Jane Powell used to joke that the Arts & Crafts Revival has lasted longer than its original period of popularity. Although I am ever pining for my time machine, it gives me joy to know that there are many talented craftsman working in the style today, including these modern day Arts & Crafts lighting masters. Thanks to the world of the internet, it is easy to admire & purchase their work.
Ragsdale
Mission Style Oak & Mica Lamps & Lighting
“The Arts & Crafts lamp or Mission Style design is meant to capture the essence of old-time lamp makers and bring the art up one level.”
Craftsman Phillip D. Myer built his first Arts & Crafts style lamp in 7th grade woodshop & soon had a little craft show stand where he created Frank Lloyd Wright inspired items. 20 years later he began designing & drawing furniture seriously, & then started his first full time wood shop & studio & gradually, coming full circle, Arts & Crafts lighting became his main focus. Says Phil, “I spent many years living in the details of designing the 33 lamp designs I now do.”
Phil creates his lamps from quartersawn white oak, also termed “tiger oak.” This wood is obtained by slicing a log of high grade (few flaws, knots, etc.) into quarters & then cutting the boards to show the flame shape grain.
Years ago, he used to spend hours at the mill, hand-picking the heavy boards, searching for the flame, choosing only a small fraction of them & tossing the rest back into the pile. The mill owners objected to his taking the best pieces & he gladly offered to pay them a higher price for the better quality material. However, he never stopped searching for the most beautifully grained wood & today buys from a mill that provides lumber with the most pronounced & exquisite graining obtainable.
The light glows through authentic mica a naturally occurring mineral, which was originally mined near Asheville NC & stained glass, crafted in the U.S.
In 2010, Phil’s lighting was honored by being accepted by the Roycroft Copper Shop in the Roycroft Campus in East Aurora NY, placing his work on the same campus where Elbert Hubbard brought Arts & Crafts to our country.
As an extra bonus, Phil offers real acorn pull chains. He searches the forests of Michigan, returning again & again to the trees which produce the most perfectly shaped ones. He hollows the acorns & then fills the little cuties with epoxy to make them strong.
Taught by his father, Luke Marshall became an artisan at 13, crafting silver jewelry & sculpting metal. Later, he met the Spanish grandmaster silversmith, Ricardo Lopez de Grado who refused to teach him, but suggested that he copy his work. De Gardo himself was a descendant of goldsmiths, & his training was guided by his godfather. It was believed that De Grado was the only remaining artist who began a piece from a flat piece of metal, coaxing it into the shape desired with his hammer. Marshall uses this technique to create hollow forms, likely inspired by De Grado. As with De Grado, he also fashions his own tools.
In his mid-teens, when Marshall was told that his work was reminiscent of Roycroft copper, he researched the Roycrofters & “fell in love.” He then saw a Van Erp lamp in a newspaper, copied it & its popularity spurred him to continue making them.
Though he does make reproductions of Van Erp’s lamps, (as well as meticulously repairing lamps made by Van Erp 100 years ago) his pieces are uniquely his own, with every hammer strike bearing his signature touch. He also crafts his own designs, & offers custom work. As well as lamps, Marshall makes lidded copper boxes with highly detailed, applied relief.
Master glass artist, Carl Radke has been creating magnificent hand-blown luster glass lighting for 45 years. Lusterware contains silver to produce its beautiful sheen & after having first been created by Tiffany in 1881, lost favor in the mid-20’s.
In the 1970’s Radke helped inspire the Renaissance of American glass art, during a period of increased interest in the crafts. Please read more about this art form & its interesting technology here.
He also creates Arts & Crafts glass shades to fit your own lamps.
WHO ARE YOUR FAVORITES?
These are only three of the masters working in America today. No doubt there are some creating incredible lighting in Europe. I’d like to hear from you & learn whose lighting illuminates your bungalow.
THIS IS JUST ONE PART OF AN IN-DEPTH SERIES ON LIGHTING
LET’S TAKE A LOOK AT SOME REPRODUCTION ARTS & CRAFTS LIGHTING RESOURCES
If you should feel more comfortable with modern light fixtures, below are some good reproduction Arts & Crafts lighting resources for you. I have chosen companies with longevity & good reputations. I always encourage my readers to perform their due diligence- check reviews & carefully, read product descriptions & shipping & purchasing/return terms- prior to buying.
