Gowdy Thayer Allyson - Crafting a Meaningful Home

Published in 2010 by Stewart, Tabori & Chang
An imprint of ABRAMS

Text and illustrations copyright 2010 Meg Mateo Ilasco
Photographs copyright 2010 Thayer Allyson Gowdy

All rights reserved. No portion of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, mechanical, electronic, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without written permission from the publisher.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data:

Ilasco, Meg Mateo.

Crafting a meaningful home / Meg Mateo Ilasco ; photographs by Thayer Allyson Gowdy.

p. cm.

Includes bibliographical references.

ISBN 978-1-58479-867-5
eISBN 978-1-61312-978-4

1. Handicraft. 2. Decoration and ornament. I. Title.

TT857.I43 2010

745.5--dc22

2009047341

Editor: Melanie Falick
Designer: Meg Mateo Ilasco
Production Manager: Jacqueline Poirier

Stewart, Tabori & Chang books are available at special discounts when purchased in quantity for premiums and promotions as well as fundraising or educational use. Special editions can also be created to specification. For details, contact specialsales@abramsbooks.com or the address below.

ABRAMS The Art of Books
195 Broadway, New York, NY 10007
abramsbooks.com

For my mom and dad,

Alfonso and Dely Mateo

Introduction

A home is many things: a place of security to protect us from the elements, a place of comfort and celebration, a place for entertaining when company drops in. A home can also be an instrument for telling stories, holding memories, and sharing history and culture. The way we decorate our homes gives clues to others about who we are. As we fill them with objects that are meaningful to us, they become domestic scrapbooks that evolve over time as our lives progress.

In this book, I share stories from individuals and couples who have brought their memories, histories, and cultures into their homes through original DIY projects. Some projects pay tribute to family heritage, such as Oorbee Roys Alpona Pillow (), an artful assembly of framed notes the two have exchanged during their years together.

All of the contributors generously shared instructions for making their projects, so that you and I can reproduce them as is or with our own adaptations to reflect our own stories. The instructions for each project are complete so that even if youve never tried a particular craft, such as silk-screening, decoupage, crochet, or gold-leafing, you will have all of the information you need to be successful.

Though each of the projects tells a different story and utilizes a different craft technique, they all celebrate the desire to make one-of-a-kind objects with personal meaning. While rooted in history, each project feels distinctly modern, thanks to the creativity and fresh perspectives of their makers.

Without a doubt, its fun to look at homes that are tricked out with uberhip furnishings or painstakingly painted in the perfect palette, but the homes I find most interesting and comfortablethe ones that really resonate with meare the ones that reveal stories about the people who live in them. If you agree with me, then Im sure you will be as inspired by the projects in this book as I am.

Welcome!

Meg

Projects

Folk Art Replica

Marvin & Meg Mateo Ilasco
Pinole, California

When my husband, Marvin, and I moved into our home in Pinole, California, we decided to use our new living space as a canvas on which to tell our stories and express our interests, personalities, and style. We scoured estate sales and thrift stores to find the mid-century modern Scandinavian furniture we both love. We created a wall of family photographs in our living room and displayed our toddler daughters artwork throughout the house. We hung vintage motorcycle prints to showcase my husbands passion for restoring old bikes, and used beakers, flasks, and a wooden molecular model as decorative objects to represent his work in biotechnology. I chose screen-printed posters for the family room to express my enthusiasm for printmaking, and collected handmade home accessories from local artisans I admired. We spent over a year collecting, arranging, and rearranging, but when we looked around afterwards, we realized a crucial element in our story was still missing, in some ways the most important and obvious one: that is, our Philippine heritage. As soon as we filled in this omission, our home felt personal and complete.

Understandably, as children of Philippine immigrants, Marvin and I both grew up in homes filled with Philippine decorations. However, neither of us was thrilled about it. In my teen years, I remember wishing my house could be more like my friends homes, which didnt seem to reflect any particular ethnicity. But today, Marvin and I realize that our heritage is an important part of our story and we enjoy incorporating it into our home, albeit on our own terms. We mix tribal pottery with contemporary ceramics. We adapt traditional pieces to our modern sensibilities. Here, we took Philippine wooden tinikling dancers, a traditional wall art, and recast them in plaster. So now we not only have a replica of the originals that once resided in my parents living room, but weve also brought a contemporary spin to a Philippine folk art classic.

Folk Art Replica

My husband and I created a plaster replica of wooden Philippine folk art by applying liquid latex over the original art to produce a mold. It is possible to create a mold of any dimensional wall art using the latex mold technique as long as the artwork lies flat on one side.

Finished size as shown: 27 x 23

MATERIALS

Philippine tinikling wood wall art or any wood art that lies flat on a wall

1 pound plasteline

1 quart liquid latex

Ivory dishwashing soap

Plaster of paris

4 pushpin sawtooth hangers

4 screws (for wood or drywall)

TOOLS

Cloth or rag

Drop cloth

24 x 28 glass or acrylic sheet

Glue gun and glue sticks

Small dowel or skewer

Three 1 -wide paintbrushes

Fan or blow dryer

Scissors

Uncooked rice

Large aluminum tray