Friday Favorites 8/19/2011

Kyle Hoepner, Editor-in-Chief
If ever there were sculptures perfectly suited for the somewhat soft-hearted editor of a home-design magazine, they must be these faux taxidermied cow heads cunningly contrived from upholstery fabric and old furniture parts by artist Breon Dunigan. Not quite as seriously elegant as the ceramic deer head my colleague Stacy Kunstel blogged about last fall, and perhaps not as entirely…singular…as the sheep chair Erin Marvin found for our April Fool’s blog post earlier this year, they still make me smile. More of Dunigan’s whimsical work can be seen on the Web site of Provincetown’s ArtSTRAND Gallery.

Photos courtesy of ArtSTRAND Gallery

Erin Marvin, Managing Editor
I don’t think outdoor décor could get any more delightful than these Le Versha chairs from Anthropologie. Designed by British designer/artist David Le Versha as a whimsical twist on traditional wrought iron, the garden chairs come in four vibrant colors: orange, turquoise, plum and red.

Photo courtesy of Anthropologie

Paula M. Bodah, Senior Editor
Liora Manné was planning on a career in the theater when curiosity led her to take a class in textile design. The theater world’s loss is the homeowner’s gain, since that class led Manné to masters’ degrees in textile design and textile engineering. She now designs all sorts of beautiful, colorful things for the home, including these pillows, created with a unique process she calls Lamontage. Acrylic and polyester fibers are intricately cut–by hand, by die-cutting and by computerized water jets, among other processes–then blended and layered by hand and mechanically interlocked by needle-punching. The fibers are needled to a base fabric and then coated with natural latex. The exceptionally durable pillows can be used indoors or out.

Photos courtesy of Liora Manné

Photos courtesy of Liora Manné