CROSSING THE YELLOWSTONE

I have neglected the blog for way too long. Fortunately for the studio we have been very busy. I'm a very optimistic person. One of my father's favorite sayings was,"It's an ill wind that doesn't blow some good." There was also a story told in church when I was little that I have not forgotten and enjoy telling to anyone who will listen.

Trying to find out how we react to our surroundings a group of researchers enlisted the help of two very young boys, one an optimist, one a pessimist. The pessimist was placed in a room with all the latest toys, trucks, earth movers, bikes, games anything that a little boy could dream of. He was told to do as he wished, have fun and the would return in a few hours to check on him. The optimist was placed in a room full of horse manure and a pitch fork. He was told that it wasn't much but it was what they had and to make the best of it, they would check back with him in a few hours.

When they returned to the pessimists room they found him sitting in the corner, nothing had been touched. "Why haven't you been playing?

"I was afraid."

"Afraid of what?"

"I might get hurt."

"The toys are all safe."

"Might break something."

"That's OK you could do as you wish, no one will get angry with you."

"I was scared."

They then entered the room with the optimist. Manure was flying everywhere as the boy was still digging through the pile. "What on earth are you doing?"

"All this manure in here, there has got to be a pony somewhere."

I believe that being comfortable and having a sense of joy about our surroundings creates a positive mood and enhances our life. The pictured light came about in a very strange way. I was pushed almost to my limits in designing for the SNOW LODGE in YELLOWSTONE PARK when the architect called me and told me that they needed two very large fixtures for the fast food area of the lodge. Drawing a blank I did a quick sketch of a group of forest animals in a canoe holding lanterns, titled it, "CROSSING THE YELLOWSTONE" and faxed it off to him as a joke. "We want two of them," was his immediate reply. So here you are. The story is, true or not, that they actually designed a higher roof to accommodate the fixtures.

The way we light our rooms helps to create the way we feel.

LUNCH BREAK

Fall in New York is incredible, it has the typical New England appeal and makes the creative juices flow. I will eventually use this figures in some type of project, perhaps on a piece of marquetry or even silhouettes for a hand cut wooden lampshade or both.
copyright STEVE BLOOD 2008

6 FOOT CHANDELIER

I'm way behind on the blog but things have been busy in the studio. This is a shop photo of the chandelier that was designed for a client in JACKSON HOLE. There are two of them, the drawing for this was posted earlier on the blog. Will post a better picture when we get them after they are installed.

THE YELLOWSTONE FIRES

This is a grim reminder of fires that swept through YELLOWSTONE in the late 1980s. Over one third of the park burned in 1988. Some felt that the fires were part of a natural process and were left to burn creating the largest wildfire in park history. Still there is a stark beauty in the washed and sun bleached dead standing timber against the stormy sky. This photo was taken in the north eastern corner of the park. It is a truly awe inspiring section of the park that most visitors seem to miss. It is well worth the time to go there.
copyright Mary Lynn Blood 2006

PINE BURL LAMP WITH HAND CUT SHADE

I've been a little slow adding to the blog lately. Fortunately we've been extremely busy, but I am still finding time to get some more lamps together. This is a candid shot of a one of a kind. The base is riddled with bug paths that were found under the bark. The trick was to keep as many as possible while cleaning the burl. The shade size is more in keeping with the style popular in the 1920s and 30s. Hand cut from oak with bark paper diffuser the patterns go from the Rockies to the Southwest. This lamp or a similar one is available.

copyright Steve Blood 2000

GRIZZLIES IN THE TETONS

Late in the afternoon on a perfect TETON day near OX BOW BEND we stumbled upon a sow and her two nearly grown cubs. What a treat it was to watch as they took their time grazing on the wild flowers and shrubs. More inspiration.

RUSTIC BURL FLOOR LAMP WITH WOOD SHADE

This is a great example of the burl floor lamps. It is topped with a large six sided lamp shade with hand cut wildlife designs. The bear design is an original the other designs are adapted from H.L. WILD designs from the beginning of the twentieth century. This fixture or a similar fixture is available from stock.

DESIGNING RUSTIC CUSTOM LIGHTING

Sometime about a week ago I got one of those calls that I didn't expect but just love to get. A good friend and a client of mine from JACKSON HOLE, WYOMING called and said that she needed a fresh design for a ten foot by four foot high chandelier for a presentation the next day. I worked long into the evening and started the next morning at five, finishing with a half hour to spare. The design was three tier with an open center, light was to emminate from all angels and I enclosed a photo of the chandelier we made for CRATER LAKE as an example of how the light would shine.

