colorado to the Berkshires with her husband, Joe, and a new daughter in tow.
