Issue link: http://papercitymagazine.uberflip.com/i/221571
JACK THOMPSON DECORATION A TRIBUTE to Great Design W Karen Pulaski CAROL PIPER'S The water pattern in Avalon Mist hen Karen Pulaski — interior designer and active member of Houston's philanthropic community — set her sights on linens with the founding of her company, Tribute Goods, she was destined to make a difference. With counsel from Ellie and Saeed Taghdisi, founders of the established Houston-based bedding company Home Treasures, Pulaski collaborated with Arizona-based artist Nancy Ruby to develop a collection that incorporates the restorative undertones of earth's elements (fire, earth, air and water), which she debuted earlier this fall at NY NOW market. Her notions of practicality, beauty and design struck a chord with those in the know, and Tribute Goods was awarded the 2013 Home Textiles Best New Product award at the trade show. Small wonder: She invested countless hours into the collection's creation, working with Italian bedding producers and designers outside Milan getting thread count (300), cotton type (long-staple Egyptian), durability and details such as silk mercerization just right. Ultimately Pulaski achieved just what she was seeking: a quality product that's both significant and sublime. Four distinct collections are offered in two color ways, with additional pieces such as bed skirts, coverlets, and accent and neck-roll pillows available. A portion of sales is divvied up amongst her most beloved causes: the MFAH Glassell School's Core Program, KIPP schools and the Baylor Pediatric AIDS Initiative. Talk about sweet dreams. At Plush Home, 2233 Westheimer, 713.522.5230; to the trade at Tribute Goods showroom, 3637 W. Alabama #100, 713.627.3704; tributegoods.com. Seth Vaughan Loom[ing] Capabilities Taxidermy hen carpet connoisseurs speak, Carol Piper listens. Over the summer and under the direction of Houston designer Pamela Pierce, the shop built out one of its sections to accommodate a growing demand for custom rug commissions. The new studio allows customers to sit and dream up increasingly modern pieces created specifically for a project's needs (mood, color scheme and the physical actualities of the rug's placement), notes shopkeeper and rug scholar Ryan Reitmeyer. Mediums ranging from wool, silk and cashmere to bamboo fiber, hemp, mohair and cotton can be used to create hand-knotted and flat-woven carpets, sisals and broadloom carpets, which take four to six months on average to be produced by Stamford, CT-based JD Staron. From $40 a square foot, at Carol Piper Rugs, 1809 W. Gray, 713.524.2442; carolpiperrugs.com. Seth Vaughan It's beetles galore — and other members of the phylum arthropoda, for internationally exhibited, highly decorated University of Wisconsin art professor Jennifer Angus. She turns taxidermy towards the insect world, crafting wildly beautiful installations with a side of Victoriana. Angus, we've just learned, has been commissioned by Houston Arts Alliance board chair Marc Melcher for a site-specific installation in Jennifer Angus' Monstrocity (detail), 2010 his own residence — a project managed by Lea Weingarten's Weingarten Art Group, who represents Angus' elaborate insectoriums in Texas. (We hope we're invited over.) The artist gathers her specimens mostly from Thailand and Malaysia, and she wants the viewer to wonder about "smaller creatures who have an important role in the ecosystem to play." Angus artwork and commissions through Weingarten Art Group; inquiries lea@weingartenartgroup.com. Catherine D. Anspon W The air pattern in Moonstone NATION QUILL TO PAPER: Stephen Sills Arrives Stephen Sills O ne of America's most celebrated designers, Stephen Sills (Architectural Digest 100, Elle Décor's A List of 25 top designers, AD's 30 Deans List of American Design), arrives in Houston Thursday, November 7, for a talk and to sign his new decorating volume, Stephen Sills: Decoration ($65), at Greenwood King's The Lobby. Any decorator who has done the homes of Anna Wintour, the Newhouse family and the St. Regis Hotel in NY … I want the book. Mr. Sills shares 16 prominent residences, including his own beloved Bedford, New York, country house (called the chicest house in America by Karl Lagerfeld). The signing is 6 to 8 pm at 3201 Kirby Drive. The event is gratis, but reservations are required at thelobby@greenwoodking.com. Bidding for POP KINGS Among the bounty of top lots up for acquisition during the red-hot November sales, Texas-founded Heritage Auctions stakes a claim —you might just pick up some treasures here while other collectors aren't looking. Heritage's department head, the erudite European Frank Hettig, has assembled a trove of modern and contemporary offerings that tilt to Pop, on the block in two big sales. First up: Saturday, November 2, Roy Lichtenstein's American Indian Theme III, 1980, at Heritage Auctions prepare to bid on works by Warhol, Lichtenstein and Indiana (whose "Beyond Love" retrospective at the Whitney is among fall's blockbusters). Then on Saturday, November 23, a cache from a tony private collection — billed as "Property of a Distinguished Gentleman" — comes to auction, including a pair of Lichtensteins and a Rosenquist, alongside the inimitable Motherwell and rediscovered op artist Vasarely. Preview lots and bid in advance at fineart.ha.com. Catherine D. Anspon