NEXT THURSDAY: STYLEBEAT JOINS FELLOW BLOGGERS IN ONE KINGS LANE TASTEMAKER TAG SALE

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Photos courtesy of Whole Foods and One Kings Lane

Two great things happen next Thursday. Whole Foods opens in my neighborhood and my One King's Lane Tastemaker Tag Sale goes live at 6pm. I will be part of a vintage finds sale of  with other design bloggers I love, and most of whom I am lucky to know. Kelly Ottinger of Kelly Market, Marianne Strong from Haven and Home, Christian May of Maison 21, Danni of Oh, Hello Friend and Cailtin Flemming of Sacramento Street. My assortment includes brass birds as well as an elephant that I have a hard time parting with, some cool Japanese bright orange lacquer trays, needlepoint accessories, and the rest you will have to wait and see, so I don't spoil all the fun. Unique blogger selections provide a window into their individual style, location and eye and makes the entire assortment a surprise.  I will be poised at my keyboard  ready to score some great stuff, and I hope you will be too, at 6pm EST August 23rd.  If you need to find me and I am not tethered to my computer, I will probably be sampling fresh peaches at my new neighb food mecca.

THE MANY TALENTS OF MIGUEL FLORES - VIANNA

A photograph from a recent trip to India to shoot Irving and Fine's latest campaign.

From shooting Irving and Fine's blouse and coat line to globetrotting on photo assignments and creating plates, Miguel Flores - Vianna is keeping very busy.

I caught up with him and he shared why he took on this new craft:
"I love the pieces made by the English taste maker Teddy Millington-Drake. Some friends of mine own a lot of the ones he made and, besides being beautiful, they always made me think, how great he was to be a great artist, decorator and plate maker! I am also obsessed with Mediterranean ceramics so it was almost logical that one day, when I grew up, I wanted to make plates too!"

Our former boss Marian McEvoy knew of my secret wish, so one day she introduced me to Polly Mirrhum, a professional potter in upstate NY. Polly taught me the basics, and once some sort of parameters were established she started guiding me along as I became more ambitious. My plates, bowls and vases are not thrown-- that is a rather difficult to learn technique and I don't have the patience. So I work on a design motif and then with the help of a pattern I give my piece a shape. Polly then fires it. I was calling the process "cooking it" and Polly corrected me and said that the proper term is firing it."

Why tabletop? Why not! I wish I had more time to spend at Polly's studio, but my work as a photographer makes me travel a lot so I go upstate only sporadically. And this brings me back to Teddy Millington-Drake. I suspect he had a lot of fun doing all the many different things he got his hands on. That's is my aim too, to have fun whether it is taking pictures, making plates or trying to get myself on the next flight to Myanmar!

On todays Tastemaker's Tag Sale at Twilight (that's 9pm eastern time) on One King's Lane, an assortment of his swirled pottery pieces will be available, in addition to finds he has collected over the years of travel.