that Shakespeherian Rag
20.11.08
19.11.08
In Steiff We Trust: Thanksgiving Plate Poetry
Clearly, the children's plate. As the crowd waits for turkey, it's fun to think of these bits of art gracing the table...each placesetting waiting for that certain someone. With our nod to Joseph Cornell, who needs flowers? A few beeswax tapers, held aloft by silver candlesticks at the center of the table, and we're off...
This is a favorite, also...the book, the fox, and the plate (made at a tender age by one of my sons) were such fun to put together...for me, it is creating "family art" that brings joy...and there is true satisfaction when others find delight in the treasures.
Chicago, Chicago
Place Setting: the souvenir plate from Chicago, the vintage German linens and silk ribbon...all purchased on eBay. Black and white polka-dot porcelain from Japan. Beige bisque dish is graced by Molly Pitcher. (Our cannoneer is not seen, but her presence is felt: my mother finds the most incredible goodies, always has, and Molly is one of them.) The pilgrims grace an early 20th century guide to Plymouth, Mass.
Holiday Plates: How to Dress Up Your Table Before the Bird Arrives
dearest readers:
all of the place settings
posted in the next few days were
created by
victoria thorne,
&
photographed by
rick martin
hope they provide great
inspiration and joy
during your holidays!
above:
mim's plate | quail and olive
18.11.08
Over the River and Through The Woods
Thought this might be fun...it's from a bit that I styled a few years back, for a magazine...Norma took the photos, and the model is the delightful Ashley.
Our dreamer looks like she might be going back home with her elegantly ancient luggage and celebratory jewels, but she is, perhaps, thinking that a bigger bird might be needed to pop in the oven?
It's all a bit Herbert Hoover-ish to me, and I can't help thinking this is more timely now than it was when we shot it...a chicken in every pot, right? You half expect an orphan to come tapping into the frame...and you sort of wonder where a girl like this got all those goodies...
(Side note: I borrowed the jeweller's glasses--the magazine was, obviously, featuring her wares in the article--and plopped them on gorgeous Ashley's head at the last minute. It's still my favorite part of the photo.)
Happy almost-Thanksgiving to all!
For the rest of the week, we'll be trying to dig up a few Thanksgiving photos and an apple pie recipe (just for you, Alexander in Germany). We might even throw in a little sweet potato casserole, and Helen Corbitt's stuffing.
The T.K. want to know how it's done (all that Thanksgiving cooking, yum) after lo these many years. Cheers!
14.11.08
in the kitchen: jane and her boys
A cottage kitchen in California.
Thought you might like a glimpse-
it was great fun to work on.
Since this shoot, the wood's
developed a softer luster; the honed marble
and pewter become more beautiful with use.
[Good things do get even better with love.]
Above, Jane and her wonderful boys
in the kitchen
that was tailor-made for them.
kitchen | victoria thorne design
photos: margot hartford
About Our New Profile Photo
The incredibly talented Miss M. Logsdon, above, is our new profile girl...the photo above was taken last spring during a shoot for a book which we have been working on for some time. Miss M. is a gifted actress and we thank her for providing us with endless amounts of inspiration. The shoot was styled and conceived by our design team, and taken by the marvelous Margot Hartford (whose website can be found here). We thought this light-hearted image would be just right while we prepare to roll out a new design start-up (we're also decking lots of halls for the upcoming holidays whilst we watch, warily, the economic news). Here at Victoria Thorne Design, hope doth spring eternal.
Thank Goodness.
Miss M. is reading the delicious How to Dress for Every Occasion..., which is cheered on here by Daniel Handler and Lisa Brown. Her plaids are from The Scotch House of London and Mr. Lauren of NYC. The vintage cable sweater is from the collection of Miss Vivian Catherine Thorne, and the jeans are the model's own.
