Whale Story

The last few weeks of August in the Northeast are magical. Growing up, my family would spend the entire summer in Amagansett, and by late August you could already sense fall coming as the sun shifted overhead and the ocean breezes cooled. Monarch butterflies and enormous flocks of birds would pass through the dunes, on their southbound migratory paths.

Barack Obama and family chose Martha’s Vineyard as their late August vacation spot this year. It’s a wonderful choice for many reasons, including the fact that summer is peak season for whale watching in Cape Cod, as they swim up to 4,000 miles to their winter home. America’s ancient whaling history is centered in Cape Cod, and one of my favorite summer looks is scrimshaw jewelry made with vintage charms from the region.

I am fascinated by this technique, originally the handiwork of whalers, who etched patterns and stories into the bones and teeth of the marine mammals they hunted, rubbing in pigment to highlight the carving. Recently, I designed a vermeil lariot dripping with white coral branches and scrimshaw charms. Perfect with my Christopher Deane knot patterned maxi for a Cape Cod getaway, should the need arise!

Cynthia Rybakoff oxidized sterling silver Whale Story Charm Bracelet with angel skin coral and vintage scrimshaw, $655; vermeil Sailors Not Lariot with white coral and vintage scrimshaw charms $550, both to order at cynthiarybakoff.com.

Do You Upcycle?

If you haven't been living under a rock, you are probably making an effort to recycle, which will reduce your waste into lesser quality, but highly usable component materials and maybe even save the environment! It's also known as downcycling. As a designer, I tend to think a lot about the upcycle as well, that is to create great looking new products from used stuff. To upcycle is to take salvaged parts and create a new object of greater value. It's nothing new, but using reclaimed or vintage components inbues designs with the spirit of their unique history. Not only is mixing things up more interesting aesthetically, it's also good for us. With our fragile biosphere increasingly in peril, supporting artisans who make upcycled goods is a socially conscious way to share our global commitment to good planetary housekeeping.

"Whoops-A-Daisy" by Matt Shapoff for Handmade On Peconic Bay, one-of-a-kind Cyanotype print in upcycled barnwood frame, $68 at Supermarket.

Blue Is The New Green

Images from "Modern Vintage: Cyanotypes by Matt Shapoff"

In our brave new world of green living, Matt Shapoff is a natural. He’s been practicing eco-friendly photography for two decades, harnessing the sun's energy to expose biodegradable paper sensitized with non-silver based photochemistry, right in his own backyard. Even his subjects are organic: a visual Wunderkammer of the botanical and marine species of Peconic Bay, a tidal estuary between Long Island's North and South Forks. In 2007, Matt and his wife Cynthia Rybakoff started Handmade On Peconic Bay, a collection of Cyanotype paper goods and fine art prints in reclaimed vintage wood frames.

Peconic Bay, Southampton

Combining 19th century printmaking with 21st century digital photography, Matt spends his weekends at his Southampton, NY studio collecting “curiosities”: the wild flowers, herbs, shells, feathers and creatures that will become his distinctive Prussian blue Cyanotype images, printed en plein air just as it was done over 150 years ago. The natural subject matter and hand crafted technique imparts an overall vintage look and feel to his work, an aesthetic the New York Times has dubbed the New Antiquarians.

Cold Spring Pond, Southampton

On August 22nd, Matt will unveil his latest endeavors at his first solo show entitled "Modern Vintage: Cyanotypes by Matt Shapoff", hosted by Dr. Gerry Curatola at The Gallery at East Hampton Dental Associates. A portion of the proceeds will benefit the new Wellness Institute of Southampton Hospital. As the only hospital-based Integrative Medicine on Long Island’s East End, Southampton Hospital’s Wellness Institute brings together clinical excellence and a holistic approach to wellness.

You can find Handmade On Peconic Bay Cyanotype paper goods and prints at the Parrish Art Museum Shop, Southampton and Mascot Studio, NYC, as well as online at Supermarket.

