NEWS

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“Launching a new magazine into the world in the midst of a global pandemic was really daunting,” says Ruth Ribeaucourt, the owner and editor in chief of FAIRE, a new quarterly print publication that celebrates the diverse lives of creatives like Trish Andersen who paints with yarn. Covering artists worldwide, FAIRE features rich stories printed on FSC-certified paper stock so delicious that each issue feels like a collectible. Turn the page to read more about FAIRE.

Hello FAIRE

One

BY JANE DAGMI

Trish Andersen is on the cover of Issue One. Photo: Chia Chong. Above: Ruth Ribeaucourt, EIC at FAIRE, also designs jewelry, sources textiles for designers, and heads up communications at Julien Faure, her family’s ribbon company,.

Ruth Ribeaucourt is an astute storyteller whose intuitive approach to magazine-making has given rise to FAIRE, a 144-page print publication that celebrates creativity and is purposelydesigned by size and weight to ship economically from Europe where it is printed. “Given so many shops and vendors are now relying on online sales,” she says, “making sure it could be shipped cheaply without creating a barrier to sales was critical.”

Issues are constructed remotely. Ribeaucourt lives in Provence, France. Art director Marlene Moloney hails from Ireland and editor Tess Allen from Minneapolis. Overcoming time zones and full-time jobs, the three meet by Zoom to fi gure things out. “Marlene brings this phenomenal, clean, contemporary, emotional design aesthetic to our magazine which allows each story to soar,” says Ribeaucourt, “and Tess gently guides each story to perfection so that we get to the heart of a creative journey.”

After contributing to several esteemed publications throughout the years — Where Women Create and My French Country Home — and then guest editing What Women Create in 2020, Ribeaucourt became deeply familiar with the physical process of magazine-making and the do’s and don’ts of traditional publishing. She realized that if she wanted to tell beautiful tales of creatives in a long-form way, FAIRE would have to be an independent venture.

She architected a plan that involved her community, and consulted with peers, like Annabelle Hickson, editor of the indie Australian magazine GALAH for sound advice and cheerleading. When she launched a kickstarter to fund FAIRE’s printing costs, her creative friends rallied, and Ribeaucourt was overwhelmed when her goals were achieved in just four days. She attributes the generous response to her transparency about magazine costs and to the integrity of the project in general.

“Our backers were very much fellow creatives who have followed me along my own creative journey these last few years,” she explains. “I think the big diff erence here is that I am a creative publishing stories about other creatives. I am not someone who has climbed the ladder of a big publishing house who sees a window of opportunity.”

The bar is set starting with the silk paper cover treated with an eco-friendly matte fi nish. Inside Issue One, 12 creatives with specialties ranging from hat-making to fi ber and fl oral art, baking and fashion tell their own stories, with eight or more pages provided for each. “We don’t control the narrative,” Ribeaucourt says, noting that photographers are equally free to create. The last section of the issue is devoted to the Paris fl ea market.

Ribeaucourt is already gathering her wish list of creatives for future issues. “As the editor-in-chief what speaks the loudest to me is the heart of each story, the person behind the object or craft,” she says. “I am seeking stories that are less about aspiration and unachievable crafting rooms/creative spaces and more about bringing us inside the homes and studios and workspaces of real artists and creatives. Often messy, imperfect, but fi lled with soul and struggle, successes and challenges.”

FAIRE will be available to purchase at Barnes & Noble and Books-a-million, plus specialty retailers and online at www. fairepress.com. The retail price per issue is $29.99.

I want it to be a magazine that creatives of all ages can read and relate to, something they can’t wait to hold, a magazine that makes them put their devices down, and take an hour to pause and reflect.”

Justina’s New Book

Three years in the making and fi nished during lockdown, Justina Blakeney’s third book Jungalow: Decorate Wild (Abrams, New York, 2021) delivers the color wow and authentic warmth you’ve come to expect and love from the queen of Jungalow — and this time there’s more of it. With an overriding message that home is a place of nurture and that diversity adds spice to life and decorating, Blakeney’s goal as artist and author is to free the reader’s potential and inspire them to cultivate a space to grow and blossom.

Blakeney more than adequately spreads this message in 270 visually rich pages featuring an array of color-drenched interiors and architectural imagery from Blakeney’s travels, design projects, and product collaborations. Principal photographer Dabito is a close friend; Blakeney calls him “a creative powerhouse.”

Autobiographical and informative, Blakeney writes about her Black/Jewish roots, challenges she’s faced, and embracing her “mixed-ness.” Likening humans to plants which seek new connections to root, she encourages growing “aventitious roots,” the ones created by experience and discovery, not by inheritance.

Highlights include examples of Blakeney’s new blended decorating styles such as Turk-Xican and Moroc-Cali, endless pattern and plant play, DIY projects, and thoughts on foraging. —J.D.