I am always in search of quality vendors for my readership. Please let me know if you have any vendors that you would like would like to recommend.
Please read all the articles in this series to learn more about lighting. (All the links are at the bottom of the page.) It is a key design element in a room & can change the perceived size, shape, flow & mood of any space.
The Arroyo Guild of Fellow Craftsman, motivated by the Arroyo Seco, the seasonal river, often dry canyon, is considered to be the birthplace of Pasadena & the inspiration for the Gamble House. In 1909, the Arroyo Guild published its first pamphlet entitled “Arroyo Craftsman” which championed man’s innate need to create beautiful things with his own hands. Honoring these great artisans of the California Movement, Arroyo Craftsman lighting, was founded three-quarters of a century later.
Each Mission, Prairie or humble bungalow style is available in over 100 choices of sizes, finishes, glass, on a base of heavy gauge brass. These American made, fine architectural & landscape lighting pieces, are handmade to your custom order & aged by their special processes to have a natural, vintage appearance, which will continue to oxidize with age & become even more beautiful.
Their extensive catalogue of reproduction Arts & Crafts lighting resources can be accessed here. If you find all the choices intimidating, their designers are most helpful in assuring that you will make the perfect decision for your home. Their website includes links to retailers near you.
You can learn more about the Arroyo culture & view lovely Robert Winter videos here.
I restored 4 houses with their hardware- window hardware, hinges, pulls, knobs, push-button switches (which I highly recommend as a tactile connection to history. I spent way too much time clicking them on & off because I loved the sound & the sensation.) I also installed their lights in my bathrooms after rescuing them from various stages of hideousity.
This company demonstrates a profound respect for history, producing authentic, high quality reproductions & offering some original pieces as well. They have supplied hardware & done restorations on many projects for Federal, State, & local properties & have been featured in on television, in magazines & other national media as one of the top reproduction Arts & Crafts lighting resources.
Their Resource Center provides ideas & inspiration, displays the finishes that they offer, shows an informative architectural timeline & best of all, has a glossary of term related to historic hardware.
I have been extremely pleased each time with their products & their service.
No, they no longer produce this bat fixture, but if you look long enough, I’m sure that you’ll be able to find one hovering about on Craigslist or Marketplace or eBay or Etsy!
Rejuvenation began almost half a century ago as an architectural salvage shop in which the owner would restore vintage lighting. To fulfill the demand for fixtures, he began manufacturing reproduction pieces. I purchased a living room 4 arm chandelier & a 2-arm lamp for my 1925 California bungalow dining room in 2004. They looked great but the coolest part was that I was also able to order 4 custom sconces that were newly manufactured to compliment the antique pieces. Unfortunately they no longer create such items, but they do offer several glass & finish options in each style.
Though acquired by Williams-Sonoma in 2011, they still restore antique lighting & assemble their inspired pieces in Portland, Oregon.
Their knowledgeable design crew can help you with your choices.
Revival’s retail store is housed in a beautiful, old 7,000 square foot brick building in Spokane, Washington. Their display of merchandise is truly dazzling & artfully displayed. You can also order online & they will assist you on finding what you need.
This vendor was suggested to me by a reader who is a big fan & they have impressive reviews.
They feature an ever-changing inventory of antique lighting & also reproduction chandeliers, sconces, pendants & table & floor lamps. They seem to have an abundance of items that would be perfect in a bungalow!
Revival offers a good variety of finishes in their repro lighting- old gold, nickel, antique brown, pewter, & polished brass & they do repair also.
Additionally, they have some exceptional furniture. I saw a gorgeous armoire on their Facebook page!
EASIER ON THE BUDGET
Big Box stores & online lighting vendors do have some choices, but my preference is always the high price spread. That being said, it’s not just antique lighting that can be found used. I have seen a fair number of current fixtures on eBay & I imagine you might have good luck on Etsy & Marketplace & Craigslist too. You can put in the names of these manufacturers in the search & see what comes up. There’s also Habitat Restore. I overbought for my bathroom & donated a pricey, custom, multi-light sconce to Habitat.
THIS IS JUST 1 PART OF AN IN-DEPTH SERIES ON LIGHTING
These videos are mentioned in my post, BUNGALOW TOASTERS which I encourage you to read. It includes a video of this little gem, dubbed a “Sweetheart” toaster, being used.
