Jean Therapy

What do you do with that pile of worn out denim jeans in your closet? The ones that are ripped, and not in a cool, carefully distressed way? Reincarnate them perhaps as upcycled art? That's the unique vision of photographer and printer Matt Shapoff of Handmade On Peconic Bay, who's know for creating unique modern prints, stationary and textile accessories, using 19th photographic techniques.

This weekend Matt unveils his newest collection, in collaboration with über kreativ Montauk textile artist Anne Drager, and the results are nothing short of 1960's Woodstock flower child meets BoHo chic. The abstract patched denim and cyanotype printed textile throw pillows will look equally as home in your prefab Leisurama weekend getaway, as they will in your Williamsburg glass power tower. See the entire collection here.

Anne Drager for Handmade On Peconic Bay one of a kind upcycled denim and cyanotype patched throw pillows, available exclusively at Artists & Fleas. Custom work available on request (just bring us your old denim and Matt + Anne will create something special, just for you).

The Well Appointed Kitchen

I believe that a small, well appointed kitchen is all you need, to create fabulous meals for two or more, and investing in a few traditional high quality cookware items, like Le Creuset cast iron and enamel pieces, is a great place to start. I also love their modern stoneware serving pieces and accessories. They come in a range of cool colors, my personal fave being Dijon.

I grew up in NYC in the late 60's, with the kind of parents that wallpapered our kitchen with psychedelic yellow and brown daisies. Coppertone brown appliances, ochre countertops and a Saarinen walnut tulip table completed the hideous picture. Needless to say, I was entirely uninterested in cooking and preferred my Swanson's TV dinners in the living room. This promo film for Westinghouse shows the range of 60's kitchen insanity. We had the Herman Miller clock at the 1:30 minute mark!

Things changed, the summer I spent in Italy, in the hilltops of Tuscany. I may have been there to hone my painting skills under the Tuscan sun, but I was far more interested in shopping the local markets for the exotic fresh foods we prepared and ate alfresco, in our farmhouse, overlooking gardens, a vineyard, and orchards. At age 18, I fell in love with the art of Mediterranean cooking and vino rosso fatto a casa.

Today, my own kitchen is stocked with vintage and modern pieces in those same shades of brown and yellow. I don't miss the wallpaper or TV dinners, and base my cooking on what I learned that summer in Italy. My husband and I look forward to the August bounty of fresh vegetables from our local farmer's market, which we make into soups or stews, and serve with grilled meat, some ciabatta bread and a nice Long Island wine.

Images courtesy of cookware.com, vi.sualize.us and retrorenovation.com.

Post sponsored by cookware.com.

Sigmund And The Sea Monsters

My husband Matt and I are beach babies, and love to collect pretty shells, but also scary things that wash up on the shores of Peconic Bay. The most fierce creature by far is the horseshoe crab (if ever their was a reason to wear aqua socks!). But nothing we've ever found compares to fascinating prehistoric sea creatures, like ammonites, in both beauty and potential ick factor. Ammonites are related to squid, and their golden spiral shells were once home to creepy-crawly multi-limbed marine animals.

Matt's Van Dyke Brown print for Handmade On Peconic Bay, featured in the current issue of Hamptons Magazine, depicts a variety of ammonite forms, from Ernst Haeckel's 1904 Kunstformen der Natur. Framed in upcycled vintage wood molding, with the original paint, it's a pleasant reminder of a time when sea monsters ruled the planet.

Handmade On Peconic Bay "Art Of Nature" one of a kind Van Dyke Brown framed print, $225.00 at A Little Of What You Fancy, East Hampton, 631.324.3113.