Apr 26, 2010

Gossip Benches

Lover's seat or the Kissing bench as it is called, has been a part of most European and Early American furniture choices.(I remember seeing it in someone's home, when I was a child.)  

source:liveauctioneers.com
These gossip chairs were designed to help people speak into each other's ear I guess(lol). What started out like this happend to take a different form once the civilized world was introduced telephony. If I were to compile a story on Gossip benches, say another decade from now, I would have to start with saying something like this -

There was once a time when telephones were not portable, you were restricted to sit at one place. Men went to work and women had a lot of time on hand. Living in small communities and cities made it possible for them to know everything and anything about everyone around them. (lol). Leave alone multiple connections, each house had a single line with restricted mobility. Initial instruments were attached to the wall.

 source: Photo courtesy Walt Aydelotte, telephonearchive.com

Technological improvements brought the instrument off the wall and onto a small table! (reminds me of the vintage dial instruments!!).

source: langford.payastitlan.com

This was when a very smart carpenter came up with this idea of combining seating with a slot/space for the telephone. He must have thanked Graham Bell for his invention .....;-). I have been saving up a few pictures for my collection. Unique pieces of furniture which were invented for a particular purpose have always fascinated me. Gossip benches seemed like a perfect piece to start a series of posts on unique furniture pieces. We can find a wide range of styles, shapes and sizes to suit differ decors and themes. I noticed that Vintage, Victorian themed decor seems incomplete without a gossip bench in place.


 source: stacksandstacks.com
A piece from the late 1920s, Oak Gossip Phone Bench - Rare Deluxe model having Leather rails and seat.  
 source: dealersmarketusa.com
A beautifully upholstered bench with two draws for storage
source:secondspaces.wordpress


Clean line danish style piece with two open shelves and vinyl seats


source: renest.com


Mission (Early American style)


source: beckerfurnitureworld.com


A classy 1940's piece
source: AT

Not sure of the style, but I loved this simple piece with a little craved back and shelf


source: craigslist


A vintage solid wood Danish modern style with a cubby hole style shelf
Source: craigslist
a sectional/side view of the piece




A mahogany bench with a door concealing an area for storing phone books
 source:atticmag

This retro style teal upholstered piece could be used as an accent chair as well..
source: atticmag

A Cane lover could never overlook this piece. The back and table top have beautiful caning done.
 source: retro-luxe.blogspot

Solid Mahogany Gossip Bench with a pull out chair. Would work well as a corner chair or an entryway/foyer piece. Dated: 1950's


This is how it looks with the chair pulled out
source: thefrontporchantiques
A victorian style Captain chair model gossip bench at its best!!
source: craigslist
There are a few pieces like these which could work well as coffee tables as well...

source: at
There are a quite a few interesting styles. I chose to put up only vintage pieces which I loved. But for the space constraint, I would love to pick the available from a local craigslister!!

Apr 9, 2010

Artist Showcase - Sunayana Sarangi

I feel proud to be the first blogger to be writing about Sunayana, a software engineer by profession and a budding artist, and an excellent classical dancer by choice.

I was introduced to her pencil sketches and 2x2 Oil canvases around three years ago, and I just loved them. I grew to become a fan of her work and her dedication to art.This post has been long overdue. I had mentioned my intentions to showcase her work (in a previous post) - I wrote about her work on store bought Terracota pieces. This post finally happened once I could lay my hands on the pictures of her work. A very shy artist that she is, I had to send in constant reminders (and threats) for a set of clicks. I am honoured to be providing a sneak peek into her world. Her work reflects her passion and dedication towards art. She enjoys spending hours on her projects (and forgets to eat at times). I hope I am able to do justice in showcasing a wonderful artist. I wish I could share all of her work here...but had to make do with a few that I chose at random. I hope you too would enjoy her work and encourage a budding artist who deserves to make it big!

A wall mural she painted in her spare bedroom. Mowgli and friends..(loved this.)


A beautiful mixed media on 6'x4' canvas. Women's embossed jewellery in this canvas needs a special mention (though not visible in this picture).
 

Women find a special place in her work. A Rajasthani woman (4'X3')


A vibrant Ganesha- oil on canvas (3'X2')
 

She is great with abstract and modern subjects as well. Charcoal (3'x2')

Her contemporary Krishna - (2'x4') oil on canvas
Her interpretation of women.(4'x1') (oil on canvas)

Loved her 3D murals in mixed media.

Another pair of 2'x1' murals complimenting each other, and looking so wonderful together
 
One of her Thanjavoor paintings - The show stopper!!

This is what she has to say about her work....
"my work/painting queue is overloaded.... the moment I finish 1, 2 more gets into the queue...More I work, the more exciting it is getting to work on new media and subjects... I am currently finishing a buddha ( oil ) on a charcoal background....thats something my mom had asked me to do for her... work is in progress.... the next in queue is a Thanjavoor Ganesha (2 ft X 1.6 ft) - I intend to work on it once the buddha is all done and framed. My house now looks more like an art exhibition :D....I am striving to create my own style.... And that needs me to be persistent with my work..its practice that I need all the way!"

Do let me know what you think about her work and Sunayana will respond to your queries and questions in the comments section....I wish her all the very best. 


Art patrons can now buy her work!! Sunayana is all set to open her online catalog and a Studio blog. I 'll provide updates in a later post.

PS: Oh! did I forget to mention....she is my SIL!! :) and I can actually demand personalized artwork for myself! lucky me. 


Copyrights: All featured mural and paintings are Sunayana's original work. No form of misuse please!! Images are pictures of her work. Please respect an artist's creativity and right to appreciation. Image resolution has been kept low for copyright purposes. Please ask for higher resolution pictures, if interested.


UPDATE:
Sunayana Sarangi has started blogging over at : http://skartstudio.blogspot.in/. Do stop by her blog for the latest from her studio :)
adding pinterest script 3. Changing the Position of the Pin it! button The cool thing about this code is that you have some freedom over where the Pinterest button for Blogger will go over the image. Take a look at the code that you just copied and pasted into the HTML for the word 'center'.