At the risk of becoming very hungry, I encourage you to also watch the magic of the videos of folks as they lovingly use their old toasters. This is a variety of toasters & even a toaster collector with a sense of humor!
One of my favorites is of a full restoration of a poor toaster that looks like it was used hard by a family of 10 & then abandoned when they got an updated model. A talented man meticulously dismantles it, revives each tiny part & lovingly puts it back together again.
I also offer you my Pinterest page of old toasters. I have quite an array!
THE VIDEOS- Antique Toasters
Antique Toastmaster Toaster 1A5 Demo “Automatic Pop-Up Type Toaster” Bachelor Model 1 Single Slice (:50)
Laura’s Last Ditch Vintage Kitchenwares
Would you like your toast medium or well-done?
Toaster Collector (2:55)
Texas Country Reporter
He started with his mother’s toaster & 300 toasters later, he eats jam for breakfast every day.
I adore old appliances & the antique toaster may be at the top of my list. I come by it honestly, being the granddaughter of a West Virginia baker. My grandfather decided to enter the business because he figured that it would be economically stable. People would always eat bread. It was a correct decision that benefited our family for several generations.
When I was a child growing up in Arizona, there was bread on the table every meal, never bought off the shelf, always purchased from the family bakery that had a stand at our neighborhood grocery.
Then I went to school & discovered Wonder Bread, served in our cafeteria. I was astonished & confused. You could squish it up in a ball like Play-Doh! I was accustomed to bread with body. You had to work a little to eat it.
My mother was appalled at this version of bread. In no way did she consider it the best nor even think of it as real bread.
The specialty of my family’s bakery was salt rising bread. An Appalachian invention, I cannot but wonder if the recipe made its way from Sara Emmeline, my great-grandmother on the farm, to my grandmother, Gordie Elsie who left the farm as a young girl to become a woman of culture, to the bakery of her new husband. My cousin, whose father took over the bakery from my grandfather & who worked there for many years tells me that, “It was not a big seller unfortunately. Most of it was sold in the outlying small towns, mainly mining communities or communities with lots of old timers that come out of the West Virginia hollows on a Saturday morning to do their shopping in towns like Grant Town, or Fairview or Hundred. Fine folks with discerning tastes.”
Not to be found in Arizona, my mother dreamed of salt rising & was sent loaves of it by the family. This humble bread, born of poverty & necessity, became a luxury for my mother because of its scarcity. Yeastless, it was very dense & chewy, like the most well-known sourdough & like its San Francisco counterpart, made exquisite, crunchy toast. We argued over who would get the heels.
LET’S BEGIN AT THE BEGINNING OF THE TALE OF THE ANTIQUE TOASTER
And jump around. I try to write chronologically, but cultural history is not always chronological. Different locations & classes changed their practices at differing times. I hope that you can follow along as I move from 1950 to 2000 B.C. to 1850 to 1910, then back to 1905, in my attempt to tell the tale of the antique toaster.
So here goes….
We have been eating grains since we were hunter/gathers. We learned to cook them, making gruel, which was easier to digest than the raw seeds, but rather messy. Then we discovered that baking grains into bread was a great deal handier. It grew mold more slowly. You could tote it around & it was tidy. You could eat it with your hands.
Bread is mostly sugars & starches making it the perfect candidate for caramelizing. Our affinity for crunch is hardwired into our species, as is our love of fat, so it’s not surprising that avocado toast is the food darling of the decade.
So, the obvious next next step was toasting the bread which made it even easier to digest. You could melt stuff on it. It was warm & comforting & it packed a nice caramelized crunch.
THE TOASTER AS PART OF OUR CHANGING CULTURE
When we’re talking about bungalow toasters (That’s kinda what we do here, you know. We talk about bungalows.) we’re talking about pre-electricity for most of the original homeowners.
The earliest toasters, from the 1800’s, were forks made of iron with long handles so that you could stand back from the flames of the open fire. By the 1850’s, they began making the holders in a lighter metal & featured a mesh grill so that you could see the bread browning as it toasted.
With the decline of domestic help, as woman left working as maids to labor in the factories, appliances designed to ease the workload of the lady of the house became a necessity. Fortunately, the domestic technology was developing that could support this cultural change. For a more in-depth understanding of this glimpse into LIFE & TIMES, read this article.
In 1905, the first filament, Nichrome, a non-magnetic alloy of nickel & chromium was discovered that could repeatedly generate heat to toast bread.