Travel Aids

EASING BACK IN THE AIR AND ON THE ROAD? BRING COMFORT ALONG FOR THE RIDE

One-size pewter cotton sateen 5 Star Travel Sheet,

Peacock Alley

Washable airplane seat covers with matching pouch come in many colors, Nice Seats

Meadowfoam & Fog rollon chamomile/lavender vegan hand/body oil,

Rain Organica

Cotton canvas Picnic tote, 14 5/8”W x 8 ½”D x 18 5/8”H, with fi ve pockets, Hable

Torch roll-on essential oil blend with frankincense, vetiver and patchouli,

Kenna Nicole

Hans Petersen; Pure Joy No. 3, 76 x 60 inches.painted in 2020.

Overlooking Lake Wylie in South Carolina, Danish artist Hans Petersen works on large canvases (as long as 10’), painting nearly every day, and extended hours since COVID. Educated at the Royal Danish Academy of Art, and infl uenced by the mid-century European CoBrA art movement, his style is bold and subject matter ranges from unconventional women to dynamic abstract forms and graffi ti-inspired graphics.

He prefers working in series, expressing ideas from one painting to the next. Recent series Abstractions and Danish Party convey emotions experienced during quarantine and 1960’s Copenhagen nightlife, respectively, while Pure Joy interprets the 60s color vibe through a feminine lens. As for his Women of Eccentric Personalities series featuring 30 personas, that one is forever on his mind, he says.

Prior to 2005, Petersen was a graphic designer and designed High Point Market’s Furniture Preview for years. As that industry turned digital, he returned to working with his hands. His wife Barbara, who worked at Home Depot and Springs, now serves as principal of Hans Petersen Art. Petersen kids, “She tells me what to paint.” She retorts, “Not that he listens.”

Marsia Holzer has always made things. Educated in art history, painting and sculpture, a move to the States opened her eyes to fashion, where she fi rst worked as a stylist to celebrity portrait photographer Bert Stern and then as a costume designer, dressing the likes of the Rolling Stones, Carly Simon and Foreigner.

Since 2003, on a whim to learn how to weld, Holzer’s tools of choice are a torch and chainsaw; her preferred materials are salvaged wood and recycled metals. She has two studios — one in Manhattan and the other in Watermill, N.Y. — and employs a welder and wood worker. The common thread being past and present work, she says, is the importance of silhouette, color, and shape.

Inspiration for her collection of furniture, lighting and objects is largely taken from nature, infl uenced by memories of her family farm in England. Before crafting any form, she sketches it out on paper and makes a cardboard pattern so she can test its three-dimensional integrity. “Feeling the materials in my hand is so satisfying — it’s exciting to transform wood, metal and paper into new forms,” she says.

Good at Mat

ELEVATING THE EVERYDAY

Back when she was a designer, Stafford Meyer would observe photographers toss ugly doormats aside every time they took a shot. It made her wonder, “Why is the fi rst impression the last thing we think about?” Years later, after recovering from a stroke and reevaluating her career, she set out to remedy that entryway situation and design a doormat that was durable and pretty enough to leave in the shot.

Meyer navigated the path to prototyping step by step. She sketched ideas, found an industrial engineer to make her drawings offi cial, and sourced materials in Italy and the Netherlands. She said the process was “exciting and terrifying” and leaned on friends for support. Pulling the trigger on her fi rst order of 2,000 units, she couldn’t help but think, “What am I doing?!”

Porte + Hall launched two years ago with indoor and outdoor mats, grossing over $1 million in online sales the fi rst year. Recently, Meyer launched a designer program and notes that realtors have been buying them as closing gifts. In her wildest dreams she could not have guessed elevating the utilitarian doormat could be so fun. “It feels weird that I have a lot to say in this one category,” she says. At the time of this interview, she was training her dog to knock over a glass of wine on cue.

Left: Staff ord Meyer with The Insider mat. Above: The Outsider’s polypropylene insert has a honeycombed rubber base for drainage and fi ts inside an engineered wood frame with powder-coated aluminum corners.

While we’re at the front door, check out Heymat, a Norwegian company that collaborates with Scandinavian designers and makes industrial-quality mats from 100% recycled PET. Teklan Mix (left) is a classic pattern newly recolored by Tekla Evelina Severin who says she was inspired by gemstones, the Mediterranean, and 70’s color schemes.

Photo: Gabriel Söderbladh

THE EXCITEMENT IS GROWING.

The ARTS Awards is the premier awards program in the U.S. honoring top manufacturers, retailers, designers and sales representatives.

Nominations for the 32nd Annual ARTS Awards are due by June 28, 2021. Award winners will be revealed during a gala event on Friday, January 7, 2022. Join Dallas Market Center and ART, in a celebration of home industry excellence.

NOW ACCEPTING NOMINATIONS Submissions are due by June 28, 2021 at DallasMarketCenter.com/ARTSAwards

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