June 21/Los Angeles/Modern Originals booksignings and slideshow

Hey there friends! Just wanted to let you all know about a couple of events coming up in the Los Angeles area this coming Saturday, June 21.
At 2pm I will be signing books the Dwell bookstore by Skylight Books at the Dwell on Design Conference in Downtown LA.
At 7pm I will be over on the west side for a lovely evening book signing and slideshow at General Store in Venice (1801 Lincoln Blvd x Superba). I expect the slideshow will be around 7:45ish. Hope to see you at one of these events!

handcrafted modern/outtakes/blunk

JB Blunk's work in his home. Damn.

handcrafted modern/outtakes/blunk

I guess it makes sense that all this work on my new book has led to reviewing my first one, Handcrafted Modern. There are so many images that have never been seen, including this one at JB Blunk's home. I have been posting some outtakes on Instagram as well so you can follow me there if you'd like. I'd love to have you. I'm lesliewilliamson on IG.

carina seth andersson/ nyt.people watching outtakes

A few more outtakes from Carina Seth Andersson's studio in Sweden. I really love the pared back aesthetic. Black, white and a couple shots of bright yellow. In the last shot are her glass baby rattles. Apparently she has a bit if a sense of humour as well.
Happy Christmas.

the last NYT People Watching/Carina Seth Andersson outtakes

I've been meaning to post some outtakes of Carina Seth Andersson from my People Watching post for the NYTimes so finally today here are a few. This will be my last People Watching post I am sad to say. There are big changes afoot at T Style online and that includes moving away from columns. So I just wanted to take this opportunity to say thank you to my editors, Julia Felsenthal and Jane Herman Bishop who helped to make the column into something I will always be proud of. And of course a special thanks to all of you for following and sending kind and encouraging emails, comments, etc. People Watching sprang out of what I was doing already - namely finding people whose work I admire and basically inviting myself over to meet them - and I will continue to do just that. I find so much joy in it and even more in sharing these people with all of you. So maybe they will be posted here on my blog, or maybe they will be elsewhere. I have toyed with the idea of doing a one off magazine of all the wonderful people I have shot that have never been seen...there are so many possibilities! So we'll see...

For now, I am happily writing my new book and prepping a Kickstarter campaign that will post in the first weeks of 2013 to help me to finish that book. Lots of amazing things are on the horizon. So a deep and grateful thank you. I hope your holidays are filled with love, beauty and time with those that are dearest to you. 

Kisses from California! 

L-

max lamb/nyt.people watching/outtakes

A few more outtakes from Max Lamb's live work space in London. I told you there were a lot...
See the original NYT People Watching post here.

june schwarcz/american craft magazine

Just a head's up that some of the images I have been shooting of June Schwarcz's home and work are featured in a story on her in the June/July issue of American Craft Magazine. You can see the story if you click here as well. The story was written by Deborah Bishop and focuses mainly on her new work. Of course I love June's work, but her curatorial eye for the objects in her home is equally interesting to me. Here are just a couple of goodies that did not make it in the story.

jesse schlesinger/nyt.people watching/outtakes

Here I am in London working on the next NYTimes People Watching post and I realized I never shared my outtakes of Jesse Schlesinger! So here they are, including my favorite portrait of Jesse and my favorite image of them all of the blue string study with that amazing triangle of light. A new People Watching post is coming soon. Just need to get it written!

charles bello/people watching.nyt/outtakes

One more from Charles Bello's place to round out the week. This is the kitchen of his second house. Not a bad place to chop vegetables, huh? The "tree" to the left is a manzanita, that grows in abundance on his land.

On another note, I am writing this en route back to San Francisco after a pretty amazing trip to NY. Just a week away from continuing my work documenting design icons homes. This time in Europe! Seriously Cannot Wait!