G.E. patented the first electric toaster, the D-12, for use in the home in 1909. It has four heating elements with the wire wrapped around forms made of heat-resistant mica. It sat on a porcelain base to insulate the table under it. As an option, you could get the base with a floral design. The toast was held in place by an exposed wire frame. Of course, it toasted only one side of the bread, giving you ample opportunity to burn your fingers!
However, electricity was not common in homes until the 1920’s. By 1925, only half the homes in America had electrical power & these were in larger metropolitan communities. It wasn’t until 1936, with FDR’s Rural Electrification Act, that millions of Americans, living outside of cities had access to electricity.
(Let’s do the Time Warp Again!) However, the Hare House, which was built in 1910, was lit by gas & most likely had a wood burning stove so Grace did not use the D-12 to make Alfred’s toast. One option was to use a cast iron skillet. She might have also used a tin contraption that sat on her wood burning stove. This flimsy piece of vented metal held the pieces of bread that you cut from the loaf & offered your fingers no protection against its heat. Tin rusts very easily when exposed to moisture so I can’t imagine that these lasted very long. I had one in my collection for my dreamed of restoration of the Hare House kitchen. I considered trying it out but it was too awful!
In 1913, the Coleman Electric Stove Company made a toaster that automatically turned the bread, saving fingers.
In 1914, Lloyd & Hazel Copeman, of the Copeman Electric Stove Company, were issued five patents for ways to “turn the toast” in their “automatic” toasters.
In 1919, the year that my mother was born, Charles Strite, a Minnesota mechanic invented the pop-up toaster, the Toastmaster, with both springs & a timer, for restaurant use. He later improved his design & sold it to the general public. You could even twist a little peg to set the toaster for the degree of toasting! Check out my toast videos to hear the timer loudly clicking away at differing speeds, depending on how dark you wanted your toast to be.
Around this time, manufacturers began adding a case to the units as a safety feature. With this newfangled toaster, Mom no longer had to be asphyxiated in the kitchen by smoke from burning toast, when she was preparing supper for the family.
A commonly voiced cliché in our baker family was, “The best thing since sliced bread!” In 1928, a bread slicing machine was invented & by 1930, The Continental Baking Company, which made that bread that fascinated me so as a child, Wonder Bread, began selling sliced bread which greatly increased the popularity of toasters. At the same time, assembly line production & easy credit made it possible for ordinary Americans to purchase many of these new consumer goods. A toaster on every table!
WON’T YOU BE MY SWEETHEART OF AN ANTIQUE TOASTER
A favorite toaster has been dubbed the “Sweetheart” because of its heart shape face, pendant “earrings” & its delicate, ornate casing. This Landers Frary & Clark toaster (Universal Model E9410, patented in 1929) was designed to attract the American housewife & was promoted as being an appealing addition to her kitchen decor. One of my readers remembers it fondly from his grandmother’s house, where, no, the children were allowed to watch, but not allowed to touch it.
Rather than march all the various styles of toasters across the page, I think I’d rather invite you to my Pinterest page where you can just gorge on pictures of them & also other small appliances. As one of my readers commented, “This is where the good stuff is!”
To see a variety of antique toasters in action, visit my YouTube playlist, ANTIQUE TOASTERS.
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WARNING! This post is only for those of you who want to create an authentic period interior & would like some tips on how to do so. It is not written with the purpose of changing anyone’s mind, tastes, or life decisions.
In DESIGNING Part 1, I talk about my friend who turned her beautiful Arts & Crafts home into a nursery school. She was a wonderful mother with a house full of joyful toddlers who could play freely in their home. I admired her greatly & enjoyed watching her children learn how to move their bodies & interact with the material universe.
My series is written to give anyone a hand with designing anything, be it a home, a party, a special outfit. It is basic art theory that is applicable to anything & everything in life. Art theory is kind of like physics- it is merely an explanation of how we view the material world- lines, colors, shapes, sizes, etc., & how we can make them work together to please us.
It is paramount that your home pleases you. You need to feel that it expresses you & it must be a comforting haven. Me, I like a house that tells a story & I find that decorating with items that might have been chosen by its original owners to please me greatly. If that’s what you like, keep reading. If you would like to choose a different ambience, that’s fine too.
DESIGN IS IN MY BLOOD!
