Beautiful Objects: the Handmade Tops of Collin Garrity.

Check these out. Are they beautiful or what?

Collin Garrity makes these gorgeous tops entirely by hand. You may know that name from his sister Kelsey Garrity-Riley, the Paris Marketeer who is also an illustrator and paints and makes dolls. Collin, currently a student at Warren Wilson College, creates these beautiful little things using wood found in the scrap pile as well as Maple and Rosewood harvested at the college.

I thought these were too small to possibly be made on a lathe, but yes! they are in fact made on a lathe ---very carefully. "I probably broke about half of the ones I had when I first started." he says. Collin starts by gluing several different woods together, cutting them to a rough size, and then pulling the forms out on the lathe. Several grades of sand paper get them smooth, and a high friction finish gives them just that little bit of shine.

So I got to play with these tops when I took the pictures, you know, just to see if they work and all -they do and they spin perfectly. The thing I love about beautifully proportioned objects, other than the fact that they're nice to look at, is that the form itself tends to evoke many different things at once. When they're all lined up they look like ballet dancers ready to take their turn dancing in the center, and when they battle each other out and are starting to come down, they look like little break dancers, and other times they resemble musical instruments or little mushrooms. They really have their own presence and personality.

They are drop-dead beautiful objects and industrial designer inside me is sighing. Seriously. I had a friend in design school who during critiques if someone just blew everyone out of the water we would look at each other and say "I am the Walrus" like from the Beatles song as if to say "This person is the walrus and hath destroyed us all." haha. Can you imagine showing up at Form Studies or whatever and this guy is in your class! Egads! He'd totally ruin the curve!

 (these remind me of pointed toes)

These will be available at the store soon, and hopefully the website. Check out Collin's other artisticness (writings, ramblings, musings and general hi-jinks) at the The Pale Blue Atlas Club -fresh entry today! (also recommended)