Karin's Style Blog

My workshop.

I’m finally ready with the compilation of my 2010 collection wholesale price list so now it’s only the bookkeeping for 2009 remaining. Phew. Each year I say to myself that I’ll do the bookkeeping continually over the year rather than saving it all… And still, here I am with three huge files to enter into the system… And I actually like keeping track of what comes in and goes out and to know what I spend on and how much I can spend. This year I’ll do it differently

Textiles from Bantie.

I went to the Stockholm Furniture Fair last week and met lots of nice people and spent a good long while at Konsthantverkscentrums stand where all my 4 pictures are from. That’s where Ulrika Krynitz wonderfully green rug was and you should check her website out because of the ecolodges she rents out… read more about this poetic wilderness retreat on the National Geographic blog. You’ll find Emma’s much more extensive report from the fair at the d*s guest blog.

Ki-Ki - a Japanese design shop on Renstiernas gata here in Stockholm.

The sunshine in my workshop.

More rainy summer pictures.

It’s raining and raining, not floods but gentle, persistent summer rain. To get to my workshop, I take the pendeltåg to Ulriksdal and then I walk through lush swedish summer.

The recycled card display alone and closer.

Here’s a card display that I’ve made out of a discarded café table and chair, topped with glass from the architectural rescue shop. I love the matured colour of the wood and I think it’s a real nice backdrop to the cards.

Today, I had lunch in the shade of the big tree outside my workshop. The chair is from my mother’s aunt.

Anne paid me a visit some weeks ago and she sent lovely links from Finland: Savilintu and Liiviantalossa.

I went to see Johanna Jansson’s solo show at the Glassery that I mentioned the other week. Just stunning! More pictures here.

May has just flown by and next week is the last for Mr Black & Mme Ochre at manos. There will be a shop update next week with new pieces from the collection and then who knows what the future will bring for Mr Black & Mme Ochre?

The next exhibition will be graphic, naive and wonderful steel wire work by Eva Svensson (above is a little taster, bigger here), who recently graduated from Handarbetets Vänner as a craft councellor. But before that I will have a stint of my ceramics fill up the wall and the tables, it’s so inspiring to have such a beautiful space to work with and in!

This past week has been crammed full of private views, celebrations, barbeques, a concert with Grus i Dojjan and yesterday my friend Lisa had put on her red clogs when me, my mum and Lisa went to see the exam show at Konstfack.

We came at eleven but the show opened at twelve so we sat in the sun outside restaurant Landet for a while. The tiles on the wall are designed by Ylva Wilhelmina Franzén.

As usual, I liked the jewellery department show a lot. I think it’s because of their unafraid approach to materials. Below is a wearable piece of art made out of what Tiina Rajakallio found in the vacuum cleaner.

A light mobile knitted radiator by Hedvig af Ekenstam. Here’s what else I saw at Konstfack.

The Easter market has been two contrasting weather days - a wet, windy and snowy Saturday followed by a glorious Sunday, everyone was just so much happier today! Or perhaps it was because I had these two charming witches to help me guide people to me?

I could have sold my elegant Rooster ten times over this weekend, but alas - it is not for sale! I bought it at Österbybruk a couple of years ago.

Here are all the pictures I managed to take this Easter market weekend.

I just got these great lamps from Sheldon Cooney, in olive green and scarlet.

And now I’m going to dedicate time to getting manos webshop up and running. Finally!

Here’s some things I’ve seen at the furniture fair. It’s just a wee selection as I haven’t had much time to walk around.

The mirror above is by Anna Hellgren. I saw it in the HDK stand in Greenhouse.

Several more products in the HDK stand caught my eye. The theme was “Made by Memories” and I liked this mirror by Colm Keller and the lamp by Sandra Johansson.

Lots of people have found their way to the designboom mart, despite our slightly off location… It’s warm and no air but it’s great anyway - meeting all the other designers, meeting press and buyers and blog readers I’m sorry I haven’t been able to be there every day - some of you got to meet my wonderful assistant Liisa instead.

The rest of my view of the fair can be seen on flickr.

Andy Warhol - opening today at the Modern Museum here in Stockholm. I’ll have to visit it again as it is so much to see.

I just have to introduce you to Mr Black and Mme Ochre - these fantastic individuals will be walking around on my ceramics as part of mine and Camilla’s collaboration!

This week I’m taking part in the designboom mart at the Stockholm Furniture fair. It’s my second mart - the first one was almost three years ago at the ICFF. It’ll be fun and very different doing it again in my familiar environment.

To my deligth I see that Loyal Loot from Canada will also be there, selling their log bowls which I’ve admired from afar for some time now.

‘Things we do for love’ is opening at Platina (my favourite Stockholm jewellery gallery) on February 7th. The artists has been asked to share an experience or show something that they think that the spectator will feel an urge to tell their loved one. The piece above is called ‘Forbidden fruit’ and it’s by Aud Charlotte Ho Sook Sinding.

There’ll be no etsy odds on Wednesday. Instead there’ll be a new and double batch the following week and a report from the furniture fair and the mart this week!

These signs will be decorated with images of ceramics to lead Christmas market visitors to my new lodgings next weekend. I’m longing to get the green house ready for visitors, but I still have to pack and send off the last big orders before I can start arranging and decorating.

bientotdemain posted about Hella Jongerius’ Blizzard bulbs which led me to her office pets - I find them pale and charming!

We’re having some trouble with the heating in our flat, the radiators aren’t very hot at all and I’m dreaming of rugs. Here’s a quiet one from f-style that I found via Thimbloom. I want to bury my toes in it.

I’ve been asked to list my top 10 favourite cups, but I like so many more!! Here is one of them, from Wood Jewel.

The library in Båstad are showing a daily photograph taken by me all the way up to Christmas!

Last week was autumnal - rainy days mixing with beautifully sunny and crispy cold days. Here’s a view of my future workshop, the tree in front is just starting to change colour.

I’m standing with one foot in my old workshop and the other in my new one. The electricity needs to be properly installed before I can start working in my new space. It’s a wee bit frustrating as it’s been delayed and delayed again… I think it’s getting nearer though and in the meantime I can’t believe the amount of things needing to be taken care of in order to get my little business moved!

Daily commuters necklace from Supermandolini. On my daily train journey to work I’m right now reading The Historian and it’s almost transporting me back to Istanbul!

I’m in grace’s kitchen this week! Above are the ingredients I used. Thank you Kristina for helping me converting the recipes into understandable measurements!

On Friday Liisa is leaving for Finland again and I feel about as happy as the porcelain figure above. She’s been doing a work placement with me for four months but now her fourth and last year at ceramics- and glass design starts and I’m on my own. It has been a pleasure having her around, a delight getting to know her and a huge HUGe help.

Liisa has not only helped me out but also has had time to work on and develop some lovely work of her own. Her porcelain and stoneware heads are my favourites, they have started laughing over time but I actually love these sullen looking ones.

Stina Persson has a new website and I like her heads very much as well.

Thanks to Jolayne who spotted my vases amongst fueledbycoffee’s photos from London design week. Here are designbooms report from London Design week and their photos from the handled with care exhibition (which is the one my vases were part of).

I’ve done a collection of vases, bowls and tealight holders for swedish webshop Cosas. We will be adding to the collection as the autumn progresses. I love letting my work take it’s time to mature and slowly grow and really spend time on each piece and detail.

However much I would like to carry shoes like Kimiko from Hetty Rose, I usually buy the kind of shoes you can see below. See them bigger here and see the wonderful bag here. I found Hetty’s shoes through labour of heart whom I found via Bloesem.

Lise Lefebvre recently graduated from the Design Academy Eindhoven IM Masters program. Her graduation project is exploring ways to counter our overproduction of sound. Every morning I think about this when the alarm clock goes off followed a little while later by the awful racket my hair dryer makes in my ears.

I’m looking around for tables - ones with chunky wooden surfaces as well as ones that you can hardly see as they seem to be part of the air, like the Thin table by Tobias Berneth for Karl Andersson

I might be going to Berlin in August and am keeping my eye on BerlinDesign blog for things to see while I’m there. The picture above is not from Berlin but from Rosendals Trädgård here in Stockholm.

Midsummer was spent with lovely old and new friends, we all brought food and drink and the sun was shining on us all day and night

This kitchen shelf is just one of lots of charming details around the midsummer house. I’ve put more on flickr.

Liebling in Malmö sell this generously sized bread tray. I think it would feel at home in the midsummer house.

2nd cycle sounds good and suits these reclaimed Aalto chairs from Artek. Via Inhabitat.

It’s soo windy here today, I thought I’d be swept away high up in the sky on my walk from the train. I’ve got the last batch of photos from Konstfack graduation exhibition to show you today. Some here on the blog and all on flickr.

Niklas Rissler has made a fantastic animated short film about the “Christmas peace” of 1914. My pictures does not make it justice! You can view it on the Konstfack site, go to Graphic design & Illustration, click on Niklas Rissler and find the image saying “Starta filmen". This was - to my surprise! - one of my favourites in the whole exhibition.

I liked this stool and especially the room divider. It’s by Helena Lindberg and she’s been inspired by a journey on horseback through the woods of north Sweden.

Elin Grönlund’s aim has been “..to avoid repetition - to form a textile collection with a single roll of cloth. The challenge has been to get all the sections of the cloth to go together whilst allowing each fragment to stand for itself.”

I usually find it hard to be taken in by the industrial design projects - the presentations seem to distance themselves miles away from my inspirations radar. This time I zoomed in on Andrea de Angelis chair first and then went on to read about her project. “Cuddle, please!” is a floor reading lamp that requires to be cuddled and caressed to switch on and keep on working.

Here’s a spread from Andreas Högberg’s illustrated children’s book. See more pages here.

Thank you for this week and have a lovely weekend!

Erika Janunger, taking her MA from interior and furniture design, has made a shelf called Glue and presents her project in a totally capturing video (image below). She’s done some wonderful work - go explore
her website!

I found lots of favourites in the Ceramics and Glass department this year. Marjolaine Lombard paints on glass wall panels for official environments. Her work is inspired by memory and thoughts. I was inspired by the way she’s displayed them on that cart as well. See another view here.

Quite a few projects related to taking care of the environment. Ninna Berger is the designer behind this reconstructed recycled sweater. Jenny Bergström, also from the Textiles department, discuss how design can impact on and raise questions about fear in her case study “Fear of Global Warming”.

I still have some Konstfack things to tell you about, but that’ll be on friday.

I bought a pair of dangly earrings at Street the other week, here is what they look like on.

Here is a pregnant polar bear brooch by Felieke van der Leest, see more jewellery animals at Beatrice Lang gallery in Bern, Switzerland.

I’m hoping to go and see the exhibition at Konstfack - it opens tomorrow.

My friend Hanna Tonek Bonnett is taking part in ICFF. This is her Ribbon bowl that she made for The Ribbon Project.

There is still time to take part in the give away!
Update: No time left!

Bröderna Erikssons Dammode is a marvellous little shop here in Stockholm selling clothes, jewellery and hats. The changing room is quite lovely. I bought the black dress and tried this one on, but it stayed behind. Here’s a picture of the shop interior, the wallpaper is great.

