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Streamline Moderne

by K H on 07/24/11


About this design:

Streamline Moderne: One phase of Art Deco architecture, predominately from the late 1930’s and early 1940’s. These wonderful buildings were generally created from white or neutral stucco or bricks and featured rounded corners, corner windows, corner windows, glass block walls and windows and porthole windows. And for some unknown reason, the folks at City Hall won’t be happy until all these beautiful buildings are blighted, razed and turned into big box retail and parking ramps. In the words of Joni Mitchell, “they paved paradise and put up a parking lot”. For more on the latest endangered mid-century building, Google “Del Taco flying saucer”.
For my tribute to Streamline Moderne, I started with 19G stainless steel wire (which seemed rather mid-century). I created rounded corners and wrapped in frosted glass beads to represent glass blocks. I finished by creating a porthole window with a large flat frosted glass bead.

Components:

19G stainless steel wire for the frame, 26 G SS wire for wrapping, frosted glass beads, and a love of things art deco and mid-century.



Read the comments (or add your own)

  1. Little Round Chick

    On Jul 25, 2011 at 1:50 am #

    Little Round Chick says:

    Cool! I love Deco and this is fantastic! :D

    Where did you get the stainless steel wire? I haven’t tried it yet but would like to. How does it compare with copper and brass for workability?

  2. K H

    On Jul 25, 2011 at 8:57 am #

    K H says:

    Ace Hardware has a nice selection of packaged wire – coppere, brass, annealed steel, stainless steel and galvanzed. I find that the heavier brass wire is a cost effective to gold filled and the stainless is a cost effective alternative to silver when making clasps.

  3. amkcreations aka Amanda

    On Jul 26, 2011 at 1:48 am #

    amkcreations aka Amanda says:

    This is a very cool piece.

    I use stainless steel wire to make toys for my birds, lol. I find it harder to manipulate in the large gauge I use for the toys, but in smaller gauge, it’s seems pretty easy to play with.

  4. FaeryGoth Chick

    On Jul 26, 2011 at 1:19 pm #

    FaeryGoth Chick says:

    Love this!

  5. No Photo

    On Jul 26, 2011 at 8:11 pm #

    Chicky Zee aka Alice says:

    Beautiful!

  6. K H

    On Jul 26, 2011 at 9:45 pm #

    K H says:

    Thank you Chickies! I am happy to report that someone has come forward to save the “flying saucer” building. The news reported that it might Kaldi’s Coffee or Pi Pizza. With SLU right down the block, either should do fine.

  7. Harmony on Strings

    On Jul 27, 2011 at 10:12 pm #

    Harmony on Strings says:

    very nice!

  8. Cotopaxi Chickie Sue

    On Aug 10, 2011 at 2:05 am #

    Cotopaxi Chickie Sue says:

    What a cool and funky art deco piece! I love how you were inspired! :D

  9. No Photo

    On Aug 21, 2011 at 1:44 am #

    A Ploetz says:

    Wow, my daughter works at Ace and I had no idea they carried wire that I could use. Thanks for the tip. Great piece.

Add your thoughts!

  1. No Photo

    On Jun 20, 2013 at 2:35 am

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