clouds

Paule Marrot: Clouds. Design for a textile.

Also available here.

'their hearts have not grown old'

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Walter Crane wallpaper design: Swan, Rush and Iris. 1875. At the V & A, via Erie Basin.

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Félix Vallotton: The Swans. 1892. Woodcut.

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Jin dynasty textile fragment: Swan Hunt. 1115-1234. Plain weave silk with metallic thread. At The Met.

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Late 19th/early 20th century ivory mounted 'swan' parasol, white painted shaft with carved and polychromed swan head finial. Via Hovey Design.

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Cygnus: Miniature of the Swan. From Francesco Buzzacarini's 1460-1470 transcription of De sideribus tractatus, a 1st century astronomical treatise generally credited to Gaius Julius Hyginus. Image from the NYPL Digital Archive. More details at BibliOdyssey.

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Fragment of a Roman statuette, 1000 B.C. - A.D. 1.

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THE trees are in their autumn beauty,
The woodland paths are dry,
Under the October twilight the water
Mirrors a still sky;
Upon the brimming water among the stones
Are nine-and-fifty Swans.
The nineteenth autumn has come upon me
Since I first made my count;
I saw, before I had well finished,
All suddenly mount
And scatter wheeling in great broken rings
Upon their clamorous wings.
I have looked upon those brilliant creatures,
And now my heart is sore.
All's changed since I, hearing at twilight,
The first time on this shore,
The bell-beat of their wings above my head,
Trod with a lighter tread.
Unwearied still, lover by lover,
They paddle in the cold
Companionable streams or climb the air;
Their hearts have not grown old;
Passion or conquest, wander where they will,
Attend upon them still.
But now they drift on the still water,
Mysterious, beautiful;
Among what rushes will they build,
By what lake's edge or pool
Delight men's eyes when I awake some day
To find they have flown away?

William Butler Yeats

life was good, and i filled my lungs with it

Charlotte Perriand: in the mountains, in the studio.

wallpapers

Charles Burchfield wallpaper designs for M. H. Birge & Sons Company:

1. Lithograph design for wallpaper with water snakes.
2. Sunflowers, 1921.
3. Robins and Crocuses, 1929.

repetition of units

 

 

 

Order is repetition of units. Chaos is multiplicity without rhythm.

M.C. Escher

stamped

Karl Nawrot's stamp box.

His work is endlessly inspiring, but lately I have been thinking about this the most.

Seen here, here and here.

possibly this room

Erin's post on psychedelic home decor came pat to the psychological moment, I guess. I've been a bit obsessed with this Wary Meyers room, and up it popped on Ffffound. I took it as a sign of synchronicity and am posting it for you.

Those bargello pillows - that horse picture - and just look at the books! I'm a little weak in the knees.

Generally, I gravitate to the austere but Wary Meyer rooms hit some latent Wes Anderson-esque strain of controlled excess buried deep in my soul. I think they would be down with designing me my very own game closet.