New Semi-Regular Series for The Edmonton Journal: Made In Edmonton

Often people get in touch with Sam Cupelli because they want a steel gate.  After they leave this craftsman's studio, called Simply Steel Metal Art Studio, they  have ideas for a whole lot more ways steel might fit in their home. In Cupelli's well-trained and creative hands, the options are endless: back splashes, wall finishes, chairs, table legs, spider webs, back lit bars and wall art...

Sam Cupelli at his art studio. Photo by John Lucas; Edmonton Journal photo credit.

This article is the start of a semi-regular series in the Edmonton Journal Homes Section, intended to excite our collective creative juices. There are so many ways to personalize our homes with art and function (often limited only by our imaginations). The series is also intended to feature the many amazing designer-makers in this city. They are creating beautiful things. With more buyers and collaborators like you and I, I hope they might stay in Edmonton and keep creating.

As William Morris so aptly said: “Let nothing in your house that you do not know to be useful, or believe to be beautiful.”

Edmonton Journal: Garden Art

Agile Lady by Ritchie Velthuis

For many years, I have passed, and paused at, and smelled this garden just three blocks from my home in the Alberta Avenue community.  While the plants are stunning, its vegetation isn't the main thing what makes me stop. Subtly scattered throughout is a menagerie of clay-fired and cement sculpture.

Homeowners, Ritchie Velthuis and his partner, Stuart Ballah, can often be found sculpting ice at our local winter festivals. In summer time, however, they turn their skillful, design eyes to their yard. Ritchie does mostly figurative art and he gracefully gave me a tour of their yard. See it here: A Yen for Yard Art

If his sculpture excites you, enroll in one of his classes at the City Arts Centre, and make one for yourself.

Avenue Edmonton: Work of Art

When Wendy Turner was 20 years old, she bought her first original pieces of art. Wandering in an Edmonton gallery in the late ’70s, she fell in love with two drawings by Victoria, B.C.’s Myfanwy Pavelic. The nude drawings, studies of Bill Brandt photos, are in black ink against a pale blue and cream backdrop. From afar, the bodies could be landscape form. “I saw them and I thought: ‘I want them,’” says Wendy, co-owner of The Artworks. 

This was one of my favourite homes to visit. So many things to look at, so many stories to tell- the piece could have been twice as long! Click here for the rest of the Article and further photos.

Edmonton Journal: An Estate Home

 

Photo Credit: Bruce Edwards, The Edmonton Journal

I visited Alison Rayner after one of the first major Edmonton snow storms of the season. As I drove slowly out to her 8.4 acre property, I found my tense "I-hate-winter-driving-muscles" relax despite the icy highway. There was no way NOT to marvel. I was surrounded by a fantasy winterscape- ice dripping off trees, fields full of glinting diamonds.

The Rayner home was just finished, after a 3 year building process. As we drank our tea, you could tell Alison was both relieved and giddy that the project was over. She was a generous host and thoughtful homeowner.

To see pictures of their 6000-square foot estate home, and read more about the building process, click here.

Avenue Edmonton: A Modern Home

Photo Credit:  www.iangrantphotography.ca

When I arrived for this interview with Andrew and Viji Nataraj, their landscaping was still a mess of front-end loaders and workers. Even then, I could see the vision in that front yard.

It has only been the last few years that modern homes like this one, featured in Avenue Edmonton, have been sought after and built in this city. In fact, when I drove away from the home through the Glenora community, I counted three new, modern builds withing two blocks of them. Thank God- perhaps in twenty years it means that there will be more than bungalows for families searching for a larger homes in this city.

My three hours with the Nataraj's was largely spent on the main floor of their home- under soaring ceilings and surrounded by September light.  I spent another few hours writing this decor feature, beautifully photographed by Ian Grant.

The Edmonton Journal: Embracing the Golden Stain of Time"

Photograph by: John Lucas, Edmonton Journal

My time with Ruth Glancy was an afternoon filled with discussion of English literature, architectural and political theory.

I've always respected the Arts and Crafts movement- much of the theory's ideas of quality over quantity and beauty before utility resonate in my own interior design.

Meet Ruth Glancy and view her lovely home here. 

Avenue Edmonton: Wooed by the Antique Auction

I'm  a furniture-phile and deal hunter who will willingly spend summer Saturdays hunting through stuffy second hand shops. That said, I'd never been to an antique auction until last fall when I took my virgin trip to Ward's Auctions for Avenue Edmonton (I had the mis-fortune of mentioning 'virginal trip' to the auctioneer, who responded, "I'll be gentle." Then I turned the unprofessional colour of rhubarb.)

"Tripping to Auction" may be the start of a life-long love affair. The deals are great, but the adrenaline rush and energy of the crowd is something else. Pick up the May edition of Avenue Edmonton, or link to: http://avenueedmonton.com/articles/tripping-to-auction.

If you go, please let me know if it captures your imagination too.

My girlfriend, Tina Faiz, dragged this desk to Edmonton from Seattle. The bookcase is from Strathcona Antique Mall, and chair I bought from a film director I met on kijiji.

The couch was the source of major marital tension: it was a five-piece sectional that I brought home without consultation during my "nesting phase" ( pregnant with my third kid). It filled our tiny living room: "but it has a turning martini bar in the corner," was my plea for keeping the massive monument to sixties largess. We negotiated a compromise: three sections. This arrangement has seemed to satisfy everyone, though it's not exceptional for 'sprawling'.

This table was from Stan's Pawn Shop. Quebec maple, the top was sanded by me and varnished by Mat. The chairs cost me $60 a pop through Kijiji.

This piece languished in the Strathcona Antique Market for two years when they finally dropped the price by $500. I saw it and loved it... probably would have paid the previous price too.