O and G Studio- meet the designers, see the process

I love finding cool new products made by talented artists- and that is what O & G Studio is all about.

O&G began when jewelry designer Jonathan Glatt, along with interior architect and theatrical set designer, Sara Ossana, met in a welding for furniture class at the Rhode Island School of Design in 2003. Fast forward to 2009, when, after many explorations, Sara and Jonathan returned to their common passion for furniture and housewares to launch O&G.

All O&G designs exhibit the quality and attention to detail one would expect from a jeweler, the whimsy and eclecticism of a set designer, as well as the shared vision and style Sara and Jonathan have honed in their respective design fields.

We have been searching for a really fabulous cheese knife set and we are convinced we found it with O and G studio. We offer 2 sets- a fish and a ram. The detail of the design and carving of these pieces are incredible. The quality is amazing and the set is both elegant and whimsical. It is also very unique. The set includes a spreader, a spade and a hook. They are hand carved and cast in 100% lead-free pewter in their Rhode Island studio. This set is truly a perfect gift for an extra special person on your list and makes a wonderful wedding gift!

Sara kindly put together an amazing description of the process- this always fascinates me. I think we are so used to mass produced products, express service, drive-thrus (should I go on?) that we forget that there are still amazing artists out their that create beautiful things with their craft. Yes, there are thousands of cheese knives out their at all different prices but these are just so special and so beautifully made. Check it out and enjoy! Click once to enlarge the page and then click again to make them large enough to read, click the back arrow to come back to the blog and read the second page.

Linnea's Lights Love!

There are so many candle lines out there, really- SO many. But when we met Laura Cler of Linnea's Lights at a small show in NYC organized by our favorite graphic designer, Erika Firm of Delphine studio, we knew this was a candle line to get behind and it has been amazing!

Throughout her life, Lynn Cler, co-founder of Linnea's Lights maintained a passion for fragrances and luxury items, and was inspired to create her own line of candles as a hobby. Often disappointed in the high price of luxury items, she knew she could create a superior product of better value. Lynn and her husband, Danny Manley, began selling her handcrafted candles at local craft fairs and markets in Indiana, and soon the couple had propelled their candle-making hobby into a small, freestanding company - Linnea's Lights had been conceived! After Danny's passing, Laura partnered with her mother, and, with the additional help of close family and friends, Linnea's Lights launched as the luxury brand that it is today. The dynamic mother/daughter team kept the name Linnea's Lights, which is in tribute to their Swedish family lineage. The Swedish name, Linnea, from which the name "Lynn" originated, has been in their family for five generations, and is a nod to the national flower of Sweden.

Linnea's Lights candles combine natural soy wax, lead-free cotton candlewicks, pure essences and fine fragrances to create clean burning, perfectly scented and highly aromatic candles. Each candle is triple scented so the subtle fragrance keeps throughout the entire burn. All of Linnea's Lights natural soy candles are meticulously hand-poured in small batches and tested for quality assurance. Every step of the process involves the use of human hands, and each candle is packaged and designed locally in Indiana with recycled or recyclable materials.

In our opinion, they are absolutely divine- beautiful scents, responsibly made and gorgeous packaging!

Our holiday candles, Winter, Fireside and Fir were all featured in this month's Shape magazine and online You should go get this issue- the cover is an amazing shot of Kelly Osbourne, 50 lbs lighter and looking so strong. She is my idol! Watch this adorable video of her. I just love her spirit.

The Winter candle which was also in last year's Martha Stewart magazine and has been our best seller by far. This year, it can be seen in this new amazing web magazine called Gifted by the ultra talented blogger Ez of Creature Comforts blog. Spend some time perusing this magazine. It is incredible beautiful. It has great product, amazing photography and gorgeous layouts and it is very inspiring, especially if you like to do crafts. We are so honored to be mentioned in such a beautiful magazine!

IMM Living Best Years wine stoppers in Real Simple and Country Living!

One of our favorite gift items of the season made it into the Real Simple Gift Guide and the Country Living gift guide! The IMM Living Best Years Chinese zodiac wine stoppers are fun, unique and a perfect gift (that is very well-priced) for that person who has everything! It's a great way to personalize your gift also by choosing an animal the correlates to your wine bottle or the year your friend was born. We used them for a baby shower this weekend. We put the tiger (for 2010) bottle stopper in a silver Chinese take-out box and wrapped up some custom made fortune cookies with characteristics about the Tiger. They were also chosen for the Country Living gift guide! Use coupon code: COUNTRYLIVING to get 10% off! Read more about these great stoppers here. Note: actually color is closer to the Real Simple picture.

