I confess I love looking at houses that are for sale and imagining what it would be like to live in them. I usually stick to my local area (or at least the UK!) but I just discovered this house on Pinterest which has taken my interest in foreign houses to a whole new level. It's for sale through Bolaget, a Swedish estate agent that specialises in the very best Scandinavian homes. As you can imagine, their site is full of great design inspiration. This house is one of my favourites. It's in the Friluftstaden district of Malmö, which is apparently famous for it's functionalist townhouses. The house has lots of light, excellent storage, a wood fire, parquet flooring and marble worktops, not to mention a perfect little outdoor space for growing tomatoes. So, if anybody is thinking of moving to Sweden, this could be your place! P.S. Please may I come and visit?
Chelsea Miller Knives
When I wrote my post on Madesmith last week, I was struck by how insanely beautiful Chelsea Miller's one-of-a-kind, rustic knives are. The great thing about Madesmith is that you can read the maker's stories, and when I read about Chelsea, I liked her even more. An actress, who grew up on a farm surrounded by craftspeople, she started making knives almost by accident, while searching for more tactile work. “I had some unknown, unnamed frustration in wanting to do something with my hands," she explains. These days, when not performing, she goes into her workshop, puts on her mask and headphones and gets busy. The blades are cut from high carbon steel repurposed from discarded farrier files and tools. The grater-like etchings on those files give Chelsea Miller Knives their unique patterns. “While I’m not the first person to make a knife out of this type of material, I am the first person the leave the teeth on it intact,” she says. A completely sustainable product, Chelsea also sources the wood for the handles from scrap piles on her family’s farm, often choosing apple wood for its swirling pattern. The entire process can take about two days to complete a knife. For as Chelsea explains, "to me, my knives reflect the simplicity and complexities of being alive."
All photography courtesy of Madesmith.
Madesmith
Madesmith appreciate good old-fashioned craftsmanship and offer an expertly curated collection of handmade objects. They believe in buying less and buying well and hope that by knowing where our things come from and who made them, we will cherish our belongings forever. Their beautiful shop and website represent several makers and designers who create unique items. Textiles, jewellery, shoes, accessories and home goods are all featured and the maker's stories are told through beautiful photographs and illuminating interviews. The products are available to buy from the Madesmith shop along with special collaborations and commissions. Their aim is that by connecting us with the artisans, we can support local communities and preserve the unique craftsmanship that is part of our culture.
All photography courtesy of Madesmith.
Anne Lowe Design
Thank you Blissful Blog for introducing me to this lovely house. The home of interior decorator and stylist Ann Lowe, it features a row of beautiful large windows with views of open countryside. I'm also taken with the mix of vintage cane furniture, unusual tile formations and inspiring textiles - not to mention the concrete sinks and worktops! The outdoor entertaining area looks pretty interesting too. Roofed outdoor areas are unusual in the UK but they make so much sense, I would love to see more of them.
Buckitt Bag
I am always in search of the perfect bag and finally, I think I might have just found it. The Buckitt bag is a simple, high quality, hardwearing, British-made leather bag that is designed for everyday use. It is big enough to carry groceries and a lap top, yet smart and elegant too. Rae Jones was inspired to design the bag after seeing hordes of otherwise stylish women using grubby canvas totes, and even supermarket plastic bags, to carry their day-to-day belongings in. I am very guilty of this, I admit! The Buckitt bag is manufactured in a century old factory in Manchester, utilising the best of surviving British craft skills. It is made of high quality vegetable dyed leather that will age beautifully and is designed so that all components can be easily replaced should they wear out. You don't have to worry about losing your keys or purse at the bottom of the bag either, as there is a clever eyelet feature that can be used to attach a Buckitt loop, purse or pouch. Rae currently has a campaign on Kickstarter, where you can pledge funds in exchange for discounted bags and accessories. This is a great opportunity to support an exciting emerging brand while also receiving a classic piece that will last you a lifetime! The bags are currently available in a core collection of eight beautiful colours with accessories to match. Please visit and support her campaign here.
