Lest you think this blog is going to be all about the dogs and nothing more substantive, I thought I would talk about another subject near and dear to my heart: the shiny objects I've been collecting since my teens.
I blame my dearly departed mother for my collection obsession. She was the original Material Girl. She taught me my love of objects, those things crafted by the hands of artisans for purposes both beautiful and useful.
While many, many lovely things catch my eye on a regular basis, my real love is for Mid Century Modern objets de art, including Scandinavian dinnerware. My prescient mother could see even way back in her own youth the beauty and value of Stig Lindberg's Bersa pattern and Ulla Procope's Ruska, which she ardently collected and eventually passed down to me.
I also collect Mid Century American ceramics from the West Coast, namely Bauer bowls and coffee carafes. This was my first Bauer purchase. It never ceases to amaze me with its beauty and symmetry.
But my favorite objects are Murano glass bowls. Sometimes they are called ashtrays, although they often seem too deep and cumbersome to hold cigarettes. Maybe cigars. At first, I collected only what's known as the geode bowls. Now, I am thinking of selling that collection so that I can shift my focus to sommerso bowls utilizing the controlled bubble technique – called bullicante – with an over all spattering of gold or silver flecks – called aventurine. I just love the Italian language; it makes everything sound so gorgeous.
Here is one example of a bullicante sommerso bowl I recently purchased on eBay:
Isn't it sparkly?
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