Archive for the ‘Products’ Category


Posted on March 15, 2011 - by

London Find: Pols Potten

While conveniently hiding from the rain at Selfridges in London I came upon their little shop within a shop of wonderful Dutch design items mostly to wear or for the home. I saw a really beautiful lantern and picked it up – that’s where I learned about Pols Potten.  The lantern was the one below – I believe it’s made of bamboo and it would be a perfect component of a centerpiece for our new dining room table.

I jotted down the name so I could buy this lantern after the fact as I definitely didn’t have room for it in my suitcase and it turns out the Amsterdam-based company makes all kinds of really cool items including the one below, which looks like coral!


I’m pretty sure the above piece is a vase, whereby a ton of different buds can be in each stem of the coral piece. Very cool! In trolling through their catalog I also came upon what look like woven ceramic baskets that I thought were very interesting, below, they remind my of the knit porcelain of Alyssa Ettinger. I like regular materials in unexpected techniques – in particular woven ceramics these days.

Another point to be mentioned about this group is that their catalog is beautifully photographed. It’s a little tricky to figure out details on the items but they all look so great in the settings that they put them in. The picture below shows the same bamboo lantern in situ.

So groovy. Even cooler than all the above though is the weird, amorphous woven ball / foot stool item below. Is that felted? Is it wool? Is it linen? I can’t tell but I know that I like it. It would go great in the yurt!


Posted on March 8, 2011 - by

Julie LaBulle

One of my favorite sites for shopping is Svpply. With everything going on lately I have been derelict at checking it but today I did and came across the very cool works of Julie LaBulle, otherwise known as Giulia Dolci. Giulia is a London-based graphic designer and illustrator whose Hairy Series reminds me of Marilyn Brogan’s work at Meander.

These notebooks are hand drawn and really beautiful. They were on Svpply because they are for sale at Our Workshop.

I have long been into repetitive, obsessive artworks and those most common to cross my path are those in paperworks. I would not personally have the patience to create pieces like this and I have tons of respect for those who can.

I think I like the ones in red pen best…their shapes are so great, like the one below – it looks like moss or a fern but definitely naturally inspired I’d wager.


Posted on March 8, 2011 - by

London Find: Luna del Mar

The last week has been a complete whirlwind of returning from the UK and moving my home up the street! We got the internet sorted and I’m back in action, as it were. I have a stable of cool people and products to post about as well but I’ve been so busy doing the necessities of Bed Bath & Beyond trips that I  didn’t have a moment until now. While I was still in London it was raining, naturally, on Sunday and so I went to Selfridges to buy myself a new pair of shoes. The ones I had were soaked through after my walk from the Tate Modern. While there I stopped in their home decor area to see if there was anything perfect for the house and came upon Luna del Mar’s porcelain pieces.

As a porcelain junkie, I love all of these pieces and the story behind their genesis is pretty cool too. The designer behind Luna del Mar is Lynne Lange, she is based in South Africa and started in ceramics doing Italian-influenced pieces out of a factory in Johannesburg. After a move to Cape Town she ventured to China to identify porcelain artisans and came upon the Jiahzan brothers in Dehau. They have run with her designs, born out of a visit to Zanzibar in 2004, where she found a sea urchin shell and used it as a light!

Some of the shapes remind me of the work of Ted Muehling. I own a few urchin tea lights – I think I got them at the late, Red Chair, in New Hampshire but they don’t have the undulating sides that the Luna del Mar ones have.

I love that they’re glossy on the inside in some cases while matte on the outside. I think that may be a big part of my love of porcelain, it’s matte quality…that is of course second to it’s translucent properties.

And so you can see just how thin these are – the below is lit from within. Lynne says she visits the factory in China a few times a year to work on new designs. Can’t wait to see which parts of nature inspire her next as the artisans she’s found to work with are obviously quite fabulous!


Posted on February 26, 2011 - by

London Find: Sue Binns

I spent today in London doing two things: eating and shopping. I was mortifyingly late to a brunch with my friend through Nest, Anju, who graciously let me infiltrate her weekend only to have me nearly sleep through brunch due to a Blackberry that decided it had not switched timezones. After a brief recovery and BIG breakfast we walked up and down King’s Road in Chelsea [I think] looking at, mostly, interior design shops as, it turns out, it’s a common interest. One of the shops, Designers Guild, was totally jaw dropping – beautiful linens, tiny trinkets for the home, rugs, fabric, you name it. In their basement level they had a small case of the prettiest ceramics – especially given my love of The Stripe. I jotted down the artist’s name in my trusty phone and looked Sue Binns up the moment I got back to the flat.

