Seattle, Part 2: Shopping the SAM Gift Shop

After saying goodbye to Angelica (she had to go back to work at some point), I spent a super relaxing afternoon walking down First Ave, popping into interesting boutiques here and there. As I got closer to Pike Place Market, I passed the Seattle Art Museum, where the big show seemed to be "Kurt." It took me a minute to realize it was a show about art inspired by famous Seattle native son Kurt Kobain -- which was kind of interesting, but not really interesting enough to justify an expensive ticket (even with student discount) and the attention span required to read wall text.

So I went to the gift shop instead, which honestly is -- I say with no shame! -- sometimes my favorite part of the whole museum-going experience. (What did you expect from a blog called Materialista?) I was especially looking forward to seeing SAM's because I wasn't able to stop by last time due to time constraints (and Chef K's waning patience).

Fun little place! I tried on a necklace made up entirely of red felt loops (very cute and something I could totally make myself) and also admired the red plastic Ron Arad chairs -- you can never sit in the metal ones because they are up on some museum pedestal (literally and figuratively), so it was cool to experience their mechanics in person.

I also liked these woven paper lamps made by a contemporary Japanese designer -- a nice update to Noguchi's iconic Akari lamps.