Each Little World

CBG Antiques Fair: Inside the tents

The reason we go to events like the Antiques & Garden Fair at the Chicago Botanic Garden is to look rather than buy. This is a rather rarefied level of selling and shopping and for us it's a chance to see unusual things up close and personal. So here are some objects that caught our attention.

This pair of bedsteads were metal so the dealer took advantage of that to have a little fun.

We are always drawn to faces whether in paintings or sculpture and the Fair was filled with wonderful images.

This is the outside of the booth of Thistle, an Illinois dealer who is one of our favorites. We fell in love with this huge piece of African currency with its sculptural appearance. It contrasted nicely with the industrial strainer above it on the wall.

Thistle's space is always filled with lots of objects made of metal and stone and limited in color. They have patina and are never perfect but always catch our attention. Over the years we've bought a few small items from this dealer. 

I was in heaven with the number of dealers who were offering china and silver of all kinds. There were a number of folks who specialized in Majolica (below) and Palissy ware.

Another fascinating face.

This one belonged to a large Santos figure, a religious icon identified with Spain and the regions that country colonized. The cage would have supported a garment. I was taken with the metal bamboo stalk that held little lanterns with votive candles as well as the Chinese pot filled with ceramic flowers. 

There was oodles of glitzy jewelry gleaming on glass shelves behind closed doors. It was too over the top for me and I could not figure out its appeal until I saw the signs indicating the pieces were from big name designers like Chanel and Oscar de la Renta.

Like many shoppers we were dressed for the weather in sturdy boots, jeans, sweaters and rain jackets. But there were plenty of Chicago shoppers who dressed for the event and to be able to match potential purchases to their outfits. 

I was smitten with things like a Gorham silver watering can, a big strand of water buffalo bone beads and these chunky ropes of African amber.

There were lots of antique textiles as well as newer treats like this floral necklet of felt. I almost fell prey to temptation on this one but decided to save my money just in case.

Mark was taken with this giant shop sign of a wooden jackknife.

Partly it was the scale of the item but what really caught his eye was the name — O'Brien — which is a family name.

We ended the afternoon with coffee, a piece of poppyseed cake and a peek at the CBG gift shop. Decorator Michael Smith spoke as part of the special events offered all weekend in conjunction with the Fair. I like a lot of his work but not enough to shell out the money for his lecture or his books. 

I came home with a small religious medal with St. Christopher on one side and Pope John XXIII on the other. I bought it because it was round in shape, appears to be silver and only cost $6, which is the perfect price for something that I plan to add to my charm bracelent. And also because the last time I was a practicing Catholic, John XXIII was on the throne. We thought of him as the "Pope of hope," and indeed the world seemed more hopeful in those youthful days. 

We spent the rest of our time in Chicago with friends old and new, eating and drinking, listening to music and talking art, books, movies, politics and, of course, gardening — the kind of personal interactions that help to keep us hopeful these days. 

NOTE: You can read my other post about the CBG Fair here. Jennifer Boles of Peak of Chic blog spoke at the Fair and posted some terrific pictures of the vendor booths.

CBG Antiques & Garden Fair

After a hiatus of a number of years, Mark and I went to the Windy City for the 2013 Antiques & Garden Fair put on by the Chicago Botanic Garden. This year's event featured more than 100 vendors from the Midwest to as far away as Nantuckett Island and England. Everyone sets up their space with vintage, antique and ethnic treasures in tents and assorted buildings right in the middle of the CBG. 

The weather at the CBG was wet and windy — pretty much the same thing happening at home. It reminded us of our trip to the gardens with the Wisconsin Hardy Plant Society in the fall of 2008 when the gardens closed due to record rainfall while we were visiting. The photo above — flooding that closed parts of the parking areas on Friday — gave us a clue about what to expect as we walked from our car to the Visitor Center.

As we exited that building onto the bridge that takes you out into the gardens we could see how high the water was in the lake that is a feature of the landscape. Note that there isn't any green showing on the trees and espalied shrub on the wall. Virtually all the outdoor blooming plants we saw were things that had been brought on in the greenhouses and put in place before the Antiques Fair.

