Out Here in the Fields

This past weekend, I attended the Madison-Bouckeville outdoor antiques fair in upstate New York. It was the first time I’d been to it. For those who haven’t been, it’s sort of a scaled-down Brimfield with more cows and less modern design. Fun, nonetheless, as the weather held out until about 1:00PM. (It wouldn’t be an outdoor antiques fair unless it poured at least half the time.)

I left the van in the city intentionally so that I wouldn’t fill it up just because it was there. But I filled the car up instead, primarily with a 1970’s craft rocking chair from Vermont. I impressed myself by determining that it would fit in the car without measuring it, or the car. It was pure luck: I do not recommend the technique.

With me at the fair were Interior Design magazine luminaries Cindy Allen and Marino Zullich. Cindy had fun, but I think she has fun everywhere. Marino bore up well, given the complete absence of Old Master drawings at the fair. Cindy found an old lobster net that she re-imagined as a light fixture and, with Marino, a pair of iron gates. As the clouds gathered, I found Cindy deep in discussion with a man selling scrap metal screens–nice, and an ecological thumbs-up to boot. Cindy was clearly intrigued, but when the lightning started, we had to move on for conductivity reasons. Another day, perhaps…
Cindy and Marino, with Jayne Michaels of 2Michaels Design, looking at one of the iron gates.

Joan Michaels of 2Michaels Design looking at mid-century Austrian lighting.