Got a small fortune wrapped up in vinyl records that you want to enjoy hearing throughout your house? Want to recharge yourself in your favorite outdoor living area enjoying both the sound of the birds and the bebop hits of the Bird? Well, remove your earbuds and listen up! Oregon Home asked three in-home audio professionals to fill us in on what makes for an audiophile’s dream residential sound system.
Grab some earplugs to protect your hearing when the whistle-blowing trains roll by, turn up your testosterone dial to keep aggressive contractors in their souped-up trucks from cutting you off and head for this lively design district in Portland where everything from paint to fine furniture to balloons for your next THANKS FOR WORKING ON OUR REMODEL bash awaits!
Most couture designers end up with a garment only after months of sketching, pattern-making, fabric-cutting, sewing, fitting and embellishing with ribbons and beads. Not painter Sue Lau. She takes brushes loaded with thinned-down acrylics to canvases topped with archival tissue paper to create her dresses, each of which captures the essence of a place such as Paris or Barcelona.
Luminosity is a hallmark of the pieces that husband-and-wife glass artists Heather and John Fields produce as Fields & Fields Blown Glass in Portland.
Denise Sirchie has a passion for making mosaics, one hand-cut piece at a time. Her sculptures and panels begin with the selection of a form (think vintage mannequin, gazelle-shaped knickknack or Plain Jane frame gleaned from a thrift shop or estate sale) and the gathering of materials—mostly recycled items such as jewelry, china, stained glass, marbles, tile and slingshot pellets—from different shelves in her studio, a former detached garage behind her Multnomah Village-area home that her contractor-husband transformed into a cozy mosaic-making place.
As CJ Rench Design Studio, Chris “CJ” Rench manipulates metal into sculptures with organic lines and shapes (imagine circles, orbs and super-cool squiggles) that he finishes off in either rustic or sleek patinas, or powder-coats in eye-popping colors such as Granny Smith green and School Bus yellow. “You have to have a passion for working with metal to do it because there’s nothing easy about it,” says the 43-year-old, who is also a national sales manager for a couple of companies that make wind-surfing equipment. “Metal doesn’t always perform the way you want it to, but it can take on so many shapes and forms. Luckily, I have a mind that can visualize and draw in 3D. I love getting metal to work with me.”
This vibrant, walkable historic district centered around N. Mississippi Ave. continues to draw independent proprietresses and purveyors of everything from antiques to specialty salt from around the world. Head here if you want an artsy-yet-sophisticated shopping experience among a young, independent crowd.
Are you a climbing-rose devotee who doesn’t see the buckling trellis for the pink wave of Cecile Brunner blooms drifting onto your roof? Or maybe you want to accent the front of your Craftsman with a wisteria that doesn’t look like the botanical comb-overs you see snaking across porches in many old neighborhoods. Oregon Home asked landscape designers for tips on growing plants up in style.
For embroidery artist Emily Katz, the best kind of art is art you can do with a needle and thread—or a hook and yarn. “I’ve always been interested in tactile arts,” she says. “I went to a Waldorf school, and we learned to knit, crochet and quilt. I did things that were hands-on, and that really taught me to think outside the box when it comes to making art.”
Ceramic artist Gretchen Vaudt professed her intention to become an artist at an early age. “I was going through some of my old things and I found something I’d written when I was in first grade,”she says. “On the paper, it said I AM AN ARTIST.”
