A Custom Dining Room Table

Leif's dining room table is made of rare Brazilian match booked petrified wood, with a thick beveled top and straight legs. It was custom made for a tall family and we have cut it down a bit.

A Well Stacked Porch

This is the third time I have stacked our side porch for winter, to feed our large Jotul and smaller Morso woodstoves. Larger logs are stacked to the right, kindling is kept in the old wine barrel, ashes in the antique 13" wide copper bucket, and a hatchet on the hand carved "Kubbestol" is for splitting more kindling.

The broom is NYT's endorsed "Casabella Wayclean" wide angle, & huge pine cones are from CA.

The lights are antique brass English carriage lights electrified. Kubbestol is made by Finnish friend Benny, the brick steps by my father and planter & porch built by Bill. 

Happy New Year!

We celebrated New Year's Eve helping Bill load two more large/tall sculptures up and out of his basement studio, and into my vintage Volvo wagon which is cavernous for the cause!

They are now loaded into the Takaezu Studio kiln, and it is a happy New Year. 

Replacing Sheetrock

Replacing sheetrock in a house is a relatively inexpensive DIY project, which included some allowed home owner remediation here. Bill & Leif have now finished replacing sheetrock & insulation etc. in this house. Whew!

We used ridged foam boards, a plastic vapor barrier & new wood to accept sheet rock screws in the office which is partially below grade.

PU Art Museum Visit

Visiting the new Princeton University Art Museum now is lovely, shopping for gifts or having an exquisite meal in their restaurant "Mosaic". The new restaurant is on the 3rd floor with angled windows viewing old spires of buildings behind Nassau Hall and large composite wooden beams making up the ceiling.

The entrance mosaic "Let me kindly introduce myself. They call me MC Prince Brighton", is by renowned Chicago based artist Nick Cave. Visits to the museum are free.

Toshiko Takaezu's opening piece and her bronzed bell below.

Snowed In At Old Farm

We just spent a vacation week at Old Farm enjoying the Cape - collecting leaves, shoveling snow in blizzard conditions and enjoying fires in the wood stove day & night (when temps "felt like" -4 degrees).

The armchairs and garden stone moved in front of the woodstove & a wreath hung on the door.

The garden stone heats up and serves as a great footrest.

Our Jotul F3 wood stove heats 1,300 sq. ft. & 42,000 BTU's/hr.; perfect for a small such house.

Bill's Tesla Y drove us to & from the Cape and Provincetown where we Christmas shopped and visited the galleries.

Sculptural Seats

Bill has been making ceramic seats and tables for the studio winter open house Dec. 6th this year. He fires these in the  enormous Takaezu kiln he has run for over fifty years & costs $1,000 in propane to fire once (2 firings required to finish a piece). 

Maintaining the studio, producing glazes & buying clay make ceramics this scale a commitment.