dosa yo-yo puff workshop with Christina Kim

Join us at Arcana this Sunday (1/8/17) at 11:30 am for a special workshop with Christina Kim to learn to make yo-yo puffs!

A yo-yo puff is a circle of fabric gathered around its edges into a “puff” used for embellishing quilts and clothing. First, a circle is drawn on a piece of cloth, cut out, and stitched with thread around the outside of the folded edge while turning a tiny hem as you go. The thread is pulled, gathering the fabric into a puff, then knotted. A traditional form of recycling thought to date back centuries, yo-yo or Suffolk puffs, as they are sometimes called in England, are best known in the United States for their use in Depression-era quilting practice. yo-yo puff. Christina attempted her first yo-yo puffs creation, a coverlet, in high school by following instructions in an issue of Seventeen magazine. For a project in 2013 evoking the transformation of winter to spring, 10,000 puffs dip-dyed and hand-painted in subtle gradients of sky, snow, and cherry blossom colors were made for an 18 window installation in Tokyo. The technique was incorporated into the dosa Traveler 2013 collection.

Book of the day > Loewe: Past Present Future. Published by Loewe. “Limited edition book self-published by Loewe; phonebook-size visual history spanning its past, present and future.  The book is edited by fashion and magazine expert Luis Venegas, who was given creative freedom for the project by Jonathan Anderson.

Anderson sees the new Loewe Book as a useful reference tool. ‘It´s not a book to be precious with, it´s a hefty block of paper that´s meant to be used and engaged with, documenting the entire universe of the brand until now, indicating where it stands today and where it might go next’ ". Comes complete with a tiny book of Loewe-logo’d post-it notes to mark your favorite pages (of which there will be many – it’s a beauty). 

Book of the day (and available on the West Coast exclusively at Arcana) > Bruce Weber All-American XVI Wild Blue Yonder. Little Bear Press For the past fifteen years, photographer and filmmaker Bruce Weber has published the independent arts journal “All-American”. During this time, the series has evolved as a celebration of work by photographers, painters, actors, essayists, poets and personalities of note. “All-American” is motivated equally by a desire to connect and to inspire.

The latest installment "includes long-form profiles of Fr. Michael Pfleger, the radical activist priest working to end poverty and gun violence on Chicago’s South Side, and Detective First Grade Terry McGhee, a member of the NYPD Joint Terrorism Task Force. Bruce documented a recent road trip across West Texas, and broadens his reflections on the Lone Star State with photographic works by Sid Avery, Toni Frisell, Kelly Delay, Wim Wenders, James Evans, and Richard Miller. The late, great, and largely unknown American fashion designer Bill Whitten is celebrated in a tribute that includes interviews with Elton John, Lionel Ritchie, and an essay by his brother, the contemporary painter Jack Whitten. The environmentalist and artist Zaria Forman shares her process, Biaggio Ali Walsh reflects on the influence and legacy of his grandfather, Muhammad Ali, and Suzanne Myers writes about her architect father Barton Myers’ iconic Santa Barbara residence". As with all of the "All-American"s, the quality of the design, paper and printing is impeccable. Not unlike the previous books, there will be only one printing of this title. @bruce_weber

Jess and Whitney are going toe to toe over who has the best staff picks. In the white corner, wearing blue shoes is Jess. In the black corner, wearing gold shoes, is Whitney. You be the judge. Get ready to rumble in the @habituela v. @wsckaplan gift picks smackdown!

Jess’ picks are knock outs:  Foreigner: Migration Into Europe 2015-2016 / John Radcliffe Studio @johnradcliffestudio, Berenice Abbott: Paris Portraits 1925-1930 / Steidl @steidlverlag, Gerard Petrus Fieret / Ed. Xavier Barral @editionsxavierbarral, LE Bal Justine Kurland: Highway Kind / Aperture @aperturefnd, The Art and Life of Louise Bourgeois/ Monacelli Press @monacellipress,  Ken Price: Drawings / Matthew Marks Gallery @matthewmarksgallery, The Art of Ramiro Gomez: Domestic Scenes / Abrams, The Art of the Hollywood Backdrop / Regan Arts @regan.arts, Alexander Girard: A Designer's Universe / Vitra Design Museum @vitradesignmuseum, Experience / MIT Press, Manus X Machina / The Met. And because she fights dirty, she snuck one more in after the bout was started,  Mark Ruwedel Message from the Exterior / MACK @mack_books. @habituela with dosa-enhanced windows.

Whitney’s picks are the greatest of all time: Deanna Templeton: The Swimming Pool/Um Yeah Arts @deannatempleton @umyeaharts, The Moon 1968–1972 / T. Adler Books @tadler books, Animals That Saw Me Volume Two by Ed Panar / The Ice Plant @edpanar @the.ice.plant, Sar: The Essence of Indian Design / Phaidon, Game Changers: The Unsung Heroines of Sports History by Molly Schiot / Simon & Schuster @theunsungheroines, Gordon Parks: I Am You: Selected Works 1934–1978 / Steidl, Slash: A Punk Magazine from Los Angeles: 1977-1980 / Hat + Beard @hatandbeardpress, dosa glossary a-z, + dosa | Arcana utility pouch @dosaflyingfish, Everything I Want to Eat: Sqirl and the New California Cooking / Abrams @sqirlla, Todd Hido: Intimate Distance: Twenty-Five Years of Photographs, A Chronological Album / Aperture @aperturefnd.

