More buried treasure unearthed in move. Two nearly identical rulers found at the now defunct Grand Street flea market way way back when. Happy designer.

The best presents are the kind that betray one person’s deep understanding of another. My friend David gets me. And when it comes to gifts, he’s spot on. He’s clearly been paying attention all these years to who I am and what makes me happy. Anyway, David recently came back from an extended trip to South Africa, and the other day he presented me with an envelope containing these Sawzall blades. I think he said that he found them on the street in Cape town. Just sitting there. Who wouldn’t want them? I mean really, they are practically new for crying out loud. Well, I love them. The patina, the use, the fact that he just found them by the side of the road. All of it. Thanks Dave.

Hello, back to it after a week-long break so as to get things in order.

So, I unearthed this lovely tray in the unpacking process. I like its plainness. And its age. In general I find enamelware irresistible. Something about its cheapness, but ultimate durability, that gets me every time. This company makes enameled kitchenware, but it’s still not available here in the US. Dang it.

I am in the process of packing and moving most of my art supplies to our place upstate and into my new studio. Woot!!! (Hopefully this explains the infrequent postings.) I have a teeny tiny office space here in Brooklyn, but now I finally have the chance to spread out and work in a different way, and on multiple projects at once. The plan is to keep things confined to computer and sketch pad here in the city. I am beyond excited to be digging into the full-scale messiness of the design process. Most of all…I am over the moon about not having to clean up at the end of the day. In the midst of all this sorting and boxing up, I came across my paintbrush roll. A bamboo mat with strips of elastic woven through it in order to keep the brushes secured. It seems to be an item from another life.

Just to be clear, I’m not trying to be lewd here. To explain: One weekend before the holidays, I went into the local upstate Farm and Garden store to see if I could find some canning jars, and somehow ended up in the farm animal feeding section. There are implements and objects on the shelves that I have never seen before. And, furthermore, have no clue as to what purpose they serve. However, it wasn’t a big leap to guess at what these are. (One of the best experiences of the past couple of years was bottle feeding our friends’ baby goats. OMG!) Anyway, as I did a little more digging, I realized that there is an entire industry devoted to animal feeding nipples. All shapes and sizes. Each suited to a different species. As usual, the range and variation in shape of a single item is what’s got me hooked.