Artisan Spotlight: Tranter, Weinberg, Douglas

You don’t have to go far around here to find superb local talent—helped in part by word of mouth, but also by Instagram.

My good friend Joe Ireland, of J.D. Ireland Interior Architecture + Design is currently displaying the artisan wallpapers of Maryland artist Stacey Tranter, for example, and posted this shot from his Dupont Circle studio recently:

A photo posted by @therealjdireland on Apr 6, 2016 at 1:40pm PDT

I stopped by the studio yesterday to get a better look, and the details in Stacey’s hand-painted papers are incredible:

Stacey’s website says that any of her patterns can be executed in leaf, like the one above, or glaze, glass beads, or metallic plaster.

 

I was at a reception recently at the Thos. Moser showroom in Georgetown, where I ran into Brian Fell, who runs the Maxalto showroom nearby. He told me about Dagmara Weinberg, a photographer in Great Falls who’s transforming everyday objects and nature into wild kaleidoscopes.

Dagmara’s work is currently on display at Maxalto, and she’s also being represented by Peggy Sparks at the Artist’s Proof Gallery on Wisconsin Avenue.

The best part, which I saw on Dagmara’s beautiful Instagram account, is that she’s partnering with another great local talent, Gretchen Everett, to produce Gretchen’s acrylic-topped accent tables with her photography overlaid onto the surface.

A photo posted by Dagmara Weinberg (@dagmaraweinberg) on Mar 17, 2016 at 4:32pm PDT

 

 

Finally, I recently heard from a Maryland furniture maker named Dwight Douglas, who kindly reached out with images of his two-toned tables.

His current collection is called Ant, and he explains why:

Sitting on a park bench, relaxing and coming down from a long week, I observed that ants were still working, putting all sorts of items on their backs for the colony. I felt like this is similar to the responsibility of the living-room tables. The ants’ exoskeleton bodies holding up leaves inspired me to develop the form.

 

I hope you are as inspired as I am by the breadth of talent among our local artisans, and that you’ll visit their sites to take a better look!