By Christina Chacon
Here is your monthly Handful of Salt dose of the best design and craft events, exhibits, & sales for a new season! Don’t miss out on Architecture and the City for a peak inside some spectacularly designed San Francisco homes, L.A. Skin and Ink for a look at how tattoos function as art forms and their influence in LA culture, and if you’re lucky enough to be across the pond be sure to see domesticMATTERS, a London exhibit that examines contemporary British designers and the manufacturers that support them.
Northern California
Architecture and the City: San Francisco Living Home Tours
September 15th and 16th, 2012 in homes throughout the city.
This popular weekend showcases modernism at its finest and features a wide variety of architectural styles, neighborhoods and distinctive San Francisco residences, all from the architect’s point of view. Tour-goers have the exclusive opportunity to meet design teams and discover the innovative design solutions inherent to San Francisco living.
Clik here to view.
The Red Box Brooch by Jorge Castañon.
September 5th through October 7th, 2012 at Velvet Da Vinci.
Velvet Da Vinci is proud to present the first US one-person exhibit by Buenos Aires-based jeweler Jorge Castañon. One of the leading contemporary jewelers in Latin America, Castañon incorporates found wood and metal to create a poetic visual diary of normally overlooked debris of city.
Heath Ceramics SF First Artist Reception: Akio Nukaga
Opening reception July 14th, 2012 from 5–9, with the show running through September 5th @ Heath, San Francisco
After his quickly sold-out 2009 and 2011 exhibitions at Heath Ceramics Los Angeles, Japanese master potter Akio Nukaga returns to Heath only this time in San Francisco. “Very New Work” makes the first show and celebration of the soon-to-be-open Heath showroom and gallery in the city’s Northeast Mission neighborhood. Heath will also host Nukaga for a throwing demonstration. In addition to the more familiar forms he has worked with over the years, this show will highlight Nukaga’s investigation of new forms that are very loosely inspired by his interest in Cubism.
San Francisco Center for the Book Workshops
September 1st through the 30th at the San Francisco Center for the Book.
SFCB workshops have a whole new line up to enjoy. From bookbinding to calligraphy, there is a workshop for every interest and every level to choose from. Check out their website for a complete list of exciting classes.
Fiber Futures, Japan’s Textile Pioneers
Phase 1: July 20 through October 6, Phase 2: October 23 through December 29, 2012 at the Museum of Craft and Folk Art, 51 Yerba Buena Lane, San Francisco, CA.
We saw this fabulous exhibit in New York and are so delighted it’s coming to San Francisco. Co-organized by Japan Society (New York,) Tama Art University (Tokyo,), and International Textile Network Japan, Fiber Futures: Japan’s Textile Pioneers explores a new art emerging from a remarkable fusion of Japanese artisanal and industrial textile making. Coaxed from materials as age-old as hemp and newly developed as microfilaments, a varied array of more than 25 works by artists from multiple generations will be on view in this extraordinary two-part exhibition.
Opening Reception is July 20, 6–8 pm.
Northwest
August 7th, 2012 through February 16, 2013 at the Museum of Contemporary Craft, Portland, OR.
Museum of Contemporary Craft is pleased to present “Reflecting on Erik Gronborg,” a forerunner of the contemporary “sloppy craft movement,” whose work from the 1960′s and 1970′s incorporates political and pop themes with ceramic forms. Gronbrog makes what he considers functional ceramic works that explore contemporary culture. Combining the thousand-year-old continuum of ceramic history with silk-screening, comics, china, paint and commercial glazes, Gronborg’s provocative crafty and non-precious approach is as engaging today as it was in the late 19060′s.
Southern California
September 30th, 2012 through January 6th, 2013 at The Craft and Folk Art Museum, L.A.
This exhibition explores the unique role that Los Angeles played in the tattoo renaissance that took place in the United States. The exhibition will move through the 60-year transformation of tattooing from its traditional base of military and outlaw cultures into an art form of great distinction and adoption into contemporary culture.
June 30 through September 10, 2012 at Heath LA.
Starnet, one of the most respected galleries and design stores in Japan, marks its United States debut with a Summer Shop called “Starnet Works,” installed at Heath Ceramics Los Angeles. Designed by Starnet Founder Baba Koshi and made by artisans in the Starnet workshop, items in the show include hand-thrown ceramic vases and bowls, leather bags, shoes and handwoven and dyed textiles.
Starnet Works is curated and produced by Playmountain’s Shin Nakahara and Heath LA Studio Director Adam Silverman. Founded by acclaimed designer Baba Koshi in 1998, Starnet in Mashiko, Japan, is known for its unique and constantly revolving collection of handcrafted home items, clothing and accessories.
East Coast
June 2 through October 7, 2012 at the Fuller Craft Museum, Boston, MA.
Iron Twenty Ten: A Juried Exhibition of Contemporary Blacksmithing offers both the casual viewer and the seasoned metalsmith a comprehensive survey of the finest contemporary blacksmithing in the United States today. The artists in the exhibition are united by a commitment to the highest levels of craft and a point of view that is both distinct and contemporary.
February 18th, 2012 through September 3, 2012 at the Fuller Craft Museum, MA.
Dan Dailey, the first graduate student of Dale Chihuly, has pursued his own unique voice in glass, from his singular work in antique Vitrolite sheet class to complex constructions of blown glass and metal. This retrospective exhibition focuses on the various methods and techniques employed by the glass artist during his 40-year career.
United Kingdom
Clik here to view.
Image Courtesy of Contemporary Applied Arts.
September 7th through October 20th, 2012 at the London Design Festival.
It’s hard to choose what we like the most from the amazing London Design Festival, but one of our top picks is CAA’s exhibition, domesticMATTERS. This exhibit will transform the gallery into the imagined home of a collector of Modernist furniture and 21st Century craft. It addresses the link between contemporary craft makers and some of the most important design and manufacturing companies supporting contemporary British. It is an exhibition with a mission, and the ultimate goal is to stimulate and develop interactions between uniquely skilled designer makers, potential producers, and retailers.
But we’re also excited by the London Design Festival events at the V&A and love Makers in Residence: Creative Clerkenwell. The exhibit and walking tours highlight the studios, workshops and creations of UK-based designers and makers.
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