Camilla is coming tomorrow! I’m renting a little car so that we can easily get around. I’d love it if the car was green like the Streamliner classic by Playsam.

mav’s new Photographs and Prints project is out and lovely as a spring morning!

This is a Brompton S-type foldable bike. It’s nice, but is it good? Does anyone have tips about foldable bicycles? I’m thinking about getting one but I know absolutely nothing about them!

I’m back - rested and filled with images of Austrian alps and blue skies. I travelled the last bit by train and bus, the road from Innsbruck to Lech snaked it’s way up up up the mountains and the views were spectacular.

On the plane back (part of the flight was in the beautiful propeller plane above), I read the latest issue of Kunstuff - the danish crafts and design magazine. There was an article about spanish designer Jaime Hayón and I fell for the charming bath tub that is part of his collection for ArtQuitect.

There were lots more interesting reading in Kunstuff, but I’ll get back to that - I’d better get to work now, lot’s of catching up to do.

PS don’t miss jewellery designer Susan Snyder’s blog Design Mind.

Last year we had 70 lambs here at Överjärva and yesterday this years first three lambs were born. They stand on their shaky little legs as soon as they come out of their hiding place. See more lambs here.

My legs are a bit shaky too after skiing yesterday And I have loads to do after skipping a day’s work, so just one link and back to the throwing wheel for me. So long!

I like Scott Garcia’s Process chair. The image is from designboom, do take a look at the picture on Scott’s homepage as well where you can see the little branch growing out of the foot of the chair.

It’s soo cold here today!! I wish I had a stove that could keep me warm. Yesterday at the Stockholm Furniture Fair I kept warm, running up and down the isles… Here are some of the things I saw.

Above is a detail of Annica Svensson’s tiled stove that she shows in Konsthantverkscentrum’s stand. If you bend your neck, you can see the whole stove here and a close up of the door here.

See another view of Konsthantverkscentrum’s stand here.

Processor were showing in Greenhouse - the area for independent designers and design schools. Their new products were just as yummy as I thought they would be. All the patterns are printed on ecological cotton: “Rut brown” (above) and Blue, Rex orange and Green, “Sy, sy, sy”. Here’s a picture of their stand and I liked how they had written their name.

Above is a computer table by Catarina Boström and a flower curtain by Anna Eklund, both third year students at Sydväst University of Applied Sciences.

See all my photos from the fair here.

Enjoy your weekend!

I’m off to the Stockholm Furniture Fair this afternoon. I can’t wait to see what Processor has done, their new products look absolutely delicious! Above are the pillowcases Processor did for Amongst Tigers and Rhubarbs - the exhibition I was involved in organizing together with my colleagues in FLiT.

Fredrika Linder was another exhibitor I met through Amongst Tigers and Rhubarbs and I’m really looking forward to see her new lamps.

Fröjd lamp by Linda Rothstein who is exhibiting in KHVC’s stand.

Shadow Monsters by Philip Worthington , via Dezeen.

Here’s the kind of initiative that get my spirits up! A project in the shape of four blogs and a gallery from Craft Australia.
The project is called Youth@craft.design and was formulated as trying to pick up what younger/less experienced makers were having to deal with in terms of setting up in business, getting advice and assistance from those who’s already been there themselves and any other issues they find perplexing….

The blogs started at the end of August and were due to finish end of October but have been extended to the end of November. There is also an online gallery encouraging any emerging makers to upload images of their work - there are two feature articles to win about themselves/their work.

Adrienne Kneebone (top), Rhonda Lin (middle) and Mel Robson (below) have taken this opportunity.

Thanks Gaida!

Today I’m practising patience and calm. My kiln is not very happy with me at the moment! It’s not much that I can do about it until it cools down and the elements I’ve ordered arrives. In the meantime, no firings. Sigh.

Lucky for me, I’ve got some tea that is balancing for women… I bought it from Lilla Gröna, a fresh and modern eco-shop on Mälaröarna.

Swissmiss have had some great links lately. She found the calm invoking shelf above by L’Abbate, I also liked this pendant and this magazine, especially issue 4. She also made me buy this book.

It’s a bit early, I know, but I just got Stilleben’s newsletter and they’ve got these delightful Christmas decorations by Anna Carin Dahl. I’d love to have them hooting away in my Christmas tree!

UPDATE! I have deleted a mistake that sneaked itself into this post: the owls are by Anna Carin Dahl and no one else! You can reach Anna Carin and see more of her work at Designer Zoo.

The weekend was really lovely with weird halloween dinner on friday (weird in a good way) and lots of singing culminating in Mozart’s Requiem on Sunday evening. Also, have found lovely seamstress that will give new life to my beloved little black dress (and oh, so vintage). In due time, I’ll show you the before and after photos.

Card by Darling Clementine (their website is not up yet…) in Norway, I got it from Labour of Love. More views and their Sugar Plum Honey Bun card in my growing shopping set on flickr.

Edo Table by Hivemindesign, found via pan-dan (lots of great finds there).

PS The first snow has melted away…

I’m flooding the net with my Origin impressions - d*s guestblog and whip up. While researching for my d*s visit, I came across finish collective Anteeksi. Above is their lottery lamp and Tassut.

This Sunday is “Statardag” here at Överjärva Gård. “Statare” is a person who worked on someone elses farm and was paid by getting food and lodging on the farm. This system was used from the 18th to mid 20th century. I took some pictures of the playroom for children, which will have its grand opening on Sunday. See the pictures on flickr. It’s all so sweet and hopefully will wake the childrens curiosity.

I’ve also added photos of the Winter garden (also at Överjärva), the most amazing building - interior and exterior. Last Saturday they had a big party in their and the whole setting just looked spectacular. Take a peek!

The other night I stayed over at a friends place and walking through Stockholm early the next morning I spotted this wonderful trellis outside the Carl Malmsten shop on Strandvägen. It’s designed by Stefan Borselius, a designer of many a lovely product.

Isn’t it good to take another route once in a while? At another time of the day and the year.

I so enjoyed Abigail’s autumn inspiration posts last week - Petra Borner and Saltwater and all the other lovely finds.

Phoebe at silkfeltsoil wrote about the wonderful rings from Helsinki.

A page from my website is looming over the panel members. From left: Tom Hedkvist (head of Beckmans, graphic designer), Anders Ljungberg (designer, silver smith and teacher at Konstfack), Karin Eriksson (famous swedish potter ) and Katarina Renman Claesson (Ph.D. candidate in law at the university of Stockholm).

Perhaps you’re wondering how yesterday’s panel went? Well, it was an interesting clash between the other panel members more intellectual approach and my belief in the down to earth viewpoint. I find it difficult to approach and understand terms like “design” or “crafts” without boiling them down to concrete examples. Examples tickle my curiosity.

PS This is to all you odd molly lovers in the US.

Jimmy Potter buys a lollipop, 1952. Photographer Erik Cornelius.

I went to see the exhibition about Stig Lindberg at Nationalmuseum. Being swedish, I was brought up on Lindberg’s illustrations in Krakel Spektakel and his Berså coffee cups. But apart from that I’ve never really known all that much about him.

Coffee cups in different models. Photographer Bodil Karlsson.

I was gladly surprised when he turned out to be so much more than Berså and Spisa Ribb (the links are to a very lovely flickr site called fikapaus - it’s devoted to coffe cups)! More about Stig Lindberg on whip up.

The reason I went to see the exhibition now (and not later - it continues until February 25th 2007) is that I’m taking part in a panel discussion on Sunday (yep, I’m a wee bit nervous about this) when Nationalmuseum organizes a theme day about Lindberg. The discussion will be concentrated around pattern, branding and artistic copyright. Book your ticket here.

Playingcard, 1958. Photographer Bodil Karlsson.

PS If you have a flickr pro account - have you ordered your free moo cards? (thank’s my markup!)

All images copyright Nationalmuseum.

Beautiful cover of japanese magazine So-En, via Cafe Pause. I’m loving all these rich autumnal colours, like living in a plum tree.

Just look at the colours in the winter 05 collection from Sphere one.

I liked the handmade animals from Clive and Sunshine that Lena Corwin wrote about at d*s guestblog the other day. And the sofa from Shimna that Grace herself blogged about - it’s so simple with that chunk of wood and yet it makes such a difference. And the colour of that blanket….

I love the paper dolls from egg press and the other paper dolls that Maitreya posted about at Whip up.

I’ve had the workshop doors wide open and all week the rain has been pouring down like a curtain outside, while the radio has been playing opera arias and the web has taken me for a ride - it’s sweet!

It brought me from Emma’s blog to orange lola where I found the wonderful lucky fish cushions which lead on to nonchalantmom with whom orange lola has opened up a bricks and mortar shop in Wakefield.

I liked the insides of this prefabricated sustainable home at inhabit, who also found the beautiful rain chandelier from Australian designer Ilan El.

swedesres showed the way to Isa form, from where you can buy customized illustrations for children and others.

I’m working softly this week, the summer is too precious not to. But I’m keeping my kiln busy getting everything fired and shipped off to patiently waiting outlets.

Kristina of Three Layer Cake has interviewed Catherine Lévy of Tsé & Tsé Associées.

I’m going to read the interview sitting in the shadow on the veranda and I’m going to take a closer look at Crafty Synergy, looks interesting.

I’ve only just begun to go through all the jewellery links on Valdemar’s blog, here are two beauties.

Beate Klockman

Klaus Burgel

This photo is from my dried-and-photographed-grass-and-leaves-period (which never seems to end). I’m forever drawn to those thin lines connecting with the fluffier bits and the joints - just lovely.

Designboom’s photos from their 2006 mart at ICFF and here are the designers that took part.

I like this green and blue and grey together. Huulaseventy didn’t want last weeks colour parade to finish so she’s launched another week!

I like Cindy’s flickr set of Abandoned Places and Things.

Annika has been to Skansen and Anneli has been to Julita. Follow their lead when you’re visiting Sweden.

Food art by Alinea, here it is potato they’ve made art of. Via lamarica.

I’m reading Dish by Julie Muller Stahl, the book I told you about in May last year… It’s presenting 30 female industrial designers and also includes essays on various aspects of design. On the front cover is “Dish” by Ana Mir. Here are some pages from the book:

Baby Lounger by Sophie Demenge.

H seat, designed in 2001 by Han Feng.

Swedish designer Monica Förster launched the ‘dot cake sun mini’ tables at last years furniture fair in Stockholm.

I like this book, I like the layout and it’s introducing me to lots of designers whose work I now want to know more about.

Knitting Iris had a link to this site with botanical stamps from around the world. Some of them are quite wonderful.

I’ve just read Justin Good’s post at Design Observer about contrasting interpretations of beauty in the case of wind farms. Both views, he argues, are “sensitive to the structure of wholeness in the world” - isn’t that a beautiful sentence? I’ll be reading that post several times.

The brick in this lamp by Formfjord collects the heat from the lightbulb, it’s one of the products on show at Designmai 2006 spotted in the extensive photo gallery at Core 77.

