Love for Wall Play

As we are designers/manufacturers/wholesalers...we are a step removed from the final customer of our products. We hear from store owners and interior designers that *their* customers love this or that, but we often do not get to hear directly from people who have the day-to-day experience with them. Of course that makes the times we *do* hear from people all the more special.

Sara wrote us about our gold 'Seed' Wall Play™. Her family's home had been featured in Austin Texas arts and culture magazine Tribeza. She took that opportunity to let us know what she thought of our modular little sculptures...

I randomly came across the wall play products and knew they were perfect for our space. We didn't want a painting but we wanted something with texture. The seeds are perfect and they were so easy to install. We walk by them every day and smile. I just love them.

Thank you for making such a cool product. I do boring technical work all day and I'm always so impressed with other peoples' creativity.

Keep creating!
Sara

Check out the article in the October issue of Tribeza. It starts on page 56. Their home is new construction but looks lived in...it offers high design but is child friendly. A great example of playful sophistication...something we can get behind 100%.

Gold Leaf in the News

This was a busy month for us here at Gold Leaf! We were featured in 4 magazines this month, and we're excited to share. Not to brag, but we're pretty proud of it.  

We're pleased to be in Hospitality Design Magazine with our ceramic Athena vases. The calming blue and geometric pattern makes this a beautiful accent piece. 

Home Accents Today featured our Organic Glass bowl in this issue. Each piece is carefully handmade, giving each a unique shape and variety in color. With flowers or candles inside, or even as a sculptural piece, this glass is perfect in any space. 

Look for us in Interior Design magazine this month too! Our seed Wall Play was used with customized versions of our enamel bowls to create a sophisticated retreat in the Jewel Suite. 

Social media brought us a new project as well! While browsing through pinterest (one of my favorite pastimes) we're always looking for interesting uses of our products. 

This amazing house in Krakow, Poland used our Ball Chain as a staircase accent piece. 

Look for our 4th feature in an upcoming blog post! 

Running for a Good Cause

Gold Leaf's (co-)Big Kahuna will be running the Chicago Marathon again this year. It is his tenth Chicago Marathon!  As many of you already know, he runs to support a local AIDS services organization.  For the third year running (ha!) he is raising money for Test Positive Aware Network (TPAN).  Our fundraising is very grassroots - this is not a large organized charity, Darren is the only person running the marathon for this organization, every penny raised goes directly to the services that TPAN provides.

Here's Darren: 

Over the 3 years that I have been volunteering with TPAN, I continue to be inspired by the difference they make in our community.  We have been working closely with local officials to bring education and counseling to the west side of Chicago.  This is the area where Gold Leaf is located, and it is a very underserved, underfunded area.

Please consider supporting us as we work to enhance our community. 100% of all donations go directly to AIDS education, counseling, testing and outreach. TPAN's mission is to empower everyone living with or at risk of HIV/AIDS to live open, healthy and productive lives.

To make a donation and support Darren's run, please visit his Marathon Page.

Charley Harper

Gold Leaf Design Group has always been heavily influenced by nature, and one of our favorite forms of inspiration can be found in the art of Charley Harper. His passion for the environment comes shining through in his artistic celebration of fish, fowl, insects and the niches they cohabit with humans in this modern world. In celebration of the life of Charley Harper, we’re currently highlighting our Charley Harper collection. For a limited time, every 6 birds you buy will get you an additional bird free. Buy 6 birds, get 7. Buy 12, get 14. And we do mean any Charley Harper bird. Mix and match to your heart’s content: any style, any material. See our whole collection.

Using graphic shapes and bold colors, Harper simplified complex elements, creating an utterly captivating style. Explaining how he arrives at his images, Harper said: “When I look at a wildlife or nature subject, I don’t see the feathers in the wings, I just count the wings. I see exciting shapes, color combinations, patterns, textures, fascinating behavior and endless possibilities for making interesting pictures. I regard the picture as an ecosystem in which all the elements are interrelated, interdependent, perfectly balanced... and herein lies the lure of painting; in a world of chaos, the picture is one small rectangle in which the artist can create an ordered universe.” Learn more at this awesome video!

Look who else likes our Handmade Paper

Hospitality Design included our paper in the August issue in their "Prints and Patterns" Trends section. And then, while at NYNow, our papers caught the eye of Rug News and Design's writer Marjorie Hill who was Walking the Market.

As mentioned last time, we have six beautiful and versatile styles of paper rolls as well as five unique wall art pieces that are already framed and ready for hanging. Take a look at our site.

And...spoilers....we're looking to expand our offerings in the new year.
We can hardly wait to show you.

What to do with our paper?

Our paper always attracts a lot of attention at trade shows. People love the color, the detail, the texture, and more. Something we've heard (or overheard at times) is..

"It is so lovely...but what could I do with it?"

Rug News and Design mentioned a few options... Room Screen, Wallpaper, a backdrop for a shop display. All great ideas. We've been liking the three-dimensional aspect of displaying the paper in soft rolls. It drapes well with the grain. As you can see.

We love seeing what our customers do with our pieces. Recently we received a photo from ID Design in Cincinnati. Carol Grubb, one of the owners, had a home in Cincinnati's Homearama showcase. She used our Solar paper as a wall-mounted "headboard". We love it.

Sustainable Good Press

We were pleased to see our framed handmade paper included in Interior Design's Spring Market Tabloid. These striking pieces of art are Earth-friendly. We take recycled cardboard, newspaper, sawdust, pineapple fiber, banana fiber and grasses and use traditional Japanese paper making techniques to create a dimensional display of texture and pattern.

We have a variety of styles and sizes. We also have six styles of paper rolls that look great on walls, as shown by our friends at Clarke and Co Design.

We also found our Woven Rubber Wall Art in the pages of Hospitality Design. Handcrafted from used rubber inner tubes reclaimed from the world’s abundant motorbikes and trucks. Each inner tube has served its purpose and has reached the end of its useful life…for transportation. Collected from repair shops and long distance truck depots, each inner tube has its own characteristics, identity and story. The rubber is cleaned, matched to each design, cut and then arranged into shape, creating a soft and durable outdoor safe piece of functional art. 

We have these sustainable products as both Round and Square versions. Check out all our Sustainable collections.

20 Favorites by 20 Gold Leafers: 11 – 15

It's time for another 5! To continue our 20th year celebration, we thought we'd quiz Gold Leafers on what their current favorite 2014 catalog item is and why. We'll be collecting these favorites on our website. You can also check out the previous 5.  

11. Carol: Organic Coffee Table

"I like the raw-nature look of it mixed with the modern legs. it has a midcentury look to it."

12. Amanda: Wood Ring Sculptures

"I love the variety in the woodgrain. It's a beautiful accent piece."

13. Cathy: Custom Redwood

"I like the versatility. They can be used in so many different ways; it's simple, sculptural and looks amazing."

14. Patricia: Seed Wall Play 

"I like how colorful they are! They POP!" 

15. Robert: Patchwork Owls
"It's very colorful, and I like that."