She fell in love with the CRATER LAKE LIGHT and presented it all to her client along with some other pictures. Her customers liked the BUFFALO PROMENADE CHANDELIER and wanted to know if I could design something like that for them without the buffalo and make it six feet in diameter.

I went back to the drawing board with less than twenty four hours to make the presentation. I finished this time with a whole hour to spare and came up with a design that my client said stunned everyone. So here it is, the second two drawings are of the ten footer, the first drawing of the six footer that was chosen. We have always prided ourselves in going a little further than might seem necessary to accommodate our clients, it's part of what makes the job so enjoyable.

NOTE: THE CRATER LAKE CHANDELIER and THE BUFFALO PROMENADE can be seen in early posts on this blog.

copyright Steve Blood 2008

PENROSE DESIGN/RUSTIC LIGHTING

Check it out,
http://www.penrosedesign.com

RUSTIC LIGHTING INVENTORY

We are kind of excited around here as our new web site is almost ready to debut. I will let you know when it's on line.
In the meantime I have been going through storage areas and pulling out lamps, shades and ceiling fixtures that are available for sale. Through the years as I have worked on larger projects I have made many fixtures that have never been on the market or advertised. I have some that date back as far as 1992 and carry the ROYCROFT mark. You see for a while I was licenced to use the mark as a ROYCROFT CRAFTSMAN. I left the group when I drifted away from doing craftsmen style work and concentrated more on the OLD WEST an RUSTIC. These are collectors items. Anyway there are approximately fifty fixtures that are finished or in the process of being finished that are available. The significance of this is that usually we don't retail as we mainly work with architects and interior designers. I will be posting more of these items on the blog as time goes on. In the mean time most of what you see here can be recreated for you.

RUSTIC BURL LAMP

This is a nice pine burl lamp with a hand cut wood shade. The color of the shade is a reddish maple backed with handmade bark paper for a warm look. The designs are original and I use them or similar ones on different shades. There are three designs repeated, a bear, a moose and a buffalo. The base has antiqued brass leaves circling the top of the plate. With a three way socket you can go from mood to a good reading lamp. For more information, penrose@hughes.net.
copyright Steve Blood 2002

MADISON II RUSTIC TABLE LAMP

This lamp was designed for the new SNOW LODGE in YELLOWSTONE NATIONAL PARK for the night stands in the guest rooms. The shade is made of hand cut blackened copper with mica backing. The base has an inlaid bear in the column. This lamp will never be mass produced even though there have been some inquiries throughout the years. There are a limited number of them available though and parties interested in a bit of park history should contact me at, penrose@hughes.net. There is another photo of this lamp on an older post.
copyright Steve Blood 1998

WILD TURKEYS

Inspiration is found everywhere in our daily lives. I am astonished at the resources we have around us that give us opportunity. I'm not saying what kind of opportunity because it may vary from person to person and moment to moment. The wild turkeys plod through our yard from time to time with ease and a slightly nervous arrogance. We are always pleased to see them. Click on the picture to get the full impact.
copyright Mary Lynn Blood 2006

WAGON WHEEL CHANDELIERS

I've never been much for wagon wheel chandeliers, so when a good client of ours asked me if I would build him some for a ranch he was working on in MONTANA I couldn't turn him down, but I didn't want them to look like all the others on the market. I don't really care for just straight out cliches, but I do like to incorporate cliches into an overall design, (such as the star conchos on the rim of the wheels. Other than that I wanted the frame and the lanterns to be totally different than anyone had seen before. In this work in progress photo you can see the forged iron bar holding the different tiers together. The large round plates will hold tall hand blown glass cylinders topped by antiqued copper crowns, designed to seem like an old stacked barn roof. ( I will show these later.)
As I a designer I think that it's important to make things look pleasant from all angles. I hate houses that have their roofs puffed up in the front to make the structure look larger than it really is while the design in the back struggles to overcome the pompous front. I dislike architecture that leaves sidewalls blank except for a thousand square feet of rippling vinyl or a side entrance that looks like it belongs in a city alley. A lot of time and fore thought goes into a good design but it's always worth the trouble to create something just a little more extra ordinary. It's a little strange that we don't always know why we like or dislike something, often times it may be the smallest thing that turns our heads one way or the other and that in the end is what makes creating so exciting.

copyright Steve Blood 2008

EXTERIOR LIGHTING HILTON HOTEL

This fixture was custom designed for the exterior of the HILTON HOTEL in JACKSON HOLE, WYOMING. Every part in the fixture is either custom made or altered to make the light. The glass was custom blown and the heavy steel slab back plate was designed to float over the stones.

