Collecting Fireflies for seafare illumination Japan
before electricity
Japanese women catching and collecting fireflies toward evening. Their container full of fireflies is brought to the head of the boat to illuminate their evening ride.
Collecting Fireflies for seafare illumination Japan
before electricity
Japanese women catching and collecting fireflies toward evening. Their container full of fireflies is brought to the head of the boat to illuminate their evening ride.
The Obon festival in Japan is for the living to honor the spirit of their ancestors. A lantern floating festival pays homage to the ancestor who returns for a brief visit.
Precious Metals
PRECIOUS METALS
Precious Metals
PRECIOUS METALS
Throughout the centuries interior castle walls in Japan were adorned with gold leaf. Some of these walls were stationary while others were movable screens. A screen performed many functions. Because these screens could be moved, they not only divided a space but also made the space seem more intimate and kept cold air at bay in winter. Reflective gilding multiplies the amount of light.
Hoitsu Sakai, 6 Panel Wall screens Leslie Hindman Auctioneers
Autumnal Grasses under the Moon, Tawaraya Sotatsu Even though the silver moon has tarnished with age it enhances the overall beauty of the screen by virtue of it’s placement above as it oversees the plant world.
I had the opportunity to do gold leafing while studying textile design in Japan. It is extremely delicate work. The leaf is so thin, you have to hold your breath when applying it – and forget about sneezing!
Avram Rusu, an furniture designer making beautiful contemporary gold leaf screens and generously sharing the process on her website.
DIANE DORRANS SAEKS's writes the most engaging blog on design, fashion and travel, The Style Saloniste. Her post, Beauty Restored Glorious New Salon Dore features the restoration of a stately Parisian home using what else, but gold leaf.
Read all about it!
For a Brooklyn townhouse Miles Redd’s covered the walls of a master bedroom with Roger Arlington’s Chinese Pewter paper (House Beautiful) “What I love about it is that it changes color all day long,” says Redd. “Sometimes it’s gold, sometimes it’s lavender and sometimes it’s silver.”
Roger Arlington's Chinese pewter paper
In the courts of Europe or Japan they all understood the importance of gold leaf, crystals and mirrors to reflect back and amplify light. If today we had to rely on windows as our main source of light during the day and fire at night, we too would crave more illumination. For the first time in history we can simply flip a switch and instantly be supplied with an unlimited amounts of heat and light.
Versailles by today’s standards exemplifies over-the-top décor. Yet at the time the French were augmenting whatever scant illumination they had with gold, candles, crystals and mirrors - long before the world knew the word electricity.
Columbus Circle, NYC
public spaces
A traditional outdoor monument of Christopher Columbus at the foot of Central Park's entrance reflects the setting sun. It's a reminded of why gold has always been such a hot commodity.
CHURCH OF OUR SAVIOR Copenhagen, Denmark
The sense that light is a manifestation of the glory of the sacred – that the numinous is held within the luminous – is common to almost every faith.
COLOR ~Victoria Finlay
(Church of Our Savior, Denmark)
CHURCH OF OUR SAVIOR Copenhagen, Denmark
The sense that light is a manifestation of the glory of the sacred – that the numinous is held within the luminous – is common to almost every faith.
COLOR ~Victoria Finlay
(Church of Our Savior, Denmark)
It is during long winter months in Nordic countries when days are plunged into darkness that the sun continually remains below the horizon. The Church Of Our Savior in Copenhagen, Denmark had to find a way to maximize their limited amount of light. It is a breathtakingly beautiful church. Like the city surrounding it, the church contains a quiet opulence.
GILDING THE LILY
Although the term The Gilded Age was coined by Mark Twain, it is indicative of the newly minted wealth from industrialization and mining who could afford great quantities of the leaf.
Period rooms at the MET museum show off how the wealthy lived and made the most of limited light. We see other examples of these reflective surfaces in gilded furniture that designers of the day incorporated in their rooms.
CEILING FIXTURES, SCONCES and GILDING from another era seem to soften illumination. There is something enchanting about these rooms. Since cell phone, computer and TV screens play such an important part in our lives we no longer need to light our interiors as evenly and strongly in those family rooms built a generation ago. Maybe now we go back and borrow the enchanting atmosphere from these Period Rooms.
Chairs at the Park Ave Armory Antique Show, GALERIA IL QUADRIFOGLIO
Siosepol Bridge Isfahan, Iran
Siosepol Bridge Isfahan, Iran
Siosepol Bridge Isfahan, Iran
Siosepol Bridge Isfahan, Iran
Khaju Bridge at dusk Isfahan, Iran
Photo/Eraldo Peres
Both Oscar Neidemeyer and Tadao Ando understood the importance of water and how their building's image could be enhanced by it's reflection.
