Profile: Carly Margolis

Carly and I met at Crossroads during our junior year of high school. She’s a hippie at heart and an amazingly talented artist with a very unique sense of style. Carly has always been a free spirit with a strong sense of self and she’s successful in whatever she’s passionate about, which is ever-changing and evolving in the best way.

Carly started an amazing wallpaper company called Cavern with her childhood friend Ophir. I have her gold feather wallpaper in the bathroom at my Almont Store and her black and white arrows behind the shelves in Tanner’s room. After Cavern, Carly started All for the Mountain, an incredible line of jewelry made of different oxidized materials. I sell it in my stores and you can also order directly from her website. She recently opened a gallery space in Venice called The Sacred Door Gallery, where she will host her latest show – Portals – that opens on December 1st.

Carly is a bit of a nomad, moving around from New York to Peru to Death Valley and finally settling in Topanga Canyon in an incredible cabin that would make anyone jealous. Carly and her boyfriend Matthew live there with their adorable dogs, Wings and Arrow, surrounded by incredible nature and peace.

Beauty

R+T: What are your go-to beauty products?

CM: I like coconut oil because it works for basically anything and everything. You can cook with it and use it as body lotion or leave-in conditioner. I also use Raven Crest Botanical Grain & Blossom Scrub. It has completely cleared my skin up and acts as the perfect moisturizer. I know the artist behind the scenes – she is a beautiful healer living in upstate New York, so I trust that it is all natural and made with the best intentions.

R+T: Bath or Shower?

CM: I love them both. My bath is in my living room by the wood-burning stove and my shower is sort of an outdoor shower, so it depends on the season.

R+T: What do you sleep in?

CM: Sleep in?? People sleep with clothes on?

Health

R+T: Do you have any health tricks?

CM: I think the most important trick is to listen to your body because it knows what it needs. My diet seems to change naturally with the seasons. During the winter, my body craves an Ayurvedic diet. The best gift I ever got was the Pancha Karma cleanse at the Surya Spa in Pacific Palisades, where I learned so much about Ayurveda. The Indian recipes are so nourishing and delicious. There are lots of Ayurvedic tricks, such as a teaspoon of melted ghee first thing in the morning. People think I’m crazy when I tell them I do this when I am feeling dry, but it lubes you up from the inside out… and it’s strangely delicious! In the summer, I crave seasonal fruits and veggies. My neighbor just started an amazing cold pressed juice company called Topanga Canyon Juice Company that I’ve been addicted to this summer.

R+T: What do you do to stay healthy and balanced?

CM: Yoga has completely transformed my life. I try to go everyday because it just makes me so happy. When I make the time to go surfing, I feel pretty ecstatic, too. I’ve reached a point in my life where every day should be about feeling good. Somehow that never even occurred to me 10 years ago.

R+T: What do you do to relax?

CM: Besides yoga, there is an amazing hike right near my house called Red Rocks that I take my dogs on as often as possible. I love hanging by my wood burning stove and night with my man, listening to Terry Riley or some new age drones. My daily Vedic meditation practice has worked miracles, as well.

Decor

R+T: What is your design philosophy for your home?

CM: Ecstatic peace.

R+T: What are your favorite home stores?

CM: Almost everything in our home is from the Rose Bowl or thrift shops we’ve stumbled upon during our travels. La Lagunia Flea in Mexico City is pretty epic. Two stores that inspire me are The Window on Melrose and Tortoise Gallery on Abbot Kinney.

R+T: What are your favorite pieces in your house?

CM: I think of all furniture as functional art. The hanging triangle light my boyfriend made is one of my favorite pieces. We love making vignettes of interesting objects we collect. There are lots of little ‘moments’ happening in here – I always have a different favorite. One was a picture of our band (our) Living Sacrifice by the incredible Ashley Lande.

Entertaining

R+T: Do you entertain at home?

CM: I love cooking – the more, the merrier.

R+T: How do you set the scene when you have people over?

CM: Mushroom chocolates! Can’t go wrong. I think I’m getting a reputation.

R+T: What is your favorite song/playlist when you have people over?

CM: It usually starts with Neil Young and ends with someone busting out an instrument and playing live…so many amazing musicians have been showing up to parties.

R+T: What are your favorite objects/accessories in the kitchen?

CM: My mandolin slicer and all the cacti. But I guess those are friends, not objects.