Isabelle H’s taste tends towards the recherché – as her choice of headwear might indicate. Here are her esoteric picks for the cognoscenti in your life: Under The Clouds: From Paranoia To The Digital Sublime/ Serralves, Simone Forti: Thinking with the Body/ Hirmer Publisher , The Machine: As Seen at the End of the Mechanical Age/ Museum of Modern Art, The Course of Landscape Architecture: A History of our Designs on the Natural World, from Prehistory to the Present/ Thames & Hudson, RAVE: Rave and its Influence on Art and Culture/ Black Dog Publishing, Open Systems: Rethinking Art C. 1970/ Tate, Mind over Matter: Concept and Object by Richard Armstrong/ Whitney Museum of Art, Tacet 3 From Sound Space/ Les Presses Du Reel, Hacking Habitat: Art of Control, Information Arts: Information Arts: Intersections of Art, Science, and Technology/ NAi010 Publishers. You can dig into them here.

Kevin stands behind his top-notch gift recommendations: Hiroshi Sugimoto: Theaters/ Damiani,  Ed Ruscha and the Great American West/ University Of California Press, Some Fun Tonight!: The Backstage Story of How the Beatles Rocked America: The Historic Tours of 1964-1966/ Backbeat Books, The Art of the Hollywood Backdrop/ Reagan Arts, The Art of the B Movie Poster/ Gingko Press, Unseen Midcentury Desert Modern/ Gibbs Smith, Modern Forms: A Subjective Atlas of 20th-Century Architecture/ Prestel, The Walt Disney Film Archives: The Animated Movies 1921-1968/ Taschen, Andreas Tschersich: Peripher/ Edition Patrick Frey, London Every Day by Andrea Hamilton/ Booth-Clibborn. You can read about them here!

Isabelle R. is justifiably smitten with her picks: Strange Stories: The Photography of Gerald Davis/ AMMO Hannah Hoch: A Life Portrait/ The Green Box, Codex Seraphinianus/ Rizzoli, The Concrete Body/ Yale University Press, Bad Bonn Song Book/ Edition Patrick Frey, Nudist Girls of Germany: Nude Photography from Classic German Naturist Magazines/ Deicide Press, The Nuclear Culture Source Book/ Black Dog Publishing, The Hinterland/ Gestalten, Pipilotti Rist: Pixel Forest/ Phaidon, BioArt /Thames & Hudson. Giant pillow and handmade gold leaves by dosa as part of our ongoing installation.

Steve’s gift picks are glorious: Legendary Los Angeles Restaurants: Celebrating the Famous Places Where Hollywood Ate, Drank, and Played / Santa Monica Press, Andrea Robbins & Max Becher: Black Cowboys / La Fabrica, Saul Leiter: Early Color (Reprint) / Steidl, Clint Woodside: Undercover Cars / Kill Your Idols, Yes Yes Yes Alternative Press: 1966-1977 From Provo to Punk/ A+M Bookstore & Viaindustriae, Kevin Harry: KH Zine, Tony Oursler: Imponderable; The Archives of Tony Oursler / JRP Ringier, Randi Malkin-Steinberger: No Circus / Damiani, The Art of the Hollywood Backdrop / Regan Arts, Marcel Duchamp: Boite en Valise - Museum in a Box/ Walther König. See them all here!

Hand selected for your gift giving convenience, the staff gift picks are in.  The completely fabulous Erin (@erinschneiderprojects) is bowled over by her own amazing picks. They are, in no particular order: Dwan Gallery: Los Angeles to New York, 1959-1971, Donald Judd: Collected Writings, Experience: Culture, Cognition, and the Common Sense, Hilma Af Klint: Painting the Unseen, Blueprint for Counter Education, Power to the People: The World of the Black Panthers, Julius Shulman: Modernism Rediscovered (3 Volumes), Richard Misrach & Guillermo Galindo: Border Cantos, Maximilian Stejskal: Folklig Idrott, Takahiro Kurashima: Poemotion 1-3. 

Thanks to Kinfolk for including us in their LA City Guide!
 

"Arcana is a haven for bibliophiles and aesthetes alike, stocking a cleverly curated selection of new and out-of-print books on photography, art, fashion, design, food, architecture and cinema.

Arcana: Books on the Arts is one of Los Angeles’ finest art bookstores. Boasting over 100,000 books, the extensive and hyper-specialized collection includes a far-reaching range of items from new, rare and out-of-print books to ephemera.

More closely resembling a gallery than a shop, Arcana occupies a 5,000-square-foot space in Culver City’s historic Helms Bakery building.The books are displayed on immense metal shelves that divide up the open-plan space into cozy rooms. And natural lighting from windows on three sides and polished concrete floors are inviting to browsers and collectors alike.

The shop is renowned for all aspects of specialized bookselling. Frequently hosting events, book signings and panel discussions with featured authors, Arcana excels at  reaching out to its community of loyal customers.