Even though I generally lean towards porcelain I am really into Sue’s stoneware. She gets it still quite thin and it’s matte glazed, which is unique and elegant. I’ve seen some stuff like this before at ABC Carpet & Home in NYC [Designers Guild reminded me a lot of ABC in fact - only whitewashed if that makes sense] but not with such great stripes and patterns.

In her artist statement she explains that she is, “fascinated by the way stripes create different visual impressions, positive or negative, depending on their thickness and density.” In her work that’s very true, some of the works like the above look like pinstripes with the white being the dominant hue, whereas others are blue with white stripes.

I think being attracted to these pieces is an indication of another nautical summer for me…not unlike the last two. I should note that the only clothes I’ve bought myself in months involve watercolor-esque stripes thanks to Loft and the new Forever21 in Boston.

How cute are these? I think I just want a beach house or a lake house to put handmade, stripey, earthy things in. Some body of water has to be near by and these seem to precious for the speed of everyday life, these are mugs to enjoy when you’ve nothing else to do but sit on the porch.

See, clearly blue with white stripes! Or rather they look like white and blue stripes of something just jammed up next to each other – not as though they’re one whole piece of work. Anyway, this was the first of many things I saw today. I could write for a month on Designers Guild alone. Bottom line I wouldn’t have learned about it at all but for Anju’s patience!


Posted on February 22, 2011 - by

Pendant Lights

Interior design crisis…sort of. We spent Sunday morning in the new place taking measurement for the move, slated for a week from Thursday! The large pendant lamp that the former tenants had above their dining room table was gone (as we suspected since it isn’t a cheap one) and in its place is a sub-par white enamel and brass chandelier with several blown out lightbulbs. Sad. Awesomely though it has a dimmer switch — now we just need to find something to put in its place!

This little predicament is the inspiration behind today’s product collage! I have NO idea what’s best for our space but the room is enormous with ceilings over 12 feet high so who knows what we’ll do – it’s lower on the list than say, dining room rugs and curtains but it’s up there! Recommendations? The above are from Kibisi, Serena and Lily, CasaMania, Roost, and Laura Kincade — I like them all…which is a problem as they are all so different. Sadly, I’m losing my decision making ability the more that need to get made. Maybe I’ll find one in London this weekend! Fingers crossed.


Posted on February 16, 2011 - by

Garden Stools

Much like my love for farm sinks and flatware I’ve recently discovered that I love garden stools. I have stacks of stuff all over my room and if I had garden stools strategically located perhaps those stacks would sit on a very pretty and functional pedestal. I’ve been playing around with new features of this blog (note you can now share posts around the internet!) and one thing I’m trying out is various collage builders so I can showcase more than one product / image at a time – here goes nothing.

The above garden stool are all awesome but I have to say my favorites are the top two from Wisteria and West Elm respectively. The bottom two are from Jayson Home & Garden (though no longer available online) and then basically anywhere that’s selling garden stools has the bottom right. That seems to be the generic pattern. I know we’ll get some of these for the new place. Just have to figure out which ones!


Posted on February 9, 2011 - by

Dunes and Duchess

So many worlds colliding! This weekend I’m heading to Chicago to meet my boyfriend’s parents for the first time. As a result, I was Googling around for cool interior decorating stores we may want to stop into and came across Elements Chicago. Looking around, looking around…I came up Dunes and Duchess’ candelabras.

Turns out these are the new creations of Stacy Kunstel, a neighbor of my family’s in New Hampshire. My mom had mentioned this new endeavor to me – news travels fast in small towns – but I hadn’t been paying enough attention at the time. If I had been paying attention I would have had the chance to go see the pieces in person at the NYIGF!

I love the white and blue lights and candelabras though they also come in two shades of gray it looks like from the site. I haven’t read the whole blog over at Dunes and Duchess but I believe these pieces are lathe-turned, a class I myself have been meaning to take myself, on bowls, over at the North Bennet Street School.