How long can these plants survive this much standing water? 

Mark snapped the picture above in 2008. It shows water lapping at the shoreline path along this promenade area on the way from the Visitor Center to the Regenstein Center. Compare it to the shots below which he took on Friday — clearly conditions appear to be much worse this time. 

Plants as well as the path were underwater. I love this area of the garden with stepped rows of hedges and groundcovers, including boxwoods and cottoneaster. The railing along the pathway (below) is barely visible above the water.

Cold, wet and windy conditions meant the tents housing the dealers, the visitors, and the antiques had be securely fastened down.

Even with all the weight holding things in place, we did see a bit of occasional rippling of a wall filled with paintings. 

Once inside the tents, however, we pretty much were able to forget about the weather, though most visitors and even some vendors kept their outdoor jackets on.

The view below is the bonsai display courtyard in 2008. For the Antiques Fair, even the covered walkways around this courtyard are put to use.

The courtyard became a staging area for LP gas cannisters for the heaters that were whooshing warm air into the covered walkways that had been closed in with plastic sheeting to make more display stalls for the vendors. It was nice and warm in this area.

Once inside there was so much to see, that I put the woeful weather and the tragedy in Boston out of my mind for a few hours. I just honed in on beautiful old objects.

Among my favorites was this delicate Chinese bamboo vest displayed on an equally lovely stand. The garment was meant to be worn in the summer under a kimono to protect the fabric and keep it from touching one's hot sweaty skin. 

As you can see from the topiary in front of the vest, most vendors had some kind of fabulous flowers in their booth. This dealer had an assortment of topiaries and all of them were for sale, too.

Later this week, I'll share more photos of the antiques we saw as well as the stunning floral displays that were put together especially for this event. 

"Inside the Gardener's Head in Spring"

My concept for a fall silhouette using pine needles, seed pods, stones and other natural materials from the garden proved so frustrating that I gave up on it — and decided that maybe my winter silhouette was going to be my lone fiber project. Then, a book I'd placed on hold at the public library came in and changed everything.

"The Art of Embroidery: Inspirational Stitches, Textures and Surfaces" by Francoise Tellier-Loumagne is the most inspirational embroidery book I've ever looked at. It is less about technique and more about how to interpret your ideas in fiber. Great photo illustrations (also by the author) including stitch samples all done on heavy white paper making for the clearest instruction I've seen.

I was so excited by Tellier-Loumagne's book that I sat down and started another textile silhouette. This time I focused on Spring with all the greens pushing through the snowy winter detritus. I cut two silhouettes out of dark green net and then cut them into pairs of puzzle-like pieces. I experimented with a number of techniques for stuffing, stitching and attaching them to the black background. 

They're filled with felt, fabric, ribbon, threads pulled from assorted fabrics, and bits of green plastic bags. Some pieces have small pieces of white lace inside them but most of that fabric is melting across the large silhouette image, held in place with beads and sequins.

I've started a summer silhouette but my concept involves more preliminary background stitching than the first two pieces, and it feels more like a chore than creative work. Hoping to be ready to move on to the fun parts soon!

You can read about my winter silhouette, the first work in this four-part series, here.

"Inside the Gardener's Head . . .

. . . in Winter" is the name of a textile work that I recently completed, after many years away from doing any fiber arts. I was inspired to pick up a needle again when I saw the beautiful piece (below) at the Madison Contemporary Fiber Artists exhibit at Olbrich in January. 

The work was created by Marty Petillo who is the volunteer services coordinator at Olbrich Botanical Gardens. I was so taken with her piece that I dragged my sister-in-law — who is proficient in many textile techniques — over to see it. This photo, snapped with my phone, doesn't begin to portray the quality of Marty's concept or technique. Suffice it to say that she did a profile of a head from the back covered with embroidered evergreen branches, a mixed media bird's nest complete with eggs, and a stitchery bird perched on the rim of the nest which is not visible in my shot. Nor can you see her beautiful border of perfect stitches interspersed with equally perfect French knots.