Mama Papa Baby House
Mama: Apiece Apart Mia Reversible Imari Quilted Jacket from Other. Papa: iPad case by Doe Leather. Baby: Sebra dolls pram from Kidsen. House: Porcelain cheese trays by MB Art Studios.
Crazy Wind
Crazy Wind is a clothing line based in Portland, Oregon, made using traditional Japanese kasuri fabric. Kasuri is a Japanese ikat and features specifically dyed fibres woven together to create blurred patterns and images. It's a special technique and designer Chiyo Takahashi, who was born in Japan, searches and sources the best authentic kasuri, directly from Japan. Chiyo's mother Hatsuyo Takahashi, also helps her find the material, making the brand a family affair. The name Crazy Wind comes from a Japanese word "Fuukyo-", which means insanity, a mad man or a person obsessed with their art. The word “Fuukyo-“ is constructed with two characters, “Wind” and “Crazy”. Chiyo found a calligraphy drawing of "Fuukyo-" made by her father, years before he passed away. "I have no idea about the backstory of this drawing, when he made it or why he made it, but I loved how he redrew the word "Wind" with this angry looking gorilla character, which my mother claimed was his self-portrait. It was as though he was saying "Be crazy and go your own way!" I hope this word will encourage the customers who wear Crazy Wind as much as it has encouraged me."
Bailey's Home & Garden
A few weeks ago while staying in Bristol, I made a serious detour to visit one of my all-time favourite shops, Bailey's. Located in a series of artfully updated farm buildings, deep in the Herefordshire countryside, Bailey's is most definitely a destination shop. It's not really near anything, but if you are ever even remotely in its vicinity, it is well worth a visit. While I was there, I took some photos to share with you. The shop is HUGE! It is a mini department store of sorts with a threshing barn, cowshed, cart shed, stable, tack room and loft, all filled with an ever-evolving collection of simple, useful and beautiful things. The merchandising is especially inspirational with unique displays and vignettes around every corner. Mark and Sally Bailey say they love things, "that are well designed, well made and not too complicated or fussy – old or new." I like this statement as it pretty much sums up my attitude to design too. I don't care about whether things are new or old, but I like them to be well made and thoughtfully created. As you can imagine, Bailey's is a complete treasure trove for someone like me - there is an abundance of well chosen furniture, lighting, kitchenware, homeware, textiles, kids things, accessories and for when you get weary, a beautiful tin shed cafe, serving delicious tea, cakes and sandwiches. I highly recommend paying the shop a visit but if that's not possible, you can catch a glimpse of some of the things on offer in Bailey's online store. We had a great day out and in case you're interested, came away with a much loved kids chair, which I know we will have for many years to come.
Lab
These pictures are quite old (at least by crazy fast-paced fashion/design standards) but they are some of my favourites, so I wanted to post them anyway. They feature Lab products in the home of stylist Anne Millet. Anne has a French photo blog called Mobil Home, and I love her use of colour, pattern and composition. Lab is a beautiful label that mixes plaids, Liberty prints and colour washed linens in that very effortless and stylish way that French people seem to do so well. The pictures have me hankering after pretty much everything in their range - they do homeware and kids pieces, and I could happily live with them all! Thankfully, I've just discovered that vintage 1950's checked tablecloths provide similar plaids and colour combinations at a fraction of the price, so I'm currently fueling my desire that way!
Project Jelly
I recently met Natalie Collier from Project Jelly and was inspired to hear her talk about her fundraising footwear designs. She makes great jelly shoes (I love the unisex Watermelon Rocks colour combination) and 25% of the profit from every pair goes directly to Mencap, a charity which supports people with a learning disabilities, their families and their carers. It's exciting to find someone working with charity in a fun and innovative way, so I asked Natalie to tell us a little bit more about the project...
What inspired you to start Project Jelly? Breastfeeding during the midnight hours and feeling like I needed to fundraise more! It's a long story, but put simply I wanted to challenge myself to make a change and see if I could start something new. Notebooks of ideas and gazillions of hours later, Project Jelly was born.