Photo/Liao Ysheng
59St Bridge at night East River becomes a reflecting pool
59St Bridge at night the East River becomes a reflecting pool.
59St Bridge at night East River becomes a reflecting pool
59St Bridge at night the East River becomes a reflecting pool.
Kyoto State Guest house at night
Kyoto State Guest House
IALD AWARD WINNER
Kyoto State Guest house at night
Kyoto State Guest House
IALD AWARD WINNER
Edison monument in bamboo forest Kyoto, Japan
The Edison monument in the bamboo forest at the Iwashimizu Hachimangu shrine in Yawata, Kyoto Prefecture. The monument is polished so the shrine maidens can see their reflections.
Edison monument in bamboo forest Kyoto, Japan
The Edison monument in the bamboo forest at the Iwashimizu Hachimangu shrine in Yawata, Kyoto Prefecture. The monument is polished so the shrine maidens can see their reflections.
More than a century ago Edison combed the planet for a new long lasting material to work as a filament in his new light bulb. His staff finally found this filament in Japanese bamboo. To this day Edison is revered in this country for the strong economic contribution he made to their economy.
“In search for a longer-lasting bulb, Edison searched for a new material to use as a filament, and sent his staff across the world, acquiring bamboo from China and various regions in Japan. The bulb whose filament was made from fibers from bamboo called madake, grown in the Otokoyama mountain area in Yawata, lasted for 1,000 hours.”
High gloss floors - Jody Harrow Interior
HIGH GLOSS SURFACES such as lacquer, mirror, glass and water bounce light from their surface onto surrounding objects. This augments the amount of luminosity given off by the light source.
In the late 90’s when I renovated my studio I painted the wood floors with a black high gloss indoor/outdoor paint to highlight my rug designs displayed on the floor.
High gloss floors - Jody Harrow Interior
HIGH GLOSS SURFACES such as lacquer, mirror, glass and water bounce light from their surface onto surrounding objects. This augments the amount of luminosity given off by the light source.
In the late 90’s when I renovated my studio I painted the wood floors with a black high gloss indoor/outdoor paint to highlight my rug designs displayed on the floor.
Photo/ Douglas Friedman
HIGH GLOSS PAINT from kitchen cabinets moves light around. A Miles Redd interior.
ARCHITECTURAL DIGEST FEB 2008
When Roman and Williams designed their own place, they ebonized their floors.
Wherever high gloss is used - on the floor, ceiling or walls - it reflects.
In this Jeffrey Bilhuber interior, his glossy yellow hued paint is a light reflector.
GLOSSY SEXY GLASS
These tiny mirrors act as prisms that refract light from various angles and slightly distort the image.
Paul Rudolph interior Photo/Anthony Cotsifas
Benjamin Noriega Ortiz Interior
Instead of making the curtain the only room divider, a mirror was placed over it. This mirror is ingeniously breaking up what might have been a monotonous curtained divider.
separates the men from the boyz by leading the eye in multiple directions.
Benjamin Noriega Ortiz Interior
Instead of making the curtain the only room divider, a mirror was placed over it. This mirror is ingeniously breaking up what might have been a monotonous curtained divider.
separates the men from the boyz by leading the eye in multiple directions.
In Mica Ertegan’s interior, PICTURES IN GLASS protecting the artwork, reflect light back in subtle ways - while we focus on the calligraphic writing dancing across the pages.
Credit: Jonathan Lewis for the International Herald Tribune
Jody Harrow Interior
LIGHTING UP, DOWN and ALL AROUND
Jody Harrow Interior
LIGHTING UP, DOWN and ALL AROUND
In one of my renovated apartments I placed a back lit mirror over the sink.
BEHIND THE ‘SEEN’
Downlights wash the wall art
Seen from behind the 'scene'
recessed up light in bathroom
RECESSED UPLIGHT in an East Village bathroom
recessed up light in bathroom
RECESSED UPLIGHT in an East Village bathroom
lighting front - center - behind
2 views - Spice Restaurant and Frank Lloyd Wright House
RECESSED DOWN LIGHTING washes salmon colored wall in SPICE Restaurant’s bathroom, NYC and behind the bed for reading at FRANK LLOYD WRIGHT HOUSE Rye, NY. (front, center, and behind)
Multicolored lighting inside cabinetry Marre Moerel designed and built. This custom unit was built with a desk and additional cabinetry/lighting underneath the built-in (shown above). With recent updates, this is how it looks today.