I had been doing drawings based on silhouettes of my head and Mark's a couple of years ago, and had sketched out some ideas for further development of that idea. When I saw Marty's piece, I decided to detour into textiles for my next silhouette. I used my head for the shape and used black linen for the ground. I also decided I would do four silhouette portraits and make them views of the inside of a gardener's head in each season. Since it's winter outside, that's the season I started with. You can see the results below. 

I used contemporary fabric of gray lace flowers on a net ground to provide a visual and textural break. I actully cut out flowers, leaves and all kinds of assorted bits of lace and net and stitched them down separately in the size and shapes I wanted. Then I filled in with old beads and buttons (many from my sister-in-law's huge stash of buttons), as well as snap fasteners, bits of silvery paper ribbon from a Christmas present and the selvedge from the lace fabric. I also cut up an old pearl bracelet from my childhood jewelry box and added an old family religious medal.

If you want to know how long it's been since I did a project of this type, I can only say that my boxes and tins of textile materials included skeins of DMC embroidery floss marked 10 cents and packages of rocaille beads from Ben Franklin marked 39 cents! But, of course, one never gets rid of such treasures just in case . . .

Now that I've finished my winter portrait, I intend to put it in a round silvery frame. I started the next seasonal portrait but have ripped everything out a few times and completely changed my concept as well. It is very possible that doing one fiber piece was enough to get the urge out of my system instead of starting me on a glorious new art path. Only time will tell.

What Emma Thompson was reading

The NYTimes Sunday books section recently had an interview with actress Emma Thompson about what she's reading. But what caught my attention were the books that she included among her childhood favorities, like "The Wolves of Willoughby Chase." Since that's also a favorite of mine, her list inspired me to search out "The Strange Affair of Adelaide Harris" by Leon Garfield.

Harris and Bostock are friends and schoolmates at Dr. Bunnion's Academy for the Sons of Gentlefolk and Merchants. Harris, the hairbrained leader to the devoted Bostock, decides to conduct an unlikely experiment. He'll put his new baby sister, Adelaide, out on a country hillside to see if a wolf will come and suckle her, just like they've heard in the tale of Romulus and Remus from their inept teacher at school. But a trysting couple discover the child and carry her off, much to the consternation of the boys.

What follows as they attempt to rescue Adelaide — without revealing their part in the plot — is a tale with more twists and turns than Dickens and with a cast of characters that is most definitely Dickensian, though the story is set a century earlier. This little gem — intended for readers 12 and up — is one that will equally captivate adults. The language is replete with puns, similies, big words and a laugh-out-loud literay joke near the end of the story.

There is a lot of sexual innuendo, more silly than serious, that made me wonder if parents today would make a fuss over it; which was clearly not the case when it came out in 1971. A satisfying read that will send me in search of other Garfield books. But first I have to read another of Thompson's favorites that I also found in the public library: “The Box of Delights” by John Masefield.

Right or wrong, I am a reader who often judges a book by its cover. When searching online for cover images for these two children's books, I discovered the copies I found via the library have illustrations that are much less compelling than other editions. I have to admit that if I had just stumbled across the book with the blah cover (below) I would have been unlikely to give it another glance; while the cover above would have caught my eye and sucked me right in.

A day in the country

Saturday afternoon we drove out into the Wisconsin countryside for a Harvest celebration hosted by friends. On our way we stopped to see painter Chuck Bauer who was exhibiting his work in his "Hen House Gallery" as part of the 14 South Artists annual tour. We've known Chuck for many years but I'd never been out to the farm to see his paintings in the location where many of them were painted — including "My Front Yard and Road" — which came home with us as souvenir of a perfect autum afternoon.

I've got my Brelli . . .

It's cool, it's cloudy, it's supposed to rain today. I've got my Brelli; why won't it rain? I keep waiting and hoping and listening for thunder. But there's no sound outdoors or in; nothing but a soft swish as I open and close my artful umbrella.