What are the ideas behind the current collection? The very simple idea of fusing a great children's shoe (made in the UK) with a big fundraising element. We have launched two colours this S/S13. Watermelon Rocks is our unisex red with a neon line sole. It's our bestseller! Who knew that all the cool Mamas were sick of navy for boys? So I'm really chuffed that the unisex red has gone down so well. We also have our glittery transparent Raspberry Mivi, which is very obviously inspired by the ice cream van lollies of the 1980's - YUM! These two will now be our core brand colours with two new exciting colour combinations due to be launched for S/S14. We would love to hear of fresh colour suggestions from our customers, so please send any ideas to hello@projectjelly.com
What materials do you use and where do you manufacture? It's a secret Jelly recipe blend! No, seriously they are made for us in a stunning Victorian factory in Northampton, the home of British shoe manufacturing. We use an injection moulding process based on the original shoe moulds from the early 1980's. Our Project Jellies are homegrown and proudly made in Great Britain. Plus, any overstock gets ground down and recycled into new shoes.
Do you have any children? If so, what is your favourite thing to do with your kids? Yes, two gorgeous Jellytots! Darcy is two and a half years old and baby Jude. Darcy is in shoe heaven and keeps rummaging through for a fresh pair every now and again. I think I've started off a shoe fetish for her like her Mama. They are crazy about each other and on a good day we love to hang out in our local woods and 'find the fairies' or hang with our buddies at Dulwich Park. On a bad day we're chasing around the house singing Mr Tumbles. The family is certainly complete - chaos reigns but it's all adreneline charged fun!
What is your favourite children's book? Mine is Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (enough said!) and a very battered copy of The Walker Book of Poems c.1979. Darcy's is Pip and Posy and the hilarious Sarah Dyer picture book The Girl with the Birds Nest Hair.
Do you have any exciting plans for the future? YES!! A neon orange unisex welly boot for A/W13. We want to keep on raising money for Mencap and designing exciting new shoes. We are backed by the British Footwear Association who are helping us to draw up some future plans so please stay in touch and watch this space.
Postcards 03
1. A rabbit at home. 2 & 3. Exploring car parks and stones. 4. We went to Bristol Zoo and saw penguins. 5. And seals. 6. Surprisingly the animatronic dinosaurs were Wren's favourite thing at the zoo and she made up a little dance to imitate them. 7. On safari looking for dinosaurs.
Mama Papa Baby House
Mama: Navy and white satchel by Trémoulière. Papa: Thinking about family bikes: the Bakfiets Short, from London Green Cycles, carries two children. Baby: Striped wooden spinning top by Sprint. House: Masks cushion by Hazel Stark.
Local
Local Apparel make beautiful and effortless clothing inspired by traditional materials and techniques. They use natural handknitted wools, organic cottons and featherlight gauzes, carefully and patiently embroidered by hand in Italy. The spring/summer collection features simple, wearable clothing, offered up in a trouble-free, straightforward, almost breezy kind of way. It's refreshing to find a company that believes being local is more important than going global and with such pleasing results, it's a good excuse for us all to wear local.
New Friends
These weavings are by New Friends and are made using hand dyed merino wool, metallics and raffia. New Friends are Alexandra Segreti and Kelly Rakowski, who create weavings, textiles and homewares in New York City and Philadelphia. The duo recently spent a week in the Matter showroom in New York, producing a super-sized weave on a custom, site-specific loom. By far the largest piece they've ever produced, it stretches from floor to ceiling and measures a mighty 8ft tall. The weaving is on display at the Matter showroom now.
Bunny Ears
I was recently asked to come up with three ways to upcycle a coat hanger by Pretty Nostalgic magazine. I made a bird mobile from Recycled Home, some kid's bunny ears and a slightly crazy wire weaving. Here are my instructions for the bunny ears:
You will need: Plastic headband, wire coat hanger, pliers, gaffer tape, scissors, PVA glue, fabric scraps.