My mother had very definite ideas about interior design. I’m guessing that many of these were learned from her mother who, after growing up on a West Virginia farm, strove to become a woman of culture, refinement & taste .
After a life of milking the cows & slopping the pigs, she left her family at a young age to live in town so she could continue her schooling. Bright & eager, she carefully observed how things were done in her new environment. From the precise placement of silverware to the use correct of candlesticks (no unlit candles allowed!) she absorbed the rules of her new life & passed them onto my mother who taught them to her only daughter. Like my bad knees & an affinity for grammar, I come by my opinions on design honestly.
Here’s Grandma Gordie Elsie in 1922, in her cut silk velvet dress, hair styled in a perfectly Marcelled wave, her daughter, my dear mother, attired in the little silk pongee dress that I still keep in a box & cherish. My uncles, look like solemn, miniature men in their ties & 3-piece suits. The very height of 20’s family chic.
AVOIDING BUNGALOW INTERIOR DESIGN MISTAKES
My mother had her own irrepressible style sense from a very young age & passed this on to me. “Your home reflects you- your tastes, your aspirations, your experiences. You can be inspired by the work of others, but don’t try to be others. Be yourself!”
The constant lesson, “Be yourself.”
When she was in her 90’s, we spend hours wheeling around Stanford Hospital, Ma hooked up to oxygen & a heart monitor, together, marveling at their spectacular art collection. (After her release from the hospital, we amused ourselves by making scathing comments about the “art’ in the skilled nursing center. We were harsh critics!)
Viewed as a fashionista until the end. Her long nails were always bright red & she never left her apartment without makeup.
And she was always her warm, quirky, uncompromising, opinionated unique self.
MOM’S DESIGN RULES
1. Less is more- the idea that a restrained hand creates good design. A major Bungalow Don’t is excessive gewgaws. We are not Victorians!
My grandmother’s early life on the farm was delineated by the concept of less. A family tradition still used by my brother & me today is the Southern holiday greeting of, “Christmas gift!” On the farm, each child would receive one gift- a walnut, an orange, a homemade doll & be joyfully grateful.
By the time my mother was born in 1919, the family was affluent, & my ever-observant grandmother, growing ever more cultured as she attended the theater, visited museums & hob-nobbed with the social elite of her town, had become aware of quality & of the simplicity in good design. A teacher by training & by inclination, she passed these lessons on to my mother. Who passed them on to me.
Re-enforcing these lessons of simplicity, I grew up in the desert of the Southwest with the aesthetics of the Hopi & the Navajo influencing my taste. The desert does not provide anything in abundance & its austere beauty still overwhelms & inspires me. The Craftsman aesthetic melds beautifully with Native American arts & crafts, both using Mother Nature’s gifts in an honest, unadorned manner.
2. Establish your focal point & use every other element to enhance it. Don’t confuse the eye by providing random elements on which to focus. Even with many things to look at, by careful placement, you can guide the eye in the direction you want it to go.
3. No eating in the living room. Oops, that one just slipped in.
4. Lighting is a key element. It directs attention, establishing hierarchies of importance, makes a room functional & establishes mood. Do not create areas of glare. Keep it soft other than where task lighting is required.
One of the most common bungalow interior design mistakes is using lighting fixtures in a modest bungalow that are more suitable in a bungamansion. These pieces will only overwhelm your house, detracting from the lovely features that are there. The Gamble house works because all the pieces enhance one another. The same principle applies in your bungalow.
5. Choose only pieces that you love & treasure. From furniture to textiles to art, better an empty space than the Bungalow Don’t of soulless fillers.
6. The TV does not belong in the living room. However, if you have a small house, you might have no other place for it to sit.
Should this be the case, please do not place that TV above your fireplace. Your fireplace is a key design feature of your room, your whole house, actually. It is very likely clad in an beautiful ornamental tile & flanked by glass-doored cabinets. Perhaps there are windows with divided lites above these cabinets. These are standout period features & plopping your TV smack in the middle will- I’m going to be harsh here-it will waste them.
I visited some friends in a beautiful Craftsman one Christmas & they had the TV hung over the fireplace blaring out a holiday themed program. I was stunned. The electronic images completely took over the living room & dining room, the Christmas tree & the holiday spirit which I so enjoy in an old house. (This is not that house. This is the Hare House with a Photoshopped Santa just so I could pass the trauma of one of my unfavorite bungalow interior design mistakes on to you. Sorry.)
