THE MIDWESTERN NOSTALGIA OF DESIGNER SARAH BURNS

“Growing up in the Midwest, I come from a family of doers,” says designer Sarah Burns. Her uncle was a mechanic and welder, her grandpa repaired tractors, her dad did construction and carpet-laying, and her mom owned a furniture store in her rural town. Burns continues this family legacy; she’s the co-owner of Old Jewelry, a shop that showcases her own designs alongside vintage pieces and ones from other designers they represent — a jewelry store that operates like a gallery. She opened and designed the Chinatown space with her partner, Adam Caillier, displaying her clever designs in traveler’s cases, from her new Lemon ring, with a band that is curved into the shape of the fruit, to her Double Down ring, a two-in-one design named for her gambling grandmother. This ingenuity extends to her design practice as well. With her recent début solo exhibition at Marta in Los Angeles, Prairie’s Edge, Burns reimagined her mom’s furniture store, with mirrors inspired by the side-view mirrors of tractor trailers and a steel Tube Chair that she says reminds her of her uncle’s metal shop. That chair’s softly curving line reappears throughout the show and evokes “this naive approach to quickly making something,” Burns says. “It’s sometimes hard to get all four feet to touch the ground, but the Tube Chair is ball-footed, with four cast-rubber feet. I like the idea that, in theory, no matter what surface it’s on, all four feet could touch the ground,” she says. “It’s a nice juxtaposition of heavy and light, and I just love the amber hue of the rubber — it looks like the color of Budweiser beer. It’s a nostalgic color."