New Amsterdam
In the 17th century, Dutch colonists called New York City, “New Amsterdam.”
I think a lot about Amsterdam these days, as it’s well known as the city of bicyclists. My life in NYC has improved in large and small ways since May, when I hopped on my new cream-colored bike with a sassy red brake cable (by PUBLIC bikes).
With her little red bell–she goes, where I go.
Two weeks ago, my pal Karen and I rode with a group from Adeline Adeline to see the Bespoke Bicycle show at Museum of Art and Design. Today’s treat: Park Avenue was closed to car traffic from downtown up to Central Park, as part of the city’s Summer Streets program. There were people on bikes where ever you looked including the Union Square Farmers’ Market.
New Yorkers are getting it: Manhattan is flat and easy to ride and getting on a bike is faster and more fun than a taxi.
Seems to me NYC is poised to become the new Amsterdam–again.
by Maria Moyer
An Urgent Word from Cathy Bailey on Peace Industry
by Cathy Bailey, HEATH Ceramics
If you know Peace Industry and its hands-on owners Melina and Dodd, this sounds absurd.
The reality is a bad/sad story. Peace Industry is one of Robin and my favorite “designer-makers” and businesses, and they are going to close because of our government’s increasing sanctions against Iran. This business, with a store front in San Francisco’s Hayes Valley, designs beautiful, original and modern rugs that are produced using traditional Iranian felted-rug techniques. They have spent the past 10 years reviving and evolving their almost-extinct craft with their workshop in Iran. Their rugs are a beautiful merger of design and craft, with the design very inspired by the material. The workshop in Iran now employees about 50 craftsman.
I cannot imagine what goal is achieved by increasing sanctions in Iran to include rugs. In the past, rugs were excluded and allowed to be imported into the US. To me, Dodd and Melina have a model business, caring about retaining the cultural craft of manufacturing, keeping their scale small to ensure sustainability and quality in their product, and bringing together two communities a world apart.
Dodd and Melina (the owners) disagree with theses new sanctions, not only because it personally will shut down their business, but because as they express it, ”…business relationships between Americans and Iranians encourages cooperation and ensures that we hold mutual interests of maintaining peace. We now know that the sanctions against Iraq punished the people of Iraq while further entrenching Saddam’s regime.”
If you agree that this is not a good policy, please contact your political leaders and let them know. Here is a sample letter. Thank you for considering this issue so important to us.
(Peace Industry rugs in our own home)
Pump Up The Volume
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The boys at Volume Inc.–Adam Brodsley, Eric Heiman and Zulu,
are old friends from San Francisco.
We love them and their work is wonderful too.
Their design work for the Academy of Sciences
made complex ideas, accessible.
This isn’t easy.
Other clients include: San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, Flora Grubb, Southern Exposure, Heath Ceramics, Chronicle Books, and McSweeney’s.
Read this just-published article about them here.
(middle photo via craftzine)
San Francisco based photographer, Leslie Williamson, didn’t quite set out to make a book.
She just wanted to see inside the homes of designers and artists she admires.
Lucky for us, we’ll get to peek inside their homes too–as her inevitable book,
“Handcrafted Modern: At Home with Mid-century Designers,” will be published by Rizzoli in October.
Until then, I’ll be savoring images like these in her daily posts here.
Can you guess whose homes these are?
by Maria Moyer
Bow Ties Make Me Smile
Shauna Alterio and Stephen Loidolt (of Something’s Hiding in Here) have created a neckwear collection called, “Forage”, based on the sartorial habits of their favorite designers like Charles Eames and Louis Kahn.
Bay Area People:
Forage is available at Curiosity Shoppe on Valencia, starting Friday July 27th.
Please go. I dare you not to smile.
by Maria Moyer
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