Here’s a Toast!

By Louise Irvine Many of us will enjoy a tipple or two, toasting friends and family at parties to welcome the New Year. As we raise our glasses and clink them together with “Cheers!”, we can reflect on the fascinating history of drinking and toasting as presented in the Cheers exhibition at

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Unity in the Community · Transparency Through Glass

By Louise Irvine Chelsea Rousso installed her Unity in the Community glass wall at WMODA in December, and it was great fun deliberating on the best arrangement for the glass symbols on the wall to the new Hot Glass Gallery. It was a double celebration as Chelsea was awarded another grant

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The Art of Giving

Every year at Christmas time, Luis Montanez, the museum’s Maintenance and Logistics Manager, organizes a toy drive for disadvantaged children in our community. This year, the WMODA team of staff and volunteers donated and collected a mountain of gifts from family and friends. Thank you Luis for celebrating the art

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Marvelous Moorcroft

By Louise Irvine The most prestigious pottery ever made by the Moorcroft studio in Stoke-on-Trent can be seen at WMODA. In the early 1900s, William Moorcroft made some very large pieces for practical purposes, such as umbrella stands. In recent times, the modern Moorcroft studio has created a succession of

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The Joys of Collecting

By Louise Irvine After founding his museum in California, J. Paul Getty reminisced, “the romance and zest—the excitement, suspense, thrills, and triumphs—that make art collecting one of the most exhilarating and satisfying of all human endeavors.” This sentiment is echoed by Arthur Wiener, the founder of WMODA, who has experienced

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Beads and Baubles

By Louise Irvine The jewelry artists represented at WMODA have a passion for beads. They source them from their travels around the world and create unique works of wearable art. Local glass artists also make glass pendants in their Florida studios, echoing the techniques pioneered by artisans in Murano centuries

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The Queen of Crystal

By Louise Irvine We are excited to receive a spectacular Lalique glass screen on loan from Jeff and Penny Spellens of Los Angeles, CA. The screen was designed by Marie-Claude Lalique, granddaughter of René, the renowned pioneer of French Art Deco glass. Marie-Claude followed in his illustrious footsteps as a

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Leading Ladies of Lambeth

By Louise Irvine The Barlow sisters contributed hugely to the success of Doulton’s art pottery in the early years. Hannah, and Florence were the daughters of a prosperous bank manager but had to work to support the household after their father’s sudden death. Hannah enrolled at the Lambeth School of

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Ardmore Gifts

By Louise Irvine It has been a labor of love presenting all the spectacular furniture, poufs and pillows from South Africa in our new Ardmore Design Shop. We were delighted to welcome the team from Ngala Trading, Ardmore’s US distributor, to preview our showroom. WMODA stocks dozens of  Ardmore pillows

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Chinamania

By Louise Irvine Victorian humorists mocked the Aesthetic Movement of the 1870s and 1880s, which valued ideals of beauty above pragmatic concerns. Critics argued that the prolific output of poets, painters and designers with their slogan “Art for Art’s Sake” was pretentious and self-indulgent. Georges du Maurier, the famous Punch

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