Favourite jewellery gallery Platina has an exhibition of work by Mona Wallström. The exhibition is called Evidence and is all about found things turned into brooches. Above is one and here is another:

Isn’t this a beautiful necklace? Here comes the surprise: it’s the intestines of a pig, tightened around silver bands. By Catarina Hällzon.

I just find these jewellery pieces so incredibly inspiring! Not only the pieces themselves, but also the added effect of the shadows, the direct use of natural materials and the combinations of those with precious metals. By Elin Christensson.

At graphic design you could create your own heraldry. By Jiri Adamik-Novak.

I’m standing in front of the illustrations of little old ladies. By Mia Bergendal.

I was mighty impressed with illustrated story of Edie Sedgwick, by Graham Samuels. The whole book wasn’t quite finished yet, so he’d done the preparatory work for the last pages and included that which gave a nice insight to the process behind the drawings.

Ceramic tables outside the ceramics shop. I’m afraid I wasn’t all that impressed with the ceramic work in the show, perhaps I’m being too hard on my own material…

The coffee maker is by Santi Nagoyo and it’s called Norm.

I didn’t have time to go and see the art’s department so this was all from Konstfack this year!

This is how I’d like my bike to retire. Here is Frida Ottemo Källström together with her theatre of old-bicycles-turned-furniture. This to me has a playfulness to it and I like that in design. I’d like to perch on one of Frida’s parkbenches or enjoy a quick espresso in her café. She also makes lamps of old spades.

Here’s another detail of Jenny Bergman’s textiles, that I mentioned yesterday. This is printed on beautifully monogrammed linen bed sheet. Jenny’s website has got some great details of her work and a glimps into her process.

Right now, these sunny May days, it is heavenly to sit on the terrace outside the café at Överjärva Gård (where my workshop is) and drink a cup of coffee. The view is over the golf course with the apple trees (that used to be part of an orchard) and further away is Stockholm.

One of the things that intrigues me about Överjärva Gård is that it really is an old farm - being there feels like being in the country - and yet it is just 15 minutes away from the very centre of Stockholm. On one side, Överjärva is framed by the busiest part of motorway in the whole of Sweden and on the other are the trains running north. Together, they make a constant backdrop of noise. Due to some wonderful reason, my brain blocks this out and all I hear are the birds and the little lambs…

Here are some of my pieces against the fabulous wallpaper in one of the houses at Överjärva.

I was hooked by these links at Speak Up yesterday: the connection of Marian Bantjes to some fabulous moustaches and a link to polish design.

Port2Port is getting some great thoughts on design this week and I’ve printed out HobbyPrincess’ article on Design as Play, perhaps I shall read it in the sun with my coffee tomorrow?

You might want to listen to my incoherent ramblings at the d*s podcast today….

I just listened to Grace’s interview with Dave Alhadeff of The Future Perfect, it’s really interesting so fill up your ipods!

I’ve also completely forgot to mention my latest post on whip up, on potter’s markets!

I like this lamp, named Slim Sophie, by fraumaier. Fraumaier also’s got a nice dog.

Emma posted about these ceramic jewels by Kila Design. Shards of swedish ceramics history and I like their sketch as well.

In shape they remind me of the glass pendants by Laurel Denise, found by Tribunal of Good Taste.

DesignKlicks brought me to some fine fashion photography by Julia Blank and portable hard drive in the shape of a stone from Studio Leung. German Der Spiegel is one of the three behind DesignKlicks, I wish the swedish daily’s would catch on to this idea, perhaps CraftKlicks?

10 Corso Como in Milan is one of those shops I’d love to visit, from what I’ve heard and read it sounds fantastic. There is an article about 10 Corso Como in the latest issue of Republic (click to read it), danish furniture manufacturer Fritz Hansen’s magazine. Here’s an old article at designboom about 10 corso como and concept shops.

I love the styling of Fritz Hansen’s products, above is PK33 by Paul Kjærholm and below is the magenta coloured Ant chairs by Arne Jacobsen. Talking about Poul Kjærholm, Louisiana is showing a retrospective presentation his work opening 23rd June.

On another note, I like the shoes that these guys make. Found via Designspotter.

This ethereal knitwear by Iben Høj was found by hoping for happy accidents.

Ideally, I want time to interfere as little as possible with my life. I like it when my choices are more intuitive and not dictated by the clock. I don’t have a watch, but I could live with this clock on my wall. Found via Better Living Through Design.

Super lovely teapot by Bee House, via design*sponge. You’ll find a whole lot of Bee House teapots here.

Nutida Svenskt Silver is a gallery here in Stockholm showing contemporary silver - not only jewellery but also bowls and candlesticks for instance. This wonderful leaf bowl is made by Caroline Lindholm, who’s work will be exhibited at the gallery in May and June.

‘Håll Sverige rent’ - ‘keep Sweden tidy’ is part of an exhibition (at the same gallery) of Anders Ljungberg’s work called ‘Positions’, opening Friday 1st April. Anders Ljungberg is one of our most highly regarded swedish silversmiths.

Håll Sverige rent is also an organisation that has tought me a lot of how my actions influence the environment.

After reading the interview with design*sponge, I browsed around Three Layer Cake and found the bath chair by Reddish. It’s the kind of furniture I’d put against a crisp wall to ease it up a bit, make it more casual. I love the fast thinking behind the design. Here’s the TLC interview with Reddish.

I get a really positive vibe from the danish crafts scene. They’re out there, nationally and internationally. A selection of danish crafters/designers are included in Crafts Collection. The first time I saw them was at the Ambiente fair in Frankfurt in 1999 and last year I visited their stand at ICFF.

Until April 22nd Crafts Collection is showing CC+ for MoMA, a collection put together in collaboration with MoMA store in New York. Amongst the 20 selected products for sale are “rubber vase” by Mette Kargo Hvid, cushions by Kirsten Fribert and jewellery by Lisbeth Dauv .

I love the idea of design*sponge podcasts and you can give Grace suggestions as to who to interview. I wanted to hear Jonathan Adler and didn’t realize that Apartment Therapy did an interview with him some time ago. Interesting listening about how his business has grown and I find it extra inspiring as he is a potter like myself!

More design and business inspiration comes from Joy who is continuing her series of designer interviews, this time with Lena Corwin.

And to follow a designers daily entrepreneurial challenges, go read and enjoy Pamela Barsky’s blog . Read more about Pamela at Another Girl at Play.

The orchid is one of Lars’ portraits, I think I want to keep it forever at the top of my blog it’s so beautiful!

Luxist wrote about the Beauty Case Table by Silja Kaeser and Jessica Müller-Wallraf of Tisch 5 which made me visit their site and find the poetic Sweet November umbrella. It won 1st prize in the Nachlux award in 2005.

The Scandinavian Designmouse spotted this mug with Marimekko’s birch pattern, designed by Maija Louekari. It’s always inspiring to browse the Marimekko site and I like the way they reinvent their fantastic patterns. Perhaps it’s time for me to get the Unikko apron for the workshop?

“I would only ask you not to forget to play.”

Another timeless design inspiration is Alvar Aalto (quoted above) and Poppy linked to Aalto’s voice, a project to celebrate the Aalto 70-year anniversary. One of the designers interpreting Aalto’s voice is Tomoko Azumi, on whose site I found this picture of the Aalto vase-shaped canapés… I enjoyed reading this interview in icon with Tomoko Azumi.

Update: Maija Louekari is the designer of Marimekko’s birch patterned mug and Maija is shortlisted for the Elle Deco Design Awards 2006 for her pattern Ho-Hoi. Thank’s Mevrouw!

It’s like a tic I have - I like high furniture with thin legs. It’s something to do with the balance of thin lines meeting wide areas… Probably better illustrated with images. The Sevenfeetup bed from Mobile Metallico is right up my creek. It might also, in this case, have something to do with the styling of the photo which I think is lovely.

Earlier this week swissmiss found a work table by architect and designer Alberto Rivera. Again, lovely springlike photostyling!

For more thin legged furniture check this table at twenty twentyone.

The image is of the lamps above the entrance to lingerie shop Tekinoktay in Copenhagen. If I’d had money to spend, it could have been done in there! “A true aesthetic lady’s universe” as Danish Design Centre describes it. (DDC has a very good list of design shops to visit in Copenhagen.)

Holly Golightly is the name of Audrey Hepburns character in Breakfast at Tiffany’s and it’s also the name of a small fashion shop in Copenhagen. I flicked through the Marni sweaters and Marc Jacobs tops and thought they were stunning. The images are from Marni’s spring/summer 2006 RTW collection at style.com.

I also admired the beautiful jewellery by Jo Riis-Hansen in her shop on Møntergade 14. You have to press the bell to get in and it’s worth it!

I saw the ice chandelier by danish designers Refer+Staer dotted around Copenhagen, it was awarded the Wallpaper design award for best lighting 2006.

Love the “Outties with a chain line” and “Storm” earrings. Both from Lisa Levine

These glass teacups have the same crisp but light quality as the jewellery above. I think they’re absolutely gorgeous and have had this crush ever since I saw them on design*sponge ages ago. From the Float range by Molo Design.

On a jewellery related note, from 14th February until 31st March my favourite Stockholm jewellery gallery Platina (best viewed in explorer) is showing “Love according to man” (link to a page in swedish but with pictures of the seven exhibitors!). Seven men, working in areas from composer to marine archeologist, are giving their view of love.

It’s quite magical, like a night sky lit with stars. ‘The 14 series pendant light’ is designed by Omer Arbel. I thought this description that I found on his site was beautiful:
“The pendants are designed, to be clustered in groups the effect being of many tiny candles encased in floating spheres of water".

Found via Better Living Through Design and for sale via Unica Home.

Mmm, bags…

The to ki o’girl from in’tais, who makes these poetic bags as well.

This T-lap etui is from Taschendeep, the little piece of embroidery in combination with the felt just does the trick.

Designspotter showed this felted laptop bag from Gesellschaft fur Raumfragen, it’s wonderful in its simplicity. It can be bought via berlindesign (a source to lots of lovely design). By the way, I also love what Gesellschaft fur Raumfragen’s done under the heading “Rearrange” on their website (it’s the icon with a chair).

Alas, I have one bagwish and that is to find more poetic rucksacks ‘cause I have to be kind to my shoulders.

It’s snowing again and I’m firmly staying indoors, at least a while longer. Something in all this white outside world got me thinking about Ella Doran’s vivid photographic patterns. I like her blinds very much - one blind can lift a whole room. Here’s from the Flowers range and the Leaves range.

I also like the way she’s worked with the pattern on this teacup that belongs to her collection for Portmeiron.

Einat Peled is an Israeli illustrator based in New York She works mostly for American magazines but has recently widened the scope to include these pillows. Einat sent me an email and this is a quote “i have an inspiration wall too, inspiration books of all kinds of things, flowers and clothes and acessories and all kinds of objects, sometimes even just interesting color combinations, it’s very interesting to see how other designers work and what inspires them” - I couldn’t agree more! Don’t miss the linedrawings from her sketchbooks.

More Israeli design can be seen at designboom who are previewing some designs which will be shown at the Solos exhibition at the Cooper-Hewitt museum in New York from January 27th. I love the playfullness and seriousness in the ‘stripped folding chair” by zivia and ‘handle with care’ by yuval tal.