A taste of Milwaukee

Whenever we go to Milwaukee, we never seem to get beyond the Milwaukee Art Museum, our usual destination. So we decided to spend a few days in the city with no schedule to follow. Though we drove from Madison, we parked the car and walked everywhere. Milwaukee has wonderful architecture everywhere you look, with lots of open space making for an attractive urban experience. Since we were on foot, we also noticed that Milwaukee drivers — unlike most Madison motorists — respected pedestrians and always stopped for us in crosswalks.

I had to make a stop at the historic Geoge Watts & Son whose building (below) is one of the most gorgeous retail stores imaginable. Though reduced in size, the store still carries a dazzling array of china, glassware and linens and their Tea Room is still serving Sunshine Cake — a Milwaukee sweet treat for more than 100 years. Today the building is also home to the De Lind Gallery and a bridal shop. The gallery was showing posters by many of the artists whose work is on display in the big MAM exhibit, "Posters of Paris: Toulouse-Lautrec and his Contemporaries" (which ends on 9/9).

Eero Saarinen's Milwaukee Country War Memorial

Unknown grande dames

We came across this refreshing little oasis and walked through it to take a break from the heat and sun. Since only a couple of people were enjoying this park-like space, it may not have been intended for the public but just the people who work in the adjacent buildings. 

Since we hadn't taken an official vacation in a couple of years, we decided to splurge and stay at The Pfister Hotel. This is a stunning 1893 masterpiece with a noted collection of Victorian paintings on display. There are big meeting rooms named after presidents of the era when the hotel was built (like Taft and McKinley) and a room whose walls are covered with photographs of all of Wisconsin Governors. The hotel underwent restoration in 2008 and just sparkles.

There's a piano lounge tucked into one corner of the grand lobby and the long-time pianst was playing Gershwin when we arrived to check in. We had cocktails there one night before going out to dinner. 

We stayed in the original part of the Pfister on the eighth floor. I adored the hotel's classic staircase and made Mark walk down all eight flights to the lobby every time we left our room. I wanted to savor every bit of the 19th Century experience!

We did take advantage of the new tower that adjoins the old hotel. It has a spectacular martini bar — Blu — on the 23rd floor where we watched the blue moon rise over the city and light up Lake Michigan.

We stopped in the lobby each day to chat with Timothy Westbrook, the Pfister's charming artist-in-residence. Yes, the hotel actually has an artist-in-residence program. This program and the fact that Westbrook is a textile artist actually convinced us to stay at the Pfister. Westbrook is creating costumes of the Pfister era using looms and an historic sewing machine but employing recycled material like cassette tapes. 

 You can read more about him on the hotel's blog or his web site.

Men and women at work

In honor of Labor Day, a few images of workers from the Grohmann Museum at the Milwaukee School of Engineering. We began a recent visit at the rooftop sculpture garden with these larger-than-life bronze figures, where there were also some attractive plantings that were holding up well to this summer's extreme weather. 

This is a view looking down at the elaborate mosaic work in the entrance floor from an upper floor stairway. 

Most of the artworks in the museum — not surprisingly — showed men as depicted by male artists. While the men were doing a wide variety of jobs, the women pictured tended to be doing a limited number of typical female tasks: spinning, weaving, and agricultural work. That's probably why I was so taken with this painting: "The Carpenter Shop of Sophie Christensen," 1899, by Maria Christine Thymann, a Danish artist who lived from 1867-1928.

Here's a critical view of some of the work in this collection from reporters Mary Louise Schumacher and Whitney Gould of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel that appeared at the time the museum opened. (We did see signage that addressed some of these concerns on our visit last week).

Back yard whimsy

A local gardener who is also a quilter had her textile handiwork imaginatively displayed in her garden on a recent visit.

This totem, however, was my favorite object in her garden and one of the most creative things I've seen in any garden. It was a retirement gift made for her by staff and some of the students at Malcolm Shabazz High School in Madison. They also presented her with an accompanying book.