Morris textile conservationPosted on | January 24, 2012 | No Comments I found this article pretty amazing! In preparation for The Cult of Beauty Exhibit, soon to open at the San Francisco Legion of Honor (February 18 – June 17, 2012) this article outlines the conservation and cleaning process involved with the William Morris Bird wall hanging.
What a transformation! Can’t wait to see it firsthand at the Exhibit! Category: Events, Textiles, Victorian
Tags: Aesthetic Movement > Bird wall hanging > DeYoung Museum > Legion of Honor > textile conservation > The Cult of Beauty > Victorian > William Morris Creating an Art Deco interiorPosted on | September 2, 2011 | 11 Comments When you’re thinking about decorating in the Art Deco style, the best thing I can recommend is to look at the best of the original ideas that ultimately inspired the many “knock off” ideas you will see when doing an internet search on the subject. I am illustrating some beautiful original (albeit idealized) interiors to study, all of them French and photographed at the pivotal 1925 Paris exposition. In these you will see so many of the details that inspired much of the architecture, interior and furniture design that we have come to recognize decades later as being “Art Deco”. Hopefully these photographs will help you to find some of the key ingredients you can use to “spin off” of in creating your fantasy Jazz Age interior.
Clean lines, reflective surfaces, and some bold design elements like the rug here are often found in these original Art Deco-styled settings. Sconce lighting, wall mirrors and elegant sculptural figures are also frequent elements.
Again, these rooms were meant to inspire and to present the latest ideas when it came to Modern interior design, so don’t feel bad if you don’t have a grand entry way like this one… But there is some good inspiration here. The mirrored wall, the console table against it, and that coved and “stepped” ceiling might all be incorporated in an Art Deco room design. Note Edgar Brandt’s iron masterpiece L’Oasis folding screen there on the right… so why not incorporate an ornamental folding screen in your room also?
You almost expect Claudette Colbert to walk into this room at any moment. Light and graceful furniture, rich wall treatments and lots of filtered light in this room. Maybe you’re noticing too that not all Art Deco rooms were devoid of pattern or ornament. That is where designers in the Art Deco style in many applications parted company with some of those in the Modern movement who believed that “Ornament is crime”, (it’s not, by the way). Oh, and speaking of ornament,
Bam! How about this grand “stair hall” designed by Émile-Jacques Ruhlmann. Fluted walls, delicate iron railings and a playing of dark and light contrasts, (even on the piano keys). And that amazing ceiling treatment! Here’s a detail of the wall treatment hard to see in that last photo:
This wall treatment incidentally was the inspiration for our “Cyclos” wallpaper. Notice too the sandblasted pattern above the window(?) So there are just a few sources for Art Deco inspiration. I will be posting more, along with some contemporary takes on the style, so please stay tuned. If you have any great Art Deco rooms you’ve seen please send a snap of them along to info@bradbury.com and we’ll share them. Category: Art Deco
Tags: Art Deco > Art Deco decorating > Art Deco interior > Edgar Brandt > Émile-Jacques Ruhlmann > Modern RetroRenovation featured in the TimesPosted on | August 19, 2011 | No Comments Our fellow home restoration friend in the blogosphere, Pam Kueber, received a great plug in the New York Times Home & Garden section.
Great job Pam and congratulations! Category: Atomic Age, Events, Mod Generation
Tags: Home & Garden section > midcentury > New York Times > Pam Kueber > restoration > retrorenovation Walter Crane’s Swan WallpaperPosted on | April 25, 2011 | 6 Comments As one of the most versatile and imaginative artists of the late nineteenth century, Walter Crane stood near the epicenter of the budding Arts & Crafts movement and proved one of its most successful and public advocates. His early success as a commercial artist began with the publication of colored picture books for children published by Routledge starting in 1865. It wasn’t long after, however, that he was turning his talents toward the design of textiles, ceramics, embroidery, stained glass, gesso relief, mosaic and, (happily!), wallpaper. With this particular creative outlet Crane demonstrated himself to be particularly brilliant and inventive. His association with the wallpaper industry came after Metford Warner, the proprietor of the innovative firm Jeffrey and Co., invited Crane to submit a design based on his then popular childrens’ books. Crane did so, which was only the first of some fifty designs eventually produced by the firm. Crane produced seven patterns specifically for the domestic Victorian nursery, but with his sensitivity to flat wall pattern developing he was to expand his range of motifs beyond those tailored to the juvenile environment.
One of Crane’s earliest examples of this (first produced in 1877) was a frieze, filling and dado combination incorporating stylized irises, cattails, and kingfishers. Among the available patterns in the set was an “optional” panel (above) with symmetrically opposed swans that could be pasted into a dado of repeating irises, sort of as a chair-level focal point for a room. In its composition and style this particular panel alludes to Crane’s interest in the formality of classical design, contrasted with the remaining elements of the set that seemed to speak more to the popular Japanese taste then in fashion. Now from April 2nd through July 17, 2011 Crane’s original design work-up of the Swan Wallpaper (panel) for Jeffrey & Co. will be on display at the Victoria & Albert Museum in London, all part of “The Cult of Beauty” exhibit showcasing highlights from the Aesthetic Movement. We’re happy to announce that in recognition of this exhibit we at Bradbury & Bradbury will be offering the Swan Wallpaper panel reproduced as a handprinted silk-screen poster on our website as of May 1st! So, if you’re a fan of Walter Crane we invite you to look for it then! (Incidentally, we also offer Crane’s spectacular “Lion & Dove” frieze (1901) as a poster as well!) keep looking » |
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