Measure twice, or maybe even more

Designer Karen Johnson specializes in mosaic mirrors. I love glass mosaics, and her pieces are lovely and sophisticated, with an attention to detail that's admirable. But her glass mosaics are not why she's on this blog. She's here because of her School House series of mirrors, like these with rulers, 

or pencils. 

or pink pencils (note the little bits of glass to bling it out)! 

Now Ms. Johnson's angle isn't recycling or green, per say--her work features the repetition of singular objects and a strong understanding of color. Her style could easily be adapted to reclaimed materials.



Images from Mosaic Works. Via Design*Sponge.

Carolina on my mirror....

 

Found these lovelies in my inbox today. Sometimes my favorite things are the simplest. Jackie MacLeod of Spare Contemporary saw beauty in these rim spacers off 18-wheelers. Metal + mirror = eco-industrial high design. 

Wish I had a spare $400 in my pocket. I'd happily throw some of it toward this North Carolina-based design team. They can include some Carolina BBQ and a Cheerwine with mine. We can't get the good stuff here in Cali.

If you're similarly inclined to put some big rig parts up on your walls, you can get one directly from them here, or for the next couple of days, via the Fab flash sale.
    
Images from Spare Contemporary. Via Fab.

Electric Love @ Grain

Today my inbox featured another daily dose of awesome from the folks at Fab*. They highlighted a design studio called Grain out of the Pacific Northwest, with pretty robust sustainability credentials and some charming designs. The prices are pretty high, but there are some nice details here, from the wool felt and bamboo backing on their Bound mirrors to the sweet matchbox packaging for their Electric Love rings.

Now, if you want to make your own reclaimed wire ring, there's a great how-to @ Ecouterre.

Update 8/11: I just saw the rings on sale @ the SFMOMA gift shop. The packaging is just as cute in person!

*If you don't know about Fab, it's worth checking out. Flash sales like all the others (Gilt, etc.), but with a lovely high-design angle, and extremely well curated. You can Google "Fab" and go directly there, or you can click on this link. Full disclosure, if you click on my link, I get some kind of referral bonus. 

Images from Grain.

Mirror, mirror on the wall...

...who's the geekiest of them all? Must be me, because I love these. Redimei salvages surplus computer parts and disks and turns them into geek mirrors.
Images from Redimei. Thanks to Great Green Goods for the tip.