On the Radar -- Color Cues, Part Deux

It's been a year since my last Color Cues post -- using fresh art from Etsy as inspiration for color palettes to spruce up your home or your design project.  I pay attention to trends, in the sense that I usually like something before it's trendy and then I promptly forget that it's trendy when it hits. 

Really, trends are interesting, in an abstract kind of way.  I mean, I do write a trend post on this blog.  But sometimes, I just like to find what appeals to me, what pulls at me, and then go from there.  That's what I've done here.  Enjoy -- and hey, buy some art from these great artists!

Fernet Branca screen print by KRUSTYstuff on Etsy, here.

 

Bella Fiore nr.4, Aqua and Coral Red art print by IsaBella by Margriet on Etsy, here. 

 

Fruit fine art photograph by LupinGrainne on Etsy, here.

 

Large Abstract Painting by Lola Donoghue on Etsy, here.

 

 

A Quick Walk Down Memory Lane...

I was recently reminded that it's been ten years since I graduated from design school.  I can't help but think, "Where has the time gone?"   It feels like just yesterday I was worried about getting my projects together and whining about my Principles and Elements classes and how useless they were.  (Boy, was I wrong about that!)  But then, when I look back at all that I have accomplished since then, I feel like I've taken such a fortunate, fun, and enlightening journey.

I guess since I've been back at RCC these past few years, teaching design classes, seeing my students discover design -- I mean, really discover design for the first time -- it's made me realize how deep my passion runs for it.  From an early age, I was trained for the academic path; I knew that I was college bound, and I kept my vision focused on that.  I arrived at Chapel Hill a die-hard Tarheel and a scared small-town girl.  Four years later, I graduated with a BA in American Studies and a minor in Art History (let me tell you, Dad was really happy about that!).  Two years later, though, it wasn't enough.  I registered for an intensive two year design program, and found my true calling.

When I graduated, ten years ago, I wanted to conquer the world!  I moved to Raleigh, got a job at Pier 1 Imports, and started asking every designer that came in if they needed help, until I finally found someone.  She was an RCC alum; she needed help, so I started working with her two weeks later.  It was quite the learning experience!  Working at Designs by Houseworks was challenging and rewarding, sometimes more the former than the latter.  But I wouldn't trade that time for anything.  I learned more working for her than almost anywhere else.  I got to interact with vendors, sales reps, and clients.  I worked large commercial design jobs, and small residential installations.  I learned how to be organized, punctual, focused, and most importantly, I learned how to speak up when I had ideas.

I also learned that I don't actually like being an interior designer!

Which led me to think about other paths I could explore.  By chance, I found a job posted in Product Development at Capel Rugs, located in Troy -- the county seat of the tiny rural county I grew up in.  I interviewed, we clicked, and I started two weeks later...

Capel was truly like a home for me.  I didn't have any rug experience before I started there; just a good foundation in color theory, basic textile information, and my own personal experiments in my crafting hobbies.  It was a good match because I brought a fresh perspective and a new way of looking at things.  I learned the basics -- then started working on braided rug samples for L.L. Bean and Pottery Barn Kids.  I loved the collaborative projects, and we were constantly working together across the company to create the best product we could.  Imports and domestics, design and sales -- we had meetings, arguments, celebrations, brainstorming sessions that could last hours...

Tweed Square, my favorite braid I designed.

Florali, featured on an HGTV show

I got to travel to meet with clients -- Ralph Lauren in NYC, Pottery Barn and Serena & Lily in California -- and I got the opportunity to design our showrooms and even a catalog.  I started to design more products, as well, designing imported products in addition to braids.  I created rugs for our licensees, Jane Seymour and Biltmore Estate (see above, right, Florali), and did a fabric edged braided rug for Pottery Barn Kids' Dr. Seuss collection.

I even helped create a braid that was put into the NC Museum of History!

Songbird braided rug

I loved it, but I was starting to feel like my path was moving in a different direction.  Changes were happening within the company, and I felt that it was time to rediscover what I really wanted.  I wanted to have more freedom to work with different textile mediums, and work on establishing my vintage Etsy shop.  I picked up some design classes to teach -- graphic design and interior design -- and experimented with creating a line of toys.  I had always been creating sock monkeys for coworkers and their friends, so I expanded my scope and began to sell at shows, galleries, and through word of mouth.

A sampling of my monkeys...

