Archive for the ‘Blog Feature’ Category
I find most contemporary illustration to be too gimmicky these days to be appealing, so it’s had me doing a little poking around looking at illustrators from the past. (Of course, that isn’t to say that there wasn’t plenty of artifice in past illustration.) Anyway, illustration doesn’t get the respect that fine art does because of the primary intent of illustrative work, but it’s silly when you think about how heavily reliant the contemporary art world is on commodification and yes, gimmickry as well. Superficiality can be found across all mediums of artistic expression. This subject warrants a deeper discussion, but that’s not the point of this post.
Robert Weaver, born in Pittsburgh, PA (home sweet home-ha ha) in 1924, was a dominant illustrator in the 1950s and 60s whose work was regularly published in Life, The New York Times, Sports Illustrated, Esquire, and other major publications. Weaver’s work has a depth that goes far beyond performing simply as colourful accompaniment to text. There is a freedom and expression in his line that moves it beyond being flatly representational that I find impelling.
There’s a quite bit of discussion about Weaver’s work and his contemporaries scattered across the internet. If you feel like doing some reading, check out the write-ups here and here. Interesting stuff.
You can see more from this great flickr set, and the NYT has a slideshow of his baseball illustrations. All images from the flickr set, and the first blog link listed in the preceding paragraph.
Pour Porter featured Erin Considine back in 2009, which on the internet was light ages ago. At the time, Considine wasn’t all that well known and her pieces were only available through her site. When Brannan and I decided we wanted to open an online shop around the same time, Erin was at the top of my list of lines I wanted to carry. I’m proud to say that our Shop was one of the first retail outlets to offer her jewelry. *feels proud* Now Considine’s jewelry can now be found in a bunch of online and brick-and-mortar boutiques. Her label continues to not only grow in distribution, but each season brings a new refinement to her techniques and work.
Of course, all of the above babble leads to the main point of this post: Erin is the next designer up in our designer interviews series! I’ve been sitting on this interview since February, but now feels like the perfect time with her recent features on Of A Kind and The Makers Project.
Oh and in case you didn’t notice, we just added three new Erin Considine pieces to the shop. Enjoy!
1. You’ve been dropped in the middle of a coral reef. Describe a piece of
jewelry you would make from materials you would find there, and sketch it.
Carved, seaweed wrapped ring.
2. Your favourite soup – share the recipe!
Lima Bean Turnip Soup probably sounds gross but it’s so easy and healthy,
good winter veggie use! {PP: I think it sounds great!}
- 5 inches of wakame, soaked
- 1 cup Lima Beans
- 1 Shallot Diced
- 2 Carrots cut into chunks
- 4 small Turnips
- 1 Cup shredded Cabbage (I like purple!)
- 5-6 Cups of Water
- 1 Tblsp Miso
- Place Wakame, Beans and water into a pot.
- Bring to a boil
- Reduce heat and simmer 45-60 minutes
- Add Shallot, Carrots, Turnips, & Cabbage
- Simmer about 20 minute until beans are tender
- Add Miso simmer 5-7 minutes
3. Your ideal shelter?
Yurt next to a hot spring.
4. What do you think should be required reading for everyone?
The Warmth of Other Suns, Omnivores Dilemma
5. Share your favourite picture of your studio or living space, or an area
you occupy most frequently.
6. Sketch your favourite pair of shoes
7. Write your own perfect interview question and then answer it
What’s your favorite color?
The color in between.
8. Show a picture of your favourite mug, teacup, or cup you drink from
most often
Jesse Bonny’s label, Dun, has been a Pour Porter Shop designer practically since we launched just a little over a year ago. What makes Bonny’s label so unique is not just the fact that she grows many of her supplies, but yucca cordage, which figures largely into many of her pieces, she creates from scratch. This is a time consuming process and a handicraft you don’t see utilized much anymore. Bonny also repurposes old fabric, leather, and other items to make her pieces so each item she produces is one-of-a-kind, not to mention limited edition! Make sure to see the latest accessories she created for us at the Shop and visit her beautiful little shop Dun Market to see more of her work.
We’re very pleased to announce that Jesse’s interview is the second installment of our 2011 Designer Interviews Series. Enjoy!