Of course the designer of these rugs, Akira Isogawa, would be a fashion designer. The rugs are a collaboration with Australian company Designer Rugs. Via Land+Living, who more recently posted about the Thorncrown Chapel which is a beautiful building with quite a remarkable structure.

Designboom organised a mart at the 100% Design in Tokyo, wish I could have been there! Check out their mart pictures here, the participating designers here and here is their tokyo design week report.

At the Designboom blog I found a link to yo me lo guiso, a design exhibition and I thought some of the displays were really inspiring.

I like things on spindly legs and so of course I fell for the Three Amigos table by Erdem Akan that I found via MoCo Loco.

And this is what Erdem makes with his bottles: the Depozit whisky glasses made from recycled beer bottles and candle holders made out of bottle lids. The bottle lid lights can be found on maybe design.

This is the kind of hat I’d wear if I wore hats. Handmade by Anna Kula and I did not write down where I found the link - sorry! And rather than wearing a knitted hat because its so cold, I’d like to be here, a Jonathan Adler resort heaven found through the always enjoyable fountain.

When I wanted to get a break from college, I sometimes used to take the 10 minute walk to Lamb’s Conduit Street. I like this street with the wonderful florist Visionary Living, several pubs and restaurants of course and the publishing house and bookshop Persephone Books.

Persephone “prints mainly forgotten fiction and non-fiction by women, for women and about women.” And not only that, they also pick lovely fabrics to use as endpaper. The fabric has a relation to the book it is used for, above is a cottonfabric designed in 1940 by Marianne Mahler called ‘Treetops’, used for a book by Norah Hoult called “There Were No Windows".

Mmm, I could easily live on this rug and and only leave it to brush my teeth and perhaps go for a walk once in a while and when that occured, I’d wear Emilianas (below). Both from nanimarquina. Via MoCo Loco.

Chelsea Crafts Fair is a juried show for applied arts. It lasts for two weeks and each week present new artists. Here’s what I loved this years first week and here’s a link to both weeks exhibitors.

The skirts by Allison Willoughby are like pieces of art and I adored flicking through them, feeling the weight of the beautiful materials.

I always judge my own material the hardest…but Kathleen Hills ceramic light I love. Another light I fell for was Sheldon Cooney’s Bull Dog Light, one of those glass lamps where the bulb becomes an important part of the design and you see it through the glass.

The willow work by Lizzie Farey is made with such feeling for shapes, the piece above is called “Willow wallsketch".

I wish Diana Irani and Kei Ito had websites so that I could show you their work. I was inspired by the cuts of Irani’s suit jackets (Irani is currently working on a project about healing garments, read more) and Kei Ito makes stunning sculptural bags and garments (Craftscouncil’s Photostore has a large image collection of Kei Ito’s work and she is also represented by Lezley Craze Gallery).

There’s always some great jewellers at Chelsea and I liked Sarah Lindsay and Clare Hillerby (below).

I checked in with Charles and Marie’s blog and found these fantastic links:
cinqcinqdesigners (I find the presentation of their projects so, so inspiring!)
I Bride (beautiful site)
BDDW (I like a lot, the above image is from them).

Above is a detail of a unique chandelier, designed and made by jewellery designer Pernilla Philip. We showed it at an exhibition in February and since then it’s been hanging in my workshop, attracting lots of appreciative remarks.

MoCo Loco’s post about Francois Legault’s light Les cuilleres (the spoons) reminded me to tell you about the treasures I keep hidden in my little house!

Until recently, we had Rose Cobbs beautiful lamp shade “Moth” hanging over the kitchen table. That was only on lone and now, all that is left is a single naked bulb…it’s miserable! I avoid turning the light on for as long as I can. Instead, all our candles are lit and it’s very cosy (above is my Signe tealight holder and a bunch of autumn asters I picked this weekend), but after a while the room temperature has risen to unbearable heights. Until I get my hands on a decent lamp shade, here’s a few candle lights that has caught my eye.

I kind of like Wieke Somers oillamp from Dutch by Design, it’s like a huge robot hand with crooked fingers… Also like the simple tealight holder from Morten Hippe that Designspotter mentioned today.

Pol Oxygen magazine has visited a great mix of places during the London Design Festival. They’re showing pictures from for instance applied arts gallery Flow in west London, Clerkenwell based design gallery/shop Viaduct, excellent design/art book store Magma, and new Rove Gallery by Kings Cross.

Update: the dolls are by Julie Arkell (thank you Camilla!) and designboom has published their report from the London Design Festival.

I’m intrigued by lifestyle navigators Charles and Marie that I found through Cool Hunting. Wonder what Morran would make of this bed from Wowbow that can be found on the Charles and Marie blog?

I’ve had a good day. Someone showed that they really believed in my competence and ideas today and I felt jubilant on my bikeride home! Another thing that happened was that my friend was in tears because of bad communication at work, why are we sometimes so lousy at talking to each other?

I like this chair from Studio Ditte, and look at their inspiring photographs from China. Found them through swissmiss.

I bought this beautifully made box filled with TAZO Tea in a sale at Bluebird on Kings Road. It’s been in use ever since. I love their tea but I haven’t managed to find an outlet in Sweden, which is why the TAZO bags are mixed up with other not so graphically appealing bags (but still great tasting tea of course, not only the outside matters…).

Another ever-so-lovely looking tea brand is Samova, oh boy do they have a well thought through concept! Above quote is from their site.

I haven’t come across such beautiful packaging for coffee yet although Fortnum and Mason have some pretty ones.

It’s something about hearing, sound, noice, music and such ear-related stuff that catches my attention. Here’s a presentation of the future of hearing by Designboom.

I’m not sure my grandfather, who needed hearing aid, could’ve managed with the universal hear-ring by Pearson Lloyd, but perhaps Industrial Facilitie’s glasses with inbuilt surround sound would’ve suited an old man with large hands?

Like the colours, like the shape and that it’s eco friendly. Designed by Temas, via Trehugger.

I like the philosophy of living with and caring for objects and clothes rather than just throwing them away and buying something new. It’s a reclaim revival in the ceramics world (and so many other worlds as well) at the moment. I’ve been rescuing a whole lot of odd crockery that I’m reinventing with new patterns. My friend Sabine Lavigne recently launched a website together with Kristine Meyer and they’re offering a service where you can leave your old ceramics with them and get it shaped up and modernised with added patterns (above).

Clio, which by the way is another of my outlets (and as such will get a posting of their own!) sell a range of improved crockery by dutch designer Esther Derkx.

Bookbinders Design is one of my favourite stationary shops ever! They inspire me to plan my days and weeks, write, draw and put together all my bits of paper and images into their exquisite range of journals and notebooks. It’s the colours that make me buy from them rather than from Ordning & Reda. My last treat was the green A4 size box which is now adorning my work cum kitchen table.

Look at this beautiful patterned inside of the notebook! (on the right hand page I’ve stuck a plastic “disc pocket” for all the beautiful business cards out there.

Mav of Port2Port asked me some time ago, what the Glimmering looks like in context. Here it is in my window, next to the geranium. The Glimmering, beautiful idea and design by Design Dessert, slowly turns in the wind and well, glimmers!

Jag gillar pappersmuggen från DN & Wayne’s Coffee’s kampanj.

Agent Form is a brilliant site presenting swedish illustrators. I hadn’t visited for a while but then I read about Rebecka’s new journals with covers by Lotta Kühlhorn (who by the way is giving a talk at the city library in Gothenburg on Nov 8th). And take a look at Rebecka’s own inspiring drawings here.

I thought I’d start a series about the shops where I sell my work as they are such an important part of my business. They are often small independent and magnificent treasures scattered around the world and I am so proud that they sell my work!

Line Kanafani, who runs the fabulous shop mint on Wigmore Street in London, came to my degree show at Central St Martins in 2000. Since then, mint has been my stockist in London (and that’s where the name of my mint collection comes from). It’s really important to have someone to believe in your work and with whom communication works. It’s as important to have a regular stockist where my customers know they can find my work. I’ve just sent a big batch of work off to mint so it should be plenty on their shelves!

One of the first “mint” cups that sold at mint.

Am home with the flue and I figure blogging wont make it worse so might just post half a metre today! Lots of nice links at swedesres which stands for sweden design resource, new to me and looks promising! Here’s one of their links to Hundräven (dogfox) - fantastical line drawings on t-shirts and cards. Above t-shirt is the “Fire Monster” (eldräven) from the “Angry animals” (animals trying to look angry but who really are very sweet) collection.

Also loved the link to BankerWessel (below) and the Hola Sombrero Exhibition and…

The Tulipglass was designed by Nils Landberg for Orrefors in 1954 and it’s something of the most exquisite I’ve ever seen. The glassblower who made them is called Henry Karlsson - what a magician! Sometimes he could actually make this glass as tall as one metre.

Although it was conceived in the 1950’s it is still part of “Swedish grace", a term used to describe the products of the Swedish applied art industries in the 1920s. I’ve read my essay on Scandinavian Modern which describes this term as “the ability to lend grace to the daily chore of life". Beautiful concept.

Intoto had a booth at ICFF and I fell for their “soma” wooden bowl and “gro” space divider. I got reminded when I saw their beautiful creamer at MoCo Loco and Core77.

I’ve spent several lingering summer dinners enjoyed in the company of my family talking about toilets and composts…

This is mainly because my dad is in the biological toilet/compost/recycling business. He runs his own business and so everyone is very involved and frequently we get talking about stuff such as where are all the new exciting toilet and compost designs?? He sells recycling furniture as well, but that area of the market seem to pay some attention to function as well as looks.

To be prepared for this summers lengthy discussions around the dinner table, I did some research and found the sanitary chair, via Stationsvakt (above). And the only interesting toilet design I found was the Purist Hatbox Toilet via Land+Living.

Mmm, saw this Chair for Day Dreamers at MoCo Loco. It reminded me of this. The designer is Jason Ong and he’s from Singapore, read his thoughts on this design and others here. I liked that he’s increased the height of the first step “to signify taking a bold first step in chasing a dream".

We have two splendid hooks in our exhibition shop: a decorated wooden hook by Elin Basander Lundin and a “branch” metal hook by Beatrice Fägnell.

Sabine Lavigne and Kristine Meyer graduated from the Danish Design school in January and since then they’ve taken part in Table Manners and Amongst Tigers and Rhubarbs - the two exhibitions FLiT has organized so far. They do design work for Royal Copenhagen and they write about design in danish fashion magazine Eurowoman.

Look real close and you’ll see the beautiful details on these porcelain cylinders that Meyer Lavigne has made for Amongst Tigers and Rhubarbs. They’ve taken their inspiration from the ocean, it looks like the subtle layers of sand on the beach.

Oh such stylish jewellery from Mme Fancy Pants and ever so cleverly named: A vengeful passion; Cynthias date on the moon; Another dance sylvia. Do take a look at the customs and one of a kind gallery. Found via The Paper Princess.

Tomorrow and Friday I’m manning Amongst Tigers and Rhubarbs together with my friend (and collegue!) Hanna Tonek Bonnett. We’re showing Hanna’s lovely, cosy, ceramic Sherwood box as well as the little jewel with lemonade green inside.