Fashion

R+T: How would you describe your style?

CM: Bright and funny.

R+T: What is your uniform?

CM: I recently moved my studio to Lincoln Boulevard in Venice. We have a monthly one day popup shop where all of my favorite vintage vendors set up shop. My entire wardrobe comes from them – Prism of Threads, Scout and New/Found. They know what to hold on to for me – basically anything that’s is super colorful and patterned or has an awkward shape to it that no one else will buy ends up being my uniform. I’ve gotten some incredible vintage jumpsuits and Native Funk and Flash style art to wear. I used to live with Mara Hoffman in New York and acquired an epic collection of her printed pants, which I’m wearing to shreds.

R+T: What is your newest purchase?

CM: My only non-vintage purchase recently was a pair of No. 6 red wedge clog boots. Love ‘em.

Food

R+T: Do you cook?

CM: Yes – love to.

R+T: What is your favorite recipe?

CM: I learned this spinach and quinoa salad with feta and dill from Pamela Salzman and it never gets old. I also live on kitchari and daal which are the easiest and coziest meals.

Art

R+T: Who are your favorite artists?

CM: Pedro Friedeberg and Emma Kunz – eternally.

R+T: What is your favorite piece of art you own?

CM: I love barter – I traded two Mothership necklaces and was so surprised by what came back. One was a portrait of my band (our) Living Sacrifice (me and my boyfriend) by the incredible Ashley Lande.
The other was a tiny universe drawn by Nathan Hayden. I asked him to draw me a Sacred Door, and it is incredibly sacred!!!

Music

R+T: How did you first get interested in music?

CM: I have always loved music, but when I met Matthew years ago, something musical opened up inside me. We started a band and recorded an album that is incredibly personal that we haven’t shared much with people. Its sort of like psychedelic love songs for kids, or your inner child. We had so much fun recording it. It’s super weird and campy.

R+T: What are your favorite bands?

CM: Bonnie Prince Billy, Terry Riley, Vibracathedral Orchestra, Fleetwood Mac, Neil Young.

R+T: What’s the best concert you’ve ever attended?

CM: Ever?? Not sure I have an answer for that, but this year, I did have an out of body experience while watching Colin Stetson play a solo show. It was pretty radical.

Inspiration

R+T: What inspires you?

CM: Shapes. Colors. Time passing. The Heart.

R+T: What’s your creative outlet?

CM: I’ve been trying to draw everyday and recently began painting on silk.

Travel

R+T: What are your favorite places to go on vacation?

CM: Peru and Mexico

Cavern and All For The Mountain

R+T: When did you start making jewelry?

CM: In 2009, I moved upstate to the Catskills to take a break from New York City and set up an art studio in a little abandoned cabin in the woods. In the studio, I learned to work in wax and metal, and from there an the first “Sacred Mountain Collection” was born. The name All For the Mountain came about because Matthew and I were designing concept dream homes. The house was going to look like an actual mountain – think a psychedelic Matterhorn in the style of architect Javier Senosiain meets Robert Venturi’s The Light Of Truth Universal Shrine. I built a website to have a place to sell whatever inspires me in the moment – jewelry, furniture, objects – to support the mountain, which has come to represent everything really: the dream, the freedom to create art, music and so on.

R+T: You’ve always been so creative – what did you do before you started All for the Mountain?

CM: When I was in college, I started Cavern. We made silk-screened wallpaper for a few years. I do miss doing interiors, so I recently started making bronze hardware and I have some rugs coming out soon.

R+T: Tell us about your new gallery space.

CM: Starting in December, I am converting my art studio in Venice into a community space/ gallery called ‘The Sacred Door’. I want to allow the space, as everything, to have a life of its own and evolve organically, but I will begin with one group show per month to showcase art and music that explore cosmic mysteries, mythology, spirit, love, friendship, high-craft and all things sacred. Throughout the month that the shows are up, I will be bringing in different events and workshops that I’ve been moved by in the past like holotropic breathwork, yoga, kundalini, astrology, music, etc. We have a wizard coming to do past life regression hypnosis that should be incredible! I love the New Age!!!

The first opening is Dec 1st from 6-9 PM. The theme is PORTALS and I’m starting to receive some of the pieces. It’s going to be beautiful! There is more info available on the website. XXJKE