The Happening

What really happened at a happening? Here’s a great shot my father took back in 1966 of a beach happening in Montauk. The dust and scratches from the slide add to the arcane element of this composition. Balloons at the beach! What a party!

The term happening was first used in the late 50’s, to mean a performance or event that was considered art. And they were interactive! Like all good trends, the culture of happenings hit the mainstream by the late 60’s, when my parents first started trekking from Manhattan to the distant shores of the Hamptons. Many of my father’s slides from this time period are simply labeled “Happening”.

The Wee Feather

Every feather has a story. Or at least a previous owner. Our striped feathers came from the wings of an unfortunate creature that found it’s final resting place on the quiet pebbled shores of Peconic Bay. Thank you little bird.

Tiny little feathers were carefully washed and dried to be used in a series of Cyanotype print gift cards for Spruce, a fab little shop in Memphis I recently visited and wrote about. If you’re in the area, be sure to check out the rest of our Handmade On Peconic Bay gift cards, plus all the other wonderful goodies Selena McAdams has carefully curated.

Spruce, 5040 Sanderlin Avenue, Memphis, TN 901-682-5513, www.spruceshop.com

Vintage Mags

Isaac Mizrahi in Vogue, March 1989

Here's a hot flash back to an item from my Summer 1989 fashion jewelry collection. The primitive textured beads on knotted leather cord were designed for Isaac Mizrahi, to accessorize his flowing silhouettes that season, along with Moroccan style shoes by Manolo Blahnik. The photograph, above, from the March 1989 edition of Vogue, by Irving Penn, with it's striking harem dancer legs and feet, captured the exotic mood of Isaac's bright palette of chrome yellow silk with colbalt blue and emerald green suede mismatched slippers, and a tribal twist of gilt beads wrapped around the model's ankle.

Isaac Mizrahi in WWD, January 1989

The necklace was carried by Barneys New York and Body Sculpture in Boston, a fabulous jewelry gallery that represented most of the designers from the Robert Lee Morris gallery Artwear in Soho. Made from polymer clay, the beads were hand formed, baked in a convection oven, and then given a gold leaf finish.

Working with Isaac was always a blast; ideas moved quickly and spontaneously from his pencil to the runway. Isaac's early shows were a dazzling riot of color, fluid forms and over-sized hand crafty "jewels". In 1989 he was by far the most popular designer on Seventh Avenue and a pioneer in his downtown Soho studio, just two short years into his stellar career.

I Don’t Remember 1969

From my copy of "Peace" by Peter Max

1969 was an amazing year for creativity, the arts and science. In music there was Woodstock, David Bowie’s “Space Oddity” and Yoko Ono and John Lennon’s “Give Peace A Chance”. In film “Butch Cassidy and The Sundance Kid”, “Easy Rider” and “Midnight Cowboy” were released, and the novels “Slaughterhouse–Five” and “The Godfather” were published. Rowan and Martin’s “Laugh-In”, “The Brady Bunch” and “Monty Python’s Flying Circus" premiered on TV. 40 years ago today Apollo 11 landed on the moon. I don’t remember any of it. I was six.

Portrait of the artist, 1971

While 1969 for me was more about play dates, TV dinners and Saturday morning cartoons, the counter culture finally hit me in 1971, when I bought my first book, a breathtakingly colorful explosion of 5 ¾” square format design entitled “Peace” by Peter Max. As I soaked in New York City in the early 70’s, I began digging the groovy vibe. I drew peace signs and smiley faces and begged my mother for a zip front mini and a suede fringed vest. I knew every lyric from "Hair" by heart, and saw it in 1972. By the late 70’s I had reached the pinnacle of retro-hippie style, drew psychedelic art, made beaded jewelry, worshipped Jefferson Airplane and had some mind expanding experiences.

James and Cynthia Rybakoff, East Hampton, 1970

I often look back to the post-1969 era with fond memories of that great incubator of a time, which shaped me as the artist and designer I am today. I have probably not yet seen all the avant garde art, heard every influential song, seen every important film or read every seminal novel from back then, but I definitely intend to.