~ ~ ~ FALLing in OKO ~ ~ ~

The leaves are changing color, cats are changing fur, girls and boys are changing their minds, we just love new beginnings.
Currently, OKO is filled with inspiration! It is piling up on our shelves, tables, dripping from the ceiling. It's everywhere, come and check it out!

i'm outta here!

with gleeful anticipation mixed with the anxiety of a new mom leaving her baby (the shop) -- i'm getting on a plane to europe tomorrow.  for a month i'll be running around the streets of amsterdam, antwerp, berlin, and belgrade with my sweetheart.  when i come back, i'll be laden with treasures for the shop.  see you in a month!

"oko" means "eye"

in many slavic languages, including czech and serbo-croatian, "oko" means "eye."  there's a cinema in prague called "kino oko" and the first time i stumbled upon it years ago (12 years ago?!), i fell in love with the sign out front, and the word itself, the way it looks and how very eye-like it is.  more recently, i heard about a fabulous croatian street artist who calls herself oko.  she's rad.

these days...

 jewelry by the ever-amazing hazel cox

 cards and notepads by eberhardt press,
porcelain wasp nests by hsin-yi huang

 anagama vases by amy maule, glass perfume bottles by andy paiko, and petrified wood bookends from oregon's oldest forests

 crystaline jewelry by stone and honey and porcelain vessels by belle chesler

a dusky peek through the salted glass window

sanded smooth, warm wood

Presto -- shelves!  These came to fruition with the awesome woodworking skills of Paul Bishop.  I finished them with a simple beeswax and orange oil.  I love how red the pear wood glows, and how nicely they work with the ceramics.

opening party!

This was the poster for the opening party, beautifully made and printed by Charles at Eberhardt Press.  I brought him doodles and scratches, and he created structure and something to catch the eye.
He's amazing.

WOOD SHELVES

I had my heart set on using reclaimed lumber for the shelving, something with some soul and still a bit wild. Finally I decided I would use live-edge wood with the tree's profile still intact, but then that seemed to rule out the reclaimed aspect -- until I found Tyler and his amazing and project: Urban Hardwood Recovery. Tyler hauls diseased, threatened (or threatening!), or fallen trees in the Portland area; mills them himself; kiln dries them for upwards of 16 weeks in a kiln he's constructed in his backyard; and sells the wood out of his garage. It's a tremendous service, given that so much hardwood is shipped in from half way across the world. After much hemming and hawing over which pieces to get, I decided on two slabs of pear from a 150 year-old pear tree in Gresham and 3 planks of Myrtle.