7. Treasure the architectural features of your house. They are what give it its character & charm.
8. Examples of Extreme Bungalow Please Don’ts-
Painting, removing or otherwise harassing your stained woodwork. My DESIGNING series should help you figure out how to brighten your home without doing this.
Removing walls to change the flow of the house. Example: opening the kitchen to the dining room. The layout of your house is a character-defining feature.
Adding decorative/fake materials to make it fancier. Avoid the bungalow interior design mistakes of thinking that the original features of your dear house could be improved. Putting lipstick on your pig will be more effective.
Any changes you make to a house of any period should go in a backward direction, taking it back to its original design.
9. Make sure there are areas in which kids do not have to be careful. Bungalows are family homes & there must be room for the kids to play.
10. Don’t try to make your home so perfect looking that it feels like a hotel. I have a 100 year old Chinese cabinet that is way too large for my current house. I styled it & it hits the eye more pleasingly with the added bits & bobs, but truly, the proportion is still awful.
Too bad. I love that cabinet & if someday I end up in a tiny tiny, old lady space & have to sleep standing up in it, I’ll just learn how to snooze on my feet.
Yes, I know that one person’s bungalow interior design mistakes are another one’s beauty, but, please check out what our good buddy Gustav Stickley had to say about it in his magazine, The Craftsman, to understand my stance.
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Gustav Stickley brought Arts & Crafts to America from Europe in the early 1900’s. He carried with him both the aesthetic & the philosophy of the Movement, & then did it his way, inspired by the simplicity of the log cabin. He was considered to be the leading authority on architecture, gardens & interior design for the Craftsman house. Should you wish to learn more about Stickley, check out these videos that I have collected about him & his work.
In addition to making & selling furniture, he created a monthly magazine, The Craftsman, “An illustrated monthly magazine edited & published by Gustav Stickley in the interests of better art, better work & a better & more reasonable way of living.”
The magazine was a beautiful vehicle for spreading the word about the American Arts & Crafts Movement as well as promoting his furniture & his stores. It contains articles about the English founders of the Movement, John Ruskin & William Morris & was a key influence on the culture from 1901-1916 at which point it merged with another publication, Art World.
There is a wonderful article about the magazine & its contributions here. I strongly urge you to read it because it tells the full tale of how forward thinking, profound & inspiring Stickley’s beliefs & work really were. These lessons are applicable today, perhaps even more so than they were 100 years ago.
Most folks think that the articles in The Craftsman were written by Stickley. Not so. He was a businessman with a large operation to oversee so he employed talented people to create his products & his P.R.
When Stickley founded The Craftsman magazine in 1901, Irene Sargent, an art historian & Syracuse University Professor, wrote nearly all of the first 3 issues & thereafter wrote at least the publication’s lead article as well as serving as managing editor & designing layouts. Her writing & the images she chose, taught the public about the American Arts & Crafts Movement & also its predecessor in Europe & in America.
Between 1901 & 1905, Sargent wrote over 80 articles for The Craftsman, shaping the taste of America. The article below, on interior design for the Craftsman house, is stated as being “Editor’s Notes” in the table of contents for the issue. I am assuming that it was written by her, but it may have been written by Stickley himself. It’s a good introduction to the subject of interior design appropriate to our bungalows. In fact, the article was an introduction to the style for most Americans, being part of the first ever published magazine.
Enjoy!
AN ARGUMENT FOR SIMPLICITY IN HOUSEHOLD FURNISHINGS, by Irene Sargent
In all that concerns household furnishings & decoration, present tendencies are toward a simplicity unknown in the past. The form of any object is made to express the structural idea directly, frankly, often almost ‘with baldness. The materials employed are chosen no longer solely for their intrinsic ‘value, but with a great consideration for their potential beauty. The qualities thus apprehended are traced to their source & then carefully developed by the skill of the craftsman.
In the eighteenth century, the French cabinet makers created charming objects suited to the palaces & castles of the old nobility. They reveled in richness of material: in woods brought from countries & colonies difficult of access; in costly gilding & other applied ornament; in fanciful painting which exquisite delicacy of handling alone saved from triviality & insignificance.