Designer Spotlight- Jill Rosenwald

(image from Holly Becker of decor8)



Mass production, large factories, big containers coming here from Asia . . . now where is the romance in that? Yes, we have all consumed mass market product so there is nothing really wrong with it but I still love the handmade item and I love finding a really cool and really fun artist that still does just that. Born in NYC, Jill Rosenwald fell in love with making things by hand at summer camp in Vermont- you know macrame plant hangers, leather bracelets, etc. In her words, "I succumbed to the power of the handmade life very early on. As time passed, and college loomed, I realized I wanted to find a school that would speak to both sides of my brain the academic and the artistic. But after graduation, realizing that it was time to make the donuts, I decided to bring my work to the people of NYC, and I set up a box of earrings on a soho sidewalk, and as they say a star was born and I was forever hooked." She opened up her sunny downtown Boston studio studio in the late eighties in a very artsy section called Fort Point Channel. She works with her husband Lawrence Mcrae, also a very talented ceramic artist, and 7 artists who throw the earthenware, fire it, glaze it and hand-paint it. It's a long arduous process but a labor of love for both Jill and her husband. Jill has had much success with various home good licensing agreements (rugs, lighting, baby, etc.) but her studio line is just that- lovingly made in her studio and I think that is just perfect. This has been an amazing year for her - she introduced the much acclaimed line called the Hampton Links at the NY gift show in January and it appeared in several magazines from InStyle to House Beautiful. Her newest collection, introduced in August of this year is just as fabulous. It's called Buckley Chevron. It's a simple, trend right, "Charlie Brown" (as she calls it) pattern. She makes it special by the rich color combinations she puts together- orange with navy, yellow with light blue and light chartreuse with ochre. Jill gets inspiration from everywhere- a yellow and purple bed of flowers, Pucci scarves found in her Grandmother's drawer after she passed away, a pair of orange and white stripe pants she saw someone wearing. She snapped an image of a back bay balcony of an old townhouse that would later become inspiration for another new fall pattern called Newport Gate. Her designs are colorful, unique and so aesthetically pleasing. They will add a great pop to your home. I have a few pieces in my kitchen and they make me happy every time I look at them! And of course, they are just perfect for gift giving. Oh, and more importantly- she's a great person- full of life and hysterically funny!

Each piece can take several days to create from throwing to firing and painting. See the amazing process (highly simplified) below:

1. The inspiration:



2. The design- sketching and picking the perfect colors





3. Making the bisqueware





4. Sketching on the bisqueware



5. Painting



6. Glazing and firing





7. Voila!

Introducing Imm Living to Orange and Pear!

Imm Living creates modern cultural artifacts by drawing from traditional and popular cultures. Their products address notions of the past and present by playfully reminding us that culture evolves through experiences lived and shared. Their products are a synthesis of these experiences and they embrace them as artifacts. In sum, they design really cool items for your home that are also perfect for gift giving.

We love the "Best Years" wine stoppers for the beauty of their design and the novelty of it. Designed by Willie Tsang, each wine stopper is shaped like the animals of the Chinese Zodiac and represent their different personalities. The twelve-year cycle means you can drink and be merry, whether you were born in the year of the rat, pig or any creature in between.

There are so many fun ways you can give these totally cool wine stoppers. You can go to http://www.chinesezodiac.com/calculator.php and type in your birthday or your gift recipient's birthday and get the animal that coordinates with their birth year. Or get a different stopper for everyone in the family. Or, you can get the animal that coordinates with the year of the wine that you are bringing to the party. Or you can go here: http://www.chinesezodiac.com/signs.php and read about the qualities associated with each Zodiac sign and give the animal that most matches your friend's personality! Or just pick an animal that you like. These are great for hostess gifts, client or corporate gifts. Perfect for the boss-especially with a bottle of great wine. But, you probably should refrain from asking the boss the year he or she was born- in that case just pick the coolest animal- like the horse or the ox. The pig or the snake might not be the best choices for the boss though- just a thought.

Orange and Pear in Woman's Day!

Thanks Woman's Day for featuring our mercury glass votive set from Roost in their special Halloween Celebrations edition (on new stands now)! The set comes with 6 votives, each one is different- giving the set a really cool, vintage feeling. They are perfect for Halloween decorating, and gorgeous for the Holidays. Of course, I love them year round. I still have mine on my mantle and I just love the way the look. Stay tuned for some more great products from Roost for the holidays!

fall colors

Wow, what a cold day in CT today, although it's nothing compared to how cold it's going to get pretty soon but it's just so hard to get used to! Regardless, fall is a wonderful season-I love the muted earthtones- the reds, ochres and golds. So, I put together a little collage of some of our items that make me think of the warm, rich colors of fall.

from left to right
1st row: John Derian Native American's sitting, CDP Orange Blossom cream, Lucia tea leaf and honey soap, Royola Pacific Designs utility tray
2nd row: Sukie City notebook, Jill Rosenwald orchid vase, MZ Wallace Olivia in cranberry, John Derian Native American's Standing
3rd row: Linnea's Lights pumpkin candle, Ted Rossi studded wrap bracelet, Rebekah Brooks gold swallow necklace

Oh and one more thing, for our lovely blog readers, now through Friday, 10/8, get 15% off! Use code: Oct15.