Introduction

Growing up in the Bronx in an apartment filled with midcentury furniture designed by Herman Miller and Danish modern contributors, Jody Harrow’s design sense had an early influence from her surroundings. Harrow decided upon graduating from high school when she was 17 to seek hands on experiences and adventure. From her first weaving class in Vermont to studying stencil making and dyeing with a National Living Treasure in Japan, Harrow has learned many crafts that have given her a unique eye and interior design aesthetic.

SCROLL DOWN

Introduction

Growing up in the Bronx in an apartment filled with midcentury furniture designed by Herman Miller and Danish modern contributors, Jody Harrow’s design sense had an early influence from her surroundings. Harrow decided upon graduating from high school when she was 17 to seek hands on experiences and adventure. From her first weaving class in Vermont to studying stencil making and dyeing with a National Living Treasure in Japan, Harrow has learned many crafts that have given her a unique eye and interior design aesthetic.

Harrow’s first venture into design as an adult was prompted by an interest in weaving, so she hitchhiked up to Vermont and enrolled in her first weaving class. The smell of wood smoke permeated from her teacher, and she was literally intoxicated. Wanting to augment her weaving skills and decided to study art, Harrow got involved with design and color at the Worcester Museum School. Art school then pulled her into the world of sculpture, where she learned more about design and form. Although many courses and studies followed her initial temptation to weave, the thread she took lead her to see the world as an interior designer.

San Fran

Although many courses and studies followed her initial temptation to weave, the thread she took lead her to see the world as an interior designer.

San Fran

Although many courses and studies followed her initial temptation to weave, the thread she took lead her to see the world as an interior designer.

After her adventures in Vermont and Massachusetts came to an end, Harrow headed back to New York earning a degree from NYU’s Gallatin Division. As
a graduation present, she convinced her parents of the efficacy of visiting
Japan. What was supposed to be a 3 week visit turned into a 3 year stay.
In Tokyo, she was an apprentice for a National Living Treasure in Japan and a founder of their Folk Craft Movement, Mingei. Studying in her teacher’s 300 year old farmhouse in the heart of Tokyo, Harrow learned the Japanese ancient art of stencil making and dyeing and was honored with the task of cataloging her teacher’s international folk craft collection into English before it went off to a museum. While living in Japan, Harrow travelled and studied widely, soaking in whatever new and different ideas she could absorb within and outside the country. At this time, Japan was on the cutting edge of a design renaissance in fashion, and Harrow took in the excitement of living and interacting with the various players who created this groundswell.

***Harrow showcasing a dress she designed while running her own studio in San Francisco.***

For a long time, Harrow vacillated between the idea of living an academic life and feeling the drive to be out in the world with the cutting edge of design. Continuing along this question, she started to explore thoughts of running a business or bringing the market to university students as a professor. The real word always seemed more enticing, and she took the leap to run her own studio.

When Harrow came back from Japan, she set up a textile design and silk screening studio to produce hand printed yardage for the home furnishings market in San Francisco. Concurrently, she studied interior design at Rudolph Sschaeffer School of Design. She had the wonderful fortune not only to study with, but to become a personal friend of, Rudolph Schaeffer toward the end of his long life. He was one of the early pioneers of the California Arts and Crafts Movement, and some of his accomplished students (who have said that they owed their careers to him) include Louise Dahl-Wolfe, Dorothy Liebes, Dorr Bothwell, as well as the interior designer Mark Hampton. To set foot through Mr. Schaeffer’s gate and be in his garden was an enchanting experience - as soon as Harrow opened the gate into Mr. Schaeffer’s home, she had passed into another world. Schaeffer taught Harrow not only academically a way of seeing, but just as importantly, he taught her a way of being through his example.

San Fran Ending

Harrow continued to seek adventure during her time in San Francisco and sought out other artists throughout the United States. Along the way, she stayed overnight at the then recently opened Andy Warhol Museum in Pittsburg to interview James Turrell, visited homes of people who owned a collection of Basho (the great haiku poet) screens in Carmel, Ca, and befriended a woman in her 90’s who took Harrow into her 1920’s home tucked away in the hills of Marin. In a home resplendent with antique furniture, the two watched as the light transformed home and furniture from day into dusk on her lonely mountain top.

San Fran Ending

Harrow continued to seek adventure during her time in San Francisco and sought out other artists throughout the United States. Along the way, she stayed overnight at the then recently opened Andy Warhol Museum in Pittsburg to interview James Turrell, visited homes of people who owned a collection of Basho (the great haiku poet) screens in Carmel, Ca, and befriended a woman in her 90’s who took Harrow into her 1920’s home tucked away in the hills of Marin. In a home resplendent with antique furniture, the two watched as the light transformed home and furniture from day into dusk on her lonely mountain top.

Traveling the world, Harrow’s design education was influenced by cultures where design decisions were made based on hundreds of years of tradition. She continued her education by studying lighting design and textile design at Parsons School of Design. She also ventured into teaching her skills to others and taught Stencil Design at Pacific Basin School of Textile Design in Berkeley California and Surface Design at Parsons School of Design.

Ending

For the past 3 decades, Harrow’s flooring has been showcased in some of the most exclusive homes, hotels and offices in the country. She has also worked in renovating spaces where she showcases her design aesthetic - stripping back the rooms to their original proportions to let the spaces breathe as they were originally intended. Her work has led her from a collaborative with Yale Graduate School students of Architecture to projects including a Frank Lloyd Wright house in Rye, New York. You can also find her textiles as part of the permanent collection of the Smithsonian Institute at the Cooper Hewitt Museum.

Harrow has always been attracted to the combination of peaceful yet visually stimulating interiors. She loves clean lines, antiques and great craftsmanship. For Harrow, there is no contradiction between the old and the new, and her criteria is the same for both: not too decorative. She keeps the lines simple and creates visual excitement through a combination of different elements including proportion, light, color, texture, and flow of space.