13.11.08
Room for a Boy. Space to Read.
it seemed a good idea to create walls that
echoed ancient japanese landscapes via superflat...
and i tried to do so in a way that
would last for a good 10 years or more,
still pleasing after the manga moved on.
the child's roll-top desk: an eBay find.
tatami mat found in menlo park;
canvas water bucket
courtesy of the French Army.
antique scoop draped with ship's standard
holds ancient document
(pirate's treasure, as it's quite old)
re-purposed french army canvas creates
the tent beneath the bed;
duvet covers are vintage, via ebay
& here
again
design
victoria thorne
room for a boy
an interior.
just a glimpse.
design:
victoria thorne
photography:
norma lopez for
the mercury news
11.11.08
Pico and the Shadows
The light was killer when we finished setting up for Holidays on a High Note, but we were all flabbergastedly in love with the masterwork that Pico Soriano had just wrought.
Here it is, snapped quick as the dusk crept over the polo fields outside, through a multitude of mullioned windows...
for a shadowless shot, see California Home+Design. We're all there!
Autumn in Menlo Park
The autumnal yumminess above was some of the prep work to be found on Rene van Rems workbench prior to our event at the Circus Club in Menlo Park, Holidays on a High Note. You can simply imagine what gorgeousness he put together the next day, during his presentation. Perhaps I should fill you in a bit more as the week scampers on...
10.11.08
what's black and white and striped all over?
halston would've loved it:
black and white and stripes, and gloves for hats...
how happy is that?
good stuff
from vicatlostdotnetdotau of australia,
and the newly affianced (congrats!) cup of jo
9.11.08
we just love to let it snow
After many many years of creating our own stationery (and logos and wrapping paper and whathaveyou), it's always a joy to happen upon someone who makes stationery we don't think we can live without (and we have quite a lot o' stationery we already live with). Herein lies the reason we bring you this bit of beautiful, hand-wrought artwork that we just absolutely love.
etsy
8.11.08
Well, I can't seem to get a photo to attach, but who needs it when they can go look at HHH?
Hollister, what hath thou wrought? How groovy are your kitchen ideas? How hard is it not to want all this yummy stuff? Geez louise.
And I love it that Mrs. Blandings (see comment) and brilliant Porter Hovey are looking at the tile floors...and the bathroom fixtures. I've been know to do that once or twice (and the looks you get when you take just a few snapshots of floors and fixtures...my goodness!). Wondering if I should publish my infamous Red Bar bathroom ("I just want to remember the magnificent color you picked, Kirk") shot, or the one in the women's wc at the New York Public Library, where I was so taken by the marble sinks (as dear T.D. said, "You could have a bat mizvah in there").
Good design is everywhere, thank heavens. And Hollister and Mrs. Blandings and Porter have quite the knack for finding it.
Btw, if you didn't see the Astor Resurrection: here it is. To die for. I have long lived for the Thursday New York Times, as it has both Style and Home. What more could you ask for?
Jane, I'm glad we did your kitchen in walnut and white, with scads of good marble and warm floors. So glad.
The San Francisco Flower Mart
Went the other day with good friend Gayle and these made me want to do a wedding, with flowers like this, and a brilliant and charming bride and groom...
There were seas of hydrangeas. Continents of color. It was heady and somewhat overwhelming and deliciously glorious. And it smelled good, too, like the old days when the florist opened his glass-fronted case and the cool sweet perfumed air rushed out and wrapped you up in it...
Above, the recipe for a perfect thanksgiving table. Just add turkey. And cranberries, on the side.
In green and white, Gayle's impeccable picks...she has wonderful taste...the orange flower stuck it's head in, but only for the picture.
I sort of wanted to just take everything home and start events-r-us.
Strawberry Blonde
This morning, found myself staring at the art of Carl Larsson and thinking that his rendering of linens, bedclothes, garments, and thus and such was magnificent, as well as timely and--that old chestnut--classic. (The above version doesn't do justice to the color. Will hunt for better.)Wouldn't you love to have the stripey curtains tucked behind those Swedish beds, or draped in that domino-esque way on the ceiling? Those little red wool tufts hanging at perfect intervals above it all? Is this not magic?
