ephemicropolis : staple city by peter root

Artist Peter Root created Ephemicropolis, a city of staples!

(*via Design Milk)

david oliveira : wire scupltures

Aren’t these incredible? David Oliveira is a Portuguese artist who makes these sketch-like wire sculptures.

(*via Okay Great)

summer gifts : the sill

The Sill (via @kingsleyharris) combines carefully chosen houseplants (especially suited for city dwellers) with unique and artist-made pots. There are a lot of wonderful ideas for wedding, host/ess or housewarming gifts.

Above, the Jean Gerard, Ghost plant, pot handmade in Manhattan ($160).

The Wilder, ZZ plant, pot made in Los Angeles ($110):

Celia, Arrowhead plant, pot made in Portland, OR ($98):

Sydney Park, Arrowhead plant, made in Brooklyn ($160):

And Eley, Haworthia plant, pot made in Manhattan ($48):

diana beltran herrera : paper bird sculptures

Fantastic paper bird sculptures by artist/industrial designer Diana Beltran Herrara!

Browse the gallery here and explore her other paper works.

(*via Pattern Pulp)

made in brooklyn : the violin maker

Photographer/filmmaker Dustin Cohen started a video series entitled Made in Brooklyn, documenting different Brooklyn makers and creators. This is one of my favorites, documenting Sam Zygmuntowicz and his hand-crafted violin shop. Dustin invited me to be a part of this series as well, which I’ll be sure to share when it’s finished!

pretty eggs : a spring tradition

Of course, there’s the oldie but goodie, Ukranian painted eggs, “Pysanka.” The word pysanka is based on the word to write, since the patterns are written onto the egg in wax.

Very cool neon dip-dyed eggs by Oh Joy!.

And in beautiful contrast, these naturally dyed eggs from Door to Door Organics.

And in another natural twist from The Inspired Room, I like the idea of using new leaves to create a dyed design. Find the instructions here.

manifest destiny : mark reigelman, jenny chapman & paul endres

This floating cabin is an art project called “Manifest Destiny!” by Brooklyn based artist Mark Reigelman, with architect Jenny Chapman and engineer Paul Endres. It is a temporary installation (through October 2012) of a cabin placed on the side of a building in downtown San Francisco at 446 Bush Street.

The installation’s concept statement:

Manifest Destiny! is about our God-given imperative as modern explorers, to seek out parcels of unclaimed territory and boldly establish a new home front in the remaining urban voids of San Francisco.

(*via Tiny House Blog; images from Dezeen)

wooden jewelry boxes : oh dier

Beautiful handmade boxes for an individual ring. By Oh Dier on Etsy. $38 each.

(*via my pal Alicia! and Shiny Squirrel)

alice & ben : martha’s vineyard wedding

This wedding was so much fun to work on. Paperfinger got to create so many different paper details…

Alice and Ben are a wonderful New York couple whose hearts lie also with Martha’s Vineyard. They met on the island, both families having spent a lot of time there. The wedding was held in April on Alice’s mother’s beautiful property in Chilmark. The landscape there naturally dictated the aesthetic of all the wedding design. All the pieces I created tied together a classic, elegant calligraphy script, a soft hand-lettered serif caps — all in shades of dark purple and grey, exactly the colors you see in the environment of Martha’s Vineyard.

They lucked out with gorgeous weather and here are some photos of the wedding, with special attention to the pieces I created. The entire wedding was featured this month on Style Me Pretty — check it out to browse the full gallery and read about all the details. All photography by Shawn Connell of Christian Oth Studio.

In addition to their save the dates and rehearsal dinner invitations, I created:

Folded, multi-page welcome booklets

These awaited each guest in their hotel, with a welcome message from the couple, complete schedule details, an illustrated map of the island, even a pocket sleeve for hand-calligraphed coupons at local eateries. The stone wall on the cover came from the illustration I did for the save the date.

A tri-fold program, tied with raffia:

A light grey hand-lettered menu with each guest’s name individually written on top in deep purple:

Escort cards, table numbers and signage:

Custom designed favor box labels:

Rehearsal dinner and brunch invitations:

And here are a few other beautiful moments from the wedding:

Photos courtesy of Shawn Connell of Christian Oth Studio.

woodsmithe : creative builders

Another great discovery at Summit Series was Woodsmithe, the Los Angeles-based woodworking and design team that created a huge array of installations and materials for the conference. They are wonder-workers, nice people and produce some really beautiful stuff.

Here are some images from Summit as well as some shots of their other work.