Friday Favorites 1/17/2014

January 17, 2014

Cheryl Katz, Contributing Editor
They float. They dive. They hang suspended in midair. A host of beautifully crafted lighting that leaves no doubt: there’s something in the air.

Paula M. Bodah, Senior Editor
I can never resist using a doorknocker when I come across one. Sure, a doorbell does the trick for summoning whomever I’m hoping will welcome my visit, but the solid, commanding sound of a knocker makes me feel my arrival is getting the true importance it merits. Colby Smith, an artist who lives and works in Swansea, Massachusetts, designs and crafts doorknockers to make every guest feel welcome.

Smith and his wife, Jane, design their doorknockers in a wide range of styles. After the yellow or red brass has been poured at a New England foundry, the couple hand-patterns, assembles, and finishes the pieces. These are solid, weighty knockers, created to last a lifetime as well as to make a good first impression of your home.

A line of botanical designs includes the pineapple, the iconic symbol of welcome in New England’s colonial seaport towns. Smith offers it in nickel-plate, oiled-bronze, or verdigris finish.

Photos courtesy of Colby Smith

The red brass lobster, also offered in nickel-plate, oiled-bronze, or verdigris finish, is from the sea and shell collection.

I’m partial to the more natural look of Smith’s RocKnocker collection. Each of these knockers is one-of-a-kind, made with beach and river stone that’s cut, shaped, polished, and set into sand-cast frames. Every one of these unique pieces is signed and dated.

Kyle Hoepner, Editor-in-Chief
Haddam, Connecticut’s Susan Bijleveld is in no way a stranger to cloth. A twenty-plus-year veteran with her family workroom, Finished in Fabric, she has long been comfortable catering to the design community with custom upholstery, curtains, bedding, and pretty much any other thing you can imagine being made out of or covered with textiles.

Photos courtesy of Susan Bijleveld.

But her love affair with fabrics and trims has now taken an even more personal turn with the launch of Lulu’s Pillow Company, purveying a line of 100%-down-filled, puffily gorgeous comfort online and soon, most likely, via a design boutique near you.

Ask about any particular detail of her pillow creations, and Bijleveld’s enthusiasm is plain: “I found these amazing buttons made from cinnamon sticks cast in resin. When you rub them, they smell wonderful!”

While retail partners and an Etsy shop are still in the works, Lulu’s Pillow Company is up and running online now at lulu-pillow-company.blogspot.nl, or you can contact Bijleveld by email at luluspillowcompany@gmail.com.

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