GOINGS ON AT ALMA & NANCY'S JOSHUA TREE STUDIO...
DECEMBER 2010
HOW MANY PEOPLE DOES IT TAKE TO DELIVER A KING SIZE SOLID CLARO WALNUT HEADBOARD OVER AN INFINITY POOL DROPPING OFF A STEEP CLIFF IN THE HOLLYWOOD HILLS?
The answer is 6-8 people! Frieda looked on nervously knowing that any day now she's going to be expected to help. More photos of the bed on the furniture page.
DECEMBER 2010
NEW LATHE
We got a bigger lathe which allows us to turn pieces up to 24 inches wide. The old lathe only went up to 16 inches. So now we can do projects like this pedestal base round dining table and we'll be making larger scale stools/side tables.
DECEMBER 2010
SINGLE RAINBOW! SINGLE RAINBOW!
The deluge hit Joshua Tree as well - washed out roads, power outages, crossed phone lines... this place feels like its hanging by a thread. But then I heard the power even went out at the Third Street Promenade in Santa Monica and I don't know if you can get any more First Worldey than that.
DECEMBER 2010
WALNUT LOGS
The day after Alma's second carpal tunnel surgery he was out one-handedly caring for the new logs by painting the ends to prevent cracking, with some paint on sale at the Home Depot, inadvertantly creating a cool installation piece!
DECEMBER 2010
WALNUT LOGS
We just got a whole semi-truck load of walnut logs from Northern California which will be put to good use. The desert isn't quite sure what to make of these creatures but is happy to use its drying powers to transform them into stable slabs and chunks for sculpture and furniture.
The trailer rental company didn't find our address when it dropped off the 10,000 lb capacity forklift so it just left it in the road 1/2 a mile away with the key in the ignition. Alma found it and figured it had to be our forklift. That would just be too big a coincidence that someone else rented a giant forklift the same day, right?
We spotted the infamous pack of roaming pitbulls traversing the terrain and menacing the mensch of North Joshua Tree. I was glad we were in the car at the time!
NOVEMBER 2010
CARPAL TUNNEL EXTRAORDINAIRE
If typing on a keyboard can give you carpal tunnel syndrome it’s no wonder that years and years and thousands of hours of chiseling, grinding and sanding stone and wood would give you a pretty bad case of it. Combine that with a Northern European predisposition for it and you have the worst case of carpal tunnel that the Palm Desert orthopedic surgeon had ever seen in someone Alma’s age.
He had the right hand operated on a few weeks ago and was out the next day taking Frieda and the dogs for a walk in the National Park, one-handedly dealing with a car seat and stroller. Things didn’t go entirely smooth and there was a fall and toppled stroller on the rocks but everyone survived. His hand without surgery hurt more than the one recently operated on so I guess that’s a good sign that it worked. Alma was already carving stone in the days before he had his left hand operated on and should be almost completely back in business in a month or so. Stones beware.
MINIKILN
We had to build a mini kiln to speed dry some walnut for a museum project proposal. We put in a space heater and a dehumidifier which got a cup or two of water out a day so seems to be working! The water was walnut colored which kind of freaked us out that the color would travel through the air to the humidifier along with the moisture.
NOVEMBER 2011
WORKIN' GIRL
No time to waste. Gots to get Frieda trained and up to speed pronto – we’re going old school farmer-style on her. Lots of work to do. Her nimble small fingers should come in handy...
BOBCAT
There was a bobcat in them thar hills, in fact right outside our living room from whence this picture was taken! When I later zoomed in on photo of the bobcat, located underneath the juniper tree, I was relieved to see it eyeing some other creature and not trying to scope out our little milk fed nugget Frieda through the windows.
NOVEMBER 2010
ALMA + ADAM + COMMUNE + HEATH = THIS SHOW
FROM HEATH:
Heath's long history of collaborating has included artists like Roy McMakin, designers like Christina Kim, companies like Dwell, food visionaries like Alice Waters and type foundries like House Industries. You've heard the saying, "When you know, you know." But did you know that the concept of collaborations started even further back with Edith Heath and her husband, Brian?
Brian Heath was a frustrated smoker. His cigarettes seemed to either fall into or out of his ashtrays. In a very form-following-function inspired moment, Brian took one of Edith's clay bowls off the drying rack and cut a series of V-shaped notches into its side. With his new creation, not only did Brian's cigarettes stay in place, (phew) but should a cigarette be simply left in the notch too long, it would self-extinguish—a feature that earned Heath ashtrays the nickname “safety ashtrays,” and which, no doubt led to them representing 25% of Heath Ceramics’ business for a time.
Thankfully, the need for ashtrays is extinguishing, but the spirit behind Brian’s functional redesign of Edith’s beautiful bowl has lived on.