Yucca Cordage Process: Top left to right 1.Yucca leaves placed in bucket of water 2. Yucca leaves one week later Bottom left to right 3. Scraping leaves to extract fiber 4. Drying the fiber
Photos by Jesse Bonny
1. What was the first thing you ever made with your hands?
Hmm, mudpies? I remember as a kid my sister and I would gather up things (milkweed, pokeweed berries, honeysuckle berries, cattails, weeds of all sorts) in our nature-y, one acre backyard and mix them together to make a “witch’s brew”. I was always fascinated by magic (incantations and spells, not card tricks) and ghosts, and all things otherwordly.
2. You’ve suddenly found yourself in the middle of an eastern deciduous forest. Make an accessory or clothing item from things you’ve found from this forest, describe and sketch it.
One of my very favorite things: gathering! Ok, so I decided to make a little fringe “top” (we are very easy going here in the forest) out of basswood bark cordage with moss epaulets. Worn with cargo hiking pants. (mannequin image from here)
3. What is your signature accessory or piece of clothing that you’re never without?
At the moment, elastic waist pants. {Jesse was expecting her second daughter when she completed the interview!}
4. What gets you out of bed in the mornings?
A combination of my 3 year old {and now newborn} and hunger! It’s an immediate call to duty more than inspiration of any kind. I usually like the fact that it’s more about doing than thinking in the morning.
5. Recipe of your favourite meal/dessert/edible treat?
Mmmm, one of my favorite meals is really easy to make and very flexible:
- 1/2 to 1 pound of sausage (ground or sliced links)
- 2 or 3 large potatoes diced into cubes (can substitute or combine with any root vegetable: sweet potatoes, turnips, beets)
- 1 large onion diced into large sections
- 1 or 2 bell peppers cut into large pieces (I prefer red)
- Put everything into a casserole dish, coat with oil (I use coconut oil) and stir it around. Stick it in the oven at 350 degrees for 45 to an hour, stirring half way through.
6. Favourite plant
Wow, this is a hard one for me. I’ll narrow it down to a couple categories and to only things that grow in my yard.
- -Favorite plant for eating: mulberry tree-I have a red mulberry and a white mulberry tree in my backyard. In June the berries ripen and we just hang out and eat our fill right off the tree. We also had a mulberry tree when I was growing up, so it has sentimental value as well.
- -Favorite plant for crafting: yucca of course! The bonus for yucca is it’s nearly impossible to kill them. I got my first yucca plant in exchange for digging the whole thing out of this woman’s front yard. She had been trying for years to kill, she told me. It was a huge plant with an extremely long tap root, it took me nearly an hour to dig the whole thing up.
- -Favorite medicinal plant-plantain. Plantain has amazing drawing properties. If you have anything poisonous on/in your skin (bee stings, poison ivy, etc.) it will help to draw it out. Just chew up the leaf (the person who is using it should use their own saliva) and put it over the affected area. You can really feel it working, it is crazy! I used it last summer {2009} for something that may have been poison ivy and it totally got rid of it.
7. Ideal shelter?
I have researched this subject A LOT, as I am planning to build a house for myself and my family in the next 5 years or so. Thus far the plan is for an adobe/straw bale hybrid house. Adobe on the east and south sides for thermal mass (heat collection from the sun) and straw bale on the west and north for insulation. A greenhouse for sun collection and an extended growing season. Corrugated metal shed roof for rain collection with a large cistern. Probably a tile floor (more thermal mass!), maybe an earthen floor but those seem like a ton of extra work. Really simple, small floor plan with a loft for the kids. Fireplace, nice bathtub, and lots of outdoor room.
8. Favourite book
I love to read!
Fiction: Last Things by David Searcy Non-fiction: Nutrition and Physical Degeneration by Weston A. Price, Mother Nature* by Sarah Hrdy, The Descent of Woman by Elaine Morgan, The Great Cosmic Mother by Monica Sjoo and A Pattern Language* by Alexander, Ishikawa, and Silverstein
9. Favourite photo you’ve taken
I have a couple that I really love. The black and white one was taken on our honeymoon in Yellowstone, the color one was taken at a dog park in Santa Fe with a crazy ice storm approaching (another of my favorites is on the splash page of my website, it was taken on a ziggurat in Crestone, CO).
10. Film you think that should be required viewing
Only required if you have similar taste to me, but a few of my favorites are: *Jesus’ Son*, *Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me*, *Out of Sight*, *No Country for Old Men*, *Terminator 2: Judgment Day*, and *U-Turn*.