I’ve written about Hanna before and her website is amongst my links.

Idag sommarpratade designskribent Ingrid Sommar. Jag tycker hon gav bra exempel på design, använde ord som belyste designbegreppet och så spelade hon bra musik. Jag missade början men ska lyssna på den nu.

Update: just realized the title of this entry sounds funny in english, so to clarify: this post is not about a prat but about someone talking (and quite a good talk it was).

I saw a moose the other day - it’s the second moose I’ve seen in two years! Before that I hadn’t ever seen one, I think. I also spotted an owl and they’re beautiful, shy and intelligent creatures so I’m secretly hoping it’ll find a home in the huge pine tree at the summer house. Anyway, I’m straying. The topic of this post is actually a crafts exhibition I went to see. It’s called KRAFT, but that doesn’t mean crafts in swedish, instead it’s the word for strength and power. In this case I believe it stands for the power of creativity and collaboration.

The exhibition is a collaboration between the crafts cooperatives in Stockholm: Metallum and Nutida Svenskt Silver (jewellery and metallwork), Kaolin (ceramics), Blås och Knåda (ceramics and glass) and Konsthantverkarna (all the applied arts materials).

The two Stockholm-based dailys differed in their opinions (links to articles in swedish); DN’s Peder Alton slagged it off as being nonforwardthinking whereas Malin Vessby for SvD thought it a manifestation of the material sensibility of the exhibitors. I enjoyed reading her account and liked that she acknowledges the strenght of material knowledge that is sometimes ignored in favour of conceptual thinking. However, the things on display didn’t rock my world.

Oh, and the moose story was related to this because of Jacob Danhard’s moose muzzle on the wall (on the picture below in company by Carina Seth Andersson’s glass). Above is “The four Seasons", dolls by Anna Sjon Nilsson. The ceramic “Bookmark” is by Kina Björklund (I thought it might be lovely to have just one of the parts it’s made up of). The exhibition is on until 11th September in Gula Byggningen, Gustavsberg.

The rhubarbs thrive! We’re on the front cover of DN Kultur, Sweden’s biggest daily, today! Read the article here. It’s only in swedish unfortunately, but it’s about Amongst Tigers and Rhubarbs, FLiT, Processor - about the strenght of collaboration and crafts!

The shop is filled with cannot live or leave without stuff, here are two of our bestsellers.

Lisa Vilhelmsson, who is doing her textile degree at the University of Borås is showing her exquisite stitched textile in the exhibition and the same patterned bathtowels (above) in the shop.

Another bestseller is the Glimmering by Design Dessert. I’ve got one hanging in my living room cum kitchen window, glimmering away in the sunshine (well, not today of course).

I was manning the exhibition today. I had the windows open and the rain kept pooring down like a curtain in a meditative way and I was glad to be indoors.

Anneli Levin is one of our exhibitors, we’re showing her garden bench Frälsis and she’s also trying out a new product: her concrete statue for the garden, My Donna. Together with her husband Göran, Anneli forms the team behind Pinjong, who helped us design and build the Amongst Tigers and Rhubarbs shop. Here it is, in the background is the cashiers desk I’ve been presiding behind only I had the shutters open.

Port2port posted about Corinna Radcliffe today (I especially liked her purses!) who’s work made me think of Gail Eastwood, UK based textile artist who uses photography in her printed canvases. Gail’s laugh makes anyone smile and her textiles make me happy. THis one below is called Gloriosa spots and rose. Available from Yellowhouseart.

Tupperware is throwing a global design contest to get Tupperware “out of the kitchen and into the art gallery". Registration form here. First prize is a trip to New York where your piece will be shown so go get inspired!

Phew, tonight was the private view and it was a lovely - although chilly - evening. Several of our wonderful exhibitors came and I so enjoyed meeting them. Meeting the makers adds so much value to the product. I’m too tired to write very much so I’m saving that for tomorrow! In the meantime, take a look at textile group Processor’s clever stuff. Above is one of their jigsaw animals that are now spread out over the lawns at Överjärva Gård, creating great patterns. Below are some of the products they’ve made for the exhibition shop; scarf, purse and pillowcase.

We’ve been exhibition building on and off for the past week and its beginning to look really great! Above is Sara Andersson’s “Suomipallinen” (which was shown at the Young Swedish Design exhibition 2004) together with Anne Lise Frenssen’s filted and embroidered cushions and on the wall: hooks by Beatrice Fägnell.

Anne Lise also have these beautiful lavender cushions (the right hand one has got an embroidered lion on it!) and filted brooches for sale in our shop:

Kerstin Jakobsson has worked with old patterns from the south of Sweden to create a paper clip wallhanging (detail below).

FLiT showed a beautifully patterned textile by Lotta Kvist at our previous exhibition, this time we’re showing her table “In reverse order":

Now, we’re all keeping our fingers crossed that the weather will allow outdoor mingling at the Wednesday night private view…

This flowerpot of mine is taking part in the summer exhibition at The Röhsska Museum of Design and Applied Art in Gothenburg. On show are old and new things somehow related to the garden, for instance the “willow chair” by Niels Hvass. The exhibition is open until 21st August.

These lovely creatures and their big lollopard mama will be for sale in the shop at Amongst Tigers and Rhubarbs. The dog, crocodile and lamb are the brainchilds of talented textile duo Lollopard from Malmö, known for instance for their clothes decorated with the logo of the Stockholm underground. Although I’m sure we could find some way of arguing that there is a link between the underground logo and flora/fauna, this is not what will be on show at the exhibition. Instead, come and meet Lalle, Coco, Ull-ull and the lollopard-mama Lollo at Överjärva Gård this summer!

These glass pieces by Fredrika Linder have a wonderful weight and are about 30 cm tall, inspired by tulips and elephant trunks. Fredrika works as a designer at Lindhammars glass works in Småland and she was recently cover girl for swedish design magazine FORM.

We are proud to present her as one of the exhibitors at Amongst Tigers and Rhubarbs. Fredrika will be giving a talk in connection with the exhibition - I’ll be sure to post some more information about that.

My hands are getting tanned in the lovely sunny weather and I’d love to dress them up in a resin ring by Colette Maouf.

Hanna Ljungström is another one of the exhibitors at Amongst Tigers and Rhubarbs. Hanna is the designer of the filosofizing pink glass rabbit above. She is also the initiator and editor of RE:FORM, a book discussing crafts today, visions and new forms of collaborations in nine essays by everything from craftspeople to economists. I bought it yesterday and am really looking forward to read what they have to say. We will be selling RE:FORM, published by Arvinius, at Amongst Tigers and Rhubarbs.

Cul de Sac earthenware ceramics. Love the way the illustrations work on these shapes.

Together with three friends I’ve been working on two collaborative projects this last year. We started out with a small exhibition of around 15 invited designers/craftspeople at interiors shop Plan ett in Stockholm in January this year. During the spring we have been planning and organizing crafts/design exhibition at Överjärva Gård and now it’s only two weeks left!!

The exhibition is called Amongst Tigers and Rhubarbs, it’s a name inspired by one of the greatest swedish children’s books “Loranga, Mazarin and Dartanjang” by Barbro Lindgren. We like the name because it makes us curious and it suits the theme of the exhibition so well: flora and fauna. Also, we hope the spirit of the wild and unruly characters in the book somehow will be reflected in the exhibition…

Amongst Tigers and Rhubarbs will show work inspired by flora and fauna from around 30 designer/makers. I’ll introduce you to some of them during the next couple of weeks and hopefully you will want to come and see the exhibition for yourself! It is open Thursday-Sunday 11-4 pm from 30th June until 14th August.

The Prada Plexi watch, found via Luxist. Apparently it has been seen everywhere this season… Well, well, this is the first time I lay eyes on it and I quite like it. Comes in other colours too, but I am fond of these as its the colours Eva used for our exhibition poster (will unravel all about the exhibition very soon)! Like the peacock feather skirt too.

Freedom of Creation is based in Amsterdam: technology and design in a cutting edge mix resulting in lighting ("Dahlia", above), nail extensions, the “Punchbag” and the “Paris” shoes - aren’t they just the perfect wedding dress accessory? Found via Sensory Impact and MoCoLoco.

For the last year or so, I’ve been really busy with orders and trying to get organized so that I can expand my business. I haven’t set aside time to play around with or develop new ideas, but somehow my mind and body do that themselves. All of a sudden I find myself completely endorsed in working on new patterns or shapes that I’ve been pondering on. And thank goodness for that, it’s a necessery breathing space.

Lately, I’ve been collaging my own prints with words and readymade images.

The sown drawings has turned into for instance tealight holders.

6th June is the national day in Sweden. I am celebrating by bringing to you some more New York images!

These are from the day I met up with my friend Judy, here sporting a blue and yellow Marimekko hat from Clearly First on Madison. Clearly First bring a selection of scandinavian design to upper east side - they spotted my swedish heritage through the Fjällräven rucksack on my back.

At Felissimo designhouse we saw the exhibition Designed in Sweden, where for instance my friends Åsa and Malin of Design Dessert showed their lamp “The Emperors New Clothes".

After the scandinavian start to the day followed an afternoon of walking through Central Park over to Upper West side (Seinfeldt neighbourhood - I tried to figure out where in NY Carrie lives and I thougth she’s probably a Nolita kind of girl? I should have gone on an SATC tour of course) and a delicious picnic from gourmet heaven Zabar’s on Broadway and east 80th Street.

Under påverkan - ett samtal om inspirationskällor
Jag misstänker att det kan komma att bli proppfullt i Nationalmuseums hörsal på tisdag den 31/5 kl. 18.00 då Emma Woffenden, glaskonstnär och Tord Boontje, designer samtalar de om vad som har influerat dem. Fri entré!

The best with Beckmans degree show was the rooms inbetween the exhibition rooms, the ones you walked through to get to the real exhibition. They had these quirky lamp installations that I believe were arranged by Maria Frostner, Parasto Backman and Henne Lindberg. At least they were the group that curated the exhibition.

Some thruths are perhaps easier to swallow if delivered in chocolate? Linda Falk’s chocolates imprinted with personal messages such as “I am breaking up with you” or “I love you” wrapped up in a nice box was the kind of smart and obvious idea that made you think someone should have thought of this before?!

Sissi Edholm och Lisa Ullenius showed an alternative burial ground which made me take a look at their website where I found the birds and the “Peas” sign:

I enjoyed visiting Konstfack’s new facilities at Telefonplan. It felt fresh and spacious and kind of fun.

Four people graduated from the Ceramic and Glass department. I liked Eva Lövqvists glass collection of lights and jewellery (above) named Parasit, Marianne Tolmunen’s calligraphic ornament in black clay (above) and Magdalena Nilsson showed a photo of a ring that I liked very much. It looked like it could be made of silver, a smooth approximately 1.5 cm wide ring with a cut out oval in which a symbol was painted straight onto the skin. Nice idea. I also enjoyed her concept, it was very similar to the one I worked with for my degreeshow although she had worked it through much better than I did. She called her project The Royal Nilsson’s and based it on her family members, so that the products that came out of it somehow expressed their personalities. (I used my friends as my inspiration for a series of cups.)

