Museum of Arts & Design

{thread wrapped wire basket}

After window shopping and visiting the Folk Art Museum, we headed uptown to the Museum of Arts & Design (MAD) which is on Columbus Circle. This being my first trip to MAD, I wasn't sure what to expect ~ the museum isn't huge, there were about 6 floors ~ one of which houses open studios. As we were short on time, we started at the top and worked our way down to the gift store on the street level. Here are a few items I thought worth mentioning:

{wire wrapped leaf sculpture; detail below}

{glass bead and wire wrapped bowl ~ for sale in the gift store}

The piece below is made out of thousands of paper wrapped beads that are hand-wrapped, lacquered and then woven together to form the textile. The paper used for the beads came from recycled materials from the Obama presidential campaign.

{wrapped paper beads wall textile; detail on left}

{wire & bead chandelier}

I can always appreciate when an everyday material or item is used in a different way than it was intended. In this case, yards of ball chain have been fashioned into this elegant chandelier. Even better when the item is inexpensive and yields such an impressive result!

{ball chain chandelier}

Not sure these would be too practical as I work at a computer much of the day, but I thought they have interesting texture and a unique look for a bangle. I have seen dyed gourds in gorgeous colors ~ wouldn't these be even better in a beautiful array of colors?

{natural gourd bangles}

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I Spy. . .

While leafing through my newly arrived Pottery Barn catalog, I came upon the image above and noticed the wire laundry basket in the corner! I have had my eye out for these for a year or two and they aren't that easy to come by ~ now that I see this new one for sale for $129, I am thinking that the $55 - $75 price I usually see is quite the bargain! Here (scroll down a little) is one of the vintage baskets I got a year ago ~ you can see what it looks like collapsed ~ it really is a nicely designed item!

{all images from Pottery Barn}

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