And, below, there's a strawberry blonde on a sled that makes me miss my sister...but not those long northern nights that we knew in Germany.
Do you remember the smell of melted ice on wool, mittens with a slight crust of snow from the lunky snowman we tried to roll together in the yard? Pinecones worked pretty well for eyes, and there was always a sprig of cedar for a lame little arm or two. Carrots for noses were not so easy, so a rock often sufficed. And, since they were there again, more pinecones for the smile. By the time we got to putting him all together, it was sort of done already...wasn't there a cup of hot chocolate waiting for us, maybe? Shouldn't we just plop his head on, stick those pinecones well in, and go somewhere warm?
I love the pale sun working it's way through the frostridden sky. And I miss that strawberry blonde, and her parents.
Love to all in Virginia, New York, Germany and elsewhere.
6.11.08
Happy Day! Our Table is Featured in California Home+Design
a little snapshot from the table
created for
Holidays on a High Note
2.11.08
Russian Children, 1909 and The Color of Truth
It's so out-of-context to see- in shades that are true-
color photographs that are 100 years old.
We're used to the old black and white;
often gorgeous yet utterly drained of hue.
A bit of a shock to look at these and remember
that what we're accustomed to seeing
was just part of the story. The part without color.
And what might be more important than real color
for telling a true story?
Young Russian peasant women
near the small town of Kirillov.
Photographer to the Tsar:
The photographs of
Sergei Mikhailovich Prokudin-Gorskii
(1863-1944) offer a vivid portrait of
a lost world -- the Russian Empire
on the eve of World War I
and the coming Revolution.
Children sit near White Lakein the north of European Russia.
"Born in Murom, Vladimir Province, Russia, in 1863 and educated as a chemist, Prokudin-Gorskii devoted his career to the advancement of photography. He studied with renowned scientists in St. Petersburg, Berlin, and Paris. His own original research yielded patents for producing color film slides and for projecting color motion pictures. Around 1907 Prokudin-Gorskii envisioned and formulated a plan to use the emerging technological advancements that had been made in color photography to systematically document the Russian Empire. Through such an ambitious project, his ultimate goal was to educate the schoolchildren of Russia with his "optical color projections" of the vast and diverse history, culture, and modernization of the empire. Outfitted with a specially equipped railroad car darkroom provided by Tsar Nicholas II, and in possession of two permits that granted him access to restricted areas and cooperation from the empire's bureaucracy, Prokudin-Gorskii documented the Russian Empire around 1907 through 1915. He conducted many illustrated lectures of his work. Prokudin-Gorskii left Russia in 1918, after the Russian Revolution, and eventually settled in Paris, where he died in 1944."
Thanks to Mena Trott's wonderful Dollar Short:
Turn of the Century Autochromes for inspiration.
1.11.08
Tree Huts: Madison Square Garden
From:
"Tree huts in particular are an emerging focus of Kawamata’s work; a crystallization of Kawamata’s interest in the architecture of shelter and of the insertion of private objects into public spaces as a method of renegotiating the meaning of both."
See:
Thanks to the ever-inspiring Shedworking
for the heads-up...
it's been fun to watch this become a reality.
Tree houses of dreams, yes?
31.10.08
28.10.08
27.10.08
"...a Stunning Thanksgiving Table"
Kim Boatman, Rick Martin, and I teamed up several times to present holiday tables (and other bits of decoration, for other bits of holidays) for the Mercury News. It was a wonderful undertaking, and involved a bit of hard work and preparation...
All fun, because it was a most excellent team. I believe we enjoyed working together and came up with some pretty good stuff. The Merc liked us. We were asked to cover a number of holidays after another.
I was the designer/stylist/prop master, Rick the photographer, Kim the writer. They are both magnificent. It was a great lark; and, now, when October rolls around, I grow somewhat nostalgic for the tables. As luck would have it, a few still seem to exist on the web.
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