I always look forward to Collect which took place last weekend. Galleries from the world over gather at the Saatchi Gallery off the King’s Road in London to present the work of makers.
The first piece I noticed was this filigree cut and layered felt hanging by May Bente Aronsen on the Galeri Format stand. They always show great makers like May and these exquisite glass pieces by Vidar Koksvik. His glass work is currently on show at Format in Norway till next month.
Some of you may already be familiar with Hide and Seek, an organisation dedicated to expanding notions of play and games. They create “social games and playful experiences”. Having participated in a few Sandpit events at the South Bank I can certainly vouch for that. The release of creativity through play can be quite profound and you have a great time.
Artists, designers, performers and anyone generally interested are all welcome to contribute to creating new games. The season starts again later this month in London so visit their site for all dates and locations.
This summer they will present a brand new game, The Building Is… as part of an exhibition Joue le Jeu at La Gâite Lyrique in Paris, a beautiful building now reimagined as a multiple cultural event venue. It’ll be interesting to see how their concept translates to Paris.
They’re also expanding to the USA and I wish them the best of luck; we all need to release our creativity by playing more. Go Alex and team!
I hadn’t realised that there were more of these organisations around but then the principle is such a good idea…thanks Please Fund Us for following me on Twitter.
I like the fact you can donate as little as a pound – times are tight for lots of people but it all adds up as these projects show. Give up on the occasional bar of chocolate or coffee and put your cash towards a new creative idea. Also find out what’s happening in your area.
Maybe it’s the delayed onset of spring with the cold and rain but Mary Katrantzou’s work cheers me up. She creates really strong, wearable fashion with the main emphasis on print. I normally wear plain garments but when I go for pattern it tends to be distinctive and these certainly fit the bill.
The 2 images below are from Selvedge magazine – love the styling.
As you know I don’t follow fashion very closely any more (those were long-past lives with Zika Ascher and Pongees Silks) but I do admire her work.
She’s recently launched a collection for Top Shop which will, I imagine, do very well.
I wanted to share this as it shows Sebastian coppicing hazel, the raw material for so much of his work. I’m looking forward to seeing new products due for launch at the London Design Festival.
Thanks Sebastian for telling me about this – Twitter is so useful!
Well this finally makes my Pantone colour fan completely out of date.
I tend to end up with yarns, bits of fabric or paint to illustrate the exact colour I want when specifying and that’s hard when it needs replication. I’ll keep generating my colours but this should help others get closer to what I’m talking about!
This popped into my in-box earlier in the week and struck a chord, particularly with regard to the consumerism of new furniture designs.
Sapore dei mobile is a project created by Ryosuke Fukusada and Rui Pereira, two designers now living in Milan, commenting on the huge amount of new product to digest at the Salon. Using the idea of small cakes made of “ovos moles”, a Portuguese cake mix (Rui is portuguese), they have created a moulding pan to produce these bite-sized items.
The Berkeley Hotel in London may do delicious fashion accessories for their Pret a Portea (see below)
but these boys do furniture.
Another great idea that I’ve come across and want to share.
Sponsume help creative entrepreneurs fund a specific project by using social media to spread the word. You put money in and get something back from the creative: a perk or reward. Sponsume are enablers, not funders so all the money goes to the project. There are some really rational sensible ideas then other odder ones – there is actually a quirky category.
Interesting that the design project list is currently empty… I’m sure that will change later this year.
It’s also multi-currency so international…fab!
If you’re looking for fresh Scandinavian and vintage-inspired prints then you could do worse than go to New House Textiles.
I had thought they were a young company when I first came across them but was intrigued to learn that they have been around for almost a century, part of the UK’s manufacturing base. Yes, some production is from Sweden but most of it still happens here.
Love their trays and curious to learn more about their technical fabrics division.
Graypants are based in Seattle but have international distribution so we can all enjoy these. They create lighting from unwanted materials including corrugated cardboard and tracing paper. As you know I love upcycled products where the design is the first thing noticed. These shades give out a wonderful light quality and you certainly won’t hurt your head if you bash into them – am I the only tall person to have a bit of an issue with this?
Having said that I’d keep this one well above my head-height..