But to-day, with the idea of development everywhere dominant,—in the sciences, in educational methods, in all that furthers human intercourse, comfort & progress—we find the mood of the century impressed upon the material & necessary objects by which we are surrounded. Even our beds, tables & chairs, if planned & executed according to the newer & sounder ideas of household art, offer us a lesson taught by their form, substance & finish. We are no longer tortured by exaggerated lines the reasons for which are past divining. We have not to deal with falsifying veneers, or with disfiguring so-called ornament. We are not necessarily confronted by substances precious because of their traditional use, their rarity, &the difficulty attending their attainment.
We are, first of all, met by plain shapes which not only declare, but emphasize their purpose. Our eyes rest on materials which, gathered from the forests, along the streams, & from other sources familiar to us, are, for that reason, interesting & eloquent. We may, in the arms of our reading-chair, or in the desk before which we pass our working-day, study the sinking undulations in the grain of oak, ash, elm, or other of our native woods, & in so doing, learn the worth of patient, well-directed & skilled labor; of that labor which educates; that is: leads out & develops the hidden Values & qualities of things too often neglected because they are frequently seen.
THE END
Stickley, the father of the America Arts & Crafts Movement, lovingly interpreted our country’s aesthetic in his newly invented medium of the time, the Craftsman style. Should you wish to know more about him, I heartily suggest that you watch the wonderful documentary, Gustav Stickley: American Craftsman.
TIP: Move right along onto Part 1 of this series on interior design for the Craftsman house.
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“The Arts & Crafts lamp or Mission Style design is meant to capture the essence of old-time lamp makers and bring the art up one level.”
The light glows through authentic mica a naturally occurring mineral, which was originally mined near Asheville NC & stained glass, crafted in the U.S.
Taught by his father, Luke Marshall became an artisan at 13, crafting silver jewelry & sculpting metal. Later, he met the Spanish grandmaster silversmith, Ricardo Lopez de Grado who refused to teach him, but suggested that he copy his work. De Gardo himself was a descendant of goldsmiths, & his training was guided by his godfather. It was believed that De Grado was the only remaining artist who began a piece from a flat piece of metal, coaxing it into the shape desired with his hammer. Marshall uses this technique to create hollow forms, likely inspired by De Grado. As with De Grado, he also fashions his own tools.
Master glass artist, Carl Radke has been creating magnificent hand-blown luster glass lighting for 45 years. Lusterware contains silver to produce its beautiful sheen & after having first been created by Tiffany in 1881, lost favor in the mid-20’s.
Part 1, OUT OF THE DARKNESS
If you should feel more comfortable with modern light fixtures, below are some good reproduction Arts & Crafts lighting resources for you. I have chosen companies with longevity & good reputations. I always encourage my readers to perform their due diligence- check reviews & carefully, read product descriptions & shipping & purchasing/return terms- prior to buying.
The Arroyo Guild of Fellow Craftsman, motivated by the Arroyo Seco, the seasonal river, often dry canyon, is considered to be the birthplace of Pasadena & the inspiration for the Gamble House. In 1909, the Arroyo Guild published its first pamphlet entitled “Arroyo Craftsman” which championed man’s innate need to create beautiful things with his own hands. Honoring these great artisans of the California Movement, Arroyo Craftsman lighting, was founded three-quarters of a century later.
I restored 4 houses with their hardware- window hardware, hinges, pulls, knobs, push-button switches (which I highly recommend as a tactile connection to history. I spent way too much time clicking them on & off because I loved the sound & the sensation.) I also installed their lights in my bathrooms after rescuing them from various stages of hideousity.
No, they no longer produce this bat fixture, but if you look long enough, I’m sure that you’ll be able to find one hovering about on Craigslist or Marketplace or eBay or Etsy!
Revival’s retail store is housed in a beautiful, old 7,000 square foot brick building in Spokane, Washington. Their display of merchandise is truly dazzling & artfully displayed. You can also order online & they will assist you on finding what you need.
Big Box stores & online lighting vendors do have some choices, but my preference is always the high price spread. That being said, it’s not just antique lighting that can be found used. I have seen a fair number of current fixtures on eBay & I imagine you might have good luck on Etsy & Marketplace & Craigslist too. You can put in the names of these manufacturers in the search & see what comes up. There’s also Habitat Restore. I overbought for my bathroom & donated a pricey, custom, multi-light sconce to Habitat.
