A Wickedly Good Game: Halloween Mahjong with Jill Kargman and Center & Spring

Classic & Curious

Host Anne Kikoski sits down with Jill Kargman and Sandi Drucker-Wright to discuss their creative collaboration on a spooky Halloween-themed

Key takeaways

• The Halloween mahjong set features unique designs like skulls for dots, snakes for bambs, and fanged lips for cracks.
• Artist Kelly Lillian used an 'Andy Warhol-ized' metallic patina style to ensure the tiles felt edgy rather than cheesy.

Main topics

• Halloween Mahjong Tile Collaboration
• Center & Spring Brand Origins

Notable quotes

She reaches into my skull and executes in the way that I would want if I knew how to design.

Conclusion

A charming exploration of how shared passions for games and seasonal a

Transcript preview

Speaker 2 (0:00) I worked with Kelly on an app. She like reaches into my skull and executes in the way that I would want if I knew how to design. But we said, how about the dots are skulls and the bambs are snakes and the cracks are like lips with fangs. And the jokers were all different. We said like one will be a ghost and a tombstone that says she loved Maj. And all in the back will be a web. And she just did it in such an edgy way where it's not cheesy. Like the skulls, there are many ways to do a skull and hers are kind of Andy Warhol-ized with metallic patina. And she just makes everything cool. Speaker 3 (0:40) This is Classic and Curious. Speaker 1 (0:43) I'm Speaker 3 (0:43) Anne Kikoski, and each week I bring you conversations with the founders, tastemakers, and creatives who have mastered the art of living with curiosity and intention. The spaces we inhabit, the tables we gather around, the places we seek out, so you can develop a sharper eye and design a life that feels distinctively your own. Speaker 3 (1:11) Welcome back to Classic and Curious, and do we have a treat for you. Today we're celebrating the shared love of Mahjong and the wonderful art of gathering it inspires with Sandy Drucker-Wright, co-founder of Center and Spring, and her wonderfully wicked collaborator Jill Cardman, a born and bred New Yorker, writer, actress, producer, and New York Times best-selling author. Sandy and Jill have created something playful and stylish. where every piece celebrates a little Halloween magic. We are so thrilled you're here today. Welcome, ladies. Thank you so much for having us. Oh, it's my pleasure. Thank you, Anne. This is great. Oh, we're going to have a lot of fun. So this feels like such a natural and creative pairing. And that said, I would love for you, Jill, to share how the collaboration with Center in Spring came to be. Speaker 2 (2:07) Well, it was all Sandy. Honestly, it was her idea. We met on vacation last Christmas and we started playing Mahjong together and I'm such a brat. I don't like the plain tiles. I really just like using other tiles. And so we started, we met through a mutual friend and played in New York and she's like, we should do a tile thing, like a spooky set. And I thought. Oh my God, that's fusing my two favorite things, Mahjong and Halloween. Oh, I love that. I was ecstatic. It's so fun. Speaker 3 (2:37) And so Sandy, we have to take a step back. Tell us a little bit about Center in Spring. Introduce the listeners to the brand. Speaker 1 (2:45) Sure. So two years ago, I went to a designer show house in Southport, Connecticut called Rooms with a View. And designers create these six by eight, like mini rooms, little vignettes. And I walked by one and there was a big crowd and I kind of peeked in and I saw this was a really cool room set up as a Maj bar and like a cigar bar, but for Majan. And there was this incredible table in the middle of the room that was the centerpiece. And it was pedestal based. It had an octagonal top. It had these like touch latch tray drawers that came out to put everyone knows who plays Majan. You need a place to put your phone and your drink, snacks. And I was just completely overwhelmed by this creativity and the beauty, actually the beauty of the table. So I asked the designer, her name was Peyton Cochran, and I said, where did you get that table? And she said, I made it. And I said, oh my gosh, where did you make it? And she said, I made it in Bridgeport, Connecticut, which is right up the road. So one thing led to another. And I asked Peyton, first of all, if I could buy the table. She said yes. So that was my mom's Christmas present that year because she comes and stays with us twice a year and plays a lot of Mahjong. She taught me how to play, my three daughters, my sister. And then I said, we should talk. Have you ever thought about scaling the business? And she said, no, I'm an interior designer. I really have no plans. And I said, you know what? here's my card, let's get together and have a conversation. And about a month later, we had a conversation and about three months later, Center in Spring was born. Oh Speaker 3 (4:20) my gosh. The best tables in the business. Yeah, they're amazing. And they're so beautiful. That's the thing, when you can get function and beauty at the same time, that's your superpower. My Speaker 1 (4:31) business partner, my co-founder, Peyton, is an incredible designer. Her mind works in ways that mine doesn't. We're a really good complement for each other, but... She is just incredible. And she had this vision and she keeps, I mean, we have a lot of other things in the pipeline that she just kind of comes up with. And it's been so much fun. Really great. I Speaker 3 (4:51) love that. So Jill, tell us about your love for Halloween. Speaker 3 (4:57) I Speaker 2 (4:58) feel like it was lifelong. I was a really spooky child. I guess I always watched The Muppet Show since its inception. And when I was four, Alice Cooper hosted. And I feel like I think of that as one of the seminal moments of my life because it was like a really goth episode and they had the really big Muppets that were like monsters. And I was a little scared and titillated and like obsessed. And from that point on, I asked for an Alice Cooper vinyl. I was really always kind of into rock music, but I don't know. Like somehow Halloween was my Christmas and my favorite day of the year and just aesthetically all things spooky. But I mean, I never was allowed to wear black. It's so funny. People always say like, oh, did you wear, you were Wednesday Addams. And I said. No, I wasn't allowed to wear black. I had little smock dresses and grosgrain bows. But the second that I could, around 12, and I got my first motorcycle jacket for my bat mitzvah, that was it. Oh my gosh, I love that. So funny, I wear a lot of black Speaker 3 (5:59) myself. But love Halloween. I remember from my childhood, it was like we were the it house on the street. My mom loved Speaker 2 (6:07) it. That's me. The Home Depot skeleton shortage is because of my husband. Because that's his love language is August 1st when... Sandy and I had a party in Nantucket, October, which was August 1st. But August 1st is when Home Depot releases their skeletons. And Harry bought, my husband got like the 18 foot ones. And we, our house is TikTok famous. Oh my gosh. I love it. Speaker 3 (6:31) That's so fun. It is. Speaker 1 (6:32) There's lines around the block, like waiting to go past Bill's house. I'm like, what is she giving out there? It must be like, you know, regular candy, movie theater candy. Speaker