Jeremy Scott + Longchamps

Fashion bad boy and Lagerfeld protogé Jeremy Scott has been comissioned by the french bag company Longchamp, to do a series of limited edition bags. The series includes three bags, and all of this co-incides with the upcoming Longchamp store opening in Soho. I can't seem to find any other information or larger images (but isn't the animated gif cool?) Apparently the trés chic Colette store in Paris will carry them starting the end of this month via their e-shop.

Art in LA: Markus Draper

German artist Markus Draper marks his first US exhibition at the Sandroni Rey Gallery in Culver City. This body of work feels a bit like the end of the world layering together destruction, phenomenons of nature, and the feeling of hitting rock bottom. Sorry to sound so tragic! At the same time, he also manages to shed a glimmer of light through what other than woodgrain to represent hints of a happier time and hope of rebuilding. His paintings, as well as the installation of "My utopia is never gonna work," is up till May 13th.

cork wallet

Blog friend and fellow woodnut Lisa, over at Bird in the hand, tipped us on this great cork wallet with faux wood flap she spotted in this month's Lucky Magazine- Check out her blog to see her latest AMAZING tree imagery pieces-(thanks Lisa!)

dog remote training collar

Happy Friday! For today's SBIG (So Bad It's Good) post, I bring to you this weird Dogrtra Remote Training Collar. I have no idea what it does and actually am kind of scared to find out. (It looks like maybe some form of shock therapy, which... kinda scares me.) But I find it kind of amusing that the creators of it decided to make it much more stylish by providing a faux wood version of it, complete with matching remote control. If anyone knows any info on what this actually is used for, and/or how it works... please enlighten us!

contact paper

Blog friend and fellow wood-nut Jan at Poppytalk posted a super cute project for your bland notebooks today! Woodgrain contact paper is probably the easiest way to infuse the beauty of faux bois into your life and surroundings. It actually was one of the original things that started our obsession with fake wood and woodgrain-ed things in the first place. We've been using woodgrain contact paper on random things for awhile, but it wasn't until we had to do an editorial DIY story for the preview issue of Poplife magazine, that we really sat down and started documenting all the other things that can be done with the magical self-adhesive wonder- It's now slowly been building into an amassed collection. But for now, Jan's project fits quite nicely into what we're going to call ... 101 Fun things to do with Woodgrain contact paper! ok, don't worry, we won't actually show you 101 things..(although there probably is even more things you could do...) so we're editing it down to 10. Stay tuned in May for this series to begin... in the meantime, if you've done something fun with woodgrain contact paper- drop us an e-mail and share your fun!!

brass twigs

Like the other twig jewelry in an earlier post, these are super sweet. Twig earings and necklace by Erica Weiner at Cut+Paste. They're made of vintage brass which reminds me of the little charms I used to have as a little girl. If I had a little girl, I would probably buy them for the child and end up borrowing them. Terrible! Is that what a grup might do?? yikes!

Spring w/ Isaac

Don't miss this plain ole pretty woodgrain pillow by Isaac Mizrahi for Target. So fun with the whole collection of oranges, weird yellow, and rust geometrics. Much better than that skirt he did last fall, right Enrique! But wait a minute... how funny.. have we the case of recylced skirts? No bother. Bravo Isaac for this entire collection. Not yet available on the web, as you can see, it's in stores now.

Heinrich Weid

German artist Heinrich Weid's 2003 Living Room installation of woodgrain and wood knots "treads the narrow boundary that divides fine and applied art." Such is the role of designer now a days - treading that fine line and creating hybrid forms. Using screenprinting and adhesive techniques, he creates what IKW's future headquarters (we can dream!) might look like :)

Discovered Weid via this great book Jon, of course, turned me on to called Patterns in Design, Art and Architecture. Fabulous fluorescent pink cover with large photos of modern ornament found in the darndest places like enormous building façades and Wim Delvoye's Caterpillar tractor. Must buy for library now!