These videos are mentioned in my post, 
I adore old appliances & the antique toaster may be at the top of my list. I come by it honestly, being the granddaughter of a West Virginia baker. My grandfather decided to enter the business because he figured that it would be economically stable. People would always eat bread. It was a correct decision that benefited our family for several generations.
The specialty of my family’s bakery was salt rising bread. An Appalachian invention, I cannot but wonder if the recipe made its way from Sara Emmeline, my great-grandmother on the farm, to my grandmother, Gordie Elsie who left the farm as a young girl to become a woman of culture, to the bakery of her new husband. My cousin, whose father took over the bakery from my grandfather & who worked there for many years tells me that, “It was not a big seller unfortunately. Most of it was sold in the outlying small towns, mainly mining communities or communities with lots of old timers that come out of the West Virginia hollows on a Saturday morning to do their shopping in towns like Grant Town, or Fairview or Hundred. Fine folks with discerning tastes.”
We have been eating grains since we were hunter/gathers. We learned to cook them, making gruel, which was easier to digest than the raw seeds, but rather messy. Then we discovered that baking grains into bread was a great deal handier. It grew mold more slowly. You could tote it around & it was tidy. You could eat it with your hands.
When we’re talking about bungalow toasters (That’s kinda what we do here, you know. We talk about bungalows.) we’re talking about pre-electricity for most of the original homeowners.
In 1905, the first filament, Nichrome, a non-magnetic alloy of nickel & chromium was discovered that could repeatedly generate heat to toast bread.
(Let’s do the Time Warp Again!) However, the 
In 1919, the year that my mother was born, Charles Strite, a Minnesota mechanic invented the pop-up toaster, the Toastmaster, with both springs & a timer, for restaurant use. He later improved his design & sold it to the general public. You could even twist a little peg to set the toaster for the degree of toasting! Check out my 
WARNING! This post is only for those of you who want to create an authentic period interior & would like some tips on how to do so. It is not written with the purpose of changing anyone’s mind, tastes, or life decisions.
My mother had very definite ideas about interior design. I’m guessing that many of these were learned from her mother who, after growing up on a West Virginia farm, strove to become a woman of culture, refinement & taste .
had her own irrepressible style sense from a very young age & passed this on to me. “Your home reflects you- your tastes, your aspirations, your experiences. You can be inspired by the work of others, but don’t try to be others. Be yourself!”
By the time my mother was born in 1919, the family was affluent, & my ever-observant grandmother, growing ever more cultured as she attended the theater, visited museums & hob-nobbed with the social elite of her town, had become aware of quality & of the simplicity in good design. A teacher by training & by inclination, she passed these lessons on to my mother. Who passed them on to me.
Should this be the case, please do not place that TV above your fireplace. Your fireplace is a key design feature of your room, your whole house, actually. It is very likely clad in an beautiful ornamental tile & flanked by glass-doored cabinets. Perhaps there are windows with divided lites above these cabinets. These are standout period features & plopping your TV smack in the middle will- I’m going to be harsh here-it will waste them.
Gustav Stickley brought Arts & Crafts to America from Europe in the early 1900’s. He carried with him both the aesthetic & the philosophy of the Movement, & then did it his way, inspired by the simplicity of the log cabin. He was considered to be the leading authority on architecture, gardens & interior design for the Craftsman house. Should you wish to learn more about Stickley, check out 
Most folks think that the articles in The Craftsman were written by Stickley. Not so. He was a businessman with a large operation to oversee so he employed talented people to create his products & his P.R.
In all that concerns household furnishings & decoration, present tendencies are toward a simplicity unknown in the past. The form of any object is made to express the structural idea directly, frankly, often almost ‘with baldness. The materials employed are chosen no longer solely for their intrinsic ‘value, but with a great consideration for their potential beauty. The qualities thus apprehended are traced to their source & then carefully developed by the skill of the craftsman.
We are, first of all, met by plain shapes which not only declare, but emphasize their purpose. Our eyes rest on materials which, gathered from the forests, along the streams, & from other sources familiar to us, are, for that reason, interesting & eloquent. We may, in the arms of our reading-chair, or in the desk before which we pass our working-day, study the sinking undulations in the grain of oak, ash, elm, or other of our native woods, & in so doing, learn the worth of patient, well-directed & skilled labor; of that labor which educates; that is: leads out & develops the hidden Values & qualities of things too often neglected because they are frequently seen.