This brings us to our most current collaboration and show, Alma + Adam + Commune + Heath = This Show, which features an expanded collection of the quickly sold-out ceramic canisters with wooden lids (another great example of Heath’s continued emphasis on marrying materials, function, and beauty).
This year, however, the collaborators—Alma Allen, the sculptor/designer behind the hand-turned wooden lids; Adam Silverman, the potter and studio director of Heath Ceramics Los Angeles; Commune, the LA-based design firm that designed the canisters; and of course, Heath Ceramics, designer/makers since 1948—didn’t stop there.
In the words of Heath Ceramics’ Creative Director, Cathy Bailey, “The combination of materials worked so well, as did the energy in the collaboration that the ideas kept coming.” New to the show this year are 10 various-sized hand-thrown vessels by Adam Silverman with custom wooden lids by Alma Allen. Also receiving Alma’s handmade, wooden lids is a selection of Heath pieces from our standard line—from serving bowls to mugs. The show also includes the reverse concept, with pieces where Silverman has hand-thrown ceramic lids for Alma’s carved wood sculptures. And from the designs of Commune, we are excited to introduce a limited-edition preview of 25 place settings of their new ‘nude’ dinnerware for Heath Ceramics.
Whether the vessels were made in Sausalito or Los Angeles, whether the lids were hand-thrown ceramic from L.A. or hand-turned wood from Joshua Tree, and whether it came from the designs of Commune or Heath, one thing seems to be clear. This is just the beginning of something great...
THE PARTY: The opening party is on Saturday, November 6th from 6-8pm. Join us (all the collaborators), as well as The Dosa and Lake Street Creamery food trucks, which will be parked right outside.
THIS SHOW runs November 6 - December 5
NOVEMBER 2010
FURNITURE AND DESIGN COMMISSIONS
We have been very busy with furniture commisions this year, including this padauk and brass bed, a lot of it for our pals at Commune Design. More photos coming soon... The only problem is the furniture and design work has taken Alma's time away from sculpture so there are very few new pieces this year. We hope to strike a better balance next year and a sculpture show is planned for NYC in May. More to come...
OCTOBER 2010
The fruit didn't fall far from the tree with Frieda, seen here showing off her latest work (in progress) in Italian alabaster... :) Those small hands work great for sanding all the nooks and crevices. In her spare time she's been giving the house a thorough walk-through to consult on what baby-proofing might need to happen for more naive guests.
OCTOBER 2010
Last week we had a visit from both a desert tortoise and Venice Tortoise, along with visiting artist Shigeki Fujishiro, who has an exhibition of super cool work at Tortoise on Abbout Kinney.
Also pictured is a pillow by Yu Nagaba thanks to Yu Nagaba and Yoshi Shimura of Star Graphics!!
AUGUST 2010
Like a pampered starlet with an acupuncturist, nutritionist, and personal trainer who gets facials, massages and holistic healing to achieve that carefree-seeming beauty, a lot of energy work and exfoliating goes into everything. Right now we're working on some solid brass drawers with walnut interiors.
AUGUST 2010
I do have to apologize for the baby photos, especially to those who know me and my previous disdain for the virtues of human offspring. Keiko from tortoise took this one of Frieda on a recent trip to Venice!
AUGUST 2010
Fritz is a worryer, so he's considering a call to Child Protective Services, but Frieda does seem to really enjoy the feeling of flight, in contradiction to what my child psychology book says. As a matter of fact, I DO think it sounds fun to be tossed in the air by a (gentle) giant!
Jonathan Kroll, an American painter living in Berlin, captured Frtiz's essence perfectly in this beloved portrait we commissioned of our noble beast.
JULY 2010
RECYCLED TABLE - BEFORE & AFTER
We took a client's 7' x 32" table and expanded it to 8' x 40" wide. We also added brass inlay.
MAY 2010
FRITZ, PONCHO FANNY, AND THE SPIRIT VINE
Fritz and Poncho, formerly known as Fanny, heard from some Joshua Tree people that babies naturally have more of the hallucinogenic alkaloid DMT in their brains so it’s like they’re tripping all the time. I have to admit it would explain a lot. It does feel like we’re entertaining someone on acid hanging out with Frieda. So Fritz and Poncho decided, maybe they can’t do anything about their displacement in the car seating arrangement or attention-getting hierarchy, but they could try to experience Frieda's supposedly more abundant DMT themselves so they found a Peruvian shaman to take them on an Ayahuasca journey. It’s all too complicated to explain here but after imbibing the psychoactive infused brew, they reportedly experienced a total absolute void that cannot be described, as well as entered their mother’s wombs and were rebirthed. During Poncho’s spiritual journey, her sixth chakra consciousness informed her that her spirit vine name was Poncho, perhaps because she kind of looks like a dirty 1970s poncho. So we are respecting Fanny’s wishes to now be be referred to as Poncho. (It was also getting confusing with so many F’s in the house.)
