Midway is a photography project by Chris Jordan

“On Midway Atoll, a remote cluster of islands more than 2000 miles from the nearest continent, the detritus of our mass consumption surfaces in an astonishing place: inside the stomachs of thousands of dead baby albatrosses. The nesting chicks are fed lethal quantities of plastic by their parents, who mistake the floating trash for food as they forage over the vast polluted Pacific Ocean.
For me, kneeling over their carcasses is like looking into a macabre mirror. These birds reflect back an appallingly emblematic result of the collective trance of our consumerism and runaway industrial growth. Like the albatross, we first-world humans find ourselves lacking the ability to discern anymore what is nourishing from what is toxic to our lives and our spirits. Choked to death on our waste, the mythical albatross calls upon us to recognize that our greatest challenge lies not out there, but in here.
- Chris Jordan, Seattle, February 2011”

May 15, 2013 by Designsquish

May 01, 2013 by Designsquish

Boucheroite rag rugs at LOVE ADORNED in NYC: http://blog.loveadorned.com

“Boucherouite rugs ( Boucherouite meaning “rag” in Moroccan Arabic) are a recent pan-Moroccan phenomenon brought on by the loss of the nomadic lifestyle of the Amazigh people, though they are often referred to as “Berber”. No longer a nomadic people dependent on sheep herding, these artisans have adapted to the changes by mixing wool with cotton rags to keep the tradition alive. With dramatic colors and patterns, these one of a kind pieces combine the casual ease of cotton with an artful, collage-like aesthetic”

April 16, 2013 by Designsquish

The Canary

The free canary warbles
In leafy forest dell:
Who feels what rapture thrills her,
And who her joy can tell?

The sweet canary warbles
Where wealth and splendor dwell:
Who knows what sorrow moves her,
And who her pain can tell?

- Morris Rosenfeld

April 15, 2013 by Designsquish

April 12, 2013 by Designsquish

Sea Chair is made entirely from plastic waste collected from the ocean.

April 05, 2013 by Designsquish

http://www.npr.org/2013/03/29/175621576/self-taught-architect-behind-brooklyns-broken-angel-faces-eviction

by Designsquish

“Eyes as Big as Plates started out as a play on characters and protagonists from Norwegian folklore with the Norwegian photographer Karoline Hjorth. The series has since moved on to exploring the mental landscape of the neighborly and pragmatic Finns. In June 2012 Finnish senior citizens modelled in the wilderness of south and eastern Finland”

- http://riittaikonen.com

March 05, 2013 by Designsquish

- http://www.moonrisekingdom.com/

February 09, 2013 by Designsquish

February 05, 2013 by Designsquish

- http://www.heatherlevine.com/index.php/project/lamps/

January 30, 2013 by Designsquish

- http://www.stephenkenn.com/

January 29, 2013 by Designsquish

January 24, 2013 by Designsquish

Walden (or Life in the Woods) by Henry David Thoreau free audio book: 

- http://www.booksshouldbefree.com/book/walden-by-henry-david-thoreau

January 18, 2013 by Designsquish

January 04, 2013 by Designsquish

ETSY: https://www.etsy.com/listing/118587121/vintage-buttons-necklace

December 21, 2012 by Designsquish

“I’m a builder, a fixer, and a do-it-myselfer. My favorite things in life are big tools, old wood, good pasta, and finding great materials in a dumpster. I grew up in California, and blindly moved to New York seven years ago when I was accepted into art school for sculpture. I instantly fell in love with the grungy part of Brooklyn, and within a month, we had moved into Bedstuy. I have lived in the same apartment for five years now, which has given me plenty of time to slowly “fix” a few things around the house: de-carpet stairways, tile in kitchen… you name it!” - Ariele Alasko

- http://brooklyntowest.blogspot.com

December 19, 2012 by Designsquish

Rue de Meaux Housing is a low income social housing project. “Architect Renzo Piano teamed up with Desvigne and Dalnoky to design an amazing courtyard space for their project in Paris.  A modular architectural design establishes a background for the small forest of birch trees.  The thin birch canopy creates a diaphanous lighting condition while still obstructing views across the courtyard, thereby providing the inhabitants access to both privacy and light.” - http://ayounghare.wordpress.com

- http://www.rpbw.com/

December 13, 2012 by Designsquish

Mt. Hood Oregon 1942

December 11, 2012 by Designsquish

- http://www.alexkeha.com.ar

November 23, 2012 by Designsquish

Buttons from top to bottom: water lily, lily of the valley, first flowers, chamomile, bluebells, thistle, cornflower, russel muhroom, oak, blackberry, red under aspen mushroom.

- http://www.etsy.com/listing/107760651/soviet-mushroom-button-badge-vintage

October 09, 2012 by Designsquish

Crate Chairs by Brooklyn based design studio Autumn Workshop started by Daniel Goers.  These chairs are made entirely from re-purposed hologram storage crates.  / “No extra wood was used in the fabrication of these chairs. The original crates were cut down, and the cut-offs were recycled back into the structure. The design uses the printed graphics to inform the user how to interact with the storage components of the furniture” /

- http://www.autumn-workshop.com/2012/08/crate-chairs/

September 13, 2012 by Designsquish

September 03, 2012 by Designsquish

- http://31andchange.com

by Designsquish

“I don’t like concrete. A tree moves and also I’m silent. With a nail or a saw. you’d know I was there. I am like a raccoon” - Richard Greaves

Home of artist and architect, Eugene Von Bruenchenhein.

“Miracle on the Mountain” by Clarence Schmidt. Clarence Schmidt was locally and nationally renowned outsider artist -  an iconic pioneer of monumental environmental sculpture. His ongoing life’s work, the “Miracle on the Mountain,” was constructed of found objects and recycled materials between the years 1940-1972, which evolved on the back slope of Ohayo Mountain, in Woodstock NY.

In 2009, Grimes (Canadian singer-songwriter Claire Boucher) and her then-boyfriend from Tennessee constructed a 20-foot houseboat, named the “Velvet Glove Cast in Iron,” with the intention to sail it down the Mississippi River from Minneapolis to New Orleans. The cargo included chickens, a typewriter, 20 pounds of potatoes and a gifted copy of Mark Twain’s The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn.

Due to engine trouble and subsequent harassment from the Minnesota police, the journey was cut short and the houseboat and chickens were impounded. Above: Grimes.

Mississippi house boat.

by Designsquish

- http://www.diphotos.net/JJ/Tarkovskij/Web/li1.htm

August 14, 2012 by Designsquish

Above: Musicians at Port Townsend Farmers Market.

by Designsquish

Handwoven in Brooklyn from found and reclaimed fabric. 

July 24, 2012 by Designsquish

Chair by Afteroom, Glass Drop lamp by Artilleriet, Rock Chairs by Scott Burton, Serpentine chair by Eleonore Nalet.

July 23, 2012 by Designsquish

Moroccan rag rugs

July 02, 2012 by Designsquish