From the Textiles department, I enjoyed Gill Weibull’s rug that crept up on the leg of a chair and continued in rugged edges out on the floor and painted up on the wall. I was also mighty impressed by the professionality in Josephine Drakenberg’s well thought through concept “Bonus".

But what I will remember from this year’s degree show is metall designer Klara Schmidt’s superb brooches made out of glue and pearls (I think! correct me if I’m wrong!), exquisitely displayed on glass shelves and lit so that they created a shadow on the wall.

Brooklyn is big! And we only spent an afternoon there, but managed to cover some ground anyway. I knew I wanted to visit a shop called The Future Perfect in Williamsburg. The reality greatly surpassed my expectations, their website do not do them justice. But perhaps it was the whole experience of walking down North 6th Street - which in parts is a bit scruffy - passing some big guys unloading old suitcases that looked like they were stuffed with dead bodyparts (or perhaps that was just a long leap of my imagination) from a van… wondering whether perhaps I’d written down the wrong address? And all of a sudden, on a corner is the shop featuring a brilliant, cool and friendly mix of furniture, wallpaper, stuff… I love it when cutting edge places have a friendly side to them.

Across the street from The Future Perfect is American Appareal, with all the casual/sports wear you could ever wish for.

After a coffee we browsed the streets around North 6th and visited Brooklyn’s very own Minimarket, on Bedford Avenue, selling funky clothes, shoes and jewellery. I couldn’t say how it compares to the Stockholm version as I still have to visit that. We took the subway to south Brooklyn and Smith Street, which hade lots of little design shops and galleries.

And lastly, a stroll along Brooklyn Promenade and the lush streets leading down to it. This is the Manhattan skyline from our Brooklyn perspective:

Beckmans 24-29 maj.
Konstfack till 29 maj.
KRAFT - Konsthantverkskooperativ i Gula Byggningen, Gustavsberg.

Daniel at Clio said not to miss Nolita, an area north of Little Italy, and I’m glad he told us about it - I so enjoyed the laid back cutting edge feeling of the streets. I completely fell in love with A Detachér on Mott Street, a shop that carry a carefully handpicked range of design and art objects mixed with fashion and furniture items. Across the street from A Detachér is Starstrings, where the crystals are mixed with guitarstrings and made into very delicate jewellery. Their window display was peonies floating in a shallow pool of water. I bought simply magnificent stationary from Papivore (above) on Elizabeth Street, (do take a look at their website at all the clever designs), where also Hable Construction have their outlet selling for instance these bags:

The New York stories continue…
My neighbour at the ICFF was the very talented and lovely Nicolas le Moigne, first prize winner in the designboom RE-think + RE-cycle competition. His watering can will hit the market very soon and it is so clever and simple that it’ll sell out immediately I’m sure. The handle can be put on a plastic or glass bottle to create a watering can but, as one man seeing it at ICFF commented, it also works on a wine bottle!

This is the bit of blue sky I saw during ICFF days, the image is taken in the glass entrance of the Javitz Center. But what is a blue sky compared to all the interesting people I talked to, showed my portfolio to, sold my work to and got lots of wonderful feedback from? I will remember one woman in particular who said to me “You have a very rare sensibility", I thought that was such a beautiful thing to say and I will treasure it when in doubt of my talent and capabilities!

The ICFF is quite a managable size compared to a lot of other trade fairs and in passing, I did see quite a lot of the things on show. However, I didn’t look properly so I’ll leave it to the big blogs to give a rundown of it all. Take a look at design*sponge, MoCo Loco, apartment therapy and for the massive danish presence I suggest you visit the excellent blog CPH127.

Here’s a snapshot of the Swedish booth the day before it all opened:

It never fails to amaze me that although my experience of New York (and any other place I’m a tourist in) is overwhelmingly new it is in fact someone else’s everyday life. When I’m getting to know a new place I love walking around the streets or sitting in the park or in a bar just looking at people and buildings and dogs and shopwindows… Buying food in a grocery shop like every New Yorker do, going to a yoga session (as every New Yorker also seems to do!)…it makes me feel part of the place. I do visit the “must see” sites, but it’s not my first priority.

My everyday life in New York became going to the trade fair I was taking part in. I took the 42 bus from 42nd Street with all the other work people…(although I probably stood out looking very touristy with my eyes glued to the window in awe of all the tall buildings out there).

The designboom stand was like a designers market with around 45 tables showing and selling work from designers from all parts of the world. And the best thing of all was that the designers themselves was there in person. I got the feeling that it was a hit with everyone - press, visitors, the fair organizers and the designers themselves. The stand was awarded first prize for best booth!

The idea came from the fantastic people behind designboom and they did a brilliant job pulling it all off and taking such good care of each one of us participating so a big, big thank you to all of them! I only realized now that I had a proper look at the poster above that Maria put me as the dot over the letter i - that’s how sweet they are at designboom!! The graphics, idea / project and detailed layouts for the designboom stand are by designboom’s Massimo Mini and Birgit Lohmann.

Below is an image of the stand before all the designers and their work arrived and below that are images from the last day when everyone had very little left!

Update: this post was updated 28th May 2005.

Thompson street is lovely with all sorts of small shops. The childrens clothes and accesories shop Makie carries charming and beautiful dolls by Tamar Mogendorff, across the street is another of the many designer dog accesories shops that New York has many of. Next to that is Michelle and Daniel Lehmann’s lovely shop Clio. I was keen to come and visit Clio as they will be the first New York shop to carry a range of my ceramics!

On our way to moss gallery, we passed a parade of rubbish bag carts that looked as if they were on display but it was most likely someones life belongings. One of the incredible things with New York is that opposites live side by side and it seems to be a friendly jargong between them. I also was happy to find that I felt safe and well taken care of by the New Yorkers: if I was lost standing with my map someone immediately would ask if they could be of assistance and I very much appreciate that.

moss is located on Greene street and show a fusion of contemporary crafts and design, items that are handmade or production manufactured. Most of the work in moss is displayed in glass cabinets as if it was a museum. Usually I want to touch an object and lift it up so that I can feel the texture and weight of it in my hands, but I didn’t really mind the glass interuption. The display and mix of the objects in the cabinets were interesting and I was intrigued by them. Next to Moss is a shop called Troy (like moss, named by the man who owns it), where we admired the fantastic sculptural glass chandeliers. Unfortunately Troy was the only place in New York where they completely ignored us, everyone else was very charming and helpful, and so I didn’t find out who the chandeliers were by. Oh well. Vivienne Tam has a shop further down on Greene Street and I fell totally for her adorable clothes.

Thanks Ali for the introduction to Dinosaur Designs, they’ve got some lovely tactile and beautifully coloured jewellery. As does Rena Tom, frequently blogged about by design*sponge:

And while on the subject of jewellery - take a look at the heavy beauty of Georg Jensens wide silver bangle.

‘Breakfast spoons’ from Georg Jensen spring 2005 collection. Found via Luxist.

I like the combination of pebbleshape and rectangle in this bottle from the Armani Privé range of scents. I’d love to have that pebble as a ring - does anyone know who makes that kind of jewellery?

Anyway, the four Privé scents were originally created for Armani and his friends and according to this article, Armani’s personal favourite is Bois d’Encens: “It brings back his childhood memories of going to church with his grandmother, when the smell of incense suffused the church.”

Wallpaper has written a little something about Privé, but I spotted it in the March issue of french Vouge.

Alltför ofta shoppar jag loss på Pressbyrån, häromsistens blev det Elle Interiörs specialtidning Sommarstället, modebranschtidningen Habit och danska interiörtidningen Bo Bedre. Jag tyckte verkligen om Habit, det här numret handlade en del om butiksinredning och belysning och jag är lite insnöad på det just nu. För övrigt tyckte jag det var en schysst mix av trender, konkreta tips och skön layout. Dom andra två tidningarna innehöll samma gamla vanliga mix av trevliga interiörer och kommer snart att malas ner i min utmärkta dokumentförstörare och användas som förpackningsmaterial.

So graphic and elegant and beautiful. Iron necklace and ring by Tore Svensson.

Då och då får jag en papperslapp formad som ett hus i brevlådan. Den har en flärp som bildar husets dörr och öppnar man den står med halvspretig handstil “Vi säljer grejer som ni fått över för billiga klöver! Det kanske är nåt du behöver?” Är det inte den ultimata direktmarknadsföringen? Genomtänkt och så charmigt utformad att den tar sig förbi min ingen-reklam-tack-skylt och jag har nu varit där med grejer jag inte behöver!

Högskolan i Borås ger i höst en 5-poängs i design, Design för det goda livet. Kursen kan läsas på distans och ska behandla följande teman: Ekologi och design, Ekonomi och design, Etik och design, Estetik och design samt Ergonomi och design. Avsikten med kursen är “att utifrån ett folkbildningsperspektiv betona vikten av design som något som inbegriper och berör alla människor i samhället". Det låter intressant med lite folkbildning kring ett begrepp som ibland framstår som rätt fluffigt! Sista anmälningsdatum 31 maj.

Some of my fellow “martians” at the Designboom mart at ICFF in May: Alexander Taylor(Antler’s Coat Hook, below), Jess Shaw, Barnaby Barford (Battleship napkins, below), trink, vilde form (tealight, below), Georg Baldele, Yosuke Watanabe and Ed Carpenter (who’s brilliant Pigeon light I’ll be sure to buy).

I love the shape of Patricia Urquiola’s table T-Phoenix for Moroso.

I’ll be showing with Designboom at The International Contemporary Furniture Fair (ICFF) in New York! The ICFF is the largest contemporary furniture show in the US for which Designboom has brought together 45 designers to sell limited series design-originals and show prototypes of their latest works.

The idea is to give the ICFF visitors the opportunity to purchase intelligent, useful and quirky items priced from a range of USD 10 to USD 100 - from metal to ceramics, glass to fabrics, to recycled materials. The designers will be personally presenting their wares - so a great opportunity to make our aquaintance and see samples and portfolios! I’m bringing butterfly and rose ‘mint’ cups, large bowls, tealight holders and my porcelain hangings.

designboom ICFF mart 05 at booth 380, ICFF, jacob k. javits convention center, NYC

design*sponge has lately been posting lots of tips on exhibitors not to be missed at this years ICFF. Here’s Core 77’s report from last years ICFF and surrounding design events.

Rachel Kelly (who’s interactive wallpapers make me long for a lovely big house of my own to try them out in) latest wallpaper is called New Shoes and was commissioned by the sponsors of Sex and the City. Rachel’s illustrations of designer high-heeled shoes overlay a background pattern of flower silhouettes and polka dots. The design comes in four colourways: Carrie (pink), Charlotte (ivory), Miranda (magenta) and Samantha (white gold). The interactive part comes in form of a range of stickers and transfer sets to be applied on over the New Shoes pattern.

Designws and Designboom has published lots of pictures from the Salone Satellite, Milano 2005. I fell for these things and stands:

Feather lamp by Heike Buchfelder; Arena by Sofia Ehrengren; “New Antiques” by Marcel Wanders; ‘mlights’ by brodie neill and ‘cub’ children’s chair made of cork by daniel michalik.