1. Stretch out your coat hanger using the pliers and create the shape of two elongated bunny ears, the wonkier the better. 2. Stick the wire ears onto the headband using gaffer tape. Be generous, you need to make sure they are secure. 3. Using sharp scissors, cut your fabric into long strips about 2cm wide. Try to keep the strips an even width all the way along. 4. Using a small piece of tape about 1cm long, fix the end of a fabric strip onto the headband and begin to wrap the fabric around the band, covering the tape as you go. 5. Take your time and keep it as neat and firm as possible. When you get to the end of a strip, secure it with a 1cm piece of tape. 6. When you start wrapping a new piece of fabric, secure it in place with tape and make sure you wrap the fabric over it to hide any joins. 7. Continue wrapping until you have covered all the wire ears and the headband. 8. Instead of tape, secure the final fabric end with a drop of PVA glue and leave to dry. Trim any loose edges for a neat finish or leave raw for a more authentic furry look.
You can see this and my other two upcycled pieces in the latest issue of Pretty Nostalgic.
Postcards 02
Last week in London, we spent a lot of time getting to know the city's play parks. This one in Marylebone, at Paddington Street Gardens was our favourite.
1 & 4. Wren loves the slides. 2. Hostas in the courtyard of our block. 3. Paddington Street Gardens. 5. Spider's web. 6. This is how we do the swings - sibling style.
Wren's jacket is by Pala Mino.
Fog Linen Work
One of my favourite product lines Fog Linen Work has just opened an online shop with international shipping. This could spell bad news for someone like me! The site sells the most comprehensive collection of Fog Linen items outside of Japan, including several new pieces designed exclusively for the site. There are linen napkins, tablecloths, bedsheets and serving trays, as well as a small range of women's clothing and kid's items. I love the Fog Linen motto: live with linen - every day. Founder Yumiko Sekine started her first business in 1993 importing used books and homewares from Europe and America to Japan. In her search for more products, she looked for affordable every day linens that she had used during her childhood. She visited Lithuania, a major producer of flax, which is later spun into linen, and was disappointed to find that there were no linen products designed for daily use available in the shops there. This led Sekine to have her own designs made and now after ten years, Fog Linen Work produces a large range of honest, beautiful and long-lasting products designed for everyday use.
Caitlin Mociun
Caitlin Mociun designs beautiful jewellery and her home reflects this. Like most renters, she knew that she would only live in her Brooklyn apartment temporarily and faced the dilemma of how to make it feel like home, without doing any major work. I like the way that these restrictions have encouraged her to create a very minimalist space that focuses on edited furniture, colourful artwork and carefully selected ceramics. It is a comfortable and creative home that is both easy to live in and move out of. "I'm not attached to it," she says." But I'm totally comfortable in it. It's inspiring to me." Mociun's apartment was once a bar in the Brooklyn Navy Yard. It has high ceilings, painted brickwork, big windows and lots of natural light. She mixes a few bits of vintage and appropriated furniture with selected pieces from her shop including striped Libeco benlinen, hand thrown pottery and Moroccan rugs. Her collection of green houseplants also feature heavily across the apartment. These bright pops of colour echo Mociun's jewellery designs and although the minimalist design might be a result of functionality, I find this style of edited living very inspiring.
What We (Wish We) Wore
Fred: Lolly raglan sleeve T-shirt by Tootsa MacGinty, Blue poplin coconut trousers by Caramel Baby & Child from I Dream Elephants. Rebecca: Yellow marl Stadium sweatshirt by Current/Elliott from My wardrobe, Quincy dungarees by Citizens of Humanity from Selfridges, Superga 2750 Cotu Classic trainers from Atterley Road. Wren: Blue and yellow striped silk dress by Maan from Liberty.
Illustration by Andrew Wightman.
Tim Coulson: The Nursery
I didn't post much last week as I was away in London. While I was there I was lucky enough to attend a photography workshop with Tim Coulson called The Nursery. Although I had lost my voice and had to speak in croaks and whispers, the workshop was brilliant. In one day, Tim explained so many things that had previously confused me about taking pictures and his advice will definitely help me to use my camera properly. In the morning, Tim discussed the emotional and technical aspects of photography in a very down-to-earth and common sense way. Then, following a leisurely lunch we stepped outside to practice what we had learned. My pictures above are of Tim's wife Kesh and their lovely son Roo. The Nursery is a real family affair and I am delighted that I was able to be a part of it. Thanks Tim and Kesh!