Winter Wonderland

After a mild start, we are in the thick of a nice normal Chicago winter with plenty of snow and cold to go around. The days are getting longer and the Southern exposure of the sun, when it decides to come out, is the best light ever. To go with the weather, the Spring semester started – it must be a sign that time should be spent indoors on homework. Before moving to Planet Nice Crafts updates, I would like to share this Ralph Pucci advertisement, found in a recent issue of Architectural Digest. I think the chair bears resemblance to a bean bag chair, don’t you think?

The last week of Winter Break was very productive with two museum visits and progress made on the Planet Nice Crafts bean bag chair.  The construction of the cover started with the pocket – specially cut so it would blend with the one of the panels. I hope you can see it below.

The big stitches are temporary basting stitches used to keep the pocket in place while the pocket was attached by machine stitching. The six panels were attached to one another. After each seam and its finishing, I used a fancier thread for topstitching as these stitches are intended to be seen from the outside, which is unnerving as all slight deviations can be seen too.

This Sulky thread was like butter in the machine, very smooth. I think it is primarily intended for embroidery but seemed to work fine here. The final step of the vertical seam constructions was to leave a slit open for the zipper.

Installation of the zipper at 32” long is the next step and will start the next post, but that is not all today.

A few days ago I made my very first visit to the Driehaus Museum at Wabash & Erie in the River North area. It is definitely an ode to a Chicago mansion built after the Great Fire of 1871 and during the Gilded Age. What is neat about the museum is that you can see up close the decorative furnishings without worry about glass cases. I took the big camera and was able to take photos without the flash. There was not too much light in the place so it was impressive what the camera was able to do – sometimes the shots were more successful than those I have taken in the condo on a cloudy day even with Photoshop (like the one above). Here are a few photos of decorative objects.

This is a clock in one of the bedrooms – it really caught my eye because of the decorative tile face. There were many decorative tiles throughout the house. The tiles were manufactured by Low Art Tile Works founded by American artist John Gardener Low and was the first successful American decorative tile firm. Low’s process was patented in 1879 and involved impressing materials such as leaves, grasses, flowers, and fabric into the clay. Here is another shot of decorative tiles:

There were also many Tiffany glass lamps throughout the house. I liked this one the best as it incorporates nautilus shells. The ornate style is befitting the Gilded Age.

I liked this Italian mosaic that was part of the fireplace in the dining room – it was quite high so the photo came out at an angle. Photoshop was a good tool to straighten it out. Its not perfect, but it is better than the original photo.

Finally, I was impressed with the fire surround in the Gallery as I think it has an air of the Arts & Crafts movement. It was created by Giannini & Hilgart and after a doing a powerful Google search, Giannini did work with Frank Lloyd Wright. There is a good chance that the firm is still in existence in Chicago. Thinking about it, there were tastes of the Arts & Crafts movement throughout the house, they were just a bit hidden amongst all the ornamentation. The Arts & Crafts movement was in response to industrialization and focused on traditional craftsmanship and a sort of nostalgia for older designs. I guess one can say that with the popularity of Etsy and these higher end “One of a Kind” shows, there is a bit of that spirit in present times. 

I will continue to go through photographs and determine if they are blog-worthy followed by notes from a visit to another museum with a quite different exhibit in terms of design.

Stay warm!