Very cool to see people working on new projects especially when they are coming out so beautifully. I hope I can keep up a little better in the future so I don’t miss an opportunity to check them out live!


Posted on February 7, 2011 - by

Haus Interior

With less than a month to go before moving I find that I’m pouring over design magazines, online shopping and visiting interior design shops everywhere I go. In NYC I visited places like Elizabeth Bauer Designs, Tamara Magel and Room and Board but one spot I didn’t get to was Haus Interior, where a friend of mine works and I’ve been meaning to visit!

Luckily for me, they have an online shop and once we get the final measurements on the apartment I’ll be able to exercise my credit card. As many people know, I’m a fan of all things nautical – Haus has quite a few rope-based items like this mirror that I adore above.

Geometric rugs are awesome too – we’ve looked at 100s of ones in trellis, tile and lattice patterns but we haven’t found any that are just right. We bought a raw oak dining room table so this one might not go quite right either but I love it all the same.

So calming – little paintings all clustered together. We’re in the process of getting a few new posters from the International Poster Gallery so once we know how many more walls we have to cover these may be coming home to me.

I adore this lamp, it’s a bit out of my price range but a girl can dream – it’s an added incentive to make it to NYC soon – Haus is part of Lucky Magazine’s Breaks this month, in store you can get 30% off for mentioning Lucky!

And as everyone knows here at the blog, my life’s not really complete without a knit or crocheted element. This would even make a great basket to hold all my knitting and yarn! The above reminds me of Rosanna Contadini’s work too, a favorite from Design Within Reach. Be sure to check out their awesome blog, The Cultivated Home too it has awesome tips, products, etc!


Posted on February 1, 2011 - by

Kinto

Also while in NYC this weekend I went to the New York International Gift Fair – when I was living in NYC I always wanted to check out the show but never had a way in. A few lovely ladies from Natural Life attended our Nest cocktail party at Tamara Magel’s showroom on Friday night and said they could put us on their vendor list – Amy and I immediately took them up on the offer. One company I fell in love with at the show was Japan’s Kinto.

The company, which was in their first showing at the NYIGF, makes a ton of cool kitchen tools, which I thought were both pretty and functional.

Above is a floating tea-strainer that is silicone. I wish I had a better picture – it’s a half circle of silicone with holes and a half circle without, you put the tea in, pop the two halves together and drop it in your hot water. It comes with a little silicone “rest” as well so that when you take it out it doesn’t stain your table or dirty a plate.

Above is another tea strainer – this one is collapsible to be flat and comes with a little holding box (like a retainer case) so that you can compactly brew tea on the move.

This is an awesome little dish for both steaming food and serving it. It’s hard plastic ( I’m not quite sure of the kind) and you put some water in the bottom, nuke the whole thing with your food on the little holey part with the lid over it (that looks like it has read broth in it in the pic) and voila, perfectly steamed food ready to serve. Not only were they very nice at the booth but they weren’t overwhelming visitors with overdone presentations, it was a bare setting that really highlighted the design and colors of the pieces. Overall my first trip to the NYIGF was a big success!


Posted on February 1, 2011 - by

Loop

This weekend I was in NYC for the Build a Nest city board retreat and met many amazing women who knew about many fabulous things. One woman at the retreat told me about her friend’s paper company, Loop, and gave me their card. Not realizing that I have a love of repetitive artwork and borderline obsessive repetition, she was telling me about something I find very cool!

The pieces are turned into wrapping paper, notepads, cards and prints. I like the one above because it looks like grains of rice, all nearly arranged.

Elissa, the woman behind Loop, draws all of these pieces by hand. I wish they had the above circle-y one in a print but it seems that the print series is pretty limited. They remind me of Meander in some ways.

So beautiful! When I graduated from Skidmore someone did a line / ink drawing for their senior thesis in the art department – I always thought that it took such discipline to do those types of works and I’ve certainly been into them more and more lately. Including wanting to buy a diptych line drawing of downtown Boston for the new apartment.

The above though is by far my favorite – looking like honeycomb, how could it not be! My love affair with bees and the little worlds they make is not news but this piece really shows why! This in print form or better yet wallpaper form would be fabulous.


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