branch serving set

I'm always finding myself in need of some good serving utensils- I always forget to think about getting them, and end up using normal spoons, or forks, which are generally too small- So speacial thanks to Olga at Fabulist for thinking of us when she tipped us off on this beautiful branch serving set available at Flax- (thanks Olga!!)

cool cuff

Check out this cool cuff made of vinyl. Now you can wear a little hit of woodgrain wherever you go! Get it here, at copacetique (thanks also to fellow woodnut Alexa for reminding us!) Alexa also shared with us this super cute piece of art she recently purchased at Giant Robot NY, by artist Saelee Oh- aptly titled "Logs in Pants"!!!

wallet by DB Clay

ooooooh.... nice woodgrain wallet by DB Clay, available at Elsewares.com

House & Garden: May faux bois

May's House&Garden magazine features two pages of high end faux bois. I particularily like the round gilded mirror with the branches (that is kind of cut off at the top on the first page) although the $10,000+ price tag is a bit daunting. Anyways, check it out at your local newstand.

SBIG: lava lamp

Happy Friday! Time for another SBIG. I admit... I do have a lava lamp (can you spot it?) I guess I'm a "mod" guy at heart. I also love woodgrain, ((obviously)), and now if you also love lava lamps and woodgrain, you too can have the best of both worlds in this... convenient.... lava table lamp from the original Lava brand. (don't you settle for imations now, ya here!?)

Art in LA: Ryan Callis

In my round of westside gallery openings on La Cienega in Culver City last Saturday, I had a happy lightbulb moment - the presence of faux bois in the at least one piece of every gallery I went into. Wow, pretty neat. My feeling is that people want to include the warmth and familiarity of woodgrain to soften up the art while making their big bad statement. Even the saddest subject matter wanted to emit some form of hope in the form of woodgrain. This is all my interpretation of course, but totally worth noting, no?


First, I send congratulations to the newest gallery on the block - Taylor de Cordoba, who opened their doors this weekend with the work of Ryan Callis. The show was called How It Feels to be Something On. Based in Los Angeles, Callis's paintings reflect his heightened awareness of his surroundings. Clearly he's LA based with all that patterned traffic! Loved everything - the colors, the patterns, the iconography, and he consistently balances conceptual and a really pretty aesthetic at the same time. It's a show worth seeing and up until May 13th.

The pieces: "The Furthest Occidental", "How It Feels to be Something Off", "Yes!!"

owl and squirrel

These great square Owl and Squirrel dishes are by artist Jessie Hartland-(love her illustrations!) available at Fishs Eddy

Milestones and Makeovers

We can't believe that we've been doing this blog for only 4 months and have already posted over 150 faux bois items! Who knew we'd make it past 10 posts let alone 100! We'd like to thank all the great blogs for linking to us (see our sidebar and go vist them!) and everyone's kind comments and support. In celebration, we've also given ourselves a little visual blog makeover. We're still working out a few little bugs, but we'd love to hear your comments! There's so much great faux bois and woodgrain out there, so please continue to send us your sightings, tips, and finds! Also, if you're new to the site- we welcome you to peruse the archives on the right- Lotsa faux wood madness- Wood is Good!! ~ jon and em

wall mount tree coat rack

Cute metal tree coat rack from Urban Outfitters- I like that they showed it also as a jewelry holder too... all kinds of possibilities!...

earrings

Fellow woodnut Laurie, over at kiku, whose lovely belt buckle we posted about awhile back, tipped us off on another handmade treasure, these cute metal earrings (currently on sale!) at NiceLena- (thanks Laurie!)

Kevin O'Brien

The rare art of hand screenprinting on textiles lives on in Kevin O'Brien's world of home furnishings - no button pushing and popping out on the conveyor belts here. Just the beauty of plain old craftmanship. Amen! "It's Art Nouveau aesthetic with a cottage industry style" according to a recent article in the New York Times. Jon witnessed these lush lux fabrics of silk velvet and cotton velvet in person at the New York Int'l Gift Fair . The pillow demonstrates another effect called burn out and the table runner (thanks d*s) the effect of hand screenprinting. Learn more about Kevin O'Brien here.

