Spyplane "Beautiful HOME GOODS" Guide

Intel for “Unbeatable Living,” Vol. 1

“Blackbird Spyplane Original I.P.” is priceless, but a few weeks back we threw a FREEBIE onto IG apropos of nothing but LOVE: Our all-time favorite chair, we were ready to let the world know, is the Hans Wegner CH-25. Made in Denmark from wood and WOVEN PAPER, it’s a low-slung beauty we lucked out & found for the low on Craigslist a few years ago — and COPPED with panache.

Immediately, our DMs exploded in a chorus of ppl saying things like “GIVE US MORE HOME-JAWN INTEL,” “WE NEED SPICY HOME-DÉCOR TIPS” and “DROP THE SPYPLANE HOME-GOODS REVIEW”

So Blackbird Spyplane co-pilot & professional DOPE-DESIGN-SPOTTER Erin went into HYPERDRIVE RECON-MODE for fire handcrafted under-the-radar pieces for your crib — Vol. 1 is today, Vol. 2 comes Thursday… in 2021 we’ll DROP MORE !

---

First up: a PEACEFUL ARMY of SMALL MAKERS whipping up these SICK HOME-JAWNS by hand from CLAY…

Shane Gabier, who co-founded the VERY COOL NYC FASHION LINE Creatures of the Wind (R.I.P.), spent the early part of lockdown getting good at ceramics — turns out if yr a gifted pattern-maker then u possess the grace and dexterity to tease WET EARTH into POPPING OBJECTS.

His ceramics range from relatively simple pieces, above left, to more complex forms, like the WILDLY DOPE interlocking sculpture / vase below. Shane takes inspiration from modernist design and Brutalist architecture but u already knew that because u have the SOPHISTICATED AESTHETIC LITERACY required to subscribe to this newsletter in the first place …

Shane Gabier hand-built this interlocking ceramic sculpture/vase…GOD-LEVEL

Shane’s stuff is available through high-end Tribeca jawn emporium 180 the Store or u can DM him about copping on IG. Prices start at $38 for his flatware and start at $250 for his more sculptural pieces…

Meanwhile, Ginny Sims is a Minneapolis-based artist & ceramicist whose traditional Staffordshire- and folk-art-inspired pieces (those are her mugs above left) Erin’s been feeling for a minute…. Ginny announces her sales on Instagram and the wares SELL OUT PRONTO. Her next drop is set for the end of December so smash the follow and lay up in the damn cut.

Those blue cobalt dash pattern plates above right ?? They come from the UK’s Ali Hewson, who has heat for days (and is NOT Bono’s wife)— u can check her stuff out & cop it here; it ships internationally.

OK THESE R TIGHT AS S**T ! Based just north of us in the East Bay, Ariel Clute makes CRUNCHY vessels & plates that look like peace signs and smiley faces — and her handpainted shadowy-shapes series (above right) is tight, too. We don’t know her, but we f**k with her local vision.

The super-popping punk/kind-vibe dish above left comes from sculptor Eric Preston Alexander, who just had an exhibit at Mast Books last month, and whose IG is full of stunners.

In a more utilitarian register: check out Kat & Roger, above right, a husband-and-wife duo based in L.A. whose joints u might have seen in COOL HOME-GOODS STORES… And the footed bowl above left is one of many FIRE pieces by Dina Nur Satti, a Brooklyn-based ceramicist originally from Sudan and Somalia who riffs on objects with ritual origins…

Here at Spyplane HQ we own a few pieces (bowl, fruit stand, and planter) from L.A.-based Pawena Thimaporn, an industrial designer who said F**K THE CORPO-LIFE in order to throw clay and PAINT ON IT GEOMETRICALLY — those are her pots above right.

Above left are a few of Atlanta-based Aleisha Ellis’s UTILITY OBJECTS line which takes its inspiration from modern Japanese ceramics and is cool as hell.

(These are definitively not “under the radar” small makers BUT u gotta give it up for California ceramics legends HEATH and also HASAMI PORCELAIN, made in Japan & designed by the owner of L.A. store Tortoise, who make durable everyday classics u can cop new OR check for on eBay / Craigslist … i.e. the secondhand pieces here and here.)

