STYLE : DESIGN : World Pieces

Decorating with ethnic accessories is a classic theme in interior design, perhaps because objets d’art from distant lands both recall multicultural roots and satisfy, at least in part, personal wanderlust. Today, as the planet’s resources dwindle and diverse cultures are being absorbed by the mainstream, ethnic accessories are taking on new importance.

One of Southern California’s best-edited collections is found at Textures in The Shops at Palos Verdes shopping center in Rolling Hills Estates. Owner John Rail specializes in primitive “earth-connected” objects that are functional as well as ornamental. Among his wares are American lathe-turned wooden bowls, lights made from twigs, birch-bark baskets and porcupine-quill jewelry (the last fashioned by Minnesota Ojibwa Indians). Also on display are toys such as Zulu dolls with human hair, earth-tone pottery from the Shipibo people in the Peruvian rain forest, hunter backpacks from the Philippines and note cards pressed with dried plants and flowers from Madagascar.

Rail believes the allure of handcrafted objects--both foreign and domestic--lies in the human factor: “You can tell it was made by a person, not a machine.”