Maureen Walsh: Uncle Bikes Pillows

As seen on designsponge , these amazing pillows by artist Maureen Walsh, available at the SCAD shop online.

japanese bollards and railings

Fellow woodnut and blog friend Heather James, posted last week on her blog these beautiful cement bollard and railings. She spotted these around the staircase up to the Oita Art Museum in Japan. She writes "this is just one of the many ways that the surroundings are beautified in little details" (sigh)...If only more of our surroundings here in the US would follow suit.... (thanks Heather!)

Treehugger!

Special thanks to Christine at Treehugger for mentioning our humble blog over the weekend! Welcome to all new readers - Please feel free to peruse our archives (to the right) to see our faux bois obsessions! (and for any happy design lovers, check out our companion blog happymundane.)

terra cotta faux

Lovely lovely terra cotta stump planter by Mario Nievera for Seibert & Rice, and cute terra cotta faux bois bucket from Treilage- As seen in May's Elle Decor.

hello friend

forgot to post this from our Chicago trip to Sprout Home - another cute card by Egg Press!

SBIG: fraud fronds

HAPPY FRIDAY! its time for another edition of So Bad It's Good at Its(k)notWood- today we'd like to.. um.. appreciate those bizarre but fascinating fake trees that disguise cell phone towers- You know, you've all seen them- just kind of out of the blue. They are so weird and funny- There actually is a whole fantastic and amazing site devoted to them, called Fraud Frond- They have a game on there that asks you to count how many of them you see- Just around my office alone, i've spotted two- here in the OC, we see a lot of the palm tree ones- but every now and then we'll see other tree varieties. How many are in your area?

making time: heather james

Fellow faux-woodnut, Siri Larsen, was kind enough to introduce us to Heather James' craft blog, Making time- Heather lives in Japan, and she recently posted this funny but effective plastic bag dispenser "log" she made- as well as this adorable ring toss game she found that she uses to hold hair bobbins- super cute! (thanks Siri!)

MetHome: vallauris pottery

As seen in this month's Metropolitan Home, this exquisite vintage "trompe l'oeil woodlike ceramic" juice set is from "late 50's Vallauris." Honestly, I've never heard of the term "Vallauris" and i'm thinking it has to do with a certain region/style? If anyone knows more, please enlighten us!! Anyways- it was highlighted as part of the amazing home feature of Kate Hume and Frans Van der Heyden. Killer house AND killer faux bois vintage find. (sigh...)
UPDATE: fellow woodnut Justin, sent us this link about Vallauris (thanks Justin!!)

Twigs and Heather

As seen on Decor8, via Modish, Twigs and Heather have some amazing Sterling Silver faux bois pieces- check them out-

switchplate covers

John Keaton is an artist that makes these great switchplate covers-
they're done with a photoprocess then laminated to plastic- and there are so many designs to choose from- sure beats the plain old white ones.. i especially love the pearl grain and ash light ones- $9.99 each- available at Cafepress-

AT-Chicago

Ever since our trip to Chicago last month, we've had a major Chicago crush- and now we can keep tabs with the Apartment Therapy Chicago Edition! YAY! Also, let it be known that we did not miss the ever stylish woodgrain accent they use on their headers- Also humble thanks for linking this site and our companion site (happymundane) on their blog list- Welcome to any new readers- please peruse the archives to see all of our woodnut-madness!

GRAIN

I can't tell you how excited i was when i first saw this book a while back. Unfortunately, it was out of stock, but the kind folks at youworkforthem emailed me when they got more in and i quickly ordered it- and this weekend it arrived!!! This book is for the completely woodgrain obsessed, and perhaps those that also are of the graphic design persuasion. GRAIN is a book published in japan that features page after page of simply... woodgrain. Almost every kind imaginable- AND every image is available in jpeg format and 100% royalty free. There are sooo many ideas running through my head on how to implement these. But really, it's just so beautiful to flip through the pages and see the intricate simplicity of woodgrain. get it here- (hurry before it goes out of stock again!)