Art Basel Miami Beach, Part II

We visited an art gallery-restaurant furnished by Dirade, an Italian contemporary furniture maker. All of the dishes, chairs, teaspoons, counters, napkins and glasses used in the restaurant are for sale in the store that¡¯s just a step away. Not a new idea. Years ago we went to a restaurant in Redkey, Indiana, that featured old tables, mismatched dishes and fabulous food. After dinner, you could buy the antique dishes and just about anything else in the restaurant.

Antique collectors should go to some modern shows or shops to see how design is changing. We are happy with our old, comfortable chairs. (We sat in a sculptural metal chair by Ron Arad in Florida and found that the arms made the seat too tight for our bottoms.) We learned that photographs now sell like oil paintings and that nothing is too big. Paintings cover entire walls, vases are monumental and accessories are big and bold. So when we got home, we rearranged some of our collection to show off our oversized vases.

Other modern ideas from Art Basel:

¡ñ A chandelier made from a string of plastic bottle bottoms. The bottle was cut so the bulges on the bottom were part of a thin ¡°flower¡± that hung on a fish line.

¡ñ A high-back straight wooden chair covered in small square pictures taken in a nearby photo-booth. You could pose for a strip of four pictures, then keep them or give the artist a few to include on his next chair. He positioned the small faces with white glue, then sealed them with a light varnish. Unusual and probably impractical¡ªbut what a great gimmick for a family reunion. You could take photos with a digital camera and have an unusual photo-album chair.

¡ñ Chandeliers made from long hanging mesh bags filled with loose Swarovski crystals and LED lights. You could buy a bag and as many crystals as you needed. Unusual, but a poor light source.

¡ñ A novel way to give a party: A multimillionaire art-loving couple who were among the Art Basel bigwigs invited 5,000 people to breakfast in their backyard. They had thousands of pieces of bacon, hard-boiled eggs and croissants arranged on tables. They furnished rubber gloves for the guests so they could neatly handle all this ¡°finger food.¡± No dishes to wash, and lots of praise for the unique idea.