This past fall I expanded that even further into another love of mine -- art.  (Here's that college minor helping out!)  I decided to re-imagine famous works of 20th century art into a line of fun accent pillows.  Fabrics, felts, and textiles of all kinds are my most favorite things in the world.  And I think my greatest strengths are color, print, and scale -- and I get to use all three in my handmade items.

My art pillows.

And what of the vintage business, you say?  Well, you lovely readers, you partake in that every time you read our blog!  We think of the blog as our way of writing you our love story about great vintage and modern design, and the products that inspire us in some way, whether it's a lonely little salt shaker or an Alexander McQueen gown.  And we try to find items that you'll fall in love with to sell in our little Etsy shop.  We've been open just over three years now, and we have grown by leaps and bounds.  We've sold dresses to Samantha Mathis and Stacy London (from What Not to Wear), and sent a set of mid-century glasses to the head of hospitality at the Chateau Marmont in Hollywood.  Sometimes, I like to stop and think of who might have sipped from them!

You also know about our window designs at Collector's Antique Mall.  We love designing these retail windows, and figuring out how to make our visions a reality.  We have to consider what people are buying, what's available to us to use, and how to capture what we feel is relevant right now.  We want observers to stop and look in wonder -- and then come in to shop!

Christmas 2013 window at Collector's Antique Mall

I've loved the past few years of my life.  As I look back, I find that I have been fulfilled with path I chose to take.  But now, again, I feel a slight shift, and I want to take a look at that fork in the road up ahead-- and see if another path can lead me to even greater heights.  Maybe it can teach me new and different things.  Maybe I could meet great people and make new friends.  And maybe, just maybe, I'll discover a new side to myself.  One where all my past experiences, triumphs and failures, can come together to make something else great.

The Skinny -- Tamara Toumanova

I first want to start with how I discovered this lovely ballerina, Tamara Toumanova.  I found this photo:

 

 

In the way we Blackbird girls do, I thought, geez, that dress is fab.  And she's pretty lovely herself!  Little did I know that this photo would lead me to discover that Tamara Toumanova was a dancer in Invitation to the Dance, a film written and directed by Gene Kelly.  It has three distinct stories, all told through dance, with no dialogue.  He starred in all three parts.  When we watched the movie, we liked all three stories -- but our most favorite part of the entire movie was the super sexy part with a woman in red.  We love us some Gene Kelly.  And that woman in red?  Ballerina Tamara Toumanova.  She and Gene have some chemistry -- major chemistry.  You can watch her in action with Gene below -- start at around 8:30 in the video.

 



 

I could get into a long bio for her, but let me just hit the high points so we can get to the good stuff -- pictures!  Toumanova was born in March 1919.  She was the child of two Russian exiles, who eventually moved to Paris.  She was a child ballet prodigy, making her debut in the children's ballet at the Paris Opera when she was 10 years old. George Balanchine discovered her in 1931 at age 12, and cast her in Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo, along with two other young ballerinas -- Irina Baronova and Tatiana Riabouchinska.  The trio was a great success, and very soon became known as the "Baby Ballerinas."

Toumanova was also known as "the Black Pearl of the Russian Ballet."  She was lovely -- with dark hair and eyes, and soft almond skin. She was striking -- and glamorous.  Traits that made her perfect for film as well as the stage.  She had an amazing ballet career, but she also starred in six Hollywood movies.  Her debut was in Days of Glory, a 1944 drama starring Gregory Peck, which was, amazingly, his film debut as well!  In 1953, she made the movie, Tonight We Sing, Deep in My Heart was made in 1954, and Invitation to the Dance was made in 1956. 

 

She was in Alfred Hitchcock's Torn Curtain as the lead ballerina.  We've seen that movie -- we're big Hitchcock fans -- but unfortunately...she's not the memory that sticks out for us from that film.  We're kind of distracted by Paul Newman in his 1966 prime.  Mmmm...Paul Newman...  Anyhoo -- her last film was Billy Wilder's The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes, in 1970.

 

 

She died in May 1996, at age 77, from undisclosed causes.  She was buried beside her mother in Hollywood.

 

 

Toumanova and Danny Kaye, LIFE magazine, 1945

Photo by George Platt Lynes, 1941

 

Here's a video montage of stunning photos of her:

  

 

On the Radar -- Blurred Lines

From Fashion Forward Trends, here.

Confession time again:  we Blackbird girls like to boogie to the song "Blurred Lines."  It may be very un-PC to like it, but we do.  It's just so catchy.  And we think Robin Thicke is adorable. 

Anyway, I think fashion designers like it, too.  I keep finding prints and patterns that are blurred and smudgy.  Like watercolors that have too much water and have started to run into each other and down the paper.  Or like someone has run their fingers through thick paint and made a mess -- well, a pretty mess.


