House Industries pioneered the Alexander Girard objet revival in 2006 with their awesome wood blocks set, which they adapted from the sun-covered matchbooks Girard designed for the Casa del Sol restaurant in NYC. That's the House approach: adapt some of that vintage Girardian awesome into a new product that gives it new life and meaning. Purists may sniff, but it's sure more interesting than buying a Limited Collector's Edition set of reproduction matchbooks from the Franklin freakin' Mint.
I guess the Girard estate folks approve, because House has launched a whole new range of Girard-inspired objects: there's a memory game with designs from his wallhangings; a puzzle based on a sketch for an unrealized animal-pattern carpet; and my favorite, a nativity set created from a drawing Girard made which hangs in his son's house.
All the objects are low-volume, high-quality, made in USA hardwood and look spectacular. Which is good, because they cost a fortune. Buy it now, and you might have the $410 nativity set paid off in time for next Christmas.
On the more affordable--but still not cheap--end of the spectrum are new stuffed dolls by Girard's longtime collaborator Marilyn Neuhart. Neuhart's still going strong, thank you very much, and though they don't have the loopy yarn afros of the 1960's originals, which all but took over the Textiles & Objects store Girard opened in 1961, Neuhart's new dolls keep the same, folky, slightly hippie-ish spirit. Also, they're not $1200.
See the whole Girard Industry, including Erich Weiss's jazzy industrial film, at House [girard.houseind.com, thanks yet another andy]
LOVE the dolls . . . awesome! Thanks!
Umm . . . just checked out the website. You're so right they're not cheap . . . $140 for the one in the pic! Guess Maggie won't be getting one any time soon, much as I love 'em!