So you may recall that at the beginning of the year I said I wanted to mix it up a little and add some relatively regular features. (Well, as regular as I can manage!) Anyway, I liked the idea of interviewing some of our designers but trying really hard to avoid the traditional questions that seem to characterize most interviews online and otherwise these days.
I wanted to give them something fun and less tedious to tackle, while giving you guys a chance to get a playful and alternate glimpse into their creative worlds. So with out further ado, our first interviewees are Azumi and David of the UK based label A’N'D (click the link to see their stuff on the Shop).
I hope you all enjoy this new series!
1. What was the first thing you ever made with your hands?
David: First thing I remember drawing was Pegasus, the flying horse, in
pencil.
Azumi: I was making flower head pieces, weaving them.
2. Show us your favourite photo of your design studio.
Our mutant, stockman dress dummy lamp.
3. You’ve found yourself at the bottom of a deep lake. Make an accessory or item of clothing from the things you would find there and describe and sketch it.
As shopping trolleys are creatures that are found inhabiting many lakes, rivers and canals (our studio is next to the Regents canal), we imagine a trolley ‘baby’ being worn as a chic head piece.
4. What book do you think should be required reading for everyone?
David: ‘A Rebours’ (by JK Huysmans) – this was Oscar Wilde’s inspiration for
‘a picture of Dorian Gray’
Azumi: Grapefruit by Yoko Ono – everyday surprises!!
5. Your favourite painting in the whole world!
David & Azumi: Betty by Gerhard Richter – a rear view female portrait
6. If you suddenly were told you had to wear a uniform for the rest of your life what would it be?
We love vintage, blue cotton/canvas workwear.
7. Favourite recipe?
David: Sashimi with soya sauce and wasabi.
Azumi: Avocado, cherry tomato, roquette, chalot onions, sweet corn with olive oil and soya sauce on cous cous.
8. Your ideal shelter?
David & Azumi: 1930′s industrial building.
If you don’t know Alison from her refreshingly eclectic and never boring blog, TeenAngster, then maybe you’re a dedicated follower of her regular musings on the Etsy Blog. If you haven’t read either – get thee to adding her to your feed reader!
Alison’s theme was life in a cave, and she came up with some pretty awesome things to make even the most hardcore house lover re-consider their dedication to four walls. Enjoy and thanks Alison!
Photo by the air in the branches
“Caves come in all sizes and varieties. In this instance, I imagined myself in an airy crystal cave, full of stalactites, blue pools of water and blurry chemical-reacting lights, with none of that bothersome claustrophobia.”
How I’d Live
“Decorating the drippy dank of a cave might prove a challenge, but it’s one I’m willing to take on. Inspired by the intrepid cavemen and women that came before me, I went for an aesthetic that was equal parts warm and furry, balanced with primitive, minimal art and fixtures reminiscent of stalactites. And I had to get a big, fuzzy cat in there. ”
Clockwise top left: Cutie chair: Munna Design; Murano glass icicle chandelier: Gaspare Asaro at 1st dibs; Storm cloud wool felt wall hanging: Modernfiberlab; Vintage Moroccan rug: Nazmiyal at 1st dibs; Electric log: Amazon; Glass snowball: MeritandWorth; Head of Feathers print: Elsita; Rita Duckworth ceramic plates: Liveauctioneers; Circles and Bars painting: Flatfile; Fat cat: Fuckyeahfatcat; Medal: Amy Tavern; Icicle pendant lights: Emmerson Troop Inc. at 1st dibs; Pre-Columbian figure: Emmerson Troop Inc. at 1st dibs
Photo by Sherbet tone
Photo by Jpconstantineau
Cave Wardrobe
“My goal with this outfit is comfort and warmth: capes, more fur and a
vintage lantern for exploring. I’m no practical spelunker (yet). And yes, a
plush white knapsack won’t stay white for long in a cave, but a little grit
and grime makes the experience legit. It’s kinda like breaking in a new pair
of white Cons. ”
Click here for links to all items
Photos by A.
Sergeev
Lascaux Bulls
Books to dive into
” It’s natural to look to other
caves for inspiration, right? And the cave paintings of Lascaux are
mind-blowing. 17,000 years is an incredible lifespan for art that’s both
figurative and abstract. ”
Left: Lascaux: Movement, Space, and Time; Right: Paris Underground
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