From Patternbank.

Of course, the first designer we look to is the House of McQueen (all hail), and Sarah Burton never disappoints.  She's always on the highest precipice of design, much like her sainted mentor and predecessor.  Love the red, black and white, as well as the really new tribal vibe.  But there's those blurry lines...

Alexander McQueen, Spring/Summer 2014

Then I found many small fashion houses that were doing prints that are soft or out of focus, smudgy, blurred; new ombres; new dip-dyes:

Jonathan Saunders

Josie Natori

Maria Grachvogel

Chalayan

It's influencing makeup, too.
 

Vogue Germany, January 2014

Chanel Spring Runway look.

You can get the look for less on Etsy.  A quick search yielded this cute cropped shirt, for under $17.

By handmadebyify, here.



Junk Love: We're Back!

So, we took a full month off from the blog in order to take care of a few outstanding projects, spend time with family, and, of course, have the annual Blackbird Christmas Extravaganza. Now, as the new year is getting under way, and we're getting back to our regular jobs, we've been thinking a lot about that standard cliche: New Year's Resolutions.

We don't make resolutions the way that other people do. We tend to exist just on the edge of a shadow, another cliche called Murphy's Law. Thankfully, and I did just knock on wood, we haven't ever had to deal with a major catastrophe--you know, like having a hurricane flood your house, and as soon as you get the water pumped out, a meteor falls on it and it bursts into flames. We are truly grateful for the lives that we lead, and the people that care about us. But sometimes I would swear that we live in a Buster Keaton movie. If I were to go outside to trim a branch from my pecan tree, the tree would probably fall over, leaving me holding the branch and the saw.

Because of this, there are a lot of things that we avoid doing, just based on the pessimistic (but actually realistic) assumption that at least one of us will end up bleeding or crying at the end. This is why we tread carefully around New Year's Resolutions. We don't want to tempt Murphy any more than we already do. I usually do monthly resolutions--a different one for each month of the year. This not only makes it easier to stick it out, because it's only four weeks, but at the end of the year, it makes me feel like I did so much. For example, I might say that next month, I will take my lunch to work and cook supper at home three days a week instead of going out. On that ninth peanut butter sandwich in my office, when I'm craving fettuccine, I only have to pep talk myself into a few more sandwiches, knowing that the month is nearly over and I can have a new goal to work on. (On a side note, I actually did this a couple of years ago, and ended up with four hundred extra dollars in the bank when I was done.) Last year, however, I made only four resolutions for the year, and I failed at ALL of them. One was to paint my house, and believe it or not, every single time I had a day off that I planned to devote to this project, it rained. Every. Single. One. For a YEAR.

So here I am, feeling like a failure, afraid to try because I don't want to disappoint myself again, but also knowing that there are a lot of things that we, the Blackbird Girls, simply must put our heads to during 2014. And so, I propose the following resolutions:

Resolution #1: Efficiency. Figure out a way to streamline our business, from photography to shipping.

Resolution #2: Organization. It shouldn't take more than five minutes to find an item that needs to be shipped. Okay, maybe ten minutes. This is still an improvement from our current situation, where we instantly lay our hands on one item, and then spend an hour looking for the other one.

Resolution #3: Look for a better location for our business. With the trends of real estate in our area, I can't allow myself to say "Find a better location," because you can't snap your fingers and make it so. But, the best way to achieve Resolutions 1 and 2 is to expand our business into a larger space.

Resolution #4: Build a tunnel from North Carolina to California, because that is where most of our customers are. Or, build a teleporter. Or, one of those suction-tube thingies that banks have in the drive through lanes, so that when someone on the west coast needs that maxi dress right this instant, we can oblige. We might also need a few robots, just because.

Resolution #5: Take a vacation. A real one, not just a weekend.

Now, of these four items, I can almost guarantee that by the end of the year, number five will have been taken care of. As for the rest, who knows? We have tried the first three items in the past, and actually accomplished them all, but then it...fell apart for reasons that I won't bore you with. Our response was to circle the wagons and lick our wounds, which is great, except that we never came back out again. So, I guess that I could really combine the three into one big resolution: get back on the horse (and there's a cliche for you...). This is the year of the Blackbird, because I said so. Now...does anybody have a robot or a teleporter that we could borrow? Pretty please?

