Chrysalis Design Services, l.l.c.

Dahlias at their peak of perfection. Early Autumn Joy Edgehill

Birthday flowers in an iconic Aalto vase set on a vintage tablecloth found at Brimfield in September sets the stage for Sunday Brunch.

I had the honor to design a celebration of life tribute for my long time client, the Yale University Art Gallery. Their reknown and beloved curator, Patricia Kane, inspired staff, colleagues, board members, the Yale Community, the museum profession and the world at large for many decades. It was a full circle moment for me. This is the place where my love affair with collecting began. My first job with the Art Gallery, was as a caterer, 42 years ago. The event was the opening reception and dinner for the Kossack Silver Collection, my first contact with Patricia Kane. For the post show dinner that the Gallery hosted for the Kossack family, I designed the table settings using silver from a silver collection I assembled to my clients. My partner and I pooled our inherited silver and my collected pieces for this special evening. The table featured an antique silverplate cake stand or tea basket filled with flowers. Surrounding these centerpieces were 3-5 smaller silver pieces of interest: A miscellany of accessories; a miniature oil can, used as a vermouth dropper for making martinis, cigarette cases, bon bon dishes, table crumbers, powder boxes, specialty serving pieces. When I returned the following morning to collect the silver, the event planner excitedly recounted the sensation that the centerpieces had caused at dinner. Mr Kossack, as the first course was served, stood up and praised the Gallery for “these splendid table settings” and toured each table picking up one piece after another regaling the guests with commentaries of each piece. This was the first time my collector’s eye was validated, a profound revelation for a young collector who purchased his first collectible, a Chase Thunderbird bottle opener, as a student at Penn. Over the ensuing years objects in several of my collections I or my friends discovered on display exhibits in the Galler and MOMA. For this special event I presented objects from my personal collection. I chose pieces that can be found in the gallery collection. I presented a selection of extraordinary dahlias tagged by the gardener, Maria Kane, who collaborated with Patricia in the ‘90s on a silver show.

Team EOO sends love to a team member in her new home: Amarina Belladiva Anastasia, Cyperus Glaber and Callicarpa.

Strolling past my garden heading to a Camille Zamora concert at the Yale Schwarzman Center last night…. The sunny southern side now in shadow; the shady side brilliantly lit…an nocturnal oasis on Beinecke Plaza!

With the Nor’easter bearing down upon us in coastal Connecticut, I harvested 30 of these beauties from my neighbor’s garden to design my next installation at Edgehill.

As a boy, I fell in love with Japanese Lanterns, imagining Stuart Little driving his matchbox car down the brilliant orange lantern lit streets of Tokyo. Every year I harvest these beauties, my heart swells with happy memories of Stuart on his Grand Tour!

Chinese Jar with Helenium Orange Beauty, Cactus Zinnias, Thistle Blue Ice, Atriplex, Crocrosmia

In a Chinese cachepot, Butterfly Ranunculus, Miscanthus Dragon Grass and Jasmin Vine