Consider the object: Luggage Stickers

I found these stuffed in a drawer while in the process of looking for something else...

I'm not sure of the date or if they are reproductions or not, but everything else in the drawer dated from the 60's so I'm going with that.

I had commented to a friend earlier in the week that you couldn't pay me to get on a plane ever again (they just aren't made for 6' 4" people, that's a solid fact), but I do still subscribe to the romantic idea of the golden age of flying when the term "jet set" actually meant something.

Aeronaves de Mexico

Indonesian Airlines

Air Afrique Luggage

Pan Am Airlines

Qantas Airlines
A pleasant remembrance of times when airline passengers weren't just peanuts, but valued customers.

All images link to my Flickr pages where you can download high quality scans, suitable for whatever mod design work or inspiration you need.

Consider the Object: The chore coat

A forgotten American icon, the chore coat was sported by everyone from workers:
Courtesy the LIFE magazine archive.
...to celebrities:
Courtesy the the Selvage Yard.

And for good reason, basic clothing with smart design, made of tough denim with collars and cuffs made double or triple thickness would wear forever. Lined pockets with rounded corners made for easily accessible storage. Roomy sleeves with gusseted seams would fit over everything from a t-shirt to a wool sweater.

Today, the chore coat languishes in the shadow of its younger brother, the denim jacket, but it can still be found in the catalog of such stalwarts of the work wear world as Carhartt and Dickies. A version has even been made to fit the demands of firefighters. And in the realm of boutique Japanese brands, the coat is finding a new generation of adherents.

I've been trying to track down a vintage example of this coat for day-to-day wear. In spite of the cachet of vintage denim, you can find these on ebay for 20-40 dollars. However, when this deadstock 60's coat came up, I had to pull the trigger. Even this pristine example ended up on my doorstep for less than $50. This is one great coat, and even the comment I got while wearing it to the grocery store late at night ("Where did you do time?") hasn't put me off of it quite yet.

Consider the object: Kiln gods

A small collection of kiln gods

Attended constantly by some, and scorned by others, the kiln god is a unique tradition among ceramicists. Usually a small sculpture placed on a kiln to assure good luck in a firing, they can be simple or complex, as illustrated in the above photo.

I'm not sure where this tradition started, but I do know that every kiln I've ever visited, from a large industrial kiln at a university to humble electric kilns on porches to old-fashioned groundhog kilns have had them.

I personally genuflect rather heavily at the altar of the kiln god and spend way too much time making them, probably time I should be spending creating. Whenever I was running a kiln firing I'd have all my assistants make kiln gods and then I'd judge the best to put into the next firing. I'm kind of a fascist when it come to firings... but that's another story. I've had several people offer to buy mine, but I have a distaste for buying or selling them, and I amassed the above ones which are not mine through trades. The center piece of the above photo I believe was one I made for my penultimate and final firings of the salt kiln at my university before we tore it down. Others were collaborations with artists who were helping me fire the kiln.

Semi-related: The Kiln God National Exhibition