Had Mike Di Paulo and his wife, Lindy, opened their Fort Collins-based Homefest shop two or three years earlier, they might have a different story to tell. The couple moved to town in 1993 with plans to open some sort of retail outfit. They settled on the idea of a fine home-accessories and gift shop, and opened a 3,000-square-foot Store in Fort Collins’ Old Town…

It was a bit of a risk, said Mike Di Paulo, who cut his teeth in the garment manufacturing business. “We knew we were at the front of a trend, and had we come in a few years earlier, it would have been too soon. But Fort Collins was a growing, business-friendly town, and we thought people were ready for something a Little higher-end and a bit more sophisticated.” Read more »

SLIP TRAILING produces a thick, fluid-looking line. The flow of slip through the tube is only partially controlled by the hand pressure on the bulb. Once the tube is down on the surface the continuous flow of slip leaves no time for pondering. The slip flows whether the hand moves or not. A quick movement leaves a thin line, sometimes with skips. Momentary hesitations are recorded by an extra thickness at the beginning of a line and where the line doubles back on itself.

The demand of this method for continuous action extracts from the artist, almost by force, an expression as personal as handwriting.

WET SLIP TRAILING, a fascinating English slipware technique, has not been exploited by contemporary American potters, and yet it seems uniquely capable of producing a contemporary expression. Its excitement stems from the lack of all but the most rudimentary control. One never knows how it will end.

For this bowl, a flat disc of moist clay was laid on a pallet, white engobe poured over it and allowed to drain off. On the moist clay the engobe remains wet and mobile for a long time. Black slip was then trailed onto the wet surface. A certain distortion is inevitable as the two slips

In spring, some male fish build nests of algae where females visit and occasionally deposit eggs. In the wild, a nest’s murky mass looks to human eyes as if it would be perfect for camouflaging the eggs. Yet, when scientists offered some males bits of shiny foil, the fish went wild, taking home the bright strips and placing them around the entrance to the nests. Even though the strips hardly looked like camouflage, the fish were making a canny decorating choice, researchers report in the March Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology. In tests, females preferred the gaudy nests.

It’s the first modern, controlled test showing that nest decor matters when female fish pick their mates, says coauthor Sara Östlund-Nilsson of the University of Oslo in Norway. Read more »

With the plethora of holiday parties this time of the year, we asked fashion experts Megan McLallen and Lana Jones-Gould from K. Renee in West Des Moines for advice on what women should wear to these events.
McLallen put together a short list of apparel essentials for dressing this time of the year, ones that can be dressed up or down, depending on the occasion. At the top of her list was a velvet jacket, one that is fitted with a subtle ruffle detail and Edwardian or Victorian inspirations.
“l like the idea of putting it with a great jean and a dressy heel for cocktails with friends, or if you have a formal gala, it’s perfect to put with a beautiful long skirt or a dressy black beaded top,” she said.
Second was a beaded top. McLallen said the little bit of sparkle a beaded top provides makes a woman feel that she’s celebrating the season. Read more »