michelle ward

new reads and more crowning glories

It was a terrific Christmas and a nice few days of just enjoying family time.  Today I'm catching up on loose ends, wrapping up a few deadlines, and planning to do some reading.  A fabulous graphic book from Lynne looks amazing,  a cool book of architect's libraries from Santa, and a handful of magazines are piled on the table.  I've been hearing about Flow magazine (for paper lovers) from Lisa and Julie so I ordered from the Netherlands and they arrived in two days!

 

The Jan/Feb Somerset Studio arrived and like last year, Lynne and I collaborated on an article.  The title of our workshop Crowning Glories is not meant to be literal or limiting, and we each presented different ways you could interpret the title.  Lynne describes and illustrates how impressed she was at seeing pages on exhibit from The Persian Book of Kings.  For my part of the article I took on a self-imposed challenge to incorporate faces, something I rarely do, and found inspiration from playing iPad Solitaire!  Whether you're traveling to see something unique at a museum or gallery, or you're procrastinating on the couch while playing games, you can find new directions to influence your work.

 

I decided to leave my panels in black and white for the article, but I've been working additional pieces in color, which I will show you another time.  This design style has become addicting and I can't stop making them.  Here are the original four colorized in Photoshop.

 

And a reminder about our workshop, which is filling up!  I think there is only one spot left in the first weekend before we start the waiting list, and a handful of spots left in the second weekend.  If you are interested, email Lynne, lkperrella (at) aol (dot) com for the packet of details.

Merry Christmas

Wishing you and yours a blessed day of celebration.

 

making cake

Today we prep for a roast beef + Yorkshire pudding dinner, and bake breads for the neighbors, then frost a cake for baby Jesus.  My large Nativity has a Mary who is holding the baby, so we resort to another infant Jesus who lays in a straw manger, made of plastic, to be set in a ring of candles and sung to Christmas eve.  It belonged to the kids so they could play with the Holy Family.  We used to make a cardboard stable, and pretended to act out the famous story....with the kings arriving after following the star.  There were several years where couldn't locate the plastic Jesus and frantic-ness ensued to get him recovered and placed on the cake in time to celebrate his birthday.  I began the tradition when our oldest was just over a year old.  Getting gifts on your birthday is something we all grow up with, so it was the perfect way to explain Christmas to our children.  So we don't lose Him, plastic baby Jesus spends his non-birthdays in our silverware drawer.  He's never far away to visually remind us of His presence.....and today we honor Him as we exchange our presents.

My favorite track from the Very Special Christmas album series is by Stevie Nicks, with guest Robbie Nevil.  This is the best video I could find.  To see the 'making of', click HERE.

 

more windows

This year Bergdorf Goodman took on ICE as their running theme throughout the holiday windows.  The fabricated icicles look real, and even slightly wet, and must have been a huge project.  Frosty finishes might have been easier, but BG always goes the extra mile with amazing detail.  Their icy items are clear - amazing.  Halloween was my favorite - with the actual BG building as the main star, formerly a Vanderbilt mansion.  If you visit their blog, you can read more about the festivities of opening night, where they actually had a 'reveal' celebration of pulling back the curtain, with aerial acrobats descending the facade of the building.  Finally!  I love to see that they've claimed the event as an EVENT. 

The large and perfect photos I'm presenting here have been borrowed from the BG blog - credits to Ricky Zehavi.  I always wondered how she was able to get non-glare, non-skewed, stellar photos of the full windows.  Details about how she does it are shared HERE. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

tis the season....windows

While Mom and Dad visited for Thanksgiving, us girls spent a day in the city for a fun meal, a Broadway show, and of course viewing the holiday windows.  First up is Tiffanys.  They have smallish windows in comparison to other stores on 5th Avenue but they manage to step out of the little (blue) box.  One year they popped out from the frames as if a carousel was emerging from the facade - an amazing spectacle.  This season they covered the entire buiding with a decal, yes....a press-on sticker, to alter the architectural impression.  Amazing!  Clever!  The dispays behind the glass were simply enchanting.  Tiny rows of white brick homes, with glowing street lights and warmly lit windows.  And of course, the jewels.

 

 

Next:  Bergdorf Goodman