David Brewsters Kaleidoscopes

Sir David Brewster began work leading towards the invention of the kaleidoscope around 1815 and within three years, thousands of Kaleidoscopes sold in Paris and London. It’s no wonder why so many love exploring the geometric facets, colors, lighting and reflections created within a Kaleidoscope… at all scales. Art or architecture, observing from afar or within, these sculptural forms made of colored objects such as mirror, glass, beads, pebbles or metals are a huge inspiration for my 2013 collection .



  







Popular posts from this blog

Hans Silvester Natural Fashion

Image
This magnificently produced book provides a priceless record of a unique and increasingly fragile way of life, one threatened by conflict, climate change and tourism.
The lower valley of the Omo, at the borders of Ethiopia, Kenya and Sudan, remains one of the wildest places in Africa. Over the course of numerous voyages to this forgotten land, Hans Silvester became fascinated by the beauty of the Surma and Mursi tribes, who share a taste for body painting and extravagant decorations borrowed from nature.
In this region of East Africa, the rivers that run through the dry savannahs are home to abundant flowers, papyrus and wild fruit trees, and this luxuriance becomes an invitation to creativity and spectacle. Within hand’s reach, a multitude of plants inspire fanciful and ephemeral self-decoration, and the Omo tribes react spontaneously: a leaf, root, seed pod or flower is quickly transformed into an accessory.
People create caps from tufts of grass or they ornament themselves with ba…
Keep reading

Art Smith Jewelry

Image
Cuban-born, Brooklyn-raised Art Smith was one of the major modernist jewelers of the mid-twentieth century. He attended Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art from 1942 to 1946 where he first pursued architectural studies but eventually abandoned them to concentrate on sculpture and the manipulation of three-dimensional forms. During the early 1940s he learned jewelry making while working part-time as a crafts supervisor at the Children’s Aid Society, and through a night course at New York University. He also worked for and was influenced by Winifred Mason, an African-American jewelry designer with a store in Greenwich Village. In 1946, Smith opened his first store, also in Greenwich Village. Inspired by surrealism, biomorphism, and primitivism, Smith’s jewelry included large scale, asymmetrical forms made from hand-hammered elements of silver, copper, or brass, sometimes combined with quartz or other colorful stones. His jewelry explored organic shapes and both positive…
Keep reading

Bauhaus Movement

Image
The Bauhaus movement began in 1919 when Walter Gropius founded a school with a vision of bridging the gap between art and industry by combining crafts and fine arts. Prior to the Bauhaus movement, fine arts such as architecture and design were held in higher esteem than craftsmanship (i.e., painting, woodworking, etc.), but Gropius asserted that all crafts, including art, architecture and geometric design, could be brought together and mass-produced. Gropius argued that architecture and design should reflect the new period in history (post World War I), and adapt to the era of the machine. The Bauhaus movement is characterized by economic sensibility, simplicity and a focus on mass production. “Bauhaus” is an inversion of the German term “hausbau,” which means “building house” or house construction. 
The Bauhaus school founded by Gropius was one of the first to teach students modern design. The school closed in the 1930s under pressure from the Nazis, but the movement still influence…
Keep reading

Aldo Rossi Architecture

Image
Aldo Rossi (born 1931), one of the most influential architects during the period 1972-1988, has accomplished the unusual feat of achieving international recognition in three distinct areas: theory, drawing, and architecture. In 1966 Aldo Rossi published the book The Architecture of the City, which subsequently was translated into several languages and enjoyed enormous international success. Spurning the then fashionable debates on style, Aldo Rossi instead criticized the lack of understanding of the city in current architectural practice. Aldo Rossi argued that a city must be studied and valued as something constructed over time; of particular interest are urban artifacts that with-stand the passage of time. Despite the modern movement polemics against monuments, for example. Aldo Rossi held that the city remembers its past and uses that memory through monuments; that is, monuments give structure to the city.






















Keep reading

Le Corbusier Sculptures

Image
Fantastic sculpture from the one and only Charles-Edouard Jeannette, better known as Le Corbusier. Lightly more creative his earlier projects and are almost quite ‘wacky’ but at the same time controlled, one can see parallels between him and Salvador Dali’s paintings in his late sculpture, even though it’s no secret that they weren’t the biggest fans of each other.I’m regularly analyzing whether I like purely functional and industrial products or if I like one-of-a-kind type handmade items. In my opinion there’s a middle ground, on one hand I think you can own a home that’s purely functional, with industrial products to match, but at the end of the day it’s lifeless to own objects that have no background or character as well. We’re not machines and we all have a personality, well hopefully, sculpture like this really puts my thoughts in perspective and gets me inspired on the art side of things. If you can find a balance between these two elements you’ve definitely succeeded, Jens Ri…
Keep reading

Beverly Hills Mansion

Image
Whipple Russell architect designed modern mansion. This beautiful residence at 1201 Laurel Way in Beverly Hills is presently on the market (but not listed on the MLS), for a mere $36,000,000. The modern mansion has spectacular views, stunning exterior design, terraced landscaping, glass-walled garage and an incredible wrap-around swimming pool. While it's not an actual moat, the swimming pool of this incredible spec house actually does extend around more than half the exterior.























Keep reading

San Francisco

Image
Photographer Fred Lyon has been called "San Francisco's Brassai". He's also been compared to Cartier Bresson, Atget and Andre Kertez, but all with a San Francisco twist. Now 91, his nonstop career reaches back to the early 1940's and embraces news, architecture, advertising, wine and food. In the golden years of magazine publishing his picture credits were everywhere from LIFE to VOGUE and beyond. These days find him combing his picture files for galleries, publishers and print collectors. And he's still excited when he gets a call offering a new project.


























Keep reading

The Blue Grotto / Puglia Cave Restaurant

Image
The ancient town of Polignano a Mare sits atop a rocky cliff. Over time the limestone rocks and the sea have carved out sea caves which wind beneath the streets of the town. Of these caves the largest is the Grotta Pallazzese, which lies at the heart of the hotel, and once belonged to the feudal lord.
Down the ages travellers, including Giovanna queen of Hungary, have sought out the peace and tranquility of Polignano a Mare and its caverns. French and British travellers doing the Grand Tour in the kingdom of Naples, included the caverns of Poloignano a Mare on their itinerary and would write home of their beauty and majesty. By the 1700s the caves were well established as function rooms for noblemen and local dignitaries. Today, this cavern houses the hotel's famous summer restaurant.
The Blue Grotto (Italian: Grotta Azzurra) is a sea cave on the coast of the island of beautiful Capri, southern Italy. The sunlight, passing through an underwater cavity shines through the seawate…
Keep reading

Capri Casa Malaparte

Image
Casa Malaparte was envisioned and built in 1942 on the Isle of Capri by Italian journalist and writer Curzio Malaparte. He was one of the most powerful, independent and influential Italian writers of the mid-20th century. An impetuous man of letters, he fell afoul of Mussolini in 1933 and was exiled to a speck of land in the Mediterranean. Banishment had a paradoxical effect on him. Upon his release, Malaparte longed for more remoteness and seclusion. After buying a site on Capri’s eastern coastline, he had the noted architect Adalberto Libera draw up plans for a home, but later threw them out in favor of his own vision—a stolid, prominent form, with a poetic wind break, on top a tapering exterior staircase. Today the dwelling is owned by the writer’s heirs and most easily seen by boat or by revisiting Jean-Luc Godard’s 1963 film Contempt, in which the roof provides a sunbathing venue for Brigitte Bardot. 
Casa Malaparte is a testament to masculine determination. A man who lives wit…
Keep reading