copyright Steve Blood 2004

FISHING IS AN EDUCATIONAL SPORT

Being a craftsman has a lot of advantages. Since we deal in the rustic it means that we spend a lot of time in the great outdoors to shoot photos, gather materials and formulate ideas. We have had a chance to see some marvelous things along the way such as this cow moose. Mary Lynn had taken the kayak out on Jackson Lake, (in TETON NATIONAL PARK) and I was off with a fishing pole to the SNAKE RIVER. I have learned that patience brings the best things to you and I was not disappointed. The cow was finishing a bath before I got the camera ready but I still got some good shots. She will probably end up in a marquetry design, I'm not sure yet.
copyright Steve Blood 2006

THE OLD RANCHER

THE OLD RANCHER is a marquetry pattern that my father, RUSSELL M. BLOOD bought from H.L. WILD in NEW YORK early in the twentieth century. H.L. WILD himself was a huge fan of the old west and a friend to BUFFALO BILL CODY. When father was working for MOLESWORTH he tried to convince him that his furniture would look better if he used marquetry as adornment as well as his carvings. MOLESWORTH was skeptical but told father that he would try it if he would produce an inlay on his own time with his own materials. Dad complied by doing a panel of THE OLD RANCHER. MOLESWORTH used the piece but decided that it took too long and was too expensive to produce. As far as I know this was the only pictorial marquetry that MOLESWORTH ever used. He did however, go on to use the pattern.

These panels were made by me for a client that wanted matching doors for a piece of burl furniture. I used woods pretty much to what Wild suggested on his original plans.

SILVER STAR RESTAURANT HELENA , MONTANA

This 36 inch light fixture is representative of the fixtures in the project I discuss below in the next entry. These fixtures are great in family and game rooms, even over a breakfast area. Since we did this project we have made photo shades for several other projects, different subject matter and different shapes. We made shades as large as 1 1/2 foot by 10 feet tall for the WALKER GRILL in BILLING'S MONTANA.

copyright Steve Blood 2002

SILVER STAR RESTAURANT HELENA MONTANA

This was one of those projects that evolved from kind of complicated to intense hair pulling. Originally I was asked to design some rather large two tiered light fixtures using brown kraft paper. My question to the interior people was," have you thought about using historical photos on the top portion?" He thought it was a great idea, talked with the customer and the answer came back as a positive ,"yes."

My wife Mary Lynn, who is very talented herself, spent hundreds of hours researching and editing photos, creating dramatic collages of early Montana. The frames had to be perfect to match up with the printed material. Thousands of holes had to be hand drilled along the edges of the photo strips and then the photos were hand laced with leather thong to the frames. The largest fixtures are six feet in diameter.

I think that the look turned out spectacular thanks to the hard work of Mary Lynn.

copyright Steve Blood 2002

TAKING A STROLL

This wall sconce was designed forTHE SNOW LODGE in YELLOWSTONE NATIONAL PARK. The silhouette is different than was used in the park but other than that they are identical.

copyright Steve Blood 1999.

ASPEN WALL SCONCE

This is a simple steel and glass wall sconce that gives up and down light as well as through the front. The antiqued leaves give it an elegant touch.

copyright Steve Blood 2001

SHOP PHOTOS OF BURL AND STONE TABLE

I grew up with with twisted cedar lamp bases adorning our home in PENROSE, WYOMING, of course they were topped with hand cut wood lampshades. So I was always fascinated with the work. Then a friend of the family, HAL TAGGART, gave Dad a few pine burls, in turn he gave me a couple of them and I made my first burl lamp at 17 years old. I still have the lamp, it has a few dents in it but the patina of time is beautiful.

Needless to say I'm still fascinated with using burls in my work. For this particular piece I found the sandstone first and etched the moose trekking across the top. In going through my stack of burls I discovered the burl that is the front leg. It went perfectly with the irregular shaped stone. It was then that I knew this was destined to be a three legged table. Notice that I cope the burls where they connect giving it the appearance of it growing together.

copyright 2003 Steve Blood

HIGH PLAINS ROYALTY

This is a fret cut wood shade with hand made paper diffuser. The base has an inlaid buffalo in aspen crotch. The foot of the base has antique inlay banding.

The ceramic pitcher was thrown by BILL MERRILL, Bill was one of my college art instructors at NWCC. He now teaches in Port Angeles, Washington. He is an amazing talent. Since I'm talking about teachers I should also mention my high school art teacher in POWELL, WYOMING. His name is BILL McRANN, he fired the imagination and made you want to eat, sleep and dream art.

copyright Steve Blood 2001

PINEHURST COUNTRY CLUB DENVER, CO

This is a sample of a project that required a little more refinement than most rustic projects. The PINEHURST has a long history in the golf community and is considered many to be a five star establishment.