Buy The Bay: Artists Turn Beach Experiences Into Objects For Charity.

Buy the Bay is a collaborative effort to help preserve the beach we love in support of Heal The Bay.

Artists, designers, writers and musicians are transforming precious beach experiences into tangible objects that you can own or give to someone else. These beautifully crafted items reflect the things everyone cherishes most about the beach, and are available to own or share as a gift.

You can give back by investing in the experiences that matter most to you. To Buy the Bay is to help preserve the things we love most about the beach. The proceeds raised through each donation will help benefit Heal The Bay’s efforts in keeping L.A.’s beaches clean, healthy and safe to enjoy.

All The Time In The World by Khobe DeLucca
A small hourglass filled with local beach sand, caught between pieces of sterling silver.



Product Specifications:
Hourglass Height: 1.25” including loop
Chain Length: 18”
All metals are sterling silver
Handmade in the USA
limited edition of 50
$200
buy it here

The Perfect Wave by Tim Meraz
Small amounts of water from eight of the best surfing beaches in Southern California like Malibu, The Wedge, Rincon and Trestles. The bottle’s label is held in place by a fine wire wrapped around it, which suggests undulating waves.



Product specifications:
750mL bordeaux bottle approx. 11.5” tall. Ships in a black corrugated presentation shipping box approx. 13.75” x 4.25” x 3.5”.
limited edition of 100
$100
buy it here

Beach Karma by Elizabeth Saveri
Beautiful hand painted beachscapes on the little plastic ties that litter so many beaches and oceans. Each is framed in a 6" square black wood frame.



Product Specifications:
Water-based oil paint on recycled plastic bag ties.
Comes in a 6” x 6” black wooden frame.
limited edition of 10
$150
buy it here

Special Edition Poster by Eric Nyquist

With every special-edition 25th anniversary poster comes a year-long membership to Heal the Bay, and every poster you purchase adds another year. Hang it up and let the world know just how much a clean and healthy beach means to you.


This poster was printed in a limited-run of 250.
Product Specifications:
16” x 20” hand-pulled 2-color silkscreen print on uncoated 100# cover stock suitable for framing.
$50
buy it here

Info and images courtesy of:

New Orleans Jeweler Designs Collection To Help Gulf Coast Oil Spill Cleanup

Mignon Faget, a jewelry designer based in New Orleans, has introduced a new collection dedicated to raising awareness and funds for the Gulf of Mexico oil spill disaster.



Now considered to be the largest offshore spill in U.S. history, the disaster has already had an extensive impact on marine and wildlife habitats. For Faget, the impacts of the spill and the cause of restoration in the area are especially close to her heart. The designer's very first collection was one inspired by the nature of the Gulf Coast region.




The new collection, dubbed "In Mourning," features pieces that Faget selected and redesigned from her earlier collections. Redfish, speckled trout, oysters and pelicans are presented as sterling silver or 14-karat gold pins backed with black ribbons or as pendants on black cords. The designs are meant to be worn in the tradition of mourning jewelry and so the collection evokes a somber mood, yet it also carries a spirit of hope.




"It is a heartbreaking statement to make with jewelry originally designed to celebrate the abundant gifts of our coast, but the reality is that we need to make people aware of this disaster and the long-term effects on this region," Faget said in a media release.




Designs in the In Mourning collection retail from $65 to $300, with proceeds benefiting the Coalition to Restore Coastal Louisiana (http://www.crcl.org/), a nonprofit organization dedicated to restoring and protecting the Louisiana coast. The collection is available in Mignon Faget galleries in New Orleans and Baton Rouge, La., as well as through the designer's Web site, MignonFaget.com.

A Magical Villa For VilaSofa's Amsterdam Store

A Magical Villa for VilaSofa


Tjep. was commissioned to create a shop environment for a new furniture brand called VilaSofa in Amsterdam. The result is a large playful warehouse.



VilaSofa is positioned between a conventional furniture shop and IKEA in terms of delivery speed. It offers mid-range prices for a wide public and a 48 hour delivery guarantee for all displayed models. The 48 hour claim became the main theme for the shop. They used the idea of a warehouse as metaphor for speed: a place were goods are stored for the transition from the producer to the very personal environment of your home.





The conceptual solution was surprisingly simple and logic: a combination of warehouse aesthetics and home aesthetics. This resulted for example into materials such as plywood usually used for crates combined with high-end glossy finishes. The symbols used in transportation and packaging have been metamorphosed into decorative elements that form room dividers, arranged to organize the space and routing.



Finally there is a big wall suggesting the idea of a magical villa. Is the customer looking at a giant styrofoam packaging element, or is the construction itself the actual villa? They see cavities for a big chandelier, a diversity of playfully arranged windows, romantic balconies, paintings etc... In this space they placed big 'picnic' tables where clients can take their time to inform about the product, talk to the VilaSofa staff.





Design team:
Frank Tjepkema, Janneke Hooymans, Leonie Janssen, Tina Stieger, Bertrand Gravier, Camille Cortet

Production:
Kloosterboer

VilaSofa's site
Tjep site

Dré Wapenaar's Tents: Artful Environments Cloaked In Canvas

Dré Wapenaar is a Rotterdam-based artist whose primary medium is tents - environments designed to shape encounters, whether between individuals or for large groups. Dre's portfolio includes a tent for reading newspapers, a birthing tent, "Deathbivouac," the "Pavilion of Loneliness," "Tree Tents" and "4GPP" - a pavilion for the performance of Dutch composer Simeon ten Holt's "Concerto for Four Grand Pianos."


Above: Artist Dre Wapenaar

Most of his tents are art pieces or sculptures and are not sold for commercial use. In the blogosphere, he's best known for his unusual looking tree tents, first created in 1998:



Here's a little background. The first 3 Treetents were produced for Campsite De Hertshoorn in Garderen in 1998. They were built by brothers Gertjan and Dré Wapenaar, as well as the steel frame as the manufacturing of the canvas.




In 2005 they built a new edition of the Treetent or Boomtent (this one can be loaned out and used for shows directly from Studio Dré Wapenaar).

TREETENT 2005 EDITION/ BOOMTENT EDITIE 2005




Only ten were produced of the 2005 edition in the following colors:
- forest-green
- dark-grey
- dark-beige
- bright-white

Engineer: Technisch Buro Cor de Heer


Steel Frame: Constructor Dick van Campenhout, Waalhaven Rotterdam.
Canvas: Ten Cate Technical Fabrics

And I bet you didn't know that he actually has little ones for birds as well! Birdtent orders can be made directly via the studio.



As mentioned at the beginning of this post, he's created a lot more than just the Treetents or BoomTents (as they are called in the Netherlands). Below are a few from his portfolio.

Tent Village, begun in 2001 and revisted in 2007:






A Shower Tent, 1997:



A BBQ Tent, 1997:



A Birthing Tent, 2003:



The Four Grand Piano Pavilion, 2004:




Camp Tent, 2008:




The Recital Pavilion, 2008:




More tents to see at his site.

Studio Dré Wapenaar
Vaandrigstraat 10,
3034 PX Rotterdam
The Netherlands