Update: more pictures at Pol Oxygen Magazine.

Bruno Munari has done some very inspiring design work. Here are a two of his illustrations for childrens books that I find wonderful. The pictures comes from the Utrecht online bookstore, a lovely site to browse.

I love the tactile ceramics/flock/wallpaper softboxes and vases in the Rush of Plush series by Hanna Tonek Bonnett. Hanna is a great person with a very special approach to ceramics. Right now she’s in Dubai with the British European Design Group, taking part in the Ambiente trade fair. Hanna’s ceramics is available at Frank Form in Stockholm (which by the way is a lovely shop!) and from June, she’ll be spending her summer in the new ceramics workshop at Gränsö!

Sounds from mobile phones ringing or alarm clocks make me jump and I find them quite intrusive. I’ve often wish I was the kind of designer that enjoy solving that type of problems. Alas, I am not, but through Josh Rubin’s blog, I found someone who seems to be just that. Gauri Nanda works in design and engineering and is currently linked to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Media Lab. She’s got all sorts of smart products in various stages of completion. I fell for Clocky, the almost cuddly alarmclock that rolls of the bedside table and hides so that you have to get out of bed to find it and liked the idea of the toilet paper holder that warns you as you’re about to sit down if the roll is empty, also liked the Mustard clutch.

Saw at Designboom weblog that Barber Osgerby wins Blueprint Furniture Designer of the Year award. Here’s an interview with them from the Designmuseum in London website. Here are a few of their designs that I really like: the bench design for St Thomas’s Cathedral in Portsmouth, ipsei bottle design for Coca Cola and the green Shell table for Cappellini. Check out their website for really nice pictures.

“En fascinerande aspekt av design och formgivning är att det alltid går att göra något nytt. Och varje gång vi får syn på det nya, det vi kallar cutting edge, det oväntade som uppstår i skärningspunkten till framtiden, förvånas och förundras vi. Tänk på en mugg av keramik eller porslin. Hur många kan det finnas i världen? Är det inte fantastiskt att det går att forma ännu en mugg, i ännu en form som vi inte sett förr, ännu ett mönster en glasyr en lätthet eller tyngd som vi inte upplevt tidigare!?”

Ovanstående är ett citat ur en artikel som Cia Wedin skrivit om mig. Hela artikeln kan läsas under Formstarkt/ keramik på Cia Wedins och fotograf Björn Lanners trädgårdssajt Onestep Garden. Onestep Garden är inspirerande läsning om sånt som rör trädgård - resor, komposter, formgivning och smultronställen - allt illustrerat med underbara bilder. Vårnumret innehåller också besök hos min pappa - under Trädgårdsmästeri/Fakta tipsar han om hur ni ska sköta er kompost!

Nu önskar jag bara att jag visste vart dom färgglada plasthandskarna, som Sanna Hellberg skrev om i lördagens DN Bostad, kom ifrån så att jag kan vara lite fin när jag gräver i trädgården!

“FUNkeys” stool and “Delight” felt lamp by design studio Mixko. Via Popgadget.

9-30 april håller Formbaren till i huvudentrén på Kulturhuset i Stockholm. Elever från Nyckelviksskolan kommer att lösa dina eller andras formproblem - beställningar görs via Kulturhusets website och alla får följa problem-lösnings-processen. På söndagarna 10, 17 och 24 april kl 12–16 kommer det i Formbaren hållas workshops där allmänheten får pröva hantverk tillsammans med Nyckelviksskolans blivande hantverkspedagoger. En hel rad formgivare/designer, konsthantverkare eller konstnärer kommer även att i baren berätta om sitt yrke, utbildning mm. Hela programmet på Kulturhusets web.

At first sight I thought this was a perfume bottle but it’s Tequila. Really sleek packaging, design by Fabien Baron for Corzo Tequila. Found through Luxist.

I’m a sucker for botanical drawings so it was easy to be intrigued by the Flora Danica paper dress by designer Annette Meyer in collaboration with Royal Copenhagen. The dress is made out of paper with prints of Flora Danica services flowers and golden board.
In order to make the paper suitable for clothing so-called “crumble parties” took place where several workers from Royal Copenhagen rubbed the necessary 200 meters of paper between their fingers. The Flora Danica Dress is on show 2/4 - 8/5- 2005 at Malmö Konstmuseum.

I found these presscuttings of Meyer’s work really inspiring:

Danish Crafts är en självständig organisation, finansierad av danska kulturministeriet, som marknadsför danskt konsthantverk utom- och inom Danmark. Februarinumret av deras tidning Fokus innehåller bland annat en intervju med Murray Moss, ägare till en av New Yorks trendigaste designbutiker. Tyvärr finns tidningen inte tillgänglig på nätet.

Det är verkligen intressant att läsa Moss’ tankar kring design- och konsthantverksprodukter och människors förhållande till dem. Artikeln berör till exempel det som intervjuaren menar är något av hjärtat i dagens konsthantverk; att objekt kan vara ett andningshål i en hektisk tillvaro och att de kan få oss att tänka i nya banor och till och med göra oss mer civiliserade!

“It’s because I feel the world is so brutish and my life in the world being a modern, contemporary person, I am in a brutal world, and my behaviour is modified. I become less brutish when I drink from a fragile glass, because for one minute my behaviour has to be modified, so that I don’t break this fragile object. And I think this was always the reason behind these fragile objects. It was to civilize us, to make us more elegant. To make us more graceful.”

Undrar om någon känner sig mer civiliserad när de dricker ur min ‘mint’ kopp? Jag får ibland kommentarer om att handtaget på koppen är lätt att ha sönder och att foten koppen står på inte är speciellt stadig och rejäl… Jag har naturligtvis tänkt igenom det handtaget och den foten, ja hela formen på koppen, och valt att göra den precis så som den ser ut. Ibland väljer jag att förklara varför jag gjort dom valen ibland rycker jag på axlarna och säger att vissa koppar inte sätter användarvänlighet i främsta rummet. Att det kanske handlar om en linje, en känsla eller en önskan om att användaren ska tänka mer på tingen omkring sig?

Funktion och användarvänlighet finns ofta med i definitioner av design och konsthantverk - jag vet att jag själv ofta hörts säga det - men det Murray Moss’ säger visar hur viktig även den känslomässiga aspekten är. Det må försvåra definitionen av design och konsthantverk, men jag tycker även att det gör det hela mer intressant.

Idag sov jag ut och vaknade lagom till att få se Sanna Hansson, formgivare och Fredrik Karlsson (obs! länken går till en pdf artikel om Nya konditoriet som Fredrik jobbar på), konditor i Utbildningsradions serie “Mitt jobb”. Bägge programmen är verkligen underbara! Både Sanna och Fredrik kan ses igen på UR’s web.

Saw at Coolchiq that fashion label Jovovich-Hawk is opening up shop in Greenwich Village. Lucky me who’s going to New York in May!

Den här veckan handlade P1:s Gender om Volvos nya konceptbil. Designgruppen bakom bilen utgick ifrån tesen “Om du möter kvinnors förväntningar överträffar du mäns.” Framförallt verkar det vara ett bra exempel på att utgå ifrån användarens krav och önskemål i designprocessen.

“Dish” is a book and an exhibition, edited and curated by Julie Mullerstahl. It shows a selection of work by 40 female designers from across the globe. The March issue of Icon has an article about the book. Core 77 reports from a Julie Mullerstahl event. The book can be bought from for instance ad libris. Some designers featured in Dish are Marre Moerel and Ayse Birsel with her Red Rocket desk.

Project Fox sounds and looks really exciting. Hotel Fox in Copenhagen is one part of the project. It opens in April with rooms decorated by graphic designers, illustrators and street artists. And they’ve got a “design a room contest” going, but be quick, entries must be sent in before April 10th.

I’ve come across the hotel in several blogs, both Reluct and Designboom, but Josh Rubin at Cool Hunting was first and he had all these great photos.

Diesel New Art vill vara en plattform för “innovativ konst, design och fotografi". DNA anordnar bland annat en tävling och sista datum att lämna in bidrag är 31 maj. Tidigare bidrag är till exempel lampan Palmett, av Folkform och Butterfly av Georgianna Kralli.

The way the butterfly is used on this Insect vase is just too alike the patterns I’ve been working on lately… I promise, I only just saw it! By Ted Muehling for Porzellan Manufaktur Nymphenburg . The silver spoons are also his and I think they’re just beautiful.

It was love at first sight with Cellula from Anthologiequartett. That’s a several years ago now and the feeling is still strong and healthy. Designed 1996 by Nunzia Carbone and Tiziano Vudafieri.

My favourites from the Issey Miyake spring summer 2005 collection.

Konstnärsnämnden delar ut ett designstipendium i maj med anledning av designåret. Det riktar sig till en designer som rör sig i gränslandent mellan design och konst. Det är endast ett stipendium och delas ut utan ansökningsförfarande. Förslag mottages av Konstnärsnämnden!

Svensk Form har lanserat ett designarkiv som består av fyra databaser:

Arkiv - med Svensk Forms verksamhetsberättelser, Meddelanden från Svenska Slöjdföreningen, Svenska Slöjdföreningens Tidskrift, tidskriften FORM, protokoll, korrespondens, mönsterblad, kassaböcker, pressklipp, publikationer och utställningskataloger.

Bibliotek - med böcker, kataloger och småtryck inom Svensk Forms områden möbler, belysning, konstindustriell formgivning, textil design, industriell design och grafisk design.

Bilder - med foton från utställningar, porträtt, affischer, artiklar, mönsterblad, handlingar och pressklipp.

Utmärkt Svensk Form - med produkter som erhållit designutmärkelsen 1983-2002.

Ett annat nyligen lanserat arkiv är Photostore som tillhör Crafts Council i London. Just nu kan man få fri tillgång till det i tre månader, därefter är det en kostnad. Jag hittade bland andra Junko Mori och Kei Ito.

These posters were designed by Designbum for The Natural History Museum of Humboldt and for the Humboldt Arts and Music Festival. I like the mix of typography, butterflies, cows, colours and I love the green! They’d definitely make me intrigued enough to want to visit both.

I had dinner at Mac Donald’s today and got my hands on their new coffeemugs with patterns by Stig Lindberg. Good idea by designers Linda Solvang, Anna Johansson and Anna Mörner.

I’m always on the lookout for nice beltbags to use at markets and fairs and such events. Here’s a goodlooking one from lolo + gretch dahling.

Jag har snurrat runt på designårets kalendarium för att få en känsla av vad året består av. Det finns ju naturligtvis mängder av aktiviteter, en del verkar halvdöda men dom här lever:

STATIC! är ett designprojekt som fokuserar på hur energi används i vardagsprodukter, presenteras på Energitinget i Eskilstuna 8-9 mars. Mönstret i den här tapeten växer fram när den utsätts för solljus, av Front.

Vetenskapsrådet gav i höstas ut boken Designmedvetenskap, som på deras websida beskrivs så här: “Designmedvetenskap är en fascinerande resa i forskningens och designens värld. Här möts design, både som metod och estetiskt uttryck, och forskning inom alla vetenskapsområden. Inom forskningen är design ett sätt att lösa problem vare sig de finns inom humaniora, samhällsvetenskap, medicin, naturvetenskap, teknikvetenskap eller utbildningsvetenskap.” Boken kan köpas genom bl.a. Exlibris.