Have a super great weekend you lovely people!

charles bello/people watching.nyt/outtakes

One of my favorite shots from Charles Bello's. This was during my last visit in late February. While making breakfast, I ran down to the Parabolic Glass House to grab my camera and this was the light. I had to shoot, no? It was breaking through some "river fog". More on Charles at the T Style website here.

charles bello/people watching.nyt/outtakes

Peeking through the dividing wall into Charles Bello's kitchen. Really pretty morning light in there. More on Charles here.

charles bello/people watching.nyt/outtakes

This might seem like a weird one to start with for the outtakes of Charles Bello. As I mentioned yesterday, my new NYTimes blog "People Watching" on Charles Bello was picked up in an abbreviated form for the NYT Sunday Styles section. See the entire blog post here. Anyhow, they ran the image of Bello's art gallery and I just wanted to show you all the plans. There it is - that one little drawing on the left. Noooo...I'm not kidding. One drawing and he builds it! Look at the NYT post to see the finished Art gallery. It is rather glorious!

happy birthday handcrafted modern!!!

It suddenly occurred to me this weekend as I was nursing a whopper of a cold, that my book is a year old! It is so strange, it seems like it has been out longer...so crazy!

I decided to run an outtake of the Eames house today to commemorate this milestone and to coincide with the California Design show at LACMA. They have disassembled the Eames living room and moved it there for the exhibition. So this room is now empty. I am so thankful I got to shoot it before this happened. Something about knowing that Charles and Ray were the ones that put this room together makes it different for me somehow.

handcrafted modern/outtake/eames

For some reason I have been thinking about Ray Eames a lot. I'm not sure why...but it made me go back and look at all my Eames images. So here is another outtake from the Eames house. I love how everything is an opportunity for arrangement chez Eames  - even the kitchen counter.

handcrafted modern/outakes/john kapel

Yesterday I paid a visit to John  Kapel down in Woodside. I hadn't seen him in awhile and as he just celebrated his 89th birthday, it was definitely time! Every time I visit John he has new projects to tell me about. This time I got to see two new chair designs that he is shopping around (both beautiful, btw) and he continues with his metal/jewelry designs.

John's jewelry making studio is one room that didn't make it into HC Modern just because there wasn't enough space. So today I thought I would run a couple of those shots. I love his jewelry, which echoes his fine art pieces in shape and tone, but my favorite thing in there was this little hand hammered copper cup. It is perfect.

john kapel/outtake

I have been going through a bunch of images I shot awhile ago looking for pictures of kitchens for a magazine in Sweden and I happened upon this image of a detail in John Kapel's workshop. A lot of the time this is what I do...I took this shot because I was coveting Kapel's framed nautical knots. I've looked everywhere for something similar since. Every flea market and thrift store, I keep looking. Now I am pinning every nautical rope image I can find on Pinterest. I am beginning to think the answer is to take a knot tying class...it might be faster.

the miller house/outtakes

I think this is my favorite room at the Miller House - the master bedroom. I really didn't want to leave it. The view was incredible and it had a lovely sitting area. I even liked the very Alexander Girard touch of the dolls above the headboard.

miller house/outtake

Another of my favorites from the Miller House. I was rather fascinated with the way any TV that was exposed in a room had its own little enclosure. The Millers called them "visual warts".  They were very aware of unsightly gadgets (like TV and garbage cans for that matter) and had them all camouflaged in some way. I love this amount of attention to detail.

handcrafted modern/outtakes/eames

This is one of those pictures at the Eames house that I shot for myself. I was wondering what the story was with these two wood poles (they look like old telephone poles) that are outside on the patio. Lucia, the Eamses granddaughter, told me they are actually a couple of the old pylons from the original Santa Monica Pier. They were getting rid of them, and Charles and Ray grabbed a couple and they have been in the garden ever since.

handcrafted modern/outtakes/eames

one more from the Eames House. This is at the top of the spiral staircase on the second floor. I found that white milk glass finial (lower left) a bit of a surprise...