Vera veggies

I know that several of you have collections of scarves and other items designed by Vera Neumann, and I have always admired their beauty. When I saw that a series of archival Vera prints had been released exclusively to Crate and Barrel, I was eager to see them.

The diminutive artist, simply called Vera by most of her fans, believed that good design should be available to everyone. Moreover, she thought art should be worn and incorporated into household surroundings...and hers has been for six decades. Her products have included scarves, apparel, home linens, dishes, wallpaper and umbrellas.

Neumann had over 8,000 designs copyrighted in the Library of Congress and produced over 20,000 scarves in different colors from the designs. Her work has been exhibited at the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Smithsonian Institution, and her life and designs are the subject of the book Vera: The Art & Life of an Icon.

Now Crate and Barrel is making her beautiful kitchen designs available to those of us who don't hit the thrift stores often enough to find them. Take a look at these stunning pieces.

From theveracompany.com

Canning dishtowel
crateandbarrel.com

By the Pint dishtowel
crateandbarrel.com

Insalata dishtowel
crateandbarrel.com

My favorite is the Insalata. Those are the colors in my kitchen, which is long overdue a facelift, so I'm going to grab several and hope they inspire me to get that last room finished.

If you need information about how to date the Vera pieces you find when you're out thrifting, you might enjoy taking a look at the Fuzzielizzie Vintage Clothing website. According to that site, the original designs for these must date back to the 60s when the ladybug got significantly smaller than the signature.