Slöjdcirkus är en turnerande utställning organiserad av Hemslöjden.

Designhub är ett nätverk och plattform för växande designföretag i Malmö-regionen.

Från april kan man gå på designvandringar i Stockholm.

Produktutveckling för arbetslivsmuseer syftar till att föra samman formgivare och arbetslivsmuseer med förhoppningen om givande möten. ISKA har ett liknande projekt som syftar till att erbjuda konsthantverkare kontakter som leder till nya produkter.

Föreläsningsserien Stapelvaror och spetsdesign på Malmö Stadsbibliotek har bjudit in intressanta personer. Imorgon är Margareta van den Bosch, designchef på Hennes & Mauritz, där.

I’ve reshuffled a bit on my website and added lots of images out of my combined scrap- and sketchbook.

Shadylace av Chris Kabel från 2003.

Till den 27 mars pågår Short Stories på Färgfabriken, en utställning om formgivare som berättar. Short stories tar fasta på just berättandet som ett centralt element för att göra intressant form. Det räcker inte att bara se till objektet - utan vad objektet kan berätta, vad detta något än må vara. Jag tycker det verkar superspännande!

Utställningen visar verk av åtta formgivare, Maria Boij, Sara Isaksson From, Lisa Olausson, Hanna Werning, Joakim Ericson, Emma Åkerman samt Elizabeth Haven och Lizzie Ridout. Bakom utställningen står formgivarduon Martin Frostner och Johanna Lewengard.

The snow is thick in the air and the birds have actually started singing. On the design front spring is here and there are lots of beautiful beautiful birddesigns around and butterflies and insects too. My biggest crush is this Iguana fabric by Glasgow based Timorous Beasties.

Pigeon Light by Ed Carpenter for Thorsten van Elten.

The Chaos Couture bag, from Versace, found through Luxist.

Through Design Sponge, I’ve been introduced to Bella Muse, Paper Monkey Press and Little Paper Planes:

Screenprints /prints / cards from Bella Muse, all designed and made by typographer Alicia Peck.

Stationary from Paper Monkey Press in California.

From Little Paper Planes, t-shirt by Carrie Vawter and “I hate this bird” art by Kelly Lynn Jones.

I went to Copenhagen with my friend Eva, and its thanks to her I’ve got most of these pictures as my own photographic skills turned out to be poor…

At the corner of Kompagnistræde and Læderstræde is Creme de la Creme a la Edgar (I think it’s named after something out of Aristocats?) which is a gorgeous shop with a very inspiring way of displaying childrens clothing, toys and this charming moose which I just fell in love with.

Opposite from ‘Edgar’ is Wettergren & Wettergren, a fashion and accesories shop run by mother and daughter selling costumized vintage clothing.

Stilleben is dedicated to selling ceramics, a personal mix of industrial and studio ceramics. Take a look at their website for a clever and beautiful way of mixing and styling objects!

We now strolled down towards Nyhavn and on to Bredgade to visit the Danish Museum of Decorative Art. We had a lovely omelett with spinach and goats cheese in the cafe and talked for so long that the museum was closed by the time we were ready to see the exhibition… We did manage to see their Design Studio which is like an educational room where design objects are chategorized after which material they’re made out of, several of the objects can be touched and even tasted. It’s so well put together and a great resource for children and grown-ups!

I was looking forward to visiting Gallery Nörby, Denmarks leading ceramics gallery for studio ceramics and we happend to come on the day of switching exhibitions. Paul Scott, well known for his research into ceramics and print, was in the middle of putting up his joint exhibition ‘Body Blue’ with Ann Linnemann.

Crafts Collection promote and sell danish applied arts and design. Their showroom might be a bit tricky to find if you don’t know it’s there, but we just followed our expert guide through the streets of Copenhagen, Sabine Lavigne, and arrived at the second floor of Amagertorv 1. Unfortunately most of the collection was at the Ambiente trade fair in Frankfurt, but we did get to see some of their latest collection CC09, recently featured by Design Sponge.

Designers Zoo is situated a 20ish minute walk on Vesterbrogade away from the city centre and it’s well worth it. Lots of danish ‘gemyt’ on the way and when you get there the shop is light and airy with some great crafts in it. I especially fell for Charlotte Ostergaards ethereal clothes.

Lucky for us, the Danish Design Center was open until 9 pm on wednesdays and no entry fee. We tried out seating by the Campana brothers from Brazil and Eero Aarnio from Finland, saw graphic design and the Danish Design Prize winners from 2004.

Before bording our train, we just had time to peak through the window at Koenroeg and Moshi Moshi.

The brilliant blog Design Sponge is throwing a competition for great independent designs. Submissions are taken until friday 25th February via email designsponge@gmail.com.

Swedish design has recently featured on Design Sponge with for instance Postens new design stamps, Swedese’s furniture and Pipinettes potty. I think it’s time we submit some more great designs, don’t you?

Tokyo based illustrator Naomi Yoshida has really caught the beauty of the very popular swedish dish macaroni and meatballs.

Alla duktiga svenska konsthantverkare - det är hög tid att skicka iväg sin anmälan till Chelsea Crafts Fair 2005! Under två veckor i oktober varje år organiserar brittiska Crafts Council Europas finaste och mest välrenommerade mässa för konsthantverk. Mässan är jurybedömd och det är hög klass på allt som ställs ut och en väl avvägd blandning av olika material. Som utställare får man träffa sina europeiska kollegor, sälja direkt till allmänheten och till inköpare från butiker och gallerier från hela världen. År 2004 firade Chelsea 25-årsjubileum och bland utställarna fanns bl a svenske silversmeden Niklas Ejve, norska keramikern Anna Stina Naess och brittiska textilformgivaren Gail Eastwood bland utställarna.

Thanks to Eva Grinder, here are some images of the Swedese stand at the Stockholm Furniture Fair. I liked it, I wanted to stay there, hang my jacket on their trees by Michael Young and Katrin Petursdottir (read Calimero’s article on Katrin) and try out their chairs. And that’s the trick at a fair, isn’t it? To make people stay - in your stand.

I thouroughly enjoyed my long day at the Stockholm furniture fair. Although I had a long lunch at Interni cafe, splendidly designed by Marge architects, exhaustion set in after lunch and no coffee in the world could help. Before that, however, I saw lots of good design.

In the Greenhouse area, showcasing design schools and small independent designers, I saw this lovely red yarn stool “Inner Bond” by Jungsin Lee, an MA student at HDK, the School of Design and Crafts.

Monica Förster’s lawn with tables and, although I didn’t manage to catch them on the image, many coloured threads stretched from the ceiling, creating a sense of space.

Outdoors lighting from FLUX.

I always fall for this pink, it’s so deeply cool. On the right is design from Iceland, childrens seating by Sigridur Heimisdottir.

Marimecco’s new birch patterned textile by Erja Hirvi.

I love to be treated well by sales people at fairs! And that I was at Offecct, that guy really knew his products and it was so interesting to hear him talk about them. Vertigo by Eero Koivisto was awarded most interesting new product at the fair. Made of “one-way-mirrors", the table projects itself in eternity. Cell, also designed by Eero Koivisto, is another example of creative use of material - it is made by the stuff used in skis.

The most inspiring and yet probably the most simple stand at the fair was Swedese, who sported light walls washed with white colour and a spacious display of the new collection of upholstered furniture in a fresh green. The light pink tulips looked lovely - after four days at the fair!

As a ceramicist / designer-maker / formgivare (swedish for designer, literally meaning form giver) … I sometimes feel the urge to categorise what design is and is not. With 2005 being the “Year of Design” in Sweden this urge has grown. It’s not boundaries I’m after, it’s more a need to think about and around this word that is so frequently used.

“…design is not the same as art, although it is increasingly encroaching on art’s aesthetic and provocative territory” writes Marcus Fairs in his article “What is design?” in Icon. The article gives several aspects of design and discuss the change in the definition of design. It points out a shift of emphasis: from design being about the process behind an object to being more about the emotional tie between the product and the consumer: “It’s like music: you hear a particular song on the radio and it does something to you. Likewise, design is the difference between an artefact (or an environment, a space, a website or anything ‘created’) that has meaning to you and one that doesn’t. And it is entirely subjective.”

I thought it was a really interesting read, especially in relation to the swedish comments on design, for instance Formbart, the magazine Form and the book “Svensk smak”.

Mia E Göransson is one talented ceramicist. Her hauntingly beautiful “Bonbonierre” made out of bone china, stand on short legs (I’ve always been drawn to vessels that have legs) with twigs and leaves growing around and out of it. I also love her elegantly simple tiles in terracotta clay with imprints of leaves and sprigs.

Ms Göranssons work is now on a touring exhibition with swedish design in the UK, it just left the Crafts Council gallery in London and is now heading for The Whitworth Gallery in Manchester. I also spotted an article about her in CRAFTS magazine no 191 as well as the February edition of brittish Elle Decoration. Mia E Göranssons work can be purchased from Blås & knåda, a group of swedish potters and glassblowers.

Dries van Noten is one of my favourite fashion designers. I love his use of materials and patterns and the casual feel with which the clothes are combined. This is from the spring/summer collection 2005.

Imorgon är sista chansen att se design/konsthantverk/konst i en skön blandning. Det är sista dagen för utställningen Bordsskick på en av Stockholms bästa inredningsbutiker plan ett. War bowl från engelska Mosley meet Wilcox, UZU skålar från japanska Ribbon Project, Moth lampa från Rose Cobb och mycket mer internationellt bra som inte ännu finns att köpa i Sverige!

Stitch, lampa i benporslin av Kathleen Hills och Rose Cobb.

Plus svenskarna så klart: väggklistermärken från Karin Persson, nya jättefina vaser ur serien Rush of Plush av Hanna Tonek Bonnett, laminatgolv av Anna Nilsson, Lotta Kvists tyger och vaser samt min keramik förstås.

I’ve found so many inspiring books and magazines I’d like from You work for them. And they also have these wonderful posters. This one is from their limited edition poster collection. I’m attracted to the colours and the sharpness in the image, am also keen on the thin lines versus the more blobby bits…

I went to the private view of Formbart at Liljevalchs on Thursday. Liljevalchs is a museum that every spring hosts an art exhibition to which everyone is invited to apply - whether they’ve got ten years of art school behind them or just resently started an evening course in life drawing. For 2005 however, art has stepped aside to let design in. The same rules apply - it doesn’t matter whether you’re a professional or just has design as a hobby.

While I was rubbing shoulders with everyone who is anyone in the swedish design world, I asked myself, and my friend Eva who went with me, what the selection criteria had been for the jury? Why was the Barbapapa-shaped thing made out of plastic rope considered design? And is the “happy aborted foetus earring” - that so far has received the most press coverage - design or is it just the makings of someone wanting attention?

The floating boundaries between design, applied arts and art interests me and I think the curators idea to mix the three together is great. But the mix would have worked so much better if the objects selected would have been less alike. Then they could have become comments on each other rather than killing each other.