to begin, i wish to say: our bed is from pottery barn. there are probably a few other items in the house as well. oh yeah, this desk. and a chair. possibly more. there. let's get that out of the way now to squelch any all-too-obvious counterpoint zealotry. i LIKE a lot of things that pottery barn sells. moreover, i find the stuff to be pretty decent. even the large furniture items.
let's get some other for-granteds out of the way:
-- the things that bother me about the pottery barn catalog are not necessarily EXCLUSIVE to the pottery barn catalog (but i think pottery barn leads the charge).
-- it is of course HYPERBOLIC to say that the pottery barn catalog way of thinking is even indirectly responsible for the murder of laci peterson -- but, as i've said before, my mind makes a link here and i feel i must take advantage of my freedom to write about it.
-- i do think this soapbox does have a good bit to do with textiles, as well, and i doubt anyone needs me to draw big black lines to prove it. most anyone who is here reading this will look at the textile work they hold in their hands tonight, or later today, and know without having to write a thesis on it why it means so much more than any item in the pottery barn catalog. then again, that isn't my point.
at least part of my point is that pottery barn would have you believe otherwise. or, more specifically, pottery barn capitalizes on the very human need, vague and hard to define as it may be, which is met by knitting and other handcrafts -- and suggests that it is a need that can be met instead through buying mass produced items through their catalog. heirlooms and family history in all their quirky imperfection are merely a sixteen digit credit card number away.
thanks, pottery barn, for the specific and mass-distributed instructions on how to make something eclectic. the big message here being: to be eclectic, start with something useless, like a monstrous nonfunctional pair of mahogany scissors, and build on that. combine it -- with a vase! or -- with "collections"! it is "unique", but most of all, "decorative"!
READER CHALLENGE: find something in YOUR OWN HOME -- perhaps part of, or augmenting, a "collection" that means something to you personally, that you find not only "unique" and "decorative", but USEFUL. extra points if, upon entering your home and seeing it, no one has ever EVER said to you "oh wow, i saw that in the pottery barn catalog! cool!"
that's part one. no, i didn't get very close to explaining the laci peterson part. i might need to wait a few hours until my next pottery barn catalog shows up.