MAY 2010
BIODIESEL BLUES
Alma is still dealing with the repercussions of our biodiesel experiment. We had to spend $2000 to get the fuel injector on the Dodge rebuilt and the Bobcat hasn’t been working for at least a year. Some cars do great with biodiesel – the '79 Mercedes seemed to handle it fine – but we shouldn’t have used it in the Bobcat or truck which sit for longer periods of time. The biodiesel rotted the seals and clogged the fuel injector of the Bobcat. So Alma has the reluctant title of sculptor / diesel mechanic trying to get it going again so he can move these big claro walnut burls off of the trailer which he picked up on Northern California in April. He also needs the Bobcat to lift this new huge faceted burl table into a delivery truck to embark on its journey to the 7th floor of an apartment building in NYC. We can’t even move it out of the shop and off the moving blanket to get a better picture of it! It probably weighs 700 lbs. We’re excited to have to new stock of burls for large scale sculptures and carved tables.
MAY 2010
NOPE IT’S OAK
We got this stash of beautiful Eastern Oak which had been sitting in a shipping container in Long Beach. The whole deal felt a little bit like something out of the second season of The Wire. Check out the new stools made from it...
MAY 2010
DESERT BULL'S-EYE
Alma spotted this bull’s-eye in the Joshua Tree area on Google maps so we thought we’d go check it out. Seemed like an activity the baby would enjoy, or at least something she better learn to enjoy. Alma’s been reading a lot about the Nazca geoglyphs in Peru and we had hopes that this might be a satellite office for ancient alien communications or maybe a forgotten Robert Smithson project. Given the rusted bomb casings we found and its proximity to the 29 Marine Base, this expenditure of energy was likely for destructive purposes as is so often the case. Although after hearing Stephen Hawking's thoughts on space aliens and their motivations, we’d better rethink our desire to communicate with them. We’re doing just fine stripping our planet of its resources on our own thank you very much Mr. Protozoa from Another Planet!
MAY 2010
FRIEDA!
As the 6 month mark of 2010 approaches, I guess it’s time to finally update the blog and stop milking my excuse not to! HAR-dee-har-har. Frieda Pearce Allen was born on the Winter Solstice 12/21/09 at 12 noon weighing 7 lbs 7 ounces and measuring 20 1/2 inches long. I’ve got her down at the JT liquor store buying lottery tickets every week (although she prefers Scratchers). To remember the spelling, which I am annoyingly prickly about, just remember the old “I” before “E” except after “C” rule. She was named after my grandma and this is the common 19th century European spelling of the name. I swear we’re not just trying to be quirky. Or maybe that is being quirky! I’m surprised at how many people get all Ellis Island on us and want to Americanize it and drop the “E” or the “I” or worse, reverse the “I” and “E” so it’s Freida which is just weird. (Ha-ha - get it?!)
That little patch of courtyard grass was the marijuana of our environmentalism. First grass and now a biological baby... it’s a slippery slope indeed. And with 2 dogs, a baby, and regular trips into LA dropping off Alma's work, I can see the need for a big SUV. (The old Landcruiser is reserved for rock hunting and crawling.) Not to mention that Fritz is not at all cool with being demoted to the way back of the Subaru since he doesn’t really fit on either side of the car seat... oh boy, I might as well start doing spin control for BP. Let's hope that Frieda will grow up to develop a mechanism that makes politicians have ethics and stop loosening safety standards for their oil company buddies.
Not that there hasn't been anything going on besides baby gazing and human and canine cuteness comparisons, there's been a lot going on... the benefit of waiting so long to post pictures is that I think, parental blindness aside, she is decidedly out of that wormy alien newborn stage.
JANUARY 2010
COMMUNITY SHOP AT THE ACE HOTEL
We worked with Commune Design to help them open one of their Community Shops at the Ace Hotel in Palm Springs. Alma did the furniture and fixtures including copper-topped desks and cedar shelving. The shop maintains the same ethos as the Commune Community Shop in their studio in West Hollywood...everything made by artisans and craftsmen in America including Heath Ceramics, Kathryn Bentley, Tanya Aguiniga, Free City, Greybull Nation, Robert Lewis, April Napier, Steve Halterman, Claire Vivier, Atwater Pottery, Nomadic Trading Co., Beatrice Valenzuela and of course, Alma Allen and Commune.
JANUARY 2010
COMMUNITY SHOP AT THE ACE HOTEL
Alma is using the Community Shop to experiment with new designs like these bronze candlesticks.