OK let’s PAUSE THE CLAY DRIP and get briefly METALLIC…

Back in 2014 Erin & I went on an “UNBEATABLE SPIRITUAL-RECON” road trip across the Southwest — one of our stops was Cosanti, the profoundly vibey Arizona home & studio of wild visionary Paolo Soleri, an Italian-born architect, urban designer and philosopher best known for his cast-bronze bells, one of which is above left. They cost $35 and up and r coppable HERE.

U can hang these off a tree branch in yr backyard, off a fire escape out yr window, or from a hook in yr damn ceiling. (We copped a little bell and it’s in our kitchen.)

Speaking of WILD VISIONARIES, salute Oakland metal-artist Mark Bulwinkle, whose house numbers are above right — dude custom-makes cool weird posi-energy pieces of all sorts (he also did the signage at our favorite Oakland Cactus Plug, The Dry Garden — if yr a Bay Area reader come baptize yrself in the soil.)

OKAY — mushrooms… every Blackbird Spyplane installment that goes by without a mushroom shout-out is a tiny tragedy, so YOU KNOW we are f**king with San Diego-based Nick Pourfard’s BEAUTIFUL hand-thrown ceramic “mushroom lamps” with tiltable “mushroom cap” shades, above right, here.

(He also makes cool stackable wooden chairs, above left, that remind us of the furniture Donald Judd made for his SoHo crib.)

Relatedly, check out Fernando Aciar’s Fefo Studio ceramic lamps, which are made on the Lower East Side. We esp. like his super-simple Bubble Lamp.

But maybe u want to ILLUMINATE yr domain by lighting some f**king wax on fire ?? Then it’s time for some ‘STICK TALK…

Check the VERY FUN “Hot Legs” high-heel candlesticks above left by Berlin-based Laura Welker. They also come in a cowboy boot if that’s your thing. NOTE FROM ERIN: Jonah is personally agnostic on these but thankfully when he is BLIND TO THE FIRE I am here to give him sight. Jonah IS into cute puppers & good boyz generally so he recognizes the charm of the candlesticks and lamps by L.A.’s Zozos General, above right. Both these makers are DM-to-order.

Wow. Right now yr saying, “OMG, Blackbird Spyplane you just went HAM RADIO with home-jawns intel, 10-4, thank you, I can not wait for volume 2. But please, before u wrap things up, give us a lil taste of that NATURAL WOODGRAIN!?”

For you?? NO DOUBT: Book/Shop, a store around the corner from us in Oakland, sells these excellent minimal bookshelves, above left, which is some of the simplest & handsomest shelving u r likely 2 park your lit on…

Meanwhile our literal and figurative ethos is to “KEEP ALL DOORS OPEN” so we bang with the doorstop above right from Larry Tchogniou, a young Chicago-based designer originally from Benin. He made this doorstop by recording the sound his own front door makes when it closes, then carving curves based on the soundwaves: $40, here. 

U can prop open a door with it OR grant it “conceptual-art-tier tchotchke status” and place it on a mantle or coffee table …

WANT MORE DÉCOR? Recon on cool secondhand shops? DOPE art for the low? Vibey rugs? Beautiful hand-made pillows?

That’s all coming in PART 2 of the SPYPLANE CRIB REPORT, going out this Thursday to CLA$$IFIED subscribers behind the paywall.

“Cla$$ified subscribers? What’s that??” Oh, it’s a beautiful modern miracle: Blackbird Spyplane is a precious 100% SUBSCRIBER-SUPPORTED “unbeatable newsletter” — paying for it is FUN & comes w/ MANY PERKS that we don’t charge as much for as we should, so SMASH the subscribe, underpay us, join the inner $anctum, yr welcome — and PEACE ☮✌☮✌☮✌☮✌☮✌

Jonah & Erin

- We interviewed Ellen Van Dusen tha home-goods god here
- Herman Miller archivist / learned crib-jawnspotter Amy Auscherman gave us great home ideas here AND tips on copping secondhand design online here

MEANWHILE: The full “Blackbird Spyplane Interview” archive, featuring such luminaries of the arts & sciences as Nathan Fielder, Jerry Seinfeld, André 3000, Lorde, Rashida Jones, John Wilson, Emily Bode, Ezra Koenig, Online Ceramics and more — is here.