whoahhh!! I gotta stop and blog

Dang. Well its been WAYYYY too long. I have been busy as usual. First It was Halloween. Liz and I threw a sweet mustache party. I think that is the fifth or sixth one that I have been involved with. I can't remember. I guess that is a sign of a good party. I had a blast thank you all for coming. The morning after the party Liz and I had to go to Princeton to her brother's, girlfriend's, best friend's, daughter's baptism. I think I got that right. It rocked. I had never been to a Greek function before. There are only a few things I can say to describe the whole thing: DANCE, EAT, DRINK, REPEAT and repeat and repeat. We had a great time. We stayed at a BEAUTIFUL B&B called the INN at Glencairn. The following day we went to downtown Princeton to go to a few local haunts like the House of Cupcakes (great cupcakes, I had a creme brulee cupcake.... it was good, Liz said it had too much frosting. hmmm frosting), then Princeton's campus (The campus church was freaking beautiful, the whole place was very harry potter/hogwarts) and the Princeton Record Exchange. We also went to Design Within Reach!!! the best store ever. I actually thought they were a mail order only store. But no, they have actual stores where you can actually sit in an Eames Molded Plywood Lounge Chair, Eames Louge and Ottoman and a Le Corbusier Chaise Longue they even had a Verner Panton cantilevered stacking chair. I was kind of shocked at the prices but hey it is Princeton and it is DWR so what the hell. Yes we bought something. Maaaannn. With our pockets empty we decided to come on home and get back to work chopping firewood to keep warm. Then I realized that there was a gallery that carries my work on the way. So I made a phone call and found out they were open on Sundays!

BONUS.

This was the first jewelry gallery stop that we have done since we moved to the area. I thought I would review a few of them since they are soooooo close (about an hour and a half). I would like to do more of these when we visit more galleries.

Gallery Loupe is a small place but it doesn't feel small when you walk inside. I am kind of a big dude and my claustrophobia was far from my mind. The way that everything is set up is great! I love it. They have some really nice upper lit wall cases and then in rolling carts below, glass topped drawers filled with work that you can interact with. The space is very inviting, intimate and interactive. They get three "I"s. It was also really nice to actually see a lot of the work out.

Liz and I got to meet Patti Bleicher(one of the owners/operators) and got a quick personal tour. It was really hard for me to keep my composure. All I wanted to do was look through drawers and touch stuff like a kid in an elevator pressing all the buttons. I am such a metals/jewelry nerd I had to see all of it. Seeing all of the work was great but touching it was even better. Klaus Burgel and Barbara Seidenath's pieces made a big impression. Patti took Liz and I on a car tour of the area which was great! Loupe has some upcoming openings. I will post the dates soon.

The current show at Loupe: "Facsimile"/Kathleen Browne was in full swing with almost all of the gallery's central real estate covered with her work. Kathleen's pieces for the show were "copies" of gem stones made with enameled decals of photos taken from actual stones. Then these "stones" were assembled into neck pieces and bracelets attached with stretch cables crimped at the ends. It was almost like Pop Art colliding with over the top Fashion jewelry. I am always a fan of big jewelry.




So in reverse order Loupe, B&B, DWR, Princeton, Cupcakes, Halloween. Whew!


Gallery Loupe



DESIGN WITHIN REACH



PRINCETON



HALLOWEEN