Junk Love: Caped Crusader

Our shop

We recently acquired a huge haul of vintage clothing, and among the group was a fabulous 1970s cape, which I immediately had to try on (sadly, it didn't fit right, and gave me T. rex arms). It instantly brought back memories of my childhood, when I was given my mother's hand-me-down capes from the 1960s to wear to church. I loved them, especially a wool plaid one with metal buttons. Not only did it make me feel elegant, like a 1950s movie star, but you can do all sorts of things with your hands under the cape, like tear the church program into tiny bits of confetti, and nobody can see your shenanigans.



When I wore that colorblocked cape in the driveway, it suddenly made me want to add a cape to my legendary coat collection. The universe listened, and a few weeks ago, I came across a 1940s wool nurse's cape, navy with red lining and a monogram on the left arm, for an outstanding price. Here is a similar one for sale on Etsy:

Buy it here

And even though I got my own cape, I haven't been able to stop thinking about them. There is nothing like putting on a pair of bracelet length gloves, a vintage cape, and sunglasses, to make a girl feel like Hollywood from head to toe. So, here are some of the greats that Etsy has to offer right now. Who knows, maybe some of these will come to live with me, like this super groovy 1970s number:

Here

Or, if it's got to be plaid....

Here

Here

Here

Here

Or fluffy!

Here

Or just plain cool....

Here

Here

But here is my favorite. Sequins and cashmere, anyone? And, maybe a date with Rock Hudson?

Here

Bonus -- A Cabin Christmas

As previously discussed, the Christmas windows are never usually our favorites.  Mainly because we have parameters that are set by someone other than ourselves.  We're not divas -- we promise.  It's just that we like to challenge ourselves to approach each window differently, and make every one special in its own way.  But with the Christmas window, we know that the tree goes there, there must be presents under it, and it needs to look "rich and full".  (Don't ask.)  But it also needs to feel a certain bit of tradition, coziness, and usually, a fair amount of sparkle.

Well, we skipped the sparkle this year.

This year we decided to do a New England cabin/camping/fishing theme, based on our love of Rock Hudson's movie, Man's Favorite Sport?.  Made in 1964, Rock is a published fishing expert who actually doesn't know how to fish.  He works at Abercrombie and Fitch, and when his boss enters him into a fishing tournament, he gets outfitted with all of the coolest gear.  It's a feast for Blackbird eyes between the sets, clothes, and camping gear!

Our other inspiration was my obsession with Hudson Bay blankets.  I wish I could have stacks and stacks of them.  I recently found a red Pendleton one at an antique shop, and I thought the other Blackbird was going to have to drag me out of the store.  I wanted that blanket to live with me -- and since I couldn't afford it, I almost decided to just stay there and live with it.  It was a red Hudson Bay blanket, people!  And made by Pendleton!

Anyway, we used the stripes and the colors as a jumping off point for the rest of the window.  We found a great wrapping paper with trees that made for an interesting background, but wasn't overpowering.  We had the brilliant idea to make our own ornaments -- it's expensive to buy new ornaments every year, but it's very limiting to use the same ones over and over.  So we went to a thrift shop, bought some ugly 1980s glass balls, and spray painted them in green and cream.  We then painted the cream ones with Hudson Bay stripes.  The tree needed a garland, so we made a traditional paper chain, but updated it by using brown craft paper cardstock, and making the loops a little skinny and more delicate.  We made wooden plaques with animal figures cut out of scrapbook paper, and little wooden house cutouts got painted with houndstooth and plaid patterns.  We raided the fishing section at a discount store, and got all kinds of brightly colored lures and spinners.

We created the artwork on the fireplace mantel with a spare canvas we had at the house, found at a thrift shop for $1 and stashed away for something like this.  Several layers of cream paint went down first, and then we taped off stripes and painted them the Hudson Bay colors.  We needed a few more decorations, so we made a wooden plaque with a deer cutout in bright scrapbook paper, a string art monogram, and a lovely scrapbook paper covered wreath with handmade paper feathers.

The presents under the tree were themed as well.  We included fishing gear, toy boats, a tiny folding sling chair with a teddy bear, a vintage plaid flannel shirt, flashlights, and a sled.

We had been stashing away cabin merchandise because we knew we wanted to do a cabin window.  And we love the way it turned out.  Rock Hudson would be proud!

 

 

As a final note, we also decided to make our window charitable for the holiday season.  Collector's Antique Mall is hosting a food drive, and we've donated 50 handmade ornaments that coordinate with the window.  While supplies last, for every 5 cans of food you donate, you can pick out one of our